29. Lynx
LYNX
Dear Diary,
Step one: send the Mafia prince out for burgers.
Step two: immediately regret that decision forever.
Iput Nyah in the shower, making sure the water was the perfect temperature and she had access to all of the girly shampoos and hair treatments I’d stashed beneath my sink for her.
Then I went about cleaning up my room. Draining the inflatable birthing pool I’d hired from a place in Providence and folding up the massage table I’d borrowed from a friend of a friend, with the promise of giving them a signed Saint View Vipers hockey jersey in return.
It was nice to know my team had at least one fan.
The water ran in the bathroom, and Nyah’s sweet voice echoed around the tiled room, some sort of pop song I only barely recognized but smiled at anyway.
Because people didn’t generally sing in the shower if they were unhappy. And it had been a while since I’d heard her do that.
It was all I had wanted from her today. I’d just wanted to give her all the things that made her happy, and that off-key warbling going on in the shower right now suggested maybe I’d gotten it right.
I was so fucking mad at Dax for the way he’d walked out, but today, listening to her sing in the shower again, I could maybe give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe I could see that things were too much and the man had needed a fucking break.
I couldn’t consider the other alternative. The one Nyah kept insisting on. Because if Dax had been taken against his will, I was pretty sure he was dead.
That thought left me so fucking cold inside I didn’t want to consider it a possibility. Couldn’t. The man had told Nyah in his own damn words he was leaving. We had to believe that.
I changed the sheets, balling up the old ones and tossing them into the corner. New, fresh ones were already in place by the time Nyah wandered out of the bathroom, smelling so fresh and clean and pretty that I just wanted to dirty her up again.
But her body would need a break after what we’d done to it. She might have enjoyed it, might have come more times than I could count, but she was pregnant, and she needed sustenance and sleep.
I glanced at my watch. “Luca’s taking forever with that food.”
She nodded. “I’m so hungry.”
I patted the bed, plumping up the pillows for her. “Get in. Rest. Watch a movie. Sheets are clean. I’ll go find us something in the kitchen to snack on until he gets here.”
She nodded gratefully and climbed in.
I tucked the sheets around her, handed her the remote to the TV hung on the wall opposite the bed, and then padded out into the common room.
I half expected Luca to be out there, distracted by one of the other guys, but there was no Luca in sight, and none of the greasy fries and burgers I craved.
I pulled out my phone as I made my way to the kitchen and tucked it into the cradle between my neck and shoulder. I rummaged through the pantry and then the refrigerator, searching for something to tide over my and Nyah’s rumbling bellies.
Luca’s phone went to voicemail, and I sighed, listening to his recorded message that simply said, “It’s Luca. Leave a message.”
The beep sounded. “Just wondering where you are. We’re so starving we’re pregaming dinner with original Pringles and—” I squinted into the fairly bare refrigerator. “Cheese. The situation is dire. Hurry. Call us back with an ETA.”
I ended the call and took my finds back to my bedroom and got into bed beside my girl. “Pringles or cheese? Or both at once. Your call?”
“Both at once, definitely.” She looked at the food like it was a Thanksgiving feast. “Good choices.”
I screwed up my nose. “They’re a terrible combination.”
“Not to a pregnant woman. Gimme.”
I watched her chow down pringles with one hand, alternating with bites of the cheese from the other.
She brushed crumbs off the sheets apologetically, but I didn’t care at all. The pleasure on her face at being fed and warm and well fucked was all I needed. She got to the bottom of the tube and sank back against the pillows, her eyes closing.
“Hey.” I brushed her hair back off her forehead. “Don’t fall asleep. We haven’t had dinner yet.”
But it was clearly a losing battle, and her stomach had stopped growling. “Wake me when he gets back.”
I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I will.”
She was out in seconds, and I couldn’t blame her. My eyelids felt just as heavy, my body pleasantly warm and the bed so comfy it would have been easy to roll over, wrap my arms around her, and fall asleep with her scent in my nose.
But my damn grumbling stomach that hadn’t been satisfied with the few Pringles I’d dared to steal from Nyah wouldn’t let me drift off.
I called Luca again, and still no answer.
I got sucked into the movie Nyah had put on before she’d fallen asleep, but by the time the end credits started to roll and I realized Luca still wasn’t back, a kernel of worry lit up inside me. He’d been gone at least two hours. Probably more.
I called him again, and this time, I wasn’t surprised when it went to voicemail.
I quietly swung my legs off the bed and pulled on some jeans over the top of my boxers. A shirt came next, along with my boots, and my Slayers jacket from the hook on the back of the door.
Kyle and Kiki were in the common room, and they both looked up when I came out.
Kyle nodded in greeting. “Going out tonight?”
I checked I had my wallet. “Hadn’t planned on it, but Luca’s gone MIA with our food. Need to go out to find him.”
Kyle’s forehead crinkled. “You want me to come with?”
But I shook my head. “No, you two enjoy your night. No point both of us wandering around out there searching for him when he probably just got distracted by someone he ran into while he was in town. I’ll find him.”
Kyle nodded, and Kiki curled around him again, running her fingers through the back of his hair, stroking the nape of his neck affectionately.
Kyle leaned into the touch. “Hope you find him.”
I did too. But at the very least, I was getting some food. Something that wasn’t a weird pregnancy craving I definitely didn’t share.
