“Why did you force her to go with you?” I asked again. “This some game you guys run? Rip her off? What’s the game?”

Luz glanced at Blanca.

“I ain’t sayin’ shit,” Blanca said, shaking her head. “You’re on your own.”

Luz blinked several times, then stared at me. “You gonna tell Netty it was me?”

“All I’m interested in is finding the other girl,” I said.

“Liar,” Blanca hissed.

“How about this?” I said, still looking at Luz. “You answer my questions and when I get to Netty, I’ll tell her Blanca was the one who talked to me. I’ll tell her I never saw you.”

Blanca’s eyes went wide and Luz bit back a small smile.

I glanced at Blanca. “Don’t think I won’t. I don’t give a shit about either of you. I’m looking for the other girl. You wanna run your little shakedown here and do Netty’s errands, be my guest. I don’t care one bit. I’m just looking for the girl.”

Luz looked at Blanca. “I’m tired of doin’ everything she says anyway.”

Blanca didn’t say anything, her eyes staring down at Anchor now.

“Any girl shows up,” Luz said. “We pick ‘em up.”

“What do you mean?”

“Girls show up alone for whatever,” Luz said. “Maybe runnin’ away, maybe just travelin’. Whatever. They alone, we go talk to them.”

“And?”

She glanced at Blanca. “And we call Netty. She calls Alex.”

“Who’s Alex?”

“Netty’s brother,” Luz said. “We take the girls to him.”

Another knot formed in my gut. I glanced around. A few more people were gathering on the platform, waiting on the first train of the morning.

I looked back at Luz. “Why?”

She tugged on her sleeves and folded her arms across her chest. “Bunch of reasons.”

“Name them.”

Blanca just shook her head, still disagreeing with Luz’s confessions.

“He might make them work for him,” Luz said, avoiding my eyes. “Deliver stuff. I dunno. Or he might make them do…other stuff.”

“What? Pimp them out?”

Luz shook her head. “Nah. He just keeps them for himself. If they pretty.”

The knot tightened. “So Netty took the girl to Alex’s.”

Luz nodded.

“Netty and Alex,” I said. “What’s their last name?”

“Moreno.”

“I want an address.”

Luz looked at Blanca. “I never been there.”

“You got the address?” I said to Blanca.

She squirmed on the bench.

I let her squirm.

“I ain’t sure I know it,” she mumbled.

“Cut the crap,” I said. “Either give it to me or I’m calling my friend over. Right now. I’m done jerking around with you.”

She stared at Anchor one more time, then slowly recited an address.

I looked at Luz.

“Sounds right,” she said. “Other side of downtown.”

A train pulled in behind us, heading northbound. The brakes squeaked in the air and a voice over the loudspeaker announced its arrival.

“I’ll find you,” I said, standing up.

Blanca looked up at me. “What?”

“Anything either of you told me is a lie,” I said, staring at each of them, as people walked past us to board the train. “I’ll find you. And you won’t tell another lie again.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

I hurried back to Lauren and Anchor.

“I have an address.” I rattled it off.

“They said that’s where they took her?” Anchor asked.

“That’s what they said.”

“You believe them.” He said it as a statement, not a question.

“Yeah. Made it clear that lying would be a mistake.”

Anchor nodded. “Alright.”

Lauren’s face was a mask of anxiety and concern.

I took her hand and squeezed it. “It’s alright. We’re going to get her.”

She nodded, but didn’t say anything.

We got to the car and Anchor opened the rear door for us to get in. Lauren’s purse was on the seat and it tumbled to the pavement, the contents spilling on to the blacktop.

“Shit,” she muttered. She crouched down and started shoving things back into her bag.

I leaned down to help, handing her a tube of lipstick and a gray leather checkbook. The breeze picked up a piece of paper and I snatched it before it could float away. A receipt. I glanced at it before handing it to her.

It was from the drug store we’d stopped at earlier.

For a pregnancy test.

Lauren reached for it, her face pale as she realized what it was.

“I…” she stopped, then turned to Anchor. “Can you give us a minute?”

He nodded, closed the door and slid into the passenger side of the vehicle, pulling the door closed behind him.

Lauren was staring past me, chewing on her lip, almost as if she was in pain.

“Look, you don’t need to tell me anything,” I said. She didn’t. As shocked as I was to see what she’d bought, I wasn’t in a position to judge. And I had no right to care. “It’s none of my business.”

She shifted her gaze back to me and refocused. “I’m pregnant.”

I swallowed. “Okay.” I forced a smile. “Congratulations?”

She shook her head, frowning. “You don’t get it. I’m pregnant. We’re pregnant.”

It took me at least a minute to respond. “Pregnant?” I repeated, the words sounding funny as they came out of my mouth.

She nodded. “I was feeling crappy. Just…off. There were a couple of indicators for me. So when we stopped at the Wal-Green’s? I bought a pregnancy test and went to the bathroom.” She paused. “I’m pregnant. Probably the night in the hotel in San Diego when you first came back.”

Of all the things she could’ve said to me, that was absolutely the last thing I expected to hear. I wasn’t sure what to say because it was like being hit in the face with a brick and being asked if you were okay.

“Okay,” I said. “You’re pregnant.”

“I didn’t want to tell you right now,” she said quickly. “That’s why I didn’t say anything. I mean, we’re so close to finding Elizabeth. She’s the one we need to focus on. Finding her. Finding the child we already have.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I was going to tell you. When the time was right.”

I didn’t know if there would have ever been a right time.

She wiped a stray tear that had trickled down her cheek. “Part of me wanted to tell you now. You always think there’ll be time but we know better. We know how time gets taken away. “ She sighed. “I don’t know what I’m saying. I’m sorry.”

I nodded, slowly, trying to process. “Yeah. Right. No. I mean, I’m glad I know. And we’ll figure it out.”

“I won’t ask for you to help or support or decide or anything,” she said. “I’m not trying to trap you.”

“Lauren. Come on. I know that.”

She shrugged.

I put my arms around her and hugged her because I wasn’t sure what else to do. It wasn’t the right time to address it, not with Elizabeth so close. Not with Elizabeth in danger.

“We’ll figure it out,” I whispered, planting a kiss on the top of her head. “I promise.”

She nodded. I opened the door and she climbed into the car, clutching her purse. I followed her in.

“We’re still going?” Anchor asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Let’s go.”

“Ellis believes we have a tail again,” Anchor said. “We’re going to do a little maneuver here just to find out if he’s correct. Just so you know we aren’t lost or going the wrong way.”

Instinctively, I turned around to look out the back window. The parking lot was mostly empty.

“Car’s back on the street,” Kitting said, glancing in the rearview mirror and catching my eye. “Late model sedan. Gray. He’s actually pretty good. Think he was there for awhile before I saw him.”

Lauren sighed and shook her head, like she couldn’t believe all of this was still going on, like she just wanted to be done with it. I couldn’t blame her. We were sleep deprived and a thousand miles away from where we started.

But we were close. I had to keep reminding myself of that. We were closer than ever and we needed to get her back.

We were going to get her back.

Kitting got us out of the lot and we did a slow crawl through a four-block area in downtown. I didn’t see the car at first as we worked our way in a square through the gridded streets. When we took our third right, I caught a glance of the gray sedan, just turning right two blocks behind us.