Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Despite the harrowing events of the day, Trixie was still happy and giddy.
She was with other Littles! It was like a dream-come-true slumber party.
Since she was about the same size as Lana, her new friend was sweet enough to loan her some sleeping clothes that just happened to look extra cute and Little.
So, Trixie was now dressed in a short pink nightgown adorned with ribbons.
It wasn’t long enough to cover the pull-up she wore, and Trixie had never felt so Little in her whole life.
It was blissful.
Too bad there were bad guys out there trying to find her and probably kill her.
Otherwise, the night would have been perfect.
“You can have that stuffie,” Iris told her, referring to the plush dog Trixie was holding as she sat on the floor in a circle with the other women.
“Really? I don’t want to take your toys.”
Iris waved it off. “It’s a gift. Besides, we have a ton of stuffies. You can have some more, even!”
Trixie giggled. “Thank you. And thank you all for accepting me into the group and letting me stay here.”
“Hey, tomorrow, do you want to go back to Auntie Athena’s?” Cami asked. “Or maybe we could show you around town. Have you been to the Observatory yet?”
“No! But I really want to,” Trixie said. “In fact, it’s on the top of my list of sights I want to see while—”
John ran through the open doorway. Jack came in a few seconds behind him.
“Is your phone by any chance a company one?” he asked.
“Like, did my work give it to me?”
“Yeah.”
“No. It’s mine.”
“Have they ever had access to it?”
A sour feeling turned her stomach. Were they tracking her on her phone? Worse yet, could they watch or listen to her?
“No, Sir. Never.”
John seemed a bit relieved, which made her feel better, too.
“Honey, do you mind if we see it? We won’t look at any of your personal stuff,” Jack said, stepping deeper into the room. “But we have some tech that can check your device and make sure it’s clean.”
“Sure,” she said, grabbing the phone that rested near her on the floor and extending her arm.
Jack took it. “Thank you. Does it need to be unlocked?”
“Yep.” She told him the code.
“Having a passcode is a good idea,” Jack told her. “Means your employer couldn’t have installed any kind of tracking software unless they somehow accessed it when it was unlocked.”
“I don’t think they did.”
“I’m sure it’s fine, then. But just to be sure. And thanks for trusting us.”
She smiled. But it didn’t last long as she remembered a bit of information that might be important. “Guys?”
“Yes?” John answered, his eyes focused as he waited.
Jack was watching her intently, too.
“My car is a company lease. When I quit, I was told I had thirty days to return it to the dealership.”
“Your old employer doesn’t own it?” John asked.
Trixie shook her head. “No. But they pay for it. And they did all the paperwork and stuff. It was one of the amazing benefits of the job.”
She watched as the two men exchanged glances.
“Do they have access to the car ever?” John probed.
“Yeah. They check the milage once a month and stuff.”
The two men looked at each other again. Trixie knew this was bad, but she still asked.
“That’s how they knew I was in L.A., huh? They’re tracking my car.”
“Well, we don’t know that for sure,” John said. “But it seems likely.”
Jack bobbed his head. “You drove straight to your hotel when you got into town?”
“Well, besides driving around the other day, just seeing the sights. Ooh, I went to Palisades and saw a wildfire! It was terrifying. And I got stuck on the side of a mountain and John had to save me and…” She ducked her head sheepishly. “Sorry. You don’t want to know all that.”
“Right now, honey, we just need to know where all you’ve been so we can make sure you’re safe,” Jack said patiently.
Trixie perked up. “I realized L.A. traffic is crazy. So I took a rideshare everywhere else.”
“Like to Auntie Athena’s,” Jack said.
“Uh-huh,” Trixie confirmed.
“Makes sense,” John said, now seeming to be talking to Jack instead of Trixie. “They didn’t have to follow her all the way here from Vegas. They just watched the tracker, saw what hotel she went to, and hired outside muscle to sit on it and keep watch.”
Jack nodded in agreement. “That damned Todd Stark and his so-called security firm.”
“Yep. We know the guy has the morals of an alley cat,” John said.
“That’s giving him too much credit.”
John laughed. “Fair enough. But working for a crime family is absolutely something he’d do. Anything to make a buck, right?”
“Yeah. But it doesn’t explain how they got the hotel keycard. But one of those can be snatched.”
“Just pickpocket a guest, take theirs, and you have access to the elevators,” John said.
All of it was making Trixie feel sick. The room was spinning. She was either going to pass out or throw up. Maybe both.
The fact that she was being hunted by such dangerous people was enough to nearly send her into shock.
For a moment, she was falling back, as if her body instinctively knew she needed to lie down. Before she could bang her head on the floor, John was at her side, on his knees, taking hold of her to gently guide her down.
She was okay now.
Daddy was there.