I got on my bike and rode it slowly up the hill to the Slayers’ gates.
I raised a hand at Chirp, sitting sentry for the night, and mentally tried to remember when I was next rostered on.
I still couldn’t remember by the time I got out of the woods and onto the main road, but it didn’t matter. I’d check when I got back.
The night was cool, the late autumn breeze reminding me it was going to be winter any day now.
And though Saint View wasn’t well known for snow or particularly cold temperatures, when you were on the back of a bike, whizzing through the night in nothing but jeans and a jacket, even slightly cooler temperatures made a difference to how comfortable it was to ride.
I’d need to get some warmer clothes if I wanted to keep doing this through the winter.
Which I did. I hadn’t been much of a bike guy before I’d come here, but they’d grown on me day by day, and I now preferred the ease and freedom you felt on the back of a bike, rather than being stuck in the stuffy club van that, more often than not, had car seats in the back and Barbie dolls on the floor because most of the guys who used it regularly had kids.
The roads were pretty quiet until I got into town, but the main strip of Saint View was always busy in the evenings, when all the deviants came out. The light was on in Dax’s shop, but when I peered through the window as I cruised by, I could only see King and Roarke working inside.
I parked and stuck my head in anyway.
Roarke recognized me and shook his head.
“He’s not back. Got a text from him yesterday though that said he’s fine and sorting through things.
” He shook his head, irritation with his older brother written all over his face.
“Meanwhile, we’re here trying to cover months’ worth of bookings, trying to get Reaper through his training so he can help, not to mention all the fucking admin and paperwork Dax left piled up on his desk. ”
I grimaced at him. “If you want some help with that, I could come round next week. See what I can make of it?”
I expected him to say no, but he nodded. “Honestly, man, if you have time, I won’t say no. That’s how fucking desperate I am for the help right now. I kinda didn’t realize exactly how much Dax did around here until he was gone.”
I sighed. “He said he was okay in his message?”
Roarke shrugged. “Didn’t say much. I had been calling and messaging him nonstop for a week, so I guess he felt like he had to say something. But he did say he’s got no plans to return.”
My stomach churned with anger. How could he? Just leave Nyah the way he had? This wasn’t the behavior of the man I’d thought he was.
“I’ll come round next week and see what I can help with.”
Roarke offered me his hand. “I’d appreciate that.
I shook it and walked out, the bell tinkling over my head. Back on the street, I tried Luca’s phone for the dozenth time and shoved it back in my pocket as I pushed my way into the Greasy Spoon Diner.
I went to the counter and waited my turn, then said to the woman behind the register, “Hi. Weird question, but do you know who Luca Guerra is?”
Her eyes widened. “The Mafia guy who’s always in the papers? Yeah, I know him. Everyone around here does.”
I’d figured as much. In a town like Saint View, where most people knew a drug dealer or someone who’d done a stint in prison, gossip about the gangs and Mafia wars ran riot between neighbors.
“Have you seen him tonight? Might have come in to order burgers?”
She shook her head. “I think I would have noticed a man in an expensive suit. That would stick out like a sore thumb in here.”
I flashed her a photo of Luca I had on my phone.
It was one I’d snapped of him working out in the gym.
He was sweaty but casually dressed in a T-shirt and shorts.
“What if he was dressed like this? Or in sweats?” I couldn’t remember exactly what Luca had been wearing when he’d left the clubhouse, but I knew it hadn’t been a suit. “Would you have still recognized him?”
She glanced at the screen and nodded. “I would have noticed how hot he is. He definitely didn’t come in here tonight.”
I put my phone back in my pocket and thanked her for her time.
I went back outside and drove around some more, checking each McDonald’s between here and Providence, and all the other fast-food outlets that sold burgers, hoping to see Luca’s car parked in one of them.
I paid attention to the sides of the roads to get to each one, thinking maybe he’d broken down and had no cell reception.
But there was no sign of him anywhere.
My phone rang, and I pounced on it, without even paying attention to the screen. “Luca?”
“No,” Nyah said. “It’s me. I just woke up and you were gone. What’s going on?”
I didn’t want to worry her, but there was a ball of dread in the pit of my stomach. “I’ll tell you when I get back. I’m on my way.”
I grabbed a few burgers at the McDonald’s I was parked in and stowed them in one of the saddlebags on my bike. Nyah still needed to be fed, even if Luca had disappeared into the night.
I wound my bike around the curves of the cliff road that led up to the bluffs and out to the Slayers’ compound. The farther I got out of town, the more worried I became.
I mentally tried to tell myself he’d probably just run into a friend and had gotten sidetracked.
Except, Luca really didn’t have any friends.
Other than me.
Other options were much scarier.
Like he’d run into his father or uncle or one of their enemies.
I forced the bike to go faster, the shadows of the night suddenly feeling like demons creeping in on me.
It was almost no surprise when I turned down the road to the Slayers’ compound and an orange glow blocked the only road in. I skidded to a stop, dropping my bike on the ground, not caring about the paintwork, and ran the last few steps.
But I couldn’t even get close.
The heat coming off the blazing fire was so intense it drove me back, while screams ripped from my mouth.
Luca’s car sat sideways on the road, fully ablaze.
A blackened, charred body, already dead behind the wheel.