Free SEIZED Part 5: A Steamy New Adult Romantic Suspense Thriller (Seize Me Romance Fiction Series) by JC Coulton Page A

power games she’s running with those dudes. They’ll all be in love with her in some way. I’m sure most of them will feel like they owe her something. They’re probably all hardened criminals willing to do her bidding.
    Looking at the photos of the victims—missing women who were found—makes me wince. This woman has caused so much pain and suffering. I can’t believe I was in love with her. She’s had me wrapped around her little finger for years.
    I need to toughen up. The idea that this girl I once knew is capable of this stuff makes me question everything I know about myself. I start to wonder what happened to my ability to judge people. I thought I was perceptive, but if this has been going on this long, the truth is, I’ve had my head in the sand.
    I can’t help thinking about the young women she once was. When I first met her, she was Erica, and she still had the innocence of a college girl. Or maybe that was an act. She’d fallen into a bad situation, but was determined to pull herself together. I believed her too. She was so smart and witty. Such a quick thinker—Erica could hold a conversation on anything.
    I think the partying might have ruined her. I feel some guilt over that because I participated in it. We went out all the time. We never took things too seriously. And I didn’t stop her when she started taking drugs. I was drinking way too much to care. I knew but I didn’t say anything. I was young and dumb and drunk. I didn’t want to be the boring one putting the handbrake on, so I let it slide.
    Before long she was partying harder than I was. Erica was meeting people, staying away for days, getting into trouble, and lying to me about it after. That’s when I started to think about leaving her. When I finally got sober, I took the extra step and let go of her. I thought it was for good, but the woman knows how to embed her claws into her exes.
    I remember thinking of her when I was a rookie. I had no idea she was in so deep. I knew she was working the streets again. A couple of years later, I heard she had changed her name to Neon. There was some talk around the station of her becoming a manager for other girls. No one actually thought a woman could cut it or compete with the men in the pimp scene.
    Who knew she was running multiple operations in other states. Not me; I never thought she was capable of it. But the reports suggest she’s been doing this to women for years. I needed to let go of my old opinions and look at the facts a long time ago. This woman is a criminal. She’s caused irreparable pain to people, separated families, and she has no right profiting from doing it.
    I should have known back when she got me in trouble with the brass back then. Jacob had me in her office, asking what an NYPD officer is doing publicly dating call girls. It was bad for the politician, me and bad for the department. Jacob had given me a chance then. This time, I blew it—with Jacob, and with Carrie.
    Carrie knew from the start that I had been burned by the media. I’m willing to bet she did her research too. I’m certain she saw coverage of the scandal about Neon and me. She never confronted me about it, but I’m sure she wondered what had happened. Jesus, that alone would have been suspicious enough, and then I’m sure Cooper filled in the blanks about my relationship with Neon. The whole time I was thinking I couldn’t trust her, she was probably thinking the same about me. God, this is such a mess.
    If only I could just hold her right now, and tell her everything will be okay. I would give anything to know she was safe right now. I sit back on the couch and drop the folder back to the table. My thoughts shift to Carrie’s hair, and her neck, and the way she smells. I’m intoxicated just from the thought. It’s crazy what she does to me; she takes over my senses and my mind.
    No woman has meant so much to me or affected me the way she does. I remember standing behind her one time in the