Chapter 5 Cole
FIVE
COLE
I shouldn’t fucking care. Still, I’m wondering why Sophie wanted to leave her mother so badly that she got into a stranger’s truck.
Had she been beaten or otherwise abused?
I couldn’t see any marks, but that doesn’t mean anything.
Her sleeves and pant legs were long, so I could barely see any skin, and I know that such marks are often hidden in places that are not visible at first sight.
And why did it seem as if she was seeing the town for the first time? It’s not possible she hasn’t been outside before. I mean… How old is she? Sixteen? Seventeen? Surely, no one would isolate a child from the outside world for that long. Would they?
My thoughts are spinning like crazy until a siren starts blaring behind me.
Well, fuck. A police car is following me with its blue lights flashing, and I think I already know what this might be about.
Cursing, I put on the blinker and pull over to kill the engine of my pickup and roll down the window. Then I put my hands on the steering wheel and wait.
A few seconds later, a stubby older cop appears and shines his flashlight right in my face.
I squint against the bright light. "Good evening, Officer. Did I do anything wrong?"
His gaze wanders through the inside of my car. "We’re looking for a girl. Seventeen years old, blond hair, about this tall." He gestures with his hand to a height of about five feet three inches. Sophie’s height. "She was last seen getting into a black pickup."
The way he acts suggests he doesn’t know the license plate number.
Otherwise, I’d probably have the muzzle of his Glock pressed against my skull by now.
That means he can’t do anything to me, and he damn well knows it.
Nevertheless, I have to butter him up before he checks my details.
Because then he’d search the car, and he would certainly find something.
One single hair would be enough, and I would be in jail faster than I could say my name.
Regretfully, I shake my head. "I’m afraid I can’t help you, Officer. I haven’t seen a girl who fits your description."
He grimaces. "May I take a closer look at your vehicle?"
We both know it’s a rhetorical question, which is why I nod like I’m the good guy I never was and certainly never will be. "Of course."
Taking a step back, he continues to shine that damn flashlight straight in my face while putting his other hand on his gun holster.
After I get out, he searches my pickup and peers into the empty box strapped to the bed.
He then walks around the vehicle and checks everything before looking inside again as if Sophie could have appeared out of thin air.
Visibly dissatisfied, he turns away. "You can go ahead. If you see a girl who fits the description—"
"I will report it. Of course."
While he drives away, I get back behind the wheel and light a cigarette.
I couldn’t tell him where to find Sophie.
Something in her eyes and the way she had looked at her mother when I drove off prevented me from doing so.
Even if she is indeed just seventeen, she’s old enough to decide by herself if she wants to stay with her mother or not.
After a short refueling stop, I pass the bus station again.
Against my will, I slow down a bit and search the place with my eyes, but Sophie is nowhere to be seen.
I’ll never know which bus she took. Nevertheless, I hope she finds whatever she’s looking for.
She certainly wouldn’t have found it with me, so the only right thing to do was to drop her off and not take her with me.
With this thought, I turn off the main street to finally get out of this town and back home, but step on the brakes forcefully only seconds later.
Not fifty yards ahead, four guys cross the road.
It seems they’ve come from the alley on the right and are heading for the entrance of another narrow alley on the other side of the road.
All of them have alcoholic beverages in their hands—clearly recognizable by the brown paper bags—and some of them are swaying a bit.
But that’s not what catches my attention.
It’s Sophie.
One of the guys has his arm around her shoulders, pulling her with him.
She’s smiling, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t have the slightest fucking clue what she’s doing.
God damn… The girl did ask me if I was a serial killer.
And believed me when I said I wasn’t. Me, of all people.
Not that I am a serial killer, but I’m far from looking trustworthy, yet she believed me.
So I don’t even want to know what she sees in those four scumbags who crowd around her, laughing and drinking.
I step on the accelerator again to cut off their path with screeching tires.
"Cole?" Sophie’s eyes widen when I get out of the truck, but I ignore it.
The guy who has his arm around her glares at me with clear hostility. "What the fuck, man?"
"I could ask you the same," I retort angrily and stop right in front of them. "What is this supposed to be, huh?"
He twists his mouth into a grin I want to punch off his face. "I don’t think that’s any of your business."
I tilt my head a little to the side and examine the four dickheads. Their intentions are obvious, but Sophie doesn’t get it. "Well, I just made it my business," I explain. "Come on, Sophie. We’re leaving."
She looks at me with surprise, but I can’t make out what’s going on inside that head of hers. Is she afraid? Of me? Of the situation? Of what could happen if she doesn’t do what I say?
