“Shyla,” Mom whispered on a sob, the pain in her voice piercing my heart.
“Mom? What’s wrong?”
I hadn’t spoken to her in years. I knew whatever she was calling me for, it wasn’t our relationship, or the lack of one. I’d tried to reach out to her several times, only to have all of my calls go unanswered. She must have actually written my number down, though, and kept it the last time I left a message on the answering machine. The last one I was able to leave before they changed their number. Maybe she cared more than she’d let on.
“Shyla, it’s Avery. She’s missing.”
“Missing?” Who was Avery?
“She said she was going out with a couple of friends last night,” Mom whispered. “They were going to a movie in Phoenix.”
“Phoenix?” I asked in confusion. I was lost. Phoenix was a good hour and a half from where my parents lived. Did this Avery live in their town? And if so, why would she go all the way to Phoenix for a movie when there was a theater less than twenty miles away?
“I know what you do, Shyla. I know you find people. Please, you have to find her.”
She knew that I hunted, both things and people, for a living? How could she know that?
“I know you probably hate me after everything that happened with your fath…” she paused. “With Del. But that has nothing to do with Avery. She’s innocent, Shyla. Only sixteen years old. Please, you have to help her.”
“Mom,” I interrupted, my brow furrowing as I tried to put together what she was telling me. “Who is Avery?”
She was silent for a moment, before she whispered, “Your sister.”
My heart dropped to my stomach. I had a sister. One my mother had kept a secret from me. One who was only sixteen… and missing.
Taking a deep breath, I shoved down the anger that filled me and growled, “I need all the information you have. What time they left, who she was with, where they were going.” I gritted my teeth as fear took the place of anger inside of me. “And, I’ll need a picture of her.”
No matter what I’d been through with my parents, how they’d treated me, I refused to let that affect my actions now. I had a sister. One who needed me. Maybe, just maybe, I could have a relationship with her that I didn’t have with my mother. Only, I had to find her first.
142
Shadow
I waited impatiently, watching closely as two black cargo vans pulled into the parking lot behind a large warehouse, followed by a dark SUV. I crouched at the corner of the building, my instincts in high alert, my panther prowling back and forth inside me. It was dark, just the way I preferred it, with an edge of danger in the air. But something was off. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it felt as if I was supposed to be somewhere else. As if someone needed me. Now.
Narrowing my eyes on the first van that came to a stop, the second one right behind it, I shook off the feeling, centering my full attention on doing what my brothers and I had come there to do. Steal some weapons.
Pulling my facemask down so just my eyes showed, I looked up to where Demon lay on top of one of the many trailers in the lot, able to make out the glint of the sniper rifle he held pointed at the vehicles. He was good with a gun. Not Holliday or The Kid good, but close to it. The Kid was on top of the building, his own rifle pointed at the scene below him and Slash was somewhere in the shadows. I wasn’t sure where. He’d ghosted the minute we got there, and if he didn’t want to be seen, no one would be able to find him. Holliday hid behind a smaller building, just a few feet away from where the vans were parked, waiting for us to make our move. Which didn’t take long.
The SUV slowed to a stop behind the parked vans and the driver cut the engine. Four doors opened at once, and a man emerged from each one. Two more came from each van. They stood, looking around warily, before striding over to each other to talk. No sooner had the last one reached their small circle, than the first shot rang out. Demon and The Kid took out the tires on the vehicles, as I flew from the side of the building toward the startled group. Slash appeared from out of nowhere, his gun leveled on them.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I growled, when a couple of them reached for their weapons. “We have you surrounded. You touch your pieces, any of you, and you die.”
Only one of the idiots was dumb enough to try going down the path he’d started. Slash had him knocked out cold before the gun could clear its holster.
“Anyone else?” I asked dryly, cocking my head to the side as I watched them closely. “The next idiot gets to eat a bullet instead of a fist.” When they all shook their heads slowly, I grinned. “Down on the ground, fingers linked together, hands behind your heads.”
Most of them dropped down, but two refused to move, glaring at me in anger. Seeing Holliday emerge from behind the van, I nodded to him. He slammed the butt of his gun into the back of the head of one of them, dropping them to the ground, then swung the revolver around, pressing the barrel of it to the other man’s forehead. His eyes gleamed with malice where they peeked out from behind his mask, as he ground out, “On your knees, fucker.”
I laughed as I watched the guy slowly sink to the ground, his hands clenched tightly
