Beg for Mercy by Jami Alden Read Free Book Online Page B

he were a baby. Megan pulled Dev in for a quick hug, then quickly released her. “You called the police, right?”
    Dev nodded, her eyes wet and haunted-looking. “I thought they’d be here by now,” she sniffed. “What if they think I was joking?” She tried to tuck her dark bangs behind her ear, only to have them fall back across her eyes.
    Devany was almost as tall as Megan, but Megan guided the girl to the shabby couch as if she were a small child and sat down next to her. She covered Devany’s handwith her own and tried to calm the girl’s shaking. Megan wanted to pull her close, but the courts had strict physical contact guidelines for advocates like herself. Megan understood that such rules were necessary to avoid lawsuits and misunderstandings, but constantly having to rein in her natural tendency toward physical affection got old. Especially at times like this, when Devany could really use a big hug. “They’ll be here,” she assured. “Sometimes it takes them a while.” Especially in a part of town like this, where all the patrols were likely tied up with the steady level of criminal activity that plagued this part of Seattle. As she gave Devany a quick squeeze around her shoulders, she caught a whiff of Dev’s shampoo, which smelled faintly of bubblegum, and something else that made her mouth tighten in disappointment.
    “You were drinking, weren’t you?”
    Dev stiffened and jerked away. “No.”
    “Don’t BS me. You smell like you crawled out of a keg.”
    “I was bored, okay? Aunt Kathy grounded me for sneaking out last week. Don’t tell her, please? She’ll kick me out.”
    “Trust me, Dev, if you saw what you think you saw, we have bigger things to worry about.” Dev’s choked sob made Megan’s throat go tight. Poor kid, as if stumbling onto the scene of a grisly murder wasn’t enough, she lived in constant fear of being kicked out and sent to yet another foster home.
    “But my aunt… she’ll kill me…”
    Megan’s heart pinched at the genuine dread in the girl’s voice. She and Sean had been comparatively lucky after their parents had died. They had each other and they’d gone straight to their grandmother and stayed out of the foster system. But she remembered how it felt to live with a relative who wasn’t overly enthusiastic about caringfor teenagers, someone who made you feel that with one wrong move, you could end up at the mercy of the system. “I promise I’ll take care of everything,” Megan said.
    Dev snapped her mouth shut as a car pulled up outside the trailer. Through the filmy curtains, blue and red lights circled the walls of the trailer. Within seconds, a hard fist was pounding at the door.
    “Just tell them what you told me,” Megan said as she moved to answer the door, “and everything will be fine.”
    Megan quickly explained who she was and why Dev had called her before she’d called the police. Devany gave one officer directions to the abandoned trailer while the other uniform, who’d introduced himself as Officer Roberts, stayed behind to take Dev’s statement. Dev huggesnapeter to her and took a deep, bracing breath, then spilled her story to Roberts, whose hulking bulk took up the majority of space in the living room.
    “So you were here by yourself when the dog got out?” he asked.
    Megan saw Dev’s eyes flick to the side before she answered. “Uh, yeah.”
    Uh-oh. Someone had been here.
Megan hadn’t even thought about it, so overwhelmed by Dev’s shocking discovery.
    Roberts locked eyes with Dev. It was the kind of cop stare Megan was sure they taught the first day at the academy. “Do I smell alcohol on your person?”
    Dev swallowed hard and gave a guilty nod. “Just a couple of beers,” she said, and Megan winced as a little of Dev’s attitude sprang to the surface.
    Roberts cocked an eyebrow. “You’re sure there was no one else here?” Dev nodded.
    The radio hooked on Robert’s belt squawked. “Go ahead, Mendez,”