His startledoofblew hair back from my face, and I heard Tucker cursing softly on the ground a couple of feet away, as Bishop scrambled to his feet. “What the fuck are you two doing here?” I demanded in a fierce whisper.
“You called us!” Tucker returned. “And I knew damn well you weren’t going to wait, so we snuck in from the back. We thought we heard something, but it must have been you.”
“It wasn’t,” Bishop said as I helped Austin to his feet. “I saw him come out of his trailer. That’s the only reason we didn’t wait.”
Tucker looked unconvinced. “Well, he’s gone now. With any luck, he had no idea we were here.”
“Should we check out the trailer?” Austin said. “Since we don’t need a warrant, under shifter law?”
Tucker shook his head. “Not unless we want him to know we were here.”
“He’s right,” I said. “But I’m going in.”
“Charley—” Tucker began, but I cut him off with a look as I pulled a thin pair of gloves from my jacket pocket.
“I’m going in alone, and I won’t touch anything. But if there’s anything that can be learned without leaving a scent, I’m going to find it. You three keep watch. Out of sight.” With that, I headed back through the woods toward the rear of Cam Senet’s trailer.
The back door was unlocked, and I was starting to wonder if that was a shifter thing. Or a stray thing. We were just so arrogant about our newfound abilities that we considered ourselves invulnerable?
Gloves on, I opened the door and snuck inside, resisting the urge to turn on a light, when I didn’t truly need one. Old habits die hard.
Cam’s kitchen was about what I’d expect from a bachelor who hadn’t had a girl over in at least a week. Two empty pizza boxes, trash can overflowing with takeout bags, and cereal bowls stacked up in the sink at odd angles, because of the spoons wedged between them. Nothing in the kitchen screamed “I’m a serial murderer,” and the living room wasn’t much better. Or neater.
I was about to turn around and sneak back out, without even bothering with the bedroom, when a familiar shape caught my eye, propped against one end of the couch.
My pulse thudded in my ears as I crossed the room and picked up the canvas shoulder bag. There were probably twenty just like it in Buford, Tennessee alone. It could belong to anyone. Maybe Tracy had left it here before she dumped Cam.
My hands shook as I opened the bag.
Davey’s laptop was still inside.
TWENTY-FOUR
“This is my fault,” I said, sipping from my third cup of coffee as I paced alongside the booths lining the west wall of the bar. Every nerve ending in my body was on fire from the caffeine overload, but I needed something in my hands.
Alcohol seemed unwise, and Cam’s throat wasn’t yet available, so…
“It’s not your fault,” Austin insisted, while Tucker’s rapid-fire typing continued from across the room as he tried to oblige my command tofucking find Cam Senet.
He was worried too. Austin and Bishop understood exactly what it was like to fear for a loved one’s life, but Tucker knew Davey personally, and I could tell from the hard line of his jaw and the deep set of his brow that he was in this with me.
Davey in danger was a zone-wide crisis, and if the regulars found out about it, we’d have a riot on our hands.
“Itismy fault.” Terror churned deep in my soul, its dark undertow threatening to drown me. For the first time since I’d become Marshal, I felt completely, terrifyingly helpless. Useless. “I practically drove her away.” And I had no real plan for how to get her back.
Austin sighed from his bar stool, clearly frustrated that I would not accept his comfort. “She left of her own volition.”
“Because I pissed her off.”
Bishop snorted. “Something tells me that wasn’t the first time, and she’s never marched into the arms of a killer before, has she?”
I stopped pacing to glare at him, and coffee sloshed over the edge of my mug. “She didn’t march into the arms of a killer. She was kidnapped.” That’s the only way Davey would ever have wound up anywhere near Cam Senet’s trailer.
Unless…
No. I shoved that possibility back as hard as I could, ignoring my spill. Davey would never be stupid enough to go looking for him. Trying to get infected on her own, because I’d sworn to stop her. Yes, she was determined, but she wasn’t reckless.
“Regardless of what happened, I’m the reason she was out there alone in the first place.” Anxiety wrapped around my chest like a huge rubber band, and I fought for a deep breath as I picked up my phone and texted my sister for at least the twentieth time in the past half hour.
