Thunder Road

Chapter 2-1

2

Jake Wilcox sat up in bed, mind already thrumming with possibilities for the coming day. Sure, there was still some lingering unease lurking in the back of his brain, thanks to the way Agent Lenz had turned up out of nowhere the night before, but Addie had managed to defend herself just fine, and Jake’s ever-resourceful clan members had handily taken care of the fallout. Since Lenz’s memory of the past few days had been completely scrubbed, there didn’t seem to be much to worry about. Randall Lenz might have managed to track Addie to Flagstaff once, but Jake doubted he’d be able to manage such a feat again.

Even if Lenz somehow found his way back to northern Arizona, the Wilcoxes would be waiting for him…only this time, the price for his interference might be a little more severe than a few missing memories and a painful recovery after being struck by lightning.

Humming under his breath, Jake climbed out of bed and got in the shower, figuring he might as well start getting ready for the day ahead. He hadn’t heard any sounds from the guest room across the hall that Addie was using as her crash space, but he guessed she was probably exhausted after everything that had happened the day before and was sleeping in. Who could blame her?

Twenty minutes later, Jake was out of the shower and dressed, leaving his wet hair to air dry after he’d run a comb through it. When he went out into the hallway, he saw his dog Taffy lying on the floor in front of the guest room door, as though keeping watch over the woman inside.

“Good dog,” Jake said, then knelt so he could reach down and scratch the dog’s ears. Taffy immediately got up and pressed herself against him, asking for a thorough back scratch. Suppressing a grin, he went along with the dog’s demands, although after a moment, he gave her a pat on the head and straightened up. “I can’t keep petting you forever,” he said, to which Taffy quirked a lopsided ear and gave him some serious side-eye, as if to tell him that yes, of course, he could, because petting dogs was what humans were for. “Anyway,” he went on, “it seems as if Addie’s sleeping in pretty late, don’t you think? Should I knock, or just go downstairs and make some coffee?”

In response to this question, Taffy pawed at the door and gave a hesitant little bark. Not too loud, but still, the sound made Jake stare down at the dog, unease growing within him. Normally, Taffy didn’t bark very much. And that hadn’t sounded like an excited bark, or a warning bark, but more as though she was worried about something.

Doubt stirred in Jake’s mind, even as he told himself that he was probably making a big deal out of nothing. Still, while he would have preferred to avoid waking up Addie if she was sleeping peacefully, neither did he want to stand out in the hallway and do nothing if something was seriously wrong. What if summoning the lightning the night before had taken more of a physical toll on her than she’d wanted to admit? What if she’d injured herself in some way, had suffered some kind of painful after-effects that had only manifested themselves as the night wore on?

Those disturbing questions served to settle the matter. He lifted a hand and knocked on the door, saying softly, “Addie? Is everything okay in there?”

No response. Jake looked down at Taffy, who c****d her head to one side and whined slightly. A low sound emerged from her throat, too soft to be called an actual growl, and yet something about it made a shiver of cold work its way down his spine.

What if Lenz had somehow remembered what had been done to him and had made his way back to Flagstaff under cover of darkness? What if he’d stolen Addie right out of her bed?

No, that was ridiculous. The man had been struck by lightning and was still unconscious the last time Jake had seen him. He highly doubted Agent Lenz would be in any kind of shape to go crawling up the side of a house…but what if he had?

That frightening image seemed to decide things. Mentally rehearsing apologies for barging in on her like this, Jake put his hand on the doorknob. It turned easily, and the door swung inward.

The curtains were still shut. In the dimly lit room, he could just make out the huddled shape of Addie’s body under the quilt that covered the bed. She didn’t stir at all as he entered, and once again worry lanced through him.

“Addie?”

Still nothing. With Taffy padding along a pace or two behind him, Jake went over to the bed and lowered his hand to the approximate spot where he thought her shoulder would be located, thinking he would touch her lightly, give her a very small shake to wake her up.

Except when his fingers closed on what was supposed to be her shoulder, it felt curiously soft under his fingertips, not like a shoulder at all. In fact….

Suspicion growing, he grasped hold of the quilt and pulled it back, revealing not the startled and possibly annoyed Addie he’d hoped for, but a couple of pillows shoved under the covers, clearly put there to mimic the shape of a sleeping body.

