“I should have suspected she’d change her hair color. She’s a paranoid schizophrenic. This isn’t the first time she’s changed her hair color. The last time she was off her meds she went blonde. Do you by any chance remember what bus she took? It’s imperative I find her before she hurts herself.”
“I don’t, not off the top of my head. She wanted the first bus leaving the station. If you give me a minute I can pull that information up.”
Ezra nodded and waited.
“Here it is. She took a bus headed to St. Louis. There are multiple stops before the bus reaches its final destination, though, so I cannot guarantee you she stayed on the bus. ”
He wanted to growl in frustration and anger but held it in. “Could you print me the bus schedule? I’ll have to check each stop to be sure she didn’t get off the bus and change destinations.” When the woman hesitated he pressed a little more. “Please. If anything happens to her, her family will be very distraught. They’ve offered a reward to anyone who helps them get her back home safely.”
She hesitated a moment longer. “Well, I suppose there’s no harm in it and if it will help her family to find her before something happens to her…” She sent the route to the printer and handed him the sheets of paper. “Here you go.”
“Thank you. You have no idea how much I, and her family, appreciate this.” With the route in hand, he quickly left. The woman would be waiting a long time for any ‘reward’ to come her way. Women were just so fucking gullible.
The drive from Philly to St. Louis was tedious, with having to check each and every stop between the two just to make sure Kylie didn’t change busses, but once he arrived, Ezra got to work asking every person who worked at the bus station if they recognized the young woman in the photo. He repeated his spiel about her having a mental illness and needing her medication. He kept to the story he’d told in Philly just to cover his own ass.
Just as it started to look like he’d struck out, he found himself lucky once again. After asking half a dozen employees, one of the male agents remembered seeing her.
“Oh yeah, I remember her. She’s a looker. She’s got a mental illness, you say? That explains why she was so jumpy. I thought maybe it was drugs, ya know?”
Ezra had to bite back a growl at the guy calling her a ‘looker’. “Paranoid schizophrenia. It mimics the symptoms of withdrawal. Do you happen to remember where she was headed?”
“Yeah. I thought it was a little odd, ya know? She asked for a seat on the first bus leaving the station. She got the last seat on a bus headed to New Orleans. I remember thinking that if she’d been a couple weeks earlier, she could have enjoyed Mardi Gras.”
“New Orleans. Thanks. You wouldn’t by any chance be able to print off all the stops on that route, would you? I need to make sure she didn’t get off the bus somewhere between here and there.”
“Well, I’m not really supposed to do this but you seem like a sincere sort. Just keep it on the down low, yeah?”
Ezra nodded. “Oh, yeah, sure. On the down low.” He was grinning like the cat that ate the canary when he left the bus station in St. Louis. He was that much closer to finding Kylie and taking her home where she belonged.
Three weeks. It had been three weeks since Kylie walked out with all the cash in his wallet. It had taken him a lot longer to make the trip from St. Louis than he’d expected because a couple of times he’d had to wait a few days before he could question the person on duty when Kylie’s bus had come through an area. Each time he gave them the same story, and each time he was told she got off to stretch her legs, but she was always back on the bus when it left.
Now that he’d reached New Orleans, he was finding it harder to track her down. He hit up several of the shelters with no luck. He tried the story at each shelter but not a single person said they’d seen her. He was a little suspicious of the woman he’d spoken to at the Salvation Army’s shelter, though. Something about the way she looked at him when he showed her the photo and claimed Kylie had mental issues and was off her medication had his hackles up. The woman knew something, but he couldn’t very well force her to tell him anything.
Was it fate that put him on that street at that exact moment when Kylie stepped into a cafe with three other women? Maybe it was. His eyes narrowed as he watched her with them. She was laughing and having fun. The little bitch was acting like she didn’t have a care in the world, like she was a free woman who could do whatever she wanted. His hands itched to get hold of her and he balled them into fists. He had to think fast. He needed his car. It was parked two blocks over and he headed to it as quickly as he could without bringing too much attention to himself.
Ezra found a parking spot closer to the cafe. He flipped the child safety lock on the passenger door, then moved to stand near the door of the cafe and waited.
Kylie
Things were starting to look up for her. Kylie sat at the table in the café, that had become a favorite place for Emelise and Lily to get together, and looked at the women she was having lunch with. For the first time in years she had girlfriends. They were laughing, talking, and just enjoying themselves.
“Emile is still pouting over you leaving, Lily. It’s comical. Don’t get me wrong, he likes the girl you trained to take over from you, and I was more than happy to start taking on more managerial duties at the shop, but you’d think you stole his firstborn kid or something, the way he’s acting.” Shelli, one of Lily’s former coworkers and close friends, snickered and popped a piece of shrimp in her mouth.
Lily laughed. “Emile always did have a flare for the dramatic. I’ll have to stop in to see him sometime soon.”
“Please do.” Shelli turned her attention to Kylie. “So how are you liking New Orleans, Kylie?”
“It’s…different. Hot. Very hot, compared to Maine, but if I’m completely honest, it already feels like home.”
Lily nodded at her comment. “That’s what happens when you find good friends and people who treat you like family. I felt the same way after I decided to put down roots here and met Remy and the rest of the Pard. They became the family I’d been missing for two years. Now that I have Declan and the Pack, I’m even happier.”
“Speaking of your mate, did you tell him about the new bouncer for the VIP lounge?” Kylie arched a brow at the other woman.
“Yeah. He’s not feeling the whole lone wolf thing. Whether Caleb likes it or not, he’s about to find himself part of a Pack.”
“He said Remy warned him that might happen.”
“Speaking of Remy, how are things between you two, Kylie? You seemed a lot more relaxed last night.”
