Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
You had me at ‘we’ll make it look like an accident.’
—Odin to Constance
Odin
I snatched the jeans from the floor that weren’t still connected to my boots and yanked them up one leg at a time while I stalked out of the bedroom toward the front door.
The pounding started again, and I yanked it open in anger to find Black standing on my porch looking amused as hell.
“What?” I snapped.
“I have a few concerned citizens saying you kidnapped a woman,” he drawled.
I looked past Black to see a couple of people standing outside, one of whom was Pendelton’s kid.
The little fucker.
“Willingly kidnapped,” I grumbled.
“I’m sure that’s the case. But I think it would make the citizens of Bear Pass feel a little better if they saw your kidnappee.”
I grumbled something dark under my breath and then called, “Hey, Coco. Can you come out here with some clothes on and show them that I haven’t taken you into my basement and murdered you?”
She appeared at the door in my thermal a moment later.
She’d put that on and nothing else.
My gaze went to her thighs where you could still see my handprints.
My lips quirked.
Black whistled under his breath. “They’re not going to be very convinced if they see her like that.”
I flipped him off. “Maybe go put your clothes on,” I suggested. “They think I really did kidnap you.”
“But you did,” she pointed out teasingly.
I sighed. “Pendelton’s kid is out there starting a riot.”
Her eyes darkened. “What is with that kid? I see him everywhere. Him and his stupid snake.”
“Snake?” Black and I asked at the same time.
“Yeah.” She frowned. “Snake. You haven’t seen him around town riding on that stupid skateboard wearing it around his neck?
He also gets this sick sort of thrill every time he walks into the supermarket.
Likes to scare the older Black lady, Mrs. O’Neal, when she checks him out.
He always pulls it off his neck and wraps it around his wrist when he hands her his card. ”
“Prick,” I muttered, looking at Black. “You think that it’s related?”
“What’s related?” Constance asked.
I gestured to the room. “Let’s go get dressed.”
Five minutes later, we were dressed and standing on the front porch talking to Black.
The crowd had dispersed after Constance had shown her face and let everyone know that she was more than all right.
“The only one there was Pendelton’s kid,” I murmured. “Where did all those other people come from?”
“When I got to the school, he was in the gas station causing a ruckus. Telling everyone that would listen that you kidnapped her and forced her into your car against her will,” Black added.
“Well, he wasn’t far from the truth.” Constance rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t necessarily willing at the time.”
My grin was not the correct response, but she only whacked me on the arm when she saw it.
Movement caught our eyes, and soon Pendelton’s kid was marching up the walk toward us, looking furious. “You’re just going to let him get away with this?”
“Listen, kid,” Black grumbled. “She’s here willingly. What would you have me do?”
“She’s not willing!” the kid denied.
“I am,” Constance said softly, moving in closer to me. “I was just in a bad mood. Some asshole dumped some dogs off at our house today, and they were scary. Forced me to be late to my daughter’s lunch. And we got in a fight last night. It was all very innocent. I’m sorry you were involved at all.”
Maybe if you were in school like you should be this wouldn’t have happened…
Though I didn’t voice those thoughts.
His eyes narrowed, and he studied me with an intensity that made me uncomfortable.
I moved even closer to Constance.
“Hey, Eustace,” Black called out. “You have a snake?”
Eustace.
I hadn’t realized that was his name.
“Yes,” he asked warily, stiffening.
“Where is it?”
“At home,” he stammered. “I, uh, stopped carrying him around when someone got upset about it in the store.”
Doubtful.
I’d seen him and that snake literally everywhere. And he had never seemed to care before about anyone not liking it.
Except, the way he kept looking at Constance made me wonder if he’d stopped carrying the snake around because she hadn’t liked him terrorizing people with the snake.
Had something happened that she hadn’t shared?
Not that we’d been sharing much until recently.
“What happened with the encounter?” Black asked, echoing my thoughts.
“Uh…” Eustace started, but Constance interrupted.
“A few weeks ago, he came into The Mercantile and brought the snake,” she said. “Bernice and the older lady that runs it both asked him to leave. He wouldn’t. The cops were about to be called, and I asked him to leave. He left.”
What the fuck?
Did this kid have a crush on Constance?
“Did you happen to know Maddox Thermopolis, Kieran St. James, or Axton Ranger?”
“No, why?” Eustace lied.
And he did lie.
I could read that on his face.
And I wasn’t trained like Black was. Unless you counted the prison school of hard knocks.
“How old are you, Eustace?”
“Fifteen,” he answered.
“Let me give you a ride back to your place,” Black suggested.
“I’ll be fine,” Eustace replied.
“That may be, but I’m still going to give you one,” he said. “I’d like a word with your parents.”
“They’re both at work.”
“Then we’ll head to your dad’s office,” Black suggested. “Get in.”
His words left no room for argument.
The moment the two of them left, Constance said, “You found something out.”
I nodded.
“The snake bites on the kids,” he said. “All three of them had at least four. Didn’t even remember that kid had a snake until right now.”
She snapped her fingers together. “That was what I was trying to remember!”
“What?”
“The snake,” she remembered. “I talk a lot to Dr. Pendelton. He has Eustace homeschooled. But he’s in a homeschooling co-op.
There’s a group of the same age boys that meet and play soccer together.
They play against area schools. I think they also formed a track team and a basketball team.
So I know he has contact with other kids his age. ”
“Interesting,” I said. “I’m sure Black will get that information out of him, but I’ll send him a message anyway.” I pulled out my phone. “Are you ready to go?”
She looked at her watch. “We still have an hour and a half.”
I opened the door to the house and whistled.
Peanut came barreling through the front door and out into the yard, nose to the ground.
“Was hoping you’d be okay with walking the pain in the ass for an hour while we waited. We can walk to the school and pick her up, then take your car back here.”
She softened. “I’d love that.”
Peanut was thoroughly tired out by the time Wendy was ready to get out of school.
“You got a sweatshirt or something of Wendy’s in your truck that I could borrow?”
Constance frowned. “Yeah. The whole back seat is filled with her junk. Why?”
“Was wondering if I could work on a scent trail with the two of them. We can give Peanut the scent, and he can find her in a crowd of kids. It’d be a fun experiment.”
“Absolutely,” she said. “Let’s go.”
We headed to her car and got a jacket of Wendy’s.
“Usually, you’d want to put the jacket in a plastic bag so you can keep the scent contained and not contaminate it. But we’re going to do this the fun way and see what he can do,” I said. “When’s the bell ring for school?”
Just as I asked that, the bell rang.
“Now.” Constance grinned.