“She’s family,” he said. “I know what it means when family is in trouble. I cried a few tears when Alex was arrested and they wouldn’t let me in to see him for forty-eight hours.”
I blinked away my own tears and gave him a disbelieving glare.
“Okay. I busted down a wall in my rental unit. I did shed a few tears digging the splinters out of my knuckles.”
I laughed, a small hiccup of sound, which was what he intended, I’m sure.
“Look. It’s possible she really intended to come to you for help. It’s also possible that she intended that as a distraction for Evan and she went elsewhere, and then it took longer than she expected to get finished with whatever she needed to do. A lot of things are possible, not just her dead in a ravine.” He did that little lip-twitch smile at my reaction to his mind reading. “We don’t know enough yet to worry. We’ll do the best we can to find her.” Her patted my shoulder and left me in the cold mudroom, swallowing down more tears, my breath harsh.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “She could have called if she had a problem. She could have asked for my help. Instead she’s disappeared. And I don’t know how to help her.”
Eli paused in the short hallway and said over his shoulder, “Help her husband. Keep her kids safe. Let us work. That would be my best guess as to what Molly would want.”
And of course, my partner was right. I took a ragged breath and squared my shoulders. “Okay. Yeah. Okay. We can do this.”
CHAPTER 2
’Cause Wolf-ees Stinks!
It was nearly dark when the groceries arrived by delivery, and Eli and Evan shared kitchen duties, putting away groceries and making supper. It was peanut butter and jelly for the Trueblood children, steak and potatoes and beer for the adults, cola and pizza for the Kid. We were silent and worried, Alex sitting at one end of the table, his electronic devices in a semicircle around him, running programs I couldn’t even guess at. Several times he paused, put down his fork, and punched some keys, mumbling things that sounded like Klingon cusswords and probably were. He had learned he could cuss in my presence if I didn’t know what he was saying.
Midmeal my phone rang. I yanked it out of my jeans pocket, hoping it was Molly. The table went silent, hopeful. I grimaced and mouthed, Katie, my landlady. I answered, “Yellowrock,” and put the phone on speaker.
Troll’s gravel-crunching voice said, “Bliss and Rachael are missing. Get your ass over here.”
I frowned. I didn’t have time for missing working girls and Katie’s drama
“Go ahead,” Eli said, mind-reading again. “We got Molly covered for now.”
I said to Troll, “Language. Give me details.” I pulled out an old-fashioned spiral pad and pen.
“They went to a party last night and they didn’t come home. Missed their ride. Haven’t called. Haven’t answered their cells. Now, what part of ‘get your ass over here’ is confusing?”
We had a communication problem. “We have children in the house,” I clarified. “Watch your language.”
“The Kid is, like, nineteen. When I was nineteen I was living in a whore—”
“Molly’s children,” I said loudly. The Kid snorted softly, hiding a smile.
“Oh. Why’n’t you say so? Get your butt over here.” The connection ended.
“I’ll be right there,” I said to the air, and closed the cell. I stuffed the last bite of steak into my mouth and said, “I don’t want to go, but it shouldn’t take long and I’m no help here right now. This is the Kid’s search for the moment. I’ll be back.”
“Is this related to Molly?” Evan asked, his eyes on his plate.
I stopped, surprised. Bliss is a witch. So . . .
“Statistically improbable,” Eli said.
“Yeah. What he said.” I stood and went to my room, brushed my teeth, put on my boots, and weaponed up. I had started carrying fewer guns and more blades, worried that someone would get a weapon off me and use it to kill a human. Or worse, that I’d miss a vamp I was aiming at and kill a human. Silver shot would kill humans as easily as vamps. But this time I holstered up with two .308s and grabbed a light jacket to hide the weapons. And considered the rest of my armament. Most of it was locked safely away, but not all. We had children in the house. I laid all my guns on the bed and closed my bedroom door behind me.
To Evan I said, “How ’bout you give the kids a bath?” To Eli I said, “And make sure everything is locked in the safe room.”