I scratched behind the kitten’s ear, her purr vibrating against my palm. “I couldn’t just leave her.”
“So you thought it would be a good idea to investigate a dark alley in a part of town where girls are known to go missing and never come back? Make that make sense, Hales?”
The way he said it made it sound so much more perilous than it had felt in the moment. Looking back, it might not have been smart. “What do you know about that?” I snapped.
His expression hardened, every line of his face going cold. “I know enough to know you shouldn’t be here.” He opened the passenger door of his Jeep with one hand. “Get in.”
I climbed in, settling the kitten carefully into my lap and dropping my takeout on the floor near my feet. Maddox rounded the hood and slid behind the wheel. The engine roared to life, rumbling through the frame. “Where were you going before you found?” I asked as he pulled away from the curb. It occurred to me that he never said what he was doing downtown.
“I was on my way home,” he said, his eyes on the road, hands steady on the wheel at ten and two. “I stopped to pick up food for Mason and me. It’s in the back.”
I glanced over my shoulder behind his seat to see an identical takeout bag from the same restaurant I’d gone to. We must have just missed each other, and if I hadn’t stopped at the alley, we wouldn’t have seen each other at all.
I scratched behind the kitten’s ears, and she leaned into my touch, her eyes closing to contented slits. “What makes you think you might be the reason I keep getting these notes?”
He ran a hand through his hair, the gesture frustrated and tired, making the dark strands stick up at odd angles. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but since you might already be involved, and maybe it’ll keep you safe, I don’t see that I have a choice.”
I waited for him to continue.
“We’ve been hunting the people taking these girls,” he said.
My eyes widened. I didn’t know what I expected him to reveal, but this wasn’t it. If anything, I thought he might tell me his father was involved. But hunting them? “Hunting how?” I asked, wanting to understand.
His scowl lines deepened as he stared out the window intently. “You don’t want the details, but my brother’s girlfriend was one of those girls taken.”
“She’s helping you,” I clarified, putting the pieces together of this guy who was so much more than he let people see.
“Yeah,” he said, his profile sharp against the passing streetlights. “And her friend. It’s a long story. Complicated as fuck. But the organization made a fatal mistake when they made it personal and took one of ours, which is why I’m telling you to be more careful.” His eyes flicked toward me briefly before returning to the road, the contact lasting just long enough to burn. “Especially if my hunch about the notes is right. Then you’re not a random target.”
My nose wrinkled, wondering if moving to Elmwood was the worst mistake Mom and I made. “You think they might try to take me to get to you?”
“Let’s just say, I wouldn’t put it past them. They’ve done shit like this before. Gone after people we care about to hurt us….to send a message.”
His warning made my nervous system light up.
“And with Kaylor and Kenny heavily protected,” he added, “they might need another way to hurt us. Another pressure point.”
Kenny?
That was a name I hadn’t heard before. I filed it away, adding it to the growing list of things I needed to understand.
His gaze dropped to my lap, to the small gray bundle. “What are you planning on doing with that?”
The kitten had curled into a tiny ball, already half asleep. “I don’t know.” I ran one finger along her spine, feeling each tiny vertebra. “I’ve never had a pet before.”
“Do you want one?”
I shrugged. “I used to. When I was younger. Before we started moving so much.”
He gave the kitten and me a sidelong glance. “A cat suits you.”
I sniffed a laugh. “Is that so?”
“Yeah,” he said, a hint of a smile playing at his mouth. “You seem like someone who would take in strays.”
“Thanks,” I said dryly, but I couldn’t quite keep the smile off my face. “I think.”
We pulled up in front of my house a few minutes later, the porch light casting a warm glow across the front yard. Maddox shifted the Jeep into park but didn’t turn the engine off. “Lock your doors, Hales,” he ordered, his voice serious again. All traces of lightness were gone. “And your windows. Don’t let anyone in.”
