Daniel sighed. “I’ll take care of it.” He got up and started walking away, his cup of tea untouched.
“Wait.” I jumped up, and he froze and looked back at me. “What are you going to do? Can I help?”
“Just stay here and be safe.” He gave me a small smile.
“No. He’s my brother.” My hands curled into fists again, and that giggle that had been lodged in my chest morphed into a tempest of anger and hurt. I wasn’t sure if I was going to start screaming or crying.
He moved closer to me and ducked his head a little, so we were eye-to-eye. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure your brother is okay. Alright? I promise.”
For some reason, I believed him. “Well, I’m not going to just sit here and do nothing.”
His mouth curled into another small smile. “No, of course you aren’t. You’re Emma, the girl who can sing loud enough to shake the entire gymnasium.”
I stared at him in surprise, not knowing what to say.
He bobbed his head, almost like he was giving me a little bow. “I’ll let you know anything I find out.”
As he turned to go, my gaze was locked on him. It was strange to me that in my forty-something years, I’d never met a man like him before. It didn’t matter that I’d known him in high school. Well, known might be too strong a word. I’d crushed on him, hard. If he was anything like me, then he was vastly different than his high school self. Sure, the core was still the same, but experiences change you. I could only imagine how losing his wife had changed him.
His height and his strength should make him intimidating to me. But instead, he was so damn reassuring that I both wanted him to stay and wanted to push him on his way to find out anything he could about Henry.
Most of the time I was sure that a man would say one thing and do another. With Daniel, I believed him. Which probably made me an idiot.
At the door, he looked back at me one last time, wearing the same look he had in the grocery store, and those green eyes of his felt like they were trying to tell me something, but I didn’t understand, and then he was gone. I rubbed my face, finding more tears on my cheeks, and turned back and headed for the dining room.
I returned to the table where Deva was putting a cup of tea in front of my seat. “Drink,” she said. “It’ll calm your nerves.”
I put the glass to my lips but paused. “You’re not going to get me high like with the chocolate are you?”
She chuckled and pushed the small plate with cookies on it toward me until it was next to my cup and saucer. “No, but it will calm your nerves. You won’t feel quite so spacey though. Also eat a couple cookies. They’ll help your shoulder heal faster. Like a lot faster.”
I nodded. Calm was fine, but no more chocolate-drunk. If my shoulder could feel better as well? I was all for that since I hated wearing that damned sling.
“Where is he going?” I asked as I sipped on my tea before chowing down on a couple cookies, trying to figure out this whole strange situation, and why they’d felt comfortable telling him things we couldn’t tell the other cops.
“The clubs. The vampires won’t be at their club until nightfall, but the shifters hang out at all hours at their place.”
It was strange. I would never want to hang out at someplace with hissing vampires and growling shifters. I’d had the sense that Daniel was brave before, but it took someone with a lot of guts to go to a place like that.
And he was doing it for me. Okay, not for me, but for my brother.
Yet, as much as I appreciated what he was doing, it wasn’t enough. I’d watched enough crime shows to know the next twenty-four hours were the most important. If I didn’t find my brother by then. I didn’t want to think about that.
“Do you know what club he’s going to?” I asked. I’d told him I wouldn’t sit around and do nothing. Just because he’d given me a sweet smile and looked at me with those stupidly gorgeous eyes of his didn’t mean I was going to suddenly change my mind.
Deva and Carol exchanged yet another glance. “I do,” Deva said guardedly. “It’s not really a club, per se. More of a shifter hangout spot.”
I held her gaze. “Can you take me there?”
“I don’t know. It can be dangerous.”
“Please,” I pleaded around my mouthful of cookie.
She frowned, shaking her head. “It’s not a place we should be going to.”
I laughed darkly. “I’m Karma, remember? What could go wrong?”
Carol snorted. “Famous last words.”
Deva looked unsure, but finally gave a curt nod. “Fine, but I’m calling the others. That way they know where to find us and so we’ll have backup if we need it.”
Carol nodded. “Good idea. I could use a break from the shop.”
“And we’re stopping at my restaurant first.” Deva stood. “I need to pick up a few things.”
I didn’t know why, but this was the first time in my life that I got a feeling picking things up from a restaurant was going to end in some magical trouble. But then again, I’d never expected magical trouble before. I also had the feeling that tracking down the people who took my brother might send karma flying around, so I had no idea which of us would be more dangerous.
Or even if we would stand a chance against the shifters.
9 Emma
After a pitstop at Deva’s restaurant, which was full of delicious-looking food that practically had me drooling over the display case, she drove Carol and I to—well, the middle of nowhere.
