An uneasy sensation twisted my gut into intricate knots. “Liz may be compromised too.”
For a couple as close as Liz and Ares, it would have been all or nothing with them.
“Call Ford.” I touched his arm. “I need to chat with Hank.”
Easing away from him to prevent our calls from overlapping, I dialed the front door and waited. “Hank.”
“Hadley.”
“Can you tell me when you last saw Liz?”
There was zero hesitation in his answer, but he sounded wary. “Five days ago.”
Since the night she missed her appointment with the gwyllgi teen.
“Are you sure?” I hated to press him for details when it must seem he was about to get in trouble for his earlier line of questions. “Ares told me she’s home on vacation.”
“It was my little brother’s birthday, and my relief was late. I was thinking how our dads were going to kill me if I showed up without the ice cream cake when Liz approached me. I called her a cab, but I didn’t catch where she told him to go. Five minutes later, my relief arrived. I handed him the keys, called a Swyft, and left. I haven’t seen her since.” He must have decided it was better to ask now than get blindsided later. “I asked Ares about this earlier, but she blew me off. Am I in trouble? With Ares?”
“No,” I rushed to assure him. “You did nothing wrong.”
His usual frustration with me shone through, reassuring me Hank was himself. “Then why—?”
“I can’t talk right now, but we’ll brief you later.” I ended the call and returned to Midas, who stood waiting for me. “You heard?”
“That means Liz left under her own power.”
“Ares could have invited her out to get rid of her away from the Faraday.” I tapped my cell against my chin. “Do we know if Liz has family we can call?”
The nonexistent baby had me doubting she even had siblings, but I didn’t know Liz as well as Ares.
As well as I thought I knew her, anyway.
If it came down to it, Reece could dig up the answers for me, but first things first.
A knock on the door announced Ford’s arrival before he let himself in with a bag slung over his shoulder.
“Howdy, y’all.” He lifted a hand. “Good to see you again.”
Ford playing the aww shucks card on Linus and Grier made me feel like I was a member of a special club, one who maybe had a secret decoder ring. It was pretty cool being on the inside while they were on the outside for a change, but we were all friends here, so I shot Ford a stare that clearly said to knock it off.
“I’m not sure you should be eyeballing me like that,” he drawled. “I have a girlfriend.”
Okay, so maybe I needed to work on my warning looks if they screamed come hither.
“I was very intimidated.” Midas smothered a grin. “I shook in my boots.”
“With laughter,” Ford muttered out of the side of his mouth.
“You two think you’re so cute.” I walked over, relieved Ford of the bag, and headed to the dining table to lay out what he brought for us. “Bishop, the laptop’s yours.”
“Cool.” He settled into a chair in front of it. “I needed a new one of these.”
“Not to keep.” I growled at him. “To interrogate.”
Snickering ensued from Ford’s general direction, and I suspected Midas was laughing on the inside.
Lip curling, I announced, “I hate you all.”
“You can always come home with us,” Grier offered, “to Savannah.”
The offhand comment floored me, and I dropped the bag with a clunk. “What?”
“If they keep being mean to you,” she said clearly, “we’ll take you home with us.”
This time, the growl in the room wasn’t mine.
“As much as I appreciate the offer—” even if she was joking, “—Savannah isn’t big enough for two potentates.” I slid my gaze to Linus. “Or is that three? Two point five, maybe?”
“I’m almost retired.” His lips curved at that. “I would prefer not to re-up, but I will if called upon.”
Fine hairs lifted down my nape as the growl changed pitch.
Leaning a hip against the tabletop, I angled toward Midas. “I’ve worked too hard to stop now.”
“I agree,” Linus said, pride warming his voice.
“And I guess I like a couple of people who live here.” I shrugged. “Like one or two.”
“Don’t poke the gwyllgi,” Bishop said absently, fingers clicking over the keys. “It won’t end well.”
Chin high, I corrected him, “The gwyllgi shouldn’t poke me.”
Actually, I wouldn’t mind if one particular gwyllgi poked me, but that wasn’t for public consumption.
“Before this escalates further,” Ford drawled, “I would like to apologize for my bad behavior.”
“Suck-up,” Bishop muttered. “You’re not one of the two.”
Hand to his heart, Ford demanded, “How do you know?”
“I bring her café mochas every night before shift.” He grinned. “What have you done for her lately?”
“I started dating her friend,” he said defensively.
“You make it sound like you’re dating her as a favor to Hadley.” Grier whistled. “Ouch.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Ford groaned. “I like Lisbeth. Not because Hadley told me either.”
“This is embarrassing me, and it has nothing to do with me.” Bishop angled the laptop toward me. “This is the household account for grocery delivery. There are two addresses. One at the Faraday and one in a bad part of town.”
“That’s good news.” I leaned over the table. “Pull the address up on a map.”
The top search result was for Women’s Medical Center. He clicked on the most popular image, and a red cinderblock building with fading blue trim appeared onscreen. Sun-bleached flyers in the window touted everything from free birth control to onsite GED classes. I could picture Liz volunteering there with ease. Hiding kidnap victims? Not so much.
“Well, that’s a bust.” I slumped with disappointment. “We’ll still need to clear it, though.”
“Maybe not a bust.” He switched to the previous screen. “Looks like the center closed a month ago.”
“Okay.” I chewed on my thumbnail. “I can see why.”
“Ares had groceries delivered
