When the guy nodded, Kane asked, “Did you catch a name?”
The request had the guy’s eyebrows shooting up to his hairline. “You don’t remember?”
Yeah, Kane supposed if the woman was as hot as the bouncer had made it seem, Kane’s not remembering her name would come as a surprise.
The bartender shook his head. “She give you a fake number or something?” he asked, drawing his own conclusions. “Look, if the woman doesn’t want to be found you need to leave her alone.”
Honestly, Kane had no idea if the woman wanted him to leave her alone or not. They hadn’t had sex according to Morgan’s nose, did that mean he’d passed out before they could and she’d left in a huff? Possible. But he could tell by the mulish look on the man’s face that the bartender wasn’t going to help him find the woman. And while he appreciated the protective vibe, it wasn’t helpful at the moment.
Luckily, Travis spoke up to save the situation. “I’m a cop. We believe the woman might be in danger. Anything you can tell us about her, anything at all could be a help.”
The bartender shook his head and raised a finger to indicate he needed a moment before he moved off to grab drinks for a group that approached the bar. When he returned, he informed them, “I serve drinks to a lot of people, all night almost every night. I rarely catch names and I didn’t catch hers.”
“Can you describe her?” Morgan asked.
Kane would have asked the bouncer for a description, but the guy was most likely incapable of offering anything more useful than the dimensions of the woman’s assets. That, and any description probably would have come with a heaping helping of innuendo, eyebrow waggling, and elbow nudges. The guy behind the bar was definitely less of a pig in that sense as he shrugged, and told them, “Probably around twenty-two or twenty-three, African American, pretty.” Motioning to Morgan he said, “A little taller than you, I think.” Raising his hand behind his head he added, “Hair was all in braids.”
Kane frowned. None of that sounded familiar. Not even a tickle of recollection. What the hell?
“Do you have cameras in this place?” Travis prompted only for the bartender to raise his hands, palms out in front of him.
“Look, I’ve told you what I know. If you want to talk about cameras and shit, you need to talk to the owner, get a warrant, whatever.” Motioning to the other patrons waiting, the guy finished with, “I need to work,” before leaving them to their beers.
Dead end. Taking a swig from his beer, Kane set the cup down and motioned that he was leaving, and while he was loathed to do so, he stopped once more at the door to hand his card to the bouncer. “If that woman I left with returns, give me a call.”
“You’ve got it, my brother,” was said with a grin as that hand was once more raised for a clasp. Kane just barely resisted the urge to break every bone in that hand. There was a woman out there with knowledge of him that could fill in the gaps in his memory, and he had no idea how to find her. He couldn’t remember her name, she hadn’t left a phone number, and he only had a generic at best description of what she looked like. Shit.
His phone buzzed in his pocket and Kane whipped it out. The thought occurring to him that she may not have left him her phone number, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t given her his digits. She could be calling him even now. That hope took a nosedive when he saw it was Edward on the other end of the call.
The man was an excellent clerk, had been Olivier Rodolfo’s clerk until he’d been punished for refusing to alter records that were meant to be sent to the Court of Elders – the ruling body of Born vampires. Kane had recently learned Rodolfo had been rewarding some of his men by forcefully Turning women that those men wanted to add to their, well, harem was probably the best word. And as all Turnings were tracked by the Elders, those Turned vampires contractually obligated to serve the Born, Rodolfo’suncontracted vampire gifts to his men were illegal and would have brought the Court down on his head had they gotten wind of the practice. Thus why Rodolfo had wanted to fudge the numbers.
Had the Court ever decided to audit Rodolfo’s records, Edward, as Rodolfo’s clerk would have also been held to account, the reason why the man had balked. Unfortunately, he was punished brutally for his hesitation. He’d been severely beaten, bled out so he couldn’t heal, and then placed in the ground in Rodolfo’s greenhouse where the Born punished his minions, to slowly and painfully shrivel from starvation while baking in that oven. Kane having rescued the man from that horror had secured Edward’s unflinching loyalty, and the man had since proved himself incredibly helpful to Kane during this transition period from Hunter to territory-holder.
“Edward, sorry I didn’t call you back. Something came up.” And wasn’t that an understatement.
“Oh, sir, no. No need to apologize. I worried when you didn’t arrive to meet with the realtor as planned, but as my text indicated, I’ve since rescheduled the appointment. Does tomorrow morning at nine work for you? Of course, if you prefer I be there, I’d be more than happy to call her back and schedule something in the evening.”
“Nine is perfect. Thank you, Edward.”
“My pleasure, sir,” and Kane could hear in the man’s voice that he was practically beaming at the praise. Yeah. Kane’s predecessor hadn’t been much for the good job, well done, pat on the back kind of thing. Not many of the territory-holding Born were, and it made Kane wonder, had he not been a Hunter first, had he simply gained a territory as his birthright, would he have ruled it in a similar fashion to so many others?
Not that it mattered now. He was what he had become thanks to his time with the Hunter Society and Morgan specifically. She’d not only trained him, but she’d also saved him, and he was honestly glad that she and Jamie would both be sticking around with this new Hunter Academy they were building to train new Hunters. Their opinions mattered, would always matter to him, and speaking of which…
“Hey, I have an appointment to look at a place tomorrow morning at nine. Want to come?”
Morgan grinned. “I wouldn’t miss it.” Nudging his shoulder, she added, “And don’t worry about that woman. If that place has cameras, Jamie’ll hack into them and find out who she is.”
And if anyone could do it. Jamie could. They couldn’t technically be his team anymore thanks to the rules that governed the Hunters Society, but damn, it felt good to know they’d always have his back.
Chapter Five
Sophia nervously fiddled with the brim of the baseball cap she’d tucked her hair under, rechecked that the buttons of her sleeveless white blouse were properly closed, and twisted a hanging thread from her worn jeans around a finger. She’d done it. She’d left pack lands and entered the city, accepting Jamie’s invitation to go with them to check out some property.
It was a first step, one that should be simple. As Jamie had pointed out, she didn’t have to go into the house where she might feel caged, could stay outside, and since it was a residential area, she wouldn’t have to deal with any crowds that might startle her. Still, her nerves were shredded at all the horrific possibilities that might occur, such as her going all Godzilla and setting a rather ritzy neighborhood on fire.
As for meeting Kane Fletcher, she was prepared. She’d been around Morgan enough to kind of get used to that irritating feeling under the skin, was expecting to experience the same with Fletcher, but she had convinced herself she could control her reaction. Forewarned was forearmed, right? Not to mention that Travis was there to help her through if she needed talking down.
With a hard swallow, she sent up a little prayer to whoever might be listening that she didn’t wig out and shift, destroying everything in her path.
