want to pick up some medicine I left there." Those low-dose sleeping pills were going to come in handy.
"I'd like to avoid heading over there if we could. Any chance you could pick up what you want at a CVS or something?"
"They're prescription."
He frowned. "All right. But you make it quick, and I'm coming in with you."
Fifteen minutes later they parked in her driveway. In the golden glow of the setting sun, her place looked deserted. There were leaves blown up against the front door, her chrysanthemums were half-dead, and there was a tree limb down in the yard.
She hoped whoever bought it would love the place as much as she had.
When she walked into the house, a cold gust shot through the living room, and it turned out that the window over the kitchen sink was cracked about three inches. As she shut it, she assumed V must have left it open when he'd come over to work on the alarm system before she'd moved out She locked the thing and then went upstairs to get the Ambien.
Before they left, she paused at the rear sliding door and looked at her backyard. The pool was covered with a patina of leaves, the surface dull. The meadow beyond was an undulation of pale grass -
Something was flashing over at Bella's house.
Her instincts flared. "Butch, do you mind if we check that out?"
"Not a chance. I need to get you home."
She slid the door back.
"Mary, it's not safe."
"And that's Bella's. There shouldn't be anything moving at her house this time of day. Come on."
"You can call her from the car."
"I'll do it from here." A moment later she hung up and headed back for the door. "No answer. I'm going over."
"The hell you are - Mary, hold up! Christ, don't make me throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here."
"You pull something like that and I'll tell Rhage you had your hands all over me."
Butch's eyes flared. "Jesus, you're as bad a manipulator as he is."
"Not quite, but I'm learning. Now, are you coming with me or am I going it alone?"
He let out a juicy curse and palmed a gun. "I don't like this."
"Duly noted. Look, we'll just make sure she's okay. Shouldn't take more than ten minutes."
They walked through the meadow, Butch scanning the field with hard eyes. As they got closer to the farmhouse, she could see Bella's back French door swinging in the wind and catching the sun's last rays.
"Stay tight with me, okay?" Butch said as they walked onto the lawn.
The door bounced open again.
"Oh, shit," he muttered.
Its brass lock had been splintered and several panes had been broken.
They stepped cautiously inside.
"Oh, my God," Mary breathed.
Chairs were strewn about the kitchen along with broken plates and mugs and a shattered lamp. Burn marks streaked the floor and so did some kind of black, inklike substance.
As she bent down to look at the oily smears, Butch said, "Don't get near that stuff. It's the blood of a lesser."
She closed her eyes. Those things in the park had Bella.
"Her bedroom in the basement?" he asked.
"That's what she told me."
They jogged down to the cellar and found the double doors to her room wide-open. A few of her dresser drawers had been thrown about, and it looked as if some of her clothes had been taken. Which didn't make a whole lot of sense.
Butch flipped open his cell phone as they went back up to the kitchen.
"V? We've had a break-in. Bella's." He eyed the black stains on a cracked chair. "She put up a good fight. But I think she's been taken by the lessers."
As Rhage pulled on a set of leathers, he pinned the cell phone between his shoulder and his ear. "Cop? Let me talk to Mary."
There was a shuffling sound and then he heard, "Hello? Rhage?"
"Hey, my female, you okay?"
"I'm fine." Her voice was shaky as hell, but what a flicking relief just to hear it.
"I'm coming for you." He grabbed his chest holster as he pushed his feet into his shitkickers. "Sun's just going down now, so I'll be right there."
He wanted her safe and at home. While he and the brothers went after those assholes.
"Rhage... Oh, God, Rhage, what are they going to do to her?"
"I don't know." Which was a lie. He knew exactly what they were doing to Bella. God help her. "Listen, I realize you're worried about her. But right now I need you to focus on