Catastrophic Attraction - Eve Langlais Page 0,85

lost and alone. Scared or hurt. “Argh.” His yell rattled the walls and ceilings.

“What have you guys done to find her?” Casey asked her brother, showing herself to be more rational than he was at the moment.

“We turned the castle upside down. Everyone on duty that night was asked if she’d been spotted. Then we went to places outside she’s been known to visit.”

“She wouldn’t have drugged Anita to visit someone. She left the city.” Obviously on some kind of misguided mission. “Was her room searched for messages or clues? A ransom received?”

“Nothing was found. But I know they were going to search again when I left to bring word.”

Roark snapped his fingers. “Did Titan send out the trackers?” Marsh born and bred men who usually led the hunting groups. Finding a little girl should be easy.

“He sent them out within the hour of her going missing.”

It was Casey who remarked, “Given you’re the best tracker in Haven, I’m going to assume he sent you.”

“He did.”

Roark whirled. “Then why aren’t you looking for her?”

“I am, was. Still am,” Cam hastened to add. “I tracked her to this city.”

“Where? I am going to choke you to death if you don’t talk faster.” Because he didn’t trust himself to not tear the man apart looking for more answers.

“She met someone outside of town. I did my best to follow but lost them in the city.”

“Met someone.” Roark spun and paced. “Someone sent her a message. How? Who let a stranger get close enough to my daughter to deliver it?”

Cam’s head drooped even further. “That would be my fault. A package arrived from the city for the princess, and I didn’t see any harm in it. It was just a toy boat. I thought it came from you.”

“Just a toy,” Roark repeated softly. “Get out.”

“I’m—”

If Cam said sorry, Roark might just kill him. “Out!” Said with even more deadly softness.

Casey murmured to her brother as she dragged him to the door. It shut, and Roark expelled a breath. It hitched when Casey placed a hand on him. “He feels awful.

“l know he does. I can feel it. It doesn’t make his fuckup any less of a fuckup.” The swamp in him came out as his frustration mounted.

“The good news is she’s alive.”

“That’s the only reason your brother is still breathing.”

“I don’t think he’ll like you much after this,” she remarked as Sachi twined between his legs. The pair of them did much to soothe him, to quell the dark power welling within.

“He’ll like me even less if I don’t find Charlie.”

“We’ll find her,” Casey stated with assurance. “And then the only reason he’ll have to hate you will be because you’re dicking his sister.”

He almost choked. “Dicking? What we do is not anything so vulgar.”

She smirked. “Then we’ll need to try harder. Lover.”

He almost missed her saying it given she turned. But the word stuck with him.

Lover.

Father.

King.

None of those three gave in to despair or gave up. With Casey’s help, he’d get Charlie back.

“Where could she have been taken?” Casey remarked, stripping out of her dress, distracting with the lithe smoothness of her flesh.

“I think I might know.” That nagging feeling had finally coalesced. A cold certainty filled him. “She’s in the spire of the Silent Sisters.”

“What makes you say that? Oh.” She eyed him as she grasped his reasoning. “You think your crazy sister is behind it.”

“She’s catatonic, not crazy. And I am beginning to wonder if the first is true. There was something different about her this time.” He’d noticed it the moment he laid eyes on Anissa. She’d still stared off in the distant slack-jawed, yet her mind had felt firmer compared to previous attempts to get in. As if the nothing fog took a hard-repelling shape.

The one thing it didn’t completely manage to mask was her hatred of him, and if she’d taken Charlie, this wouldn’t end well.

Chapter 23

The darkness gathering behind Roark’s eyes indicated he wasn’t about to wait. Charlie was in danger. Already dressed, and spilling power like lightning in a storm, he rushed off to the rescue. Casey didn’t immediately follow because she chose to remove the stupid dress. It took her a few wretched moments to strip. The gown didn’t survive.

Wearing something that actually covered her body and armed to the teeth, Casey tripped her way down the stairs—literally, given Sachi weaved through her legs and just about killed her. She discovered a few of Darius’s crew waiting; Jorah and Tanzie, plus a few more