Colton ripped it off and flipped it open. "A proverbial little black book. How quaint."
They looked through the pages and found names and addresses of all the wyvern shifters in the world. Several had been crossed off. Drake shook his head. "This could be a hit list for someone like us. We could track them down and wipe out their entire population."
Colton pointed to the last page. "And it gives us an address in Denver, and I'll bet you a million bucks that property belongs to Percy, or whatever the hell his name really is. Wasn't the rodeo supposed to go there next?"
Drake stuck the book in the back pocket of his jeans. "Let's go."
"Whoa, little brother," Colton said as he put a hand on his shoulder, "slow down. Maybe we should call in reinforcements."
"Tyson and Logan?"
Colton nodded. "Seems reasonable."
"What if this is a trap? Why would someone forget this book?"
"Good question that I don't have an answer to. And you're right. Maybe we should leave them out of it in case we end up in trouble."
"Yeah," Drake walked toward the door. "And someone needs to watch Ma and Sarah."
Vinia didn't agree when they rushed to talk to her. "That is the dumbest idea I've heard you two come up with. You need to call your brothers, and your sister and I will help you, too."
"How are you going to help?" Drake demanded. "You need to stay here, with Sarah and our future baby, and wait in case anything happens to us."
"Nothing will happen if we all go together."
"Ma," Colton intervened, "that book has hundreds of names. For all we know, they could have every one of those damned wyverns in Denver waiting for us. Joey could just be the bait."
"Well, they obviously took her for a reason," Vinia snapped back.
"And if they are all there, we're going to need someone, mainly Logan and Tyson, coming to save our asses. We all can't be together."
She finally relented. "Fine. I get it, but I don't like it. This has been such a clusterfuck from the word go. What am I supposed to tell all of these rodeo people? Just apologize that the owner of the circus is a damned evil bat and just up and left?"
Drake sighed. "Send them to Denver. That buys us a little time, and they'll end up there anyhow. They can't stay here, and most of them don't really have anywhere else to go. Just let them get to their original destination, and we'll have to take it from there, one step at a time. But I have to get to Joey before it's too late."
"Before you go, have you found out about that pendant she wears?" Vinia asked him.
"She doesn't know. Her dad gave it to her, and we're going to see if he left notes in his journals. We were planning that when we got attacked at the old cabin."
"The one at the top of the trail? I haven't been up there for years."
"No," Colton corrected her. "This is an old hunting cabin that we played in when we were boys. It's way off the main trail."
"What's left of it," Drake added. "But we'll give you every detail when we get back."
Vinia hugged them both. "Just get back. With Joey. And then we'll figure out the rest."
Sarah stopped them as they walked out behind the lodge. Drake filled her in real quick. "Stay here and make sure Ma doesn't worry herself to death."
She snorted. "In other words, don't get myself worked up. You know as well as I do that she doesn't stress. She's very matter-of-fact about stuff."
Colton kissed her on the cheek. "Either way, we'll be back as quick as we can. Stay here."
She saluted with a grin. "Yes, Sir. I wasn't going anywhere anyhow."
They shifted and headed toward Denver. With their speed, it was only a few minutes before they circled over the area where the address should be. Drake snickered to himself that his dragon self couldn't use GPS.
They flew around the various hills and mountainous areas before Drake finally caught sight of a roof poking up through a stand of trees. He dipped his wing, and Colton nodded his acknowledgment that he saw it. There was nothing for miles in any direction, and it was difficult to see the compound through the trees.
