Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Max
I’m pissed.
I think I’m actually more than that. I’m fucking hurt! The first chance she had she took off on us—again! It’s like she doesn’t trust that we can keep her safe. For fuck sakes, two of us are professional fighters! She’s hiding so much from us and just expecting that we’ll go along with it.
I get that I shouldn’t have yelled at her. I probably played a large part in her decision to bolt, but fuck! That girl is frustrating the hell out of me.
After finding her and Kade this morning, I was waiting for the jealousy to set in, or even anger.
Or an influx of emotion because it wasn’t me laying beside her…
but I felt none of that. In fact, what I did feel was excitement!
I figured if she was opening herself up physically to at least one of us, that meant she had chosen to stay. To trust us again.
Until she opened her face hole and the excuses poured out like a god damn river.
The same lines of “I won’t tell you,” and “It’s for your safety.
” Blah, blah, blah. What can I say, I lost it.
It’s been the exact same words said in a different order since finding her at the motel.
I want to know more, know the reason she thinks she has to run and hide.
It wasn’t until Ryder’s words crossed my ears, and I got up to look for myself, that I realized how stupid I’d been.
Of course the girl who’s done nothing but repeat that she needed to go, would dip out while no one was looking.
And of course, it would be because I stuck my foot in my own mouth and bitched her out.
Otherwise, she might have hung around, still blissed out in a post-orgasmic haze.
Fuck, I’m going to have a lot of groveling to do.
There was no time to waste, so the second we realized she was gone, Kade ran for his computer room in the basement.
Using our surveillance, a couple of neighbors cameras, and satellite enhanced street views, we managed to track her movements.
From the house, into a passing cab—that girl’s got a horseshoe up her butt.
I can never find a cab when I need one—and all the way to the bus station downtown.
The four of us fought each other up the stairs and to our shoes, before jumping into the SUV still parked out front. Z drove like a madman as we tried to catch her before she bought a ticket and disappeared… again.
Pulling up to the main doors, I’m the first out of the car.
My shoes hitting the pavement in quick succession as I speed walk to the ticket counter.
There’s a small man behind the glass, reading a magazine with his feet on the desk.
Entirely too relaxed for the present situation.
As I fish out my phone to pull up a picture of Mik from yesterday, Ryder is right on my ass with the questions.
“Excuse me, has anyone come by within the last couple of hours to purchase a last minute ticket? May not have had a destination in mind, just going for whatever’s available? Around five-two, uhh, black hair, the most gorgeous green—”
“Like this,” I cut in, showing the clerk my phone.
“Yeah, her. Did anyone looking like her buy a ticket?”
The man leans forward, his eyes drifting over the picture of our Bear in her little sundress while he licks across his teeth and smiles.
Something inside of me growls with a possessive need to smack this guy's head off the table, and it turns out I’m not the only one.
Zane, now striding up to the desk, snaps his fingers to draw the clerks leering attention.
Their eyes connect, and Z leans his forearms against the counter.
“Did you, or did you not, have someone that looked like her pay for a ticket today?” His voice drops into a deep octave. One that I’ve never heard from him before, and even I’m over here shitting my pants at the implied anger in his tone. And he likes me.
“N-No Sir. The last ticket sale we had was around eleven-thirty this morning. No one has come by s-since,” the man stammers and all of us let out an exhaustive sigh.
My hands move to the back of my neck, elbows out wide as I bite my cheek. Exhaling so loud my lips flap like a woman from the nineteen twenties.
“I’m not losing her again,” Zane declares, his eyes betraying his stone cold face.
They beam with the hurt he’s feeling over her disappearing as he chews on his lips with enough force to make himself wince.
The stress from today alone has gotten to us.
Well, most of us. I don’t think Kade has stopped smiling since this morning.
“We won’t, we’ll find her.” Patting him on the back, I guide him toward the doors and the SUV.
We stop at Duffy’s Tavern to grab dinner and come up with a plan.
We can’t lose her again, I don’t think any of us would survive round two.
Sliding into one of the booths, the waitress approaches to take our drink order, openly making sex eyes at Z.
If this had been last week, he might have indulged the woman, slipped his number onto the tray for a night of fun. But today, he can’t be bothered.
“Coffee. Black,” he barks without a passing glance while his ass hits the leather of the seat.
“Okay, let’s think about this,” I start, trying to eradicate the growing tension and Zane’s rising anger. “If she didn’t buy a ticket, and Kade never clocked her leaving on any of the camera footage, then realistically, that means she still has to be there, right?”
