Free Kaleb (Samuel's Pride Series) by Kathi S. Barton

head and pulled out a file. Lyod took it from him but didn’t open it. “Where was he going?”
    “ He and Archer found out about this clinic on Tenth. They took Sams and were headed over there about two hours ago. He’s not supposed to check in for another hour.” Lyod nodded and headed to his office, telling him to let him know when he heard anything.
    He dropped the file at his desk as he sat down . And still no word about the fucking cunt. He had no idea where she was and worse yet, he didn’t have a clue where else to look for her. It was as if she’d dropped off the earth. His phone ringing had him look at the caller ID before he picked it up. Pausing just long enough, he was glad when it finally stopped ringing. He didn’t want to have to deal with anyone right now, especially Ansell. Leaning back in his chair, he thought of the last meeting he’d had with him.
    ~~~
    “Did you find her?” Sadly, he told him no. “Well, you have five days to find her or I do something to make sure that my name is not connected with your department and the girl. I’ll make sure that no one knows a fucking thing.”
    Lyod still wondered how he was going to perform that miracle but didn’t ask. He was sort of afraid of the answer. All sorts of things came to mind and none of them had him living for very long.
    “I have my best men on it. The mayor has an entire team set up to take calls and go out on leads. Which I might add is very little. But we’re looking, and I’m looking. I’ve gone to her house and no one has been there in—”
    “I don’t give a fuck where you’ve looked. It’s not in the right places , so shut up about them.” Ansell started pacing. “Someone is looking into my business. I don’t know who yet but whoever it is, they’ve got more than they should have. I’m thinking this person works for someone very powerful and they know where she is.”
    He started to ask him if he had an IP address but didn’t want to have to explain to him again what the Internet protocol was. No matter how many times he’d explained it to him over the years, the man simply never got it.
    “I’ll talk to your IT guys and see if we can set up something that might backfire on them.” Ansell nodded but didn’t say much more. Instead of waiting for the silence to end, Lyod told him what he’d been able to find out about the girl. Most of it was things he felt he should have been told before he had to hire her.
    “Did you know that at one time she worked as a Secret Service guard for the president? She’d been in the service, too. Probably some dyke that had to get out when she made a pass at some broad.” He laughed a little at his own joke and looked up when Ansell sat down.
    “She retired from the SS about five years ago. About the time she came to work for you. And as for her being a dyke, she’s not. At least not that anyone knows. As far as anyone can tell, she’s simply not interested in anything but advancing her career. And she’s done a fucking good job at that, too.” Ansell pointed to a file. “You should read some of the shit she’s done. Fucking honor student in school. Graduated top of her class at Brown, and she’s been nominated, by your own men, for the Mayoral Award he gives out for distinguished service every year. She’s won three times out of five. You should take better care to find out about those who work for you.”
    ~~~
    After that, the meeting had centered on how incompetent he was. How he’d let this woman, his own employee, get the better of both of them. And worse yet, how even with all his men, all the equipment in the world at his fingertips, he’d still managed not to find one fucking female. And to a point it was true.
    But Lyod could hardly go out to the bullpen, what the men called their meeting place , and tell them that he thought maybe Thornton had witnessed him dallying with a known criminal and she’d gotten herself hurt pretty bad. And now he and this