"Is this your boyfriend?" one of the guys wants to know.
She shakes her head but doesn’t move.
I can’t throw her over my shoulder like a caveman and take her with me even though the thought seems quite appealing. Instead, I look at her urgently. "Get in the truck. Now."
She finally leans in my direction, but the guy next to her snakes his arm around her waist and pulls her toward him, which makes her freeze.
"Hey, man… I don’t know what your problem is, but the girl obviously wants to stay with us," he rambles, grinning slyly at me as his friends set up next to him.
I hate playing that card, but I’ll be damned if Sophie stays with these drunken assholes, so I fix the one holding her with my eyes and lift my shirt just enough to reveal the Desert Eagle I’m carrying.
"I suggest you take your dirty hands off her before I change my mind, stop being nice, and remove them for you. "
He immediately lets go of Sophie, who’s staring at me with wide eyes but doesn’t move an inch.
"Dude… don’t do anything stupid. We’re just messing around."
Ignoring him, I let go of my shirt and extend my hand. "Sophie?"
"Let’s get out of here," one of the guys mutters to his friends.
I hold my breath as what feels like hours pass until Sophie finally takes a step toward me. I have no idea if there really is a God, but if so, I thank him for letting her walk toward me.
Meanwhile, the four bastards make a run for it, which is a wise decision, but I keep my gaze locked on Sophie and almost sigh in relief when she puts her hand in mine. I lead her to the passenger side of the pickup and open the door so she can get in.
When I take a seat behind the steering wheel seconds later, she looks at me with huge eyes. "You have a gun?"
That’s all she cares about right now? Is she fucking kidding me?
I run my hands over my face and then glance at her. "What the hell was that about?" I ask gruffly. "You can’t just go along with some fucking random drunk guys, dammit!"
She bites her lower lip but doesn’t avert her gaze. I almost admire her courage, but then I realize that she’s just incredibly unaware.
"Do you have the slightest idea of what they were up to?"
"They wanted to go to Joe’s," she answers. "They said it would be fun."
"Oh my God…" Groaning, I close my eyes while I’m tempted to ram my head against the steering wheel with all my damn might. "Darling… what they were up to would not have been fun. At all. Especially not for you," I say through clenched teeth and open my eyes again.
"How would you know? And what do you even mean by that?" Sophie looks at me defiantly.
"I just can’t believe this," I say to myself. Then I turn my upper body to her and lean forward so my face is mere inches away from hers. "There is no more Joe’s. The place closed two years ago. They lied. And believe me when I say that you don’t want to know what they were up to."
She opens her mouth but then closes it again and lowers her gaze. When I see her shoulders start to shake, a small part of me wants to lift her out of the seat and put her on my lap to wrap my arms around her and tell her she’s safe. Instead, I back away a little.
"Hey, little darling. Look at me."
A few moments pass before she lifts her head and returns my gaze.
"Everything’s fine. Nothing happened, okay?" I try to calm her down.
"I didn’t know…" Her shaking voice hits something deep inside me.
"You couldn’t have known." Because it’s more than clear that she has no fucking clue about how this world is. She doesn’t seem to know that four guys with alcohol in their blood rarely have good intentions when they pick up a girl.
Admittedly, her unawareness was to my advantage because I don’t think she would have chosen me over them otherwise.
I mean… I’m almost six foot six, covered in tattoos, made of 200 pounds of pure muscle, and I carry a gun.
I’m the embodiment of the guy you cross the street to avoid, and she’s still sitting next to me.
Because she just doesn’t know any better.
"They were so nice." Tears gather in her eyes, clearly showing how hard the disappointment hits her.
In the meantime, I have to hold myself back from getting out and showing these assholes exactly what I think of their batshit action. "They were just pretending, Sophie. People do those kinds of things. Especially bad people."
When the first tear spills over, I can’t hold back anymore. I lift my hand to her face and wipe it from her cheek. Her skin is incredibly soft against mine, but I don’t allow myself to let my hand rest there. Instead, I sit up straight again and drive off.
"What happens now?" she asks as we reach the next intersection. "You’re not going to bring me back, are you?"
I just can’t fucking believe it. Regardless of what just happened and the fact that she’s sitting in my truck, her biggest concern seems to be having to go back to her mother.
At least as bad, however, is that this is really not what I have in mind. Quite the opposite. I kind of feel responsible for her after she got into my pickup, which is why I shake my head. "No. I’m not taking you back. You’re coming to my place for now."