“Wait just a minute.” Diesel rounded in front of Miss Penny to stop her forward progress.
She stopped, tilting her head back to look into his face. “I already told both you and Wyatt I can’t tell you all my secrets.”
“You haven’t told usanyof your secrets.”
“Good. That’s the way it has to be.” Her gaze intense, she added quietly, “I am sorry, Diesel. I can’t tell you what you want to know. Please understand.”
He was grateful for her help with Wheeler, but after this missing person issue was resolved and Indigo Smith had been recovered—again—he vowed to have a quiet one on one with Miss Penny.
“I just wanted to say thank you for helping Wheeler.” Behind him, he heard someone exit the hospital room. He saw Raphael and Wyatt remained by the door, watchful, but not approaching.
Miss Penny noted the two men and nodded in their direction once. She exhaled deeply, as if relieved Diesel didn’t plan to interrogate her, nodded once more and skirted him to leave.
Clearly, he needed to gain a better perspective on her brand of rare shifter and what he could expect if more of them showed up on Earth. It would be a struggle, but he put that conversation on a back burner.
First, he needed to find out what had happened to Wheeler.
Diesel, Raphael and Wyatt reentered the room to find Gage finishing a cursory check of Wheeler’s vitals.
Gage looked into his eyes, shining a small penlight in each one several times. He grabbed Wheeler’s wrist, pressing two fingers against his pulse. “How do you feel? Any pain?”
“No pain, really, just a little achy, like I worked out too hard. My brain feels a bit fuzzy. Basically, I feel fine except for the gag-worthy scent of orange peels saturating the air.”
Diesel moved next to the bed. “I have some questions for you.”
Wheeler said, “Shoot.”
“What’s the last thing you remember before waking up here in the hospital?”
“I was headed home and I went to get my car.”
“Which way did you leave the truck stop? By way of the employee’s door, leading to the parking lot?”
Wheeler hesitated. “No. I parked in the customer lot because I needed to get gas.”
This threw Diesel off. Why had Indigo brought Wheeler’s car back to a different place than where he’d retrieved it? “Well, did you get gas?”
“I don’t remember. The last thing I remember was walking toward my car. And a weird craving for popcorn.”
“Popcorn, huh? Strange. What door did you come out of to get to your car?”
Wheeler paused to think. “I came through the upstairs Earther truck stop area and out the store’s front door.”
“Do you remember seeing anyone who looked out of place or odd? Anything that struck you as not quite right?”
Again, Wheeler silently pondered his question before responding. “I mean, it’s an Earther truck stop. There are sometimes lots of odd people about.”
“Like who, for instance?”
Wheeler looked up at the ceiling as if trying to retrieve a difficult to locate memory. Diesel hated to press his brother when he was clearly not a hundred percent, but he needed his help.
He said, slowly, “There was this woman at the furthest pump from the store. She looked like she was either throwing something in the trash can or maybe getting the squeegee to wash her windows. The minute she saw me she stopped and stared.
“In fact, she stared so hard that I waved, thinking I must know her, just couldn’t place her.”
Diesel asked, “What didshedo?”
Wheeler lifted one shoulder. “Nothing. She kept staring, so I kept moving.”
