Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Aiden scrubbed his hands over his face and took a deep breath. The past six days had been sheer hell, driven by desperation and fueled by determination.
He hated kid cases.
The most recent victim in a series of child abductions and murders, ten-year-old Jade Sommers had been kidnapped from her home a week ago. The screen on her bedroom window had been sliced open, and she’d been taken from her bed in the middle of the night.
They’d apprehended the suspect, but Jade…
The damage had been done.
She’d made it to the hospital but died just hours later. He would never get the sight of her broken body out of his mind.
George Studebaker, a janitor at the mall where Jade’s mother worked, had admitted to assaulting Jade, as well as three other young girls over the past eight months.
This was the worst part of his job—seeing the absolute worst of humanity, watching evil walk the earth completely unrepentant.
Studebaker had taken Jade’s innocence and ultimately her life.
Aiden wanted to tear the man apart piece by piece, to do to him exactly what he’d done to those sweet little girls.
They’d finally wrapped up the case yesterday, but as much as he missed Maya, Aiden couldn’t bring himself to go to her. His emotions were still too raw; he wasn’t in a good place.
He’d begged off, promising to take her to dinner tonight instead.
The clock was creeping closer and closer to five o’clock, and he knew he’d have to get ready soon to go pick her up. He needed to get out of the house and forget about work for a while.
Because the longer he sat there dwelling on it, the angrier he became.
His job was a huge stressor, and he could feel it putting a strain on his relationship with Maya. Weeks like the one he’d just had put him in a dark place, and he usually needed several days to recover.
Typically, when he felt like this, he wanted to push everyone away, retreat into his own head.
But this time, he wanted to see Maya.
He wanted to surround himself with her goodness and try to push all the bad things to the back of his mind.
Aiden leaned back in his chair and stared sightlessly at the desktop in front of him. His email sat open, untouched, and he sighed at the list of unread messages.
He began clicking through them, mostly junk, when one caught his eye.
The name sounded familiar, and curiosity got the better of him as he opened it.
Knox Castillo identified himself as a former Marine who was currently assembling people from all branches of the military to form a private security firm.
Vantage Security was based out of Miami, Florida, and they were currently looking for someone with both combat experience and a computer science background. An old friend had apparently passed Aiden’s name along, and Knox wondered if he would be interested in learning more or coming for a visit.
The thought was tempting, especially after the past week.
Except…
Maya was here, and she meant more to him than anything.
He wouldn’t give her up.
He was flattered that Knox had offered, and the job sounded like a dream. He stared at the email for several minutes before finally closing it out without responding.
It had already sat in his inbox for more than a week. No doubt Knox had already found someone else.
He pushed away from the chair and strode into the bathroom, then flipped on the shower.
He turned his mind to Maya as he stepped under the spray, counting down the minutes until he could see her again.