Operation Daddy (Who's Your Daddy Book 8) by Ava Sinclair

Author:Ava Sinclair [Sinclair, Ava]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Ramsey

I’m going to be late. Don’t be mad.

It’s all the text message says, and she doesn’t reply to my response asking her what’s going on.

Whenever I entertained the possibility of entering a relationship with a woman who would accept me as a father figure, no scenario ever included doing the kind of genuinely paternal thing like pacing the floor because your little girl is out past her curfew.

What the hell is she doing? Who is she with? I think of the outfit she bought. She never let me see it, so I have no idea what Mia wore to the Brickyard. I can picture it in my mind’s eye, though. Frayed denim shorts that show the luscious undercurve of her taut buttocks paired with a fitted top that molds to her breasts in the way my hands would if I let them. Or maybe a short dress with an artful cutout that revealed her midriff and toned back? In my imagination, I see men leering at her, wanting her. I see them reaching for her. I ball my fists in frustration.

I check the clock. At 2 a.m., I’ve had enough – enough worry and enough waiting. She’s not answering my texts. She’s not home. I know she’s an adult. I know she’s a trained officer. But I’m still her boss and this wasn’t the agreement we had.

I can’t think of anything else to do other than to take the truck and go look for her. As I drive, I try to take my mind off my worries by going over what I’ve managed to learn when Mia has been making inroads into the drug scene at Millsburg High School.

The economically depressed town is named for the abandoned mills that line the Red River, so named because of the waters colored by the clay soils. At one time, Millsburg was a booming place thanks to the textile industry. Then in the seventies and eighties things fell apart. Asian suppliers became major players in the U.S. market. Trade agreements with foreign nations only made things worse. Textile manufacturers that could afford to move abroad to compete pulled up stakes and left or shuttered altogether leaving towns like Millsburg struggling.

As I drive, I scan the old mills standing like forgotten sentinels along the riverbanks, their chimneys looming over huge buildings with busted out windows. Some nearer to downtown are slowly being reclaimed for apartment space to house employees of businesses lured by tax incentives offered by desperate commissioners. A new tire factory has opened, as well as several medical complexes and even a small pharmaceutical company. It will take a long time, though, for the town to assume its former glory, if it ever does. I drive pass huge houses in what used to be the executive neighborhoods, noting the sad condition.

A few, though, are under repair and I catch a sign out front of one and recognize the name, Aldridge Enterprise, and remember the man I briefly met on the job site.

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