still felt like the dirt, and sweat, and stink from yesterday clung to my skin. Shower. Long and hot, then more food. Thankfully, the headache was gone. I used the toilet, but somewhere in between washing my hands and stripping off my clothes, there was a hard, demanding knock at the door and it opened before I had a chance to jerk my shirt back on.
“Do you mind?” I glared at him.
He stared at me, a deadly look in his eyes.
He had the phone in his hand. “She wants to talk to you. A couple of warnings—I told her about the girl. She wants to know what progress is being made and she’s not pleased that you haven’t found Doyle yet.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not exactly dancing in circles about the fact, either,” I said, glaring at him. I clutched my shirt to my chest. “Can you give me a minute?”
“No.” He took the phone off mute. “Here is the investigator, My Lady. I apologize for the delay.”
He shoved the phone at me without another second and I suspected if I didn’t take the damn phone, he wouldn’t be above hogtying me and forcing me to talk to the crazy bitch.
Turning my back to him, I lifted the phone. “Colbana.”
“Kit…”
She practically purred my name.
The soft, throaty sound of it shouldn’t have sounded so deadly, but it made me shudder. I had to battle back the metallic taste of fear crowding my throat before I could even respond. “What may I do for you this morning, Alpha?”
“I’d like to know why you haven’t found my Doyle, Kit.”
“I’m looking. I think we’re getting closer. There are—”
She interrupted me. “I don’t want to hear anything except that you’ve found him.” Then, contradicting herself and showing what a crazy bitch she was, she said, “Why exactly did you rescue some throwaway lynx yesterday instead of searching for my precious nephew?”
Throwaway. My palm heated. The woman wasn’t even here and I wanted my blade. I wanted to cut her. I wanted to hurt her. Popping my wrist, I imagined it. Imagined actually doing it, although there was no way in hell I could. Not on my own. I’d taken some weaker shifters on my own before and I could do it again.
She wasn’t a weaker shifter.
She was Alpha as all get out and there was no way I could take her. Well, not unless I played really, really dirty.
But it was fun to dream. I carried those happy thoughts as I formulated my reply. “I believe there’s a connection and I’m using every tool at my disposal to find your nephew, Alpha. At this point, the girl is another tool.”
Seconds ticked away. Long, long seconds.
“I hear you’ve spoken with witches. Are they more tools?”
“Some of the most skilled ones I have my disposal,” I answered honestly. “I believe one of them may have seen Doyle and I’m searching the area, looking for signs.”
“I see.” She made an odd sound, one of those noises that was just too deep for a human throat and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. “Hurry up and find my nephew, precious, would you? I miss him. Now…put my boy back on the phone.”
I held the phone over my shoulder and waited for him to take it.
He did. But if I thought he was going to leave, I was in for a rude awakening.
He continued to stand there.
Inches away. Too close for comfort. For sanity.
“Yes, My Lady.”
My blood was roaring my ears, too loudly for me to make out what the crazy bitch was saying.
And then he touched my back, stroking the tip of one finger over one of my scars. It was one of the longer ones, from the top of my back, near my right shoulder, cutting diagonally down to stop just above my left hip.
“Of course, My Lady. She is.”
He touched another scar. Shorter, this one. He rested his finger on the bottom edge of it, stroking up it up to where it disappeared around my side, ending just below my left breast.
“Yes. I’m aware….” A few moments of silence. “I’ll remind her. I—”
He went silent. From the corner of my eye, I saw him lay the phone on the counter by the sink. “She wants me to remind you what’s going to happen if you don’t find him,” he said, his voice flat.
And still he continued to trace the scars.
I closed my eyes. “That’s not the easiest thing to forget. Tell