I had to admit, it sounded like the best plan. “Before settling in, I need to dash home and pack up a few things. I also want to search for Misha. My poor baby slipped out, and she’s probably hiding in the bushes. A can of tuna should do the trick, and I promise I’ll keep her in my room. She won’t be a bother.”
“I’ll take her,” Reno quickly said. Then I remembered our scheduled trip to see Skye’s cousin. “I’ve got an errand to run, so I’ll keep an eye on her. I don’t think Wheeler’s in any shape to drive her around.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Wheeler bit out.
Reno tapped his cheekbone. “Did you see the dark circles under your eyes? Get some sleep. I’ll take over from here.”
No one questioned Reno, and why would they? He was the second-in-command.
Within minutes, the conversation had changed to spring flowers and repairing transmissions. I adored how quickly they settled matters and how no one had stormed out. They ate together as a family and resolved their problems without holding grudges.
Wheeler looked beat. Not just tired, but something else was going on. I wanted to ask him where he’d really gone off to at the club—why he had left me dancing alone. By the look on his face, it wasn’t the men’s room.
***
The Weston pack was a busy household, and since everyone had made plans that morning, the only available cars were Wheeler’s Camaro and Reno’s bike. No one was allowed to drive Austin’s Challenger, even if it wasn’t in use. April and Lexi were headed to work, and a group had gone to the movies with the kids. When we left, Wheeler and Austin were in the back office. I wondered if Wheeler would take a stand, but I didn’t know his rank in the pack. I couldn’t help but notice his defeatist attitude in the kitchen that morning. He was definitely an outcast, but it seemed unfair to single out the black sheep. Then again, I didn’t know his past with his brothers and what other things he’d done to deserve that reputation.
“Something going on with you and my baby brother?” Reno asked.
An errant breeze from the open car window ruffled my hair, and I smiled at a group of skinny bicyclists in colorful outfits as they zoomed by.
“He’s just doing what Austin hired him to do.”
“Hmm.”
“Aren’t you a little warm?” I pinched his long sleeve and pulled until it snapped back.
“It’s breathable fabric.”
“It’s eighty-seven degrees, and you’re dressed for an expedition to the South Pole.”
“I like covering up in public,” he murmured, adjusting a pair of mirrored shades on the bridge of his nose. “Didn’t there used to be a clock there?” he asked, pointing to the spot on Wheeler’s dash where only a few sticky pieces of adhesive glue remained.
I brushed a fleck of lint off my tan pants, wondering if I should bother calling Dean after what had happened. I’d grown to love working at Club Sin, but after this fiasco, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind I would be served walking papers, regardless that someone else had instigated the shift. Club owners didn’t knowingly hire panthers. Shifters had a long history with slavery, and everyone had a rank on the totem pole. Many had been alive to remember, so it was no surprise if a deer had problems with predators. But panthers had a reputation all our own.
I didn’t even realize I’d been cursing until Reno pulled down his shades to get a good look at me.
“I’m fine,” I said. “I’m just thinking about my job. Customers talk and rumors spread fast.”
“You can always dance on the human side of town,” he suggested.
“For nickels and dimes. None of the Breed clubs will hire me once they hear about this, and you can bet they’re all talking about it—my ears are already burning. I’ve always had my panther under control.
Always
. Someone forced me, and if I ever find that man—”
“We’re here,” he said.
My jaw slackened as I scoped the neighborhood. Reno pulled into a parking space in a shady apartment complex, and I don’t mean shady because of trees. Three men were sitting on the hood of a beat-up maroon car, smoking weed. Empty beer cartons littered the edge of the building next to a rusty blue bicycle missing a front wheel. This wasn’t even a Breed complex.
“Oh, Skye,” I whispered.
“She lives in a better neighborhood than this rat hole,” Reno said, lifting a gum wrapper from the floor and putting it in his pocket. “Sure you don’t want to wait in the car?”
“I just want to make sure her baby is okay. That’s all I’m here for.”
“She’s with family. Of course she’s okay.” Reno popped open his door and got out.
I followed behind him up the steps and down a corridor until we reached a green door with a knocker. Reno used his fist instead.
“Hold on, hold on,” someone yelled from inside.
Reno kicked his boot on the welcome mat to straighten it out. I glanced toward the pool area, where kids were splashing and squealing.
When the door swung open, a young man who looked in his twenties answered. He had on long yellow shorts and no shirt. He didn’t look a thing like Skye—red hair and hazel eyes. His cheeks and nose were bright red, and the skin on his sunburned shoulders was peeling. He smelled like chlorine, and the roots of his hair still looked wet.
Reno widened his stance. “Are you Skye’s cousin?”
“Yep. You one of her boyfriends?”
“I’m a PI. I need to ask you a few questions.”
The man hitched up his shorts in the back. “I don’t know jack shit. Her manager called, and I told him what I know. I bet she ran off with one of her johns.”
I folded my arms to keep from wringing his neck. “Don’t be an imbecile. She’s not a prostitute.”
“Whatever. Come on in.” He led us toward an open kitchen on the right. “Trust me—I want to find her as much as you do. This kidsitting shit is not for me. My name’s Jason.”
“When’s the last time you saw her?” Reno asked, closing the door behind him.
“Earlier that day when she dropped off the kid.”
Jason shoved the laundry off the table and onto the floor. I looked around for signs of Lola, but all I saw were some toys.
Reno took a seat in one of the tiny chairs and it made an awful sound. “Did she ever mention not feeling safe? Anyone ever call her or follow her around?”
