“Or she could have become a world-class perfumer,” Jamie chimed in with a chuckle. “Everyone needs a plan B.”
Once the merriment died down, they all turned their attention to the job at hand. Grid after grid was cleared with no luck, but the area they were trying to cover was immense, not to mention, there was no telling whether the girl was even on this side of the river. Add to that, they couldn’t exactly search inside all of the buildings, and any external scents would have been washed away by the rain. The task seemed impossible.
Archer Langley seemed to share Sophia’s estimation, his face grim as he called a temporary halt to the search for the night. “Head home,” he told the exhausted and defeated looking tracker teams. “Eat, rest, we’ll begin again fresh tomorrow.” His eyes flashed the silver of his wolf as he firmly added, “Wewillfind her.”
They were on their way back to the bayou, the silence in the car weighty as they each contemplated their own thoughts, when Jamie’s phone went off. The vampire frowned at the screen before answering. “Edward. What’s up?”
With Sophia in the front passenger seat and Jamie in the back behind Travis who was driving, she couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation but Jamie’s frown of concern couldn’t be missed. “No, he’s not with us.”
A minute more of Jamie listening and then her eyes flicked up to look straight at Sophia. “Did you see Kane last night?”
Oh, yeah. She’d seen the cocksucker all right. Her eyes shifted and a low, clicking growl rumbled in her chest.
Jamie’s eyes widened and she quickly said, “Listen, Edward, let me call you right back,” and disconnecting the call, her attention was fully on Sophia and the reaction she hadn’t been able to hold back. “What happened?”
“Yeah,” Travis chimed in. “Whatdidhappen? Was Kane responsible for that shit last night?”
“Wait,” Morgan piled on. “Something happened last night? You said everything was fine.”
Well, the cat was out of the bag, wasn’t it?
Clearing her throat, Sophia took a few steadying breaths and then shook her head. “I can’t. Not in the car.” She was way too on edge to trust that she could stay in control in an enclosed vehicle while trying to verbalize the painful betrayal she’d felt when she’d seen Kane with another woman.
It appeared, however, Travis wasn’t willing to wait to get home to get his answers, pulling off to the side of the road not far from where he’d made his own path through the trees the night before.
Sophia quickly got out and walked a distance, the others trooping behind her. Finally, she turned, and said in a rush, “We were supposed to meet up last night, but instead, he left with another woman.”
Morgan visibly winced, Travis snarled, the scent of sulfur thick in the air, while Jamie’s frown looked thoughtful. “You were together in the club and he left with another woman?” the blonde vampire asked.
Sophia’s lip curled off her teeth. “No. He was walking toward the club where we were supposed to meet when another woman approached him,” she said, her voice rising with agitation, finally landing just shy of a screech as she told them, “She kissed him and he let her!”
Closing her eyes, she took a few steadying breaths before stating in a calmer tone, “They left together right after.”
“I’ll kill him,” her brother roared. “I’ll rip him limb from limb.”
While Morgan tried to calm her irate mate, Jamie was shaking her head and finally said a firm, “No. That’s not Kane. He may have a history of women falling all over him, he may even have a short attention span, but he wouldn’t leave you hanging like that if he had plans with you. That’s not him. No way.”
“You think the witch is playing with him again,” Morgan said.
“Edward told me Kane was supposed to meet with him and his seconds tonight to discuss how the meeting went and plans for the territory going forward. Kane had stressed to each of them that attendance was mandatory, but he didn’t show, and when Edward checked the security system at Kane’s house, he saw that Kane had set it before he left for the meeting the night before and it hadn’t been disengaged since.”
“Did you get a good look at the woman?” Morgan asked Sophia, whose stomach was now rolling with dread. Oh, God. Had that woman put some spell on Kane? If she’d only said fuck the consequences and followed instead of wallowing in her hurt and feelings of betrayal…
Swallowing hard, she told them, “Tall, voluptuous, gorgeous, with perfect looking dark skin. Shit. She was too perfect now that I think about it. The rain didn’t even seem to affect her.”
“Jourdain confirmed that Evangeline can change her appearance,” Jamie stated with a grimace, and then muttered, “I told him to take extra people with him. Why didn’t he listen?”
“So now this witch potentially has Nicky as well as Kane and the search today proved fruitless,” Morgan said, pacing the area with a frown.
How Sophia wished she’d followed, or gotten a plate number off the car they’d driven away in, something. Anything.
Please, let him be all right.
∞∞∞
“Kane,” was said in a loud whisper-hiss right by his ear and he jerked forward from his slouch against the wall. He must have passed out. Fuck, he was hungry, and Nicky was sitting far too close to him. He could hear her heartbeat, the rush of blood through her veins. His fangs punched out in a demand to be put to use. His injuries, he remembered. He’d suffered too much blood loss. He’d need to feed soon, but not from Nicky.
“You need to get away from me,” he snarled in an animalistic voice.
