Insatiable (Steel Brothers Saga #12) - Helen Hardt Page 0,17

leaned against the counter, looking as distrustful as ever. Dave hadn’t returned for his phone.

So far so good.

If this didn’t work, though, I had a backup plan.

“My turn.” I rose. “I’m going to need my purse.”

“Why?” Alex asked.

“My monthly friend is visiting,” I lied.

“You’re full of it,” she said.

“You want to check?” I glared at her.

“Sure, you dum—”

“For God’s sake, Alex,” Dominic interrupted. “Get her purse.”

I held back a smile. If I could depend on one thing always, it was the discomfort all men shared when it came to female body functions.

“She’s lying,” Alex said. “She would’ve had to go before now.”

“Light flow,” I said. “I’m on the pill.” The second part was true, anyway.

Dominic and Colin had both turned the color of a red delicious apple.

Good. This was going well.

“Lighten up, Alex.” Dominic left the room and came back holding my purse. “Here. And don’t mention any of this again.”

“Dom…”

“We’ve already been through her purse, Alex. We have her phone.”

Ah. As I’d suspected. Thank goodness I always kept extra tampons in my purse, or they’d have had a lot of questions. Since he didn’t mention the blade, he probably hadn’t found it.

I wished for a psychic link to Colin. If only I knew if he’d gotten through to Jade…or whether he’d done anything at all. He could have easily chickened out, which was why I needed plan B.

I grabbed my purse and muttered a “thanks.” Alex led me to the bathroom.

The room was tiny, since this was a mobile home, but I had enough elbow room to do what had to be done. I opened a tampon with as much commotion as I could, just in case she was listening, and I even inserted it, in case she wanted to check for the string. Not that I thought she would, but Alex was a question mark. I couldn’t manipulate her the way I was manipulating Dominic.

Then I pawed through the contents of my purse, removing the bulkier items so I could access the hidden zippered pouch at the bottom.

Eureka!

I fingered the shiny blade.

The scar on my upper thigh began to tingle.

No time for that, though. I couldn’t be bleeding while I tried to make someone else bleed.

These are my friends…

No, damn it. No!

Maybe just one little cut.

Just enough to relieve the tension.

No one would know.

No one would know.

Chapter Thirteen

Bryce

Gotcha.

The entire contents of the email from the Spider.

Gotcha.

What the fuck?

We didn’t know who the Spider was, and as far as we knew, he hadn’t done anything—

Oh, shit.

Cade Booker had given us the information.

Cade Booker.

There was no Spider.

I pounded my fist on the kitchen table.

Who the hell was this Cade Booker? I needed information, and at this point, Joe would spill, even with the silent code of the BDSM club. The guy had attacked us with pepper spray. He’d been armed with three guns, for God’s sake.

I grabbed the last known address from the file I’d gotten via the web and entered it into my GPS. Back to the city for me tonight.

I ignored my eyes. They were sore and tired. Closing them would be a godsend. But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.

Marjorie never left my mind. What was happening to her? I couldn’t let myself consider any of the vile possibilities. No, she needed me whole. She believed in me, believed I was more than an empty shell.

I had to prove her right. I had to find her, and that meant focusing.

My phone buzzed.

“Talon?” I said. “What’s up? Is Melanie all right?”

“I haven’t heard anything about Melanie, and I’m not going to bother Joe with this. He needs to be with his wife right now. But Jade just got a text from a number she didn’t recognize. It says it’s from Colin. He’s with Marj, Bryce. They’re being held in a mobile home somewhere.”

“Oh my God. Anything else?”

“Yeah. After he sent the text, Colin called Jade and left the line open. We’re tracing it now.”

“We’ve got to move quickly. I’ll be right over.”

“We’re already on our way,” Talon said. “Ryan and Ruby are with me. We’re going after our sister.”

I marched into my bedroom and retrieved my alternate pistol, as the one I’d been carrying earlier had been taken when I was at the hospital, and I hadn’t thought to get it back. I was armed again.

Armed and ready.

“Two hours away,” Talon said when I got into the passenger seat of his truck. “Fucking two hours away.”

“Could be a trick,” Ruby said. “In fact, it’s probable. The best way to keep