Hot Summer Night

20 - Declan

"What's going on? Is she okay?" Marla asked, sounding worried.

"What are you keeping from me?"

"What do you mean? I left you her file."

I pulled into my parking spot, killed the engine, and then, thinking about what happened with Seraphine the other night, I sighed, dragging my fingers through my hair.

I know Marla well and how her voice changes when she's keeping information from me. The only reason she got away with hiding Seraphine from me all these years was because she wasn't a case of ours. I also never brought up her name or asked about her since, at the time, I thought Marla only knew about her through me because she was my fiancée.

After shit went down, I only talked to her about how I missed Seraphine, how I screwed up, and how I hated myself after seeing her with another man.

Sure, Marla could've said something about who the jackass was, what was going on, that she knew her whereabouts, and that she was in daily contact with her. But like she said, she isn't allowed to talk about open cases with another when they have nothing to do with the case.

Which also pisses me off. I was part of the case. Not Seraphine's, but I worked on the Gorilla Procurer's case. The same fucker that cost me Seraphine in the first place. The reason I had to fucking leave in the middle of the night.

In my eyes, that means the case was never completed.

"I went through her file. We talked about it after I figured out who he was..." I angrily reminded her. "I swear to God, Marla. You better tell me what you're hiding from me, or else..."

"Or else what, Declan?" she asked high-pitched. "Hmm?"

My eyes closed. She's hiding something from me.

"What happened?" she asked softly.

"Was she one of them?"

"Declan," she complained.

"Marla," I warned. "Please don't keep this from me. I need to know. Something happened the other night, and she showed all the signs of being one of them," I hinted because the words about that night refused to leave my tongue.

"That I don't know."

"Marla," I cautioned.

"Declan, I swear I don't know. But if you want the truth, I believe she was. How he beat her, locked her up in a dark, cold room for days, how he manipulated her mind into obeying every command that came out of his mouth, I believe he was. While snooping around Chadwick's home, I found some things."

Interested to know, I quickly sprang forward. "What did you find?"

"Rohypnol, and Benzodiazepines."

Date rape, amnesia drugs. Great. Just fucking great.

Motherfucker.

I rubbed my forehead, deep in thought about how I'd find and kill the bastard whether Marla and the government liked it or not. He hurt and ruined my girl.

"Now, before you think the worst—"

"I am thinking the worst, Marla," I hissed, interrupting her, "Seraphine's behavior the other night is suspicious as fuck." My eyebrows shot up as I yelled, "And now you're telling me you found date rape and amnesia shit? What the fuck?"

"Declan, we don't know if he used them on her or the other girls. Either way, it's terrible. But finding those also helps us with the case, bringing us closer to taking him down."