God damn it.

She was gone. But where?

More importantly, why?

A hurried glance around the room and in the closet proved that all her things were gone — her new purse, the few clothes she’d purchased over the past couple of days. And when he went to the guest bathroom to check inside, there was absolutely nothing left to show she’d ever been there…no toothbrush, no toothpaste stored in the vanity drawer. The cup on the counter still had some water in it from when she’d brushed her teeth the night before, but otherwise, the bathroom looked as though no one had even used it.

Somehow, he doubted Agent Lenz would have been quite so thorough if he’d actually managed to gain access to the house and take Addie away. No, it seemed fairly obvious to Jake that she’d packed her things and stolen out in the middle of the night…and that realization was like a blow to the gut.

He left the bathroom and ran down the stairs, Taffy following, toenails clicking on the polished wood. Of course, the dog wasn’t so much interested in the missing woman as getting a chance to pee on the front lawn while Jake stood there on the flagstone path, staring at the empty driveway in consternation.

Addie’s brand-new Fiat was gone.

Right then, Jake cursed himself for being so eager to buy her that damn car. At the time, he’d thought it a good thing to get her some wheels, allow her to have some independence while she familiarized herself with Flagstaff and grew into her new role as a member of the Wilcox clan and the daughter of a former primus. Now, though…now he could only think that she might not have had such an easy time getting away if he hadn’t made her so mobile.

Think. He needed to think.

Where could she have possibly gone? She didn’t have any family — or rather, the only family she had in the world was right there in Flagstaff. Yes, she must have had maternal grandparents somewhere, but since Addie had never mentioned them, Jake had a feeling they hadn’t approved of their daughter’s unexpected pregnancy and had thrown her out of their lives. Positively Victorian, as far as he was concerned, but he knew there were still people in the world who thought that having children out of wedlock brought disgrace on a family.

Unfortunately, even though Addie might not have had any real refuge waiting for her, what she did have was years of experience in moving from place to place, of continually starting over. True, it must have been her mother who’d handled the logistics of those moves, at least until Addie was old enough to contribute, but even so, she still knew more than most people what it was like to start all over again in a new town, and therefore wouldn’t have been as afraid of the prospect as someone who’d spent their entire life in one place.

Which meant she could have gone anywhere.

He dragged his hand through his hair and wished he could throw back his head and shout his frustration at the clear blue sky. However, that sort of display would only make his neighbors —all nonmagical folk, except his cousin Alan’s family down the block — wonder what the hell was the matter with him, and it certainly wouldn’t bring Addie back.

Why? Why?

Except…he could guess exactly why she’d bolted. He might have only known her for a few days, but he’d noticed the troubled expression that had passed over her face as Connor and Angela explained their plans for disposing of Agent Lenz. She’d dutifully gone along with all of it…while at the same time inwardly fretting that their scheme wouldn’t be effective in the long run, that he’d still be able to figure out what had happened to him and would return to take her away despite all their precautions. Since Jake and his brother had already pretty much come out and said that the Wilcox clan would remove such a threat if it actually reared its head, Addie had known Lenz’s return could bring a hell of a lot of trouble with it.

So, she’d run. She’d run because she didn’t want to see anyone else get hurt. And Jake couldn’t even say she was overreacting, not when that same agent had shot her mother dead right in front of her.

Damn him. Jake would never have said he was a vengeful person, but in that moment, he found himself wishing Addie had killed the bastard with the lightning bolt she’d summoned, rather than merely knocking him out.

As soon as the thought passed through his mind, though, Jake immediately rejected it. As far as he was concerned, Agent Lenz was a miserable excuse for a human being, and if there was any justice in the universe, he’d get what was coming to him sooner rather than later, but the last thing Jake wanted was for Addie to bear the burden of the guilt for his murder. She didn’t deserve that.

He turned back toward the house, and Taffy trotted toward him, gaze expectant. This was usually the time of day when he’d take her for her morning walk, but he’d never felt less like spending the precious time that activity would require. Still, none of this was the dog’s fault, and of course, he wouldn’t neglect her in such a way.

But he would make her wait for a minute or two. First, he needed to call Connor.