“Can you tell us about them?”he asked.
The woman shook her head.“I don’t know anything.I just know that two other teenagers have vanished.Their parents didn’t go to the authorities because they knew that no one would help them.”
“We will,” Braith said.“It’s why we’re here.”
“I hope you find the boys.Finn’s a sweetheart.My kids love when he babysits them.”
“We’ll do everything we can,” Archie promised.“But we won’t be able to do much if we don’t find any information.”
“I promise that I’m not hiding anything.I just don’t know much.I’ve heard about the boys through a friend of a friend.I don’t know their parents, but I know they vanished recently.It’s like someone or something is taking our boys.”
“You said you have children?”Archie asked.
“Three,” the woman said.“My eldest son is twelve.”
Not much younger than Finn.Archie didn’t know how old the other kids who’d disappeared were, but suspected that whoever was taking them had a type.He also understood better why the woman was afraid.
Once they were sure they wouldn’t get anything else out of her, Braith and Archie said goodbye and stepped off the porch.The woman looked relieved to be able to close the door, but unfortunately, she hadn’t helped them that much.They knew they had two more kids to look for, but they still had no idea where to start.
“Something’s definitely happening here,” Braith said as they walked.
“Three kids isn’t a coincidence.I’m curious about how old those kids are.”
“If I have to guess, I’d say around Finn’s age.”
“Which means someone’s kidnapping teenagers.”
“I wonder why.”
Archie did, too.He doubted it was good.No one took three teenagers for good reasons.“We’re going to have to talk to the Hendersons again.I’m surprised they didn’t tell us about this.”
“They might not know.You heard the lady.She was told by a friend of a friend.”
“Maybe.”Jasper didn’t want to think they had anything to do with their son’s disappearance.He didn’t think they did.It would have been easy for them to keep quiet about Finn like the other parents had.Instead, the Hendersons had gone to the police, then to Archie and Braith, and they were willing to pay them to look into Finn’s disappearance.
“This case is bigger than we expected,” Braith said, sounding grim.
They both knew there was a chance that all three of the kids were already dead.That wouldn’t stop them from doing everything they could to find them.
Chapter Three
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“WE COULD GO BACK,”Cullen said as he reached Jasper’s car.“He’s gone.”
“Do you want to start a fight?Because that’s how you start a fight,” Jasper told him as he gestured toward the passenger door.
“No, but you have every right to be here.You’re as much of a monster as he is.”
“Maybe, but he doesn’t know that.”Hell, Jasper didn’t even know if both his parents had been monsters.He didn’t look like any monster he’d ever met.He looked human.
“You should have told him.”
Jasper wasn’t sure how to explain to Cullen that he wasn’t ready for people to know.He supposed that it didn’t matter.The people he loved already did, so what would it change if some random monster knew that he was one, too?“You have to remember that I’m not just a guy who recently found out that he’s a monster.These people know me as a hunter.”
Cullen wrinkled his nose.The gesture made him look younger than he was.“That’s a little weird,” he said.“I mean, no offense, but I don’t see you as a hunter.”
“I was one before.It’s how I was raised.”
