Search (The Empire Chronicles #2) (14 page)

“Of course. Why would that change?”

“I don’t know. Maybe now that you know that she wasn’t kidnapped, it doesn’t seem important enough.”

He looked right at me. “She’s your sister. We’ll find her.”

“Why do they want me? And if they did, why not take me when Vera left? Why wait?” There were so many unanswered questions. My head spun.

“I can’t answer that. I wish I knew.”

“Did Rhett tell you where Vera is?”

“He didn’t know. I have a feeling if he did, he would have done something stupid trying to find her already. She may have left willingly, but he doesn’t like that she stayed with them anymore than you do.”

I pulled a hand back from Toby and rested my forehead in my palm. “So now what? What are we supposed to do?”

“I have my whole team searching for them. As soon as I know something, we’ll plan from there.”

It was my turn to make an admission. “Murphy told me she went willingly, but I didn’t want to believe him.”

“My gut tells me there’s more to the story.” He rubbed small circles on my back. “But promise me something.”

“Yeah?”

“Promise you won’t tell anyone about your mother being a bear. Especially not the Laurents. We need to keep that a secret for now.”

I nodded. “I will.”

He smiled lightly. “