can visit a few clubs we frequent, but I don’t think she would have gone to those places alone.”
“What about that diner—Ruby’s? I can swing by there and ask around.”
“Aye, that’s a grand idea. After that, go home, you hear?”
“I’ll go where I wanna go.”
Christian wanted to get Crush uninvolved. He couldn’t possibly know her whereabouts, and Raven wouldn’t want him searching the dark corners of the city. “Perhaps she went to buy her da a nice present.”
“That’s not where she went. Something’s wrong.”
Christian looked back at him. “And what makes you so certain? Dreams?”
“A gut feeling. And I’m holding you accountable.”
“It’s hardly my fault.”
Crush stepped up to him. “Anytime something bad happens to my daughter, here you are. When her mother died, there you were.”
“I saved her life.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that you were there. Maybe you’re a big scoop of bad luck.”
“For feck’s sake. Get on that infernal contraption of yours and ride off into the sunset, will ya? I have errands to run.”
“I’ll call you later,” he growled, storming off. “And watch what you say about my Harley!”
Two women crossed the street and headed toward a donut shop. Christian tried to imagine where Raven might have gone, but there were a number of possibilities. She could be sitting on a random rooftop, or maybe she had fallen asleep on the train and wound up on the wrong side of the city.
He called Wyatt, and when he answered, there was singing in the background.
“Unless you’re a hot chick, Wyatt’s busy.”
“Is Raven there? Has she called?”
Wyatt laughed, but it wasn’t at Christian. Claude was finishing up a joke. “Nope. What’s the scoop?”
“She’s gone missing.”
“Did you call her?”
“She doesn’t have a phone, you eejit.”
Wyatt flapped his lips together as he sighed. “Fine. I’m on my way upstairs. I’ll look at her necklace and tell you if she’s banging another man. Sure you’re up for that, compadre?”
“She’s not wearing the necklace. She left it at the scene.”
“You two did the nasty, didn’t you? Shame, shame.”
“How much have you had to drink? I need your help, and you’re busy killing brain cells.”
Wyatt snorted. “They’ll grow back.”
Christian grimaced when a man whistled to get someone’s attention. He shut out everything except Wyatt’s drunken ramblings. “What about the tracker?”
“Good idea, Watson. Give me uno momento, por favor.”
Lights were popping on around the city, splashing color onto the dreary buildings.
After about a minute of Wyatt singing out of breath, he finally came back on. “Got it. Huh. That’s really weird.”
“What’s the address?”
“The tracker shows she hasn’t moved in almost ten hours.”
Christian turned around to make sure no one had touched his bike. “Will you tell me where the feck she is?”
“Hold your ponies. I’m trying to pull up the street view on the internet. Did you know they pay people to drive around with a camera mounted on the car so they can film every single street? Back in my day, you had to do real work to earn a coin. It’s pretty nifty though. I can look at neighborhoods without leaving the house.”
“You’re a canker sore. You know that?”
“I’m the life of the party. You can’t deny it.”
“Be that as it may, you have the attention span of a midge.”
“Are you comparing me to a bug? You have more in common with a mosquito than I do a gnat.”
“I can’t fathom why the dead would seek your company.”
“You need to lighten up. Eternity is a long time to be miserable. All right. I’m looking at the street view, and there’s nothing there. The picture was taken in February, so unless they built something in the past three months, she’s hanging out on the corner of nowhere. The street’s called Rustic Pines, just east of Walnut Grove. A field on one side with a bunch of overgrown grass, and… Yep. Same on the other. Maybe she threw out her shoes. Why does Walnut Grove sound familiar?” His fingers snapped. “Oh! What’s the name of that old TV show—the one with the little girl running down a hill?”
“Wyatt, listen to me carefully. Raven’s missing. It’s not like her to disappear.”
“Oh really? I seem to remember her skipping off to stay with her dad for all that time. Did you say something to piss her off? Wait, don’t answer that. You piss everyone off.”
“Keep your phone nearby. I’ll call you back.”
Christian didn’t tarry. He weaved through traffic like a bullet until he reached Rustic Pines. While he hadn’t necessarily been down every road in the city, he