Caged

3

3

Dad and Jack shook hands for the first time since our arrival. “It might be a good idea for us to have a picture of your son and your missing pack member,” Dad said. “That way, we’ll know who they are, if we stumble upon anything.”

“And the missing pup who’s spurred you to sit up and take notice?”

“I’ll get you one of him in return.” Dad folded his arms over his chest, hardening his stare. “But for the purpose of identifying him only.”

Jack matched his expression, before a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You’re invested in him?”

What did he mean by that? Although, I had grown close to Gabe over the eight, or so, months since meeting Shelley.

Dad didn’t answer.

I twisted to peer at my assigned muscle, who still hadn’t removed his attention from me. “You’ve taken a real shine to me, haven’t you?”

Nondescript-brown stayed mute, but continued to smile.

“Sorry, pal.” I lifted my palms. “You’re just not my type.”

“You’ll hear from me if I get any news,” Jack said.

“I’ll be in touch.” Dad’s footsteps hit the path, drawing me back.

He collected Sean on his way past, and when they reached me, I turned to follow.

“It’s Ethan, right?” my new best friend said.

Hesitating, I twisted back to him.

“I’ve heard a lot of stuff about you.”

I gave a slow nod. “Good.” A deep chuckle rumbled at my rear, as I stalked away.

***

“DO WE HAVE A PLAN?” I asked, as we pulled out of the Battleground onto the A-road.

“Not really,” Dad said. “We search until there are no more places left to look.”

“And you’re starting in Shropshire?” Sean asked.

I glanced in my mirror at him. “You ask that like you won’t be with us.”

“He won’t be,” Dad said. “He’ll be no use if he’s constantly worried about Jem at home. Best all round, if he just stays there with her.”

“You made this request yourself, Sean?”

Meeting my reflected eyes, he nodded, then glanced away as if to disguise his discomfort at asking to step down from the action. His need to protect his mate would far outweigh any responsibility he may have felt toward Gabe, though, and I couldn’t have agreed more.

“Good move, I think. Keeping Jem happy and relaxed will also keep Mum happy and relaxed.”

“And leave you with no one to watch your back,” he said.

“The Larsen’s are more than capable, Sean. You’ll be a father soon. It won’t hurt to get used to your shift in priorities. I’d be exactly the same in your shoes. Especially with all this s**t going on.” I thought about Jem and Mum, about the short time they’d been around, about how—badly—I’d cope if they got swept up in the issue at hand. I glanced across at Dad. “He’ll have backup, right? Cover all angles. Those at home need—”

“I agree,” Dad said. “Already considered and arranged. Josh and Danny are taking the first home-watch with Sean. He’ll be too distracted.” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “And, as I don’t think any of us should do anything without at least one backup, he can have them both. That should leave the females more than adequately supervised, and will leave us with even numbers for doubling up to search.”

***

MUNDANE TASKS DEVOURED another four hours. Home had been our first stop, where we swapped Sean for Connor and Kyle, much to Jem’s relief. Josh and Danny hadn’t even complained, when they learned our plans involved minor exploits, and we left them all with Jem’s barrage of questions and an update from Sean.

From there, we’d driven the familiar route back to Shelley’s.

“You have a couple pictures of Gabe?” I asked, once we’d told her how little we’d learned.

“Sure.” She nodded. “The printed ones are old, but the digies ...”

“If you send them to my phone, I can call in somewhere and get them printed.”

Her hands wrung as much as they had that morning, and her eyes looked no less swollen. “What do you plan to do?”

“At the moment?” I brushed a hand across my hair. “Canvassing and searching like crazy is all we can do.”

She nodded, though her harried stare intensified.

“And I need the address for Gabe’s friend. If we circle out from there ...” I shrugged. “Who knows? We might get lucky enough to pick up a trail—depending how far they took them on foot.”

***

WE DIDN’T GET LUCKY—HADN’T really expected to when we’d only been clutching at straws. We caught Gabe’s scent leading up to, or from, his friend’s house. Other than that, any others’ we picked up held only traits of human odour. As I doubted anyone without abilities could take down the number of werewolves that had gone missing, we dismissed them as Colum and his family.

The nearest A-road to their home took us as far as the M54, where we spun off to the left to circle back around. Our lack of knowledge of the area meant we had to rely on an atlas and Sat-Nav to mark out a grid to work from. It would, however, take some time to produce, so the road coverage kept us mobile until then.

Back at Brickton Heath—Shelley’s town—we parked up and climbed from the truck. Dad sent me and Kyle off in one direction, taking himself and Connor in the other, both teams armed with images of the missing ‘people’.

We stepped into the path of one passer-by after another, showed the pictures, and asked, “Have you seen this kid?”

The answers remained a consistent ‘no’, except for the odd one who recognised Gabe from the news before saying they couldn’t help.

My stomach grumbled, with good reason, when eight p.m. arrived along with the dulling of daylight. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast.

At the ring of my mobile, I hit the connect button and held it to my ear. “Dad?”

“Wrap it up. Meet us back at the pickup.”

I glanced ahead, spotted Kyle’s auburn hair, as he showed yet another pedestrian the photograph, and strode toward him.

The woman’s perfume hit me harder than her knock-‘em-dead looks, the flowery nastiness making me wonder how Kyle could stand to remain so close. Her head lifted as I reached them, introducing me to the darkest eyes I’d ever seen—eyes that widened when they focused on me.

I paused in my step and held up my palms in the hope of easing her alarm. “Kyle?”

He turned, inclining his head toward the stiletto-footed blonde beside him. “Thinks she might have seen something.”

My brows lifted as I perked up. “Really? That’s ... great.”

“It’s not much.” She averted her gaze. “Just, I thought I saw the blond kid with some guy. Only remember the teen because of the picture, but the guy with him?” Her toned shoulders shrugged, drawing my eyes to the defined lines of her collarbone and the low cut of her dress. “I didn’t take that much notice of him, if I’m honest. Sorry I can’t be more help.”

“You mind if I give you my number?” Kyle asked.

Her eyebrow twitched. Mine, too—at Kyle’s smoothness.

He shook his head and breathed out a chuckle. “I meant in case you remember anything else about the guy you saw him with.”

“’Course you did,” I muttered beneath my breath.

Her quiet laugh arrived as a mellifluous tinkle of music. “Sure, I’ll take your number.”

As the flip of her hand at the wrist pumped out more of her artificial scent, I rubbed at the tickle in my scrunched-up nose, taking a step back, as Kyle handed over one of the construction company’s business cards he’d had personalised.

“That’s my mobile.” He pointed to the number like she couldn’t figure it out on her own.

I refrained from rolling my eyes and gave him a nudge to his shoulder. “We really need to get going.”

“I’ll call you.” The woman’s lips curved into an impressive pink-framed smile as she started walking away. “If I remember anything,” she added over her shoulder with a wink.

Kyle’s grin almost split his face in half, as we stared after the sashay of her slender hips in her figure-hugging dress. “She’s ... really ... hot.”

“And Dad’s going to be ... really ... pissed ... if we don’t get a move on. He rounded us up five minutes ago.”

Kyle c****d his head for us to turn, and we started the trek back toward the truck. “Think she’ll call?” he asked, as our long strides carried us.

I smirked. “Sure she will.”