Jason lit up a cigarette and put his elbows on the table. “Yep. About a week before she went missing. She was bitching about someone following her around. Then one night, someone made her shift in her car. I don’t know how, she didn’t say. Just said she woke up in her car and didn’t remember anything.” He took another long drag and flicked his ashes into a plastic cup. “I hear strippers get a lot of stalkers, so she had it coming. I’ve been telling her to get a real job or find a Shifter to hook up with, but she wants to do things her own way. Women,” he said with a huff.
“Yes,
women
,” I parroted. “The very thought of them having their own minds and doing whatever is necessary to take care of themselves and their children. The
nerve
.”
He shot me a frosty glare and looked back at Reno. “You know what I’m talking about. Anyhow, that’s all I know.”
“And no one else has called for her or come around?”
“Look, I don’t live with her.” Jason spoke with the cigarette in his mouth while he got up and grabbed something off the cabinet. “She left her phone here when she dropped the kid off that night. You can look through it for yourself, but there’s nothing weird on there.” He tossed the phone through the air and Reno caught it.
“Where’s the baby?” I asked.
“You mean the terror?” He snorted and sat back down, fumigating the room with his smoke. “Sleeping, I hope. I gave her some cough syrup before I went swimming, so that should keep her down for another hour.”
“Is she sick?”
“No.” He laughed and shook his head.
Rage ripped through me. This man was drugging a child for his own benefit, and then I realized no one else lived here and he’d left her alone!
“Give me the phone back when you’re done,” Jason said. “And when you find Skye, tell her to get her ass over here. She owes me big for this.”
“For taking care of your blood? You pig,” I spat out. “And how exactly is it that you earn
your
living?”
“Kidsitting,” he said proudly. “I also fix cars.”
“Something tells me you earn more for watching your own family than you do earning a real wage. What decent man charges his cousin money to watch her baby? Family takes care of their own.”
His pale brows sloped as he flicked the ashes into the cup. “You must be one of her stripper friends. Your kind is always high and mighty. You think because you pull in good tips for shaking your ass that you’re somehow better than the rest of us? If my cousin wants to earn money by showing her tits, then I’m charging her money for watching her kid. You can’t judge me on that shit, because she’s the one in the wrong.”
“You are ridiculous!” I launched to my feet and kicked my chair aside.
Reno sat back and looked at the phone. “If you hear anything from her or anyone else, I want you to call me.” He laid down his business card and stood up.
“Mommy,” a little girl cried, walking into the room.
I clutched my heart. The little baby didn’t have on a shirt, only a pair of green shorts. She was even prettier than in the picture, with spirals of curls down to her shoulders and skin the color of caramel. Her blue eyes were sleepy and looked like she’d been crying. She had a few smudges on her face and hands that someone who loved that child would have cleaned off.
Jason’s bare feet slid across the floor as he went to get her. “You’ve got what you need. The front door is thataway.”
“Mommy?” Lola began crying. “I had a bad dream.”
“Come on, kid. Quit being a crybaby.” He held her hand and she yanked it away. “I said come on.” Jason roughly grabbed her arm and that’s when a chair went flying.
Reno’s chair. It knocked over when he charged at Jason and latched his hand around the guy’s throat. “Let go of her.”
Jason obeyed, his face turning redder than the sunburn. Reno pushed him toward the counter until his head rested against the overhead cabinet.
“I don’t like what’s going on here. Not one bit. Family or not, you don’t ever handle a child like that. I should snap your neck. I’m thinking about it. Thinkin’ real hard.”
The cigarette had fallen out of Jason’s mouth and onto the floor. Reno finally let go and knelt down in front of Lola. “I’m Uncle Reno. Does this princess have a name?”
“Lola,” she sniffed.
“Princess Lola. We’re going on an adventure. Do you like pizza?”
She nodded.
“Good. Because on our way to the castle, we’re going to get some for lunch.”
“The fuck you are.” Jason pushed Reno’s head, and I guess he thought that might be enough to knock the man off-balance.
He thought wrong.
Reno rose to his feet so slowly that I thought I could hear Jason’s heartbeat racing like a stampede of wild horses. Reno towered over him a good six inches. When he put his sunglasses on top of his head and centered his eyes on Jason, that was the last complaint we got out of him.
“Naya, go get her clothes and let’s get out of here.”
I hurried past them to the only bedroom in the apartment. The mattress on the floor didn’t have a sheet, and clothes were everywhere. I frantically grabbed whatever looked like Lola’s and stuffed it all in a paper sack I found on the floor. I also took the only toy I could find—a blue pony with a pink mane.
When I returned to the living room, Reno had Lola perched on his left arm. He glowered, keeping an eye on Jason, who was sitting in a chair by the television, his legs wide apart. Lola had put on Reno’s sunglasses and was resting her head on his shoulder while sucking her thumb.
“You can bet one thing,” Reno said. “Your babysitting days are over.”
I crossed in front of Jason’s chair and bent over. “Skye may dance for a living, but she has dignity. She’s a proud mother, and you’re nothing but a coward—afraid of being a man and taking care of your own. You’re not even worth the slap of my hand.”
I turned around, and you better believe I wanted to slap him. But if I started, I might never stop. What had Lola endured that would make her go willingly into the arms of a stranger and leave the only other person she knew as family?
We headed down to the car, and Reno helped her into the back.
“My name is Miss Naya, and I have someone who wants to keep you company.” I handed her the toy pony, and she hugged it against her chin.
“Bella!”
After stopping off for a slice of cheese pizza, Reno swung by my apartment. I searched everywhere outside the building for Misha, and my heart sank when I didn’t find her. The first thing I planned to do when I got to Austin’s was make a few phone calls to the shelters, just in case they’d picked her up. I went inside and packed a large bag, uncertain of how long I’d be staying with the Weston pack. Change was on the horizon. Usually life shifts in new directions with unfortunate events, more so than it does with positive ones.
When I reached my front door to leave, my blood ran cold.