“Assuming she didn’t sneak off into a space that has no surveillance, or spider monkey herself to the undercarriage of one of the buses, sure.” Kade shrugs, his eyes grazing over the open menu in front of us.
“Fuck!” Ry exclaims, shaking his head and covering his face with his hands. “I bet you that’s exactly what she did!” The three of us gawk at Ryder, mouths hanging open and eyes blinking.
Remember that time I said I was the dumbest of our group? I take it back.
“Dude, she’s small, but not that small…” Zane’s inflection is soft like when you’re talking to a small child… or a grown ass man who has clearly lost it.
“No, you fucking ass,” Ry groans, shoving Z in the shoulder hard enough to make him sway. “Not like that, I mean what if she did get on a bus?”
Didn’t we establish she didn’t buy a ticket already? He was there, he heard it…
There must be something in the way we’re all looking at him, as his shoulders slump like he’s tired of having to pull the rest of us up to his level. The moment Ry goes to explain more, our waitress re-appears, pad in hand, ready to take our order.
“What can I get for y’all this evening?” the girl chirps, leaning over Ry and flashing her chest.
“Just a round of fries is fine. Thanks,” I mutter in an attempt to get her to leave faster. She pouts, her lip jutting out and eyebrows threading together. Trying to feign a hurt we all know she doesn’t feel.
“Are you sure there’s nothing else I can get ya? I’m sure I can be of some assistance.”
Is she for real?
Her eyes are locked on Zane, boring into the side of his head like tiny little lasers, as she practically begs for his attention.
That’s not even a joke either, she looks about one smile away from dropping to her knees in front of him and purring.
My eyes dart to Ry’s, one brow arched in a silent question.
He shrugs, pressing his back into the seat further, trying to escape the stench of desperation coming from this woman.
“Nothing else,” I state, shoving the menus into her grasp with a tight smile. She straightens, looks in my direction with an irritated glare, and finally walks off to continue her job. Some people’s children I tell ya.
“‘Kay, Ry. Spill.”
“We haven’t been thinking like her. We’ve been thinking like ourselves. Like members of society,” he says and I swear I’m ready to throw myself over this table to slap him if he stops mid-thought one more damn time.
“She is a ‘member of society.’ What does that have to—”
“No,” Ry interjects, cutting off Kade and his train of thought. “Think about it. She keeps saying how she needs to leave, how she needs to keep us protected and safe. You can’t tell me, each one of you hasn't put the pieces together yet.”
“She’s on the run from someone,” Zane provides and Ryder nods in agreement.
“Exactly, she’s running. So, if you were on the run, didn’t want to be caught, and now also running from four people who probably know you better than you know yourself, what are you going to do?”
Ryder stops, his eyebrows rising as he waits for us to come up with the answer. I was never good with pop quizzes. I didn’t like them in school and I sure as hell don’t like them now.
“Shit,” Kade whispers, his hands flying across the keyboard of his phone. “You wouldn’t look at buying a ticket and having your name on a paper trail. You’d sneak on the first bus you could and act like you belong.”
“Fuck,” both Zane and I mumble together. All the pieces finally falling into place. “So, she was more than likely there when we were, but because we assumed she would buy a ticket like anyone else, we never thought to check the terminal!”
It’s at this exact moment our food is delivered and four baskets of freshly cooked fries are placed on the table by a very masculine hand. The little strips of potato are still steaming as I look at the big dude who’s now serving us.
“Good evening,” the male begins, bowing slightly in greeting. “There’s been a slight change. I’ll be taking over your table for the rest of the evening. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
What happened to the desperate one?
“Uh, okay. Thank you,” Zane mutters, digging into the fries.
I look at Ry, who looks at Zane, who looks at me, before we all stare at an alarmingly silent Kade.
“What? She was practically throwing herself onto the table and asking to be the meal,” he shrugs casually, as if this is just a regular occurrence. “So, I may have hacked into the restaurant's system, and changed a few details of her employment.”
“Like…?” Ryder drawls, his eyes pinching as he glares at our brother.
“She’s no longer employed.”
“Kade!” I admonish, stunned by his brashness. I may not have liked the damn woman either, but Jesus!
“Oh, please! We have bigger things to worry about. Like figuring out where Bear is headed!”
“Fine! But no more firing the waitstaff!” Zane shakes his head, but I don’t miss the wink he sends Kade’s way.
I swear, between these two—one with a personality like a magnet, the other with technological skill beyond comprehension—they could rob a bank and then convince you that your Aunt Patty did it.