Chapter Three #2
There was no telling if the kid would want to have anything to do with him. Adam would likely blame him for abandoning his mother. And he wasn’t totally wrong. The fact he hadn’t known the boy existed didn’t matter. He should have known, could have if he hadn’t clung to stubborn pride.
Their father had dubbed them the Seven Deadly Sins when they were boys, assigning each of them one of the sins, teaching them to turn it into a strength. It hadn’t escaped him that his was pride.
Cyrus’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel, letting up when it began to crack beneath the strain. There was nothing he could do about the past. Nothing he could do about his son until they arrived in West Virginia, but once they hit the ground running, he wouldn’t stop until he found Adam.
He cleared his throat. “Tell me about yourself.”
Her lips were slightly swollen from their kiss.
Too many nights she’d haunted his dreams. He’d wake alone and horny in bed with no relief in sight.
He didn’t want just any woman, only his mystery woman would do.
He sometimes wondered if that brief taste of her blood when he’d nipped at her neck had somehow marked him.
Many a restless night he’d roamed the mountain, a wolf longing for a mate.
As the years passed, those nights had become fewer, but they’d never completely disappeared.
She tugged on the seat belt, her gaze flickering to him. “What do you want to know?”
“Ever been married?” His wolf snarled inside him at the mere thought of another man claiming her.
“No.”
“Anyone currently in your life?” Something he should have considered before kissing her.
“No, there’s no one. You?”
“No.” The uncomfortable silence grew. “I travel a lot for work.” And he worked a lot. At first it had been out of necessity. They owned their home and land outright, but he’d had siblings to feed and clothe and bills to pay.
Once they were all adults and had built up a substantial nest egg, it had become habit.
Work was all he knew, all he had outside of family.
His siblings no longer needed him the way they had.
Staying busy kept him from feeling at loose ends, distracted him from the growing emptiness inside him, the yearning for a mate and family of his own.
Why want something you weren’t likely to ever get?
Only Eli had found a mate. But his story was different. Kinley was a wolf, understood their world. Vinnie was human and totally oblivious to his kind.
“Only places I’ve ever been were a couple of law enforcement conventions. Even with my mom’s help, it wasn’t easy raising Adam on my own. I was lucky she was willing and able to stay home with him when he was a baby. Dad’s pension helped. Once Adam was in school, she went back to work at the bank.”
“You said you took Adam camping.” Even if he was fully human, Sin blood ran in the boy’s veins. He’d likely be more at home outside than anywhere else.
“He loves it. If he’d had his way, we’d have spent every holiday that way. Mom insisted we go to Disneyland when he was ten. He had fun, but as soon as we got home, he asked when we were going camping. I swear the kid would live in the woods if I let him.”
Cyrus’s heart skipped a beat. “Was he spending more time outside before he ran off?”
“Yes. As soon as school let out for the summer, he’d be up with the sun and gone. Too many nights I’d come home from work and he wouldn’t be there. I’d have to go looking for him. He wasn’t happy when I laid down ground rules. We’d never actually fought until this past year.”
Adam had accepted her as alpha of their small pack. Now that he was maturing and around the age when all werewolves made their first shift, he was testing his boundaries. All kids did, but it was worse with his kind. “He’s a teenager.”
“I just want to find him. Get him to talk to me. He’s never been on his own for this long. He could be hurt or lost. He thinks he’s an adult, but he’s only fifteen, or rather sixteen. His birthday was two days ago. I hate that he spent it alone. It’s the first year he didn’t have a party.”
Her pain was palpable. He wanted to pull over, take her in his arms, and comfort her, but that wasn’t what she needed from him.
She needed every skill, every resource at his disposal.
It was time to put away his wants and yearnings and do what needed to be done.
Wouldn’t be the first time. Likely wouldn’t be the last.
They’d past the county line some time ago. According to the GPS it wasn’t much farther to Kingman Creek. “We’ll find him.”
“How can you be sure?” The seat belt twisted in her grip.
“Because I won’t stop until I do.” If it took him the rest of his life, he’d keep going. The vow settled in his heart and soul. He wouldn’t disappoint Vinnie, not a second time. And he wasn’t about to let down the son he’d never met.
He slowed as he reached the town limits and drove down Main Street.
It resembled many others he’d seen over the years—quintessential small-town America.
Following her directions, he made several turns before pulling up in front of a tidy, white clapboard house with blue shutters and a small yard.
The driveway was currently occupied by a county police vehicle.
Vinnie was out the door before he’d pulled to a stop and running toward the house.
“Adam!”
Cyrus was right behind her, scanning the area for threats. A man in a uniform came out of the front door. Cyrus’s hackles rose. Whoever he was, he had no business being in there.
“What’s going on?” she demanded. “Where’s Adam?”
The deputy caught her by the arm when she went past him. “He’s not here. Where have you been?”
Vinnie frowned and pulled away. About six-two and fit with blond hair and blue eyes, Cyrus didn’t like the proprietary hold the deputy had on her. He noted the way the deputy’s grip briefly tightened before he released her.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I told the sheriff I was going to hire someone to track Adam. I haven’t been gone an entire day. What the hell is your problem, Wilkes?”
“We only had your word you’d be back. There are plenty who believe you’re behind Adam’s disappearance.”
Vinnie flinched as if she’d been struck. “And you’re one of them?”
He shrugged. “There was blood found in your house.”
“On a kitchen towel. I told you I cut my hand. It was a few drops at most.”
The bastard was baiting her. “If you’re wasting your time with crap like this it’s little wonder you haven’t found the boy.” Cyrus stepped up beside Vinnie.
Wilkes’s hand strayed to the gun on his belt. Fire and suspicion burned in his eyes. “Who are you?”
Cyrus canted his head to one side and offered a feral smile. “I’m the tracker who is going to find Adam Grant.”
Wilkes snorted. “You think you’re better than us?”
He allowed his smile to widen ever so slightly. “I don’t think I am. I know I am.”
“I need a name.”
Cyrus shook his head. “No, you don’t. Not unless Vinnie decides to give it to you. If you’ll excuse us, we have a boy to find.”
A call came in over the dashboard radio in Wilkes’s car. Frowning, he pointed a finger at Cyrus. “This isn’t over.”
“Yes, it is.” He motioned Vinnie inside and took great pleasure in shutting the door in the deputy’s face.
“You just made an enemy. Wilkes doesn’t like to have his authority questioned.”
Unconcerned, he shrugged and took his first look at her home.
It was bright and airy and filled with the clutter of a busy life.
It was scrupulously clean, but there was no doubt a teenager lived here.
A blanket was tossed over the back of the sofa.
Pictures, books, trophies, and other memorabilia were stuffed into the shelves flanking the fireplace.
A pair of sneakers had been kicked under the coffee table.
An iPad sat on an end table. It was a fraction of the size of the living room back in Kentucky, but it felt more like a home. “I’m not here to make friends.”
“He can cause you a lot of problems.”
“You let me worry about that.” Because of the jobs he and his brothers had done over the years, a lot of powerful people owed them. One call and he’d be the least of Deputy Wilkes’s concerns. But just in case. “What’s his full name?”
“Davis Llewellyn Wilkes. Why?”
He pulled out his phone and sent off a quick text to Zach. “I’m going to have my brother look into him. He seems determined to make trouble.” He tucked the phone away. “Show me Adam’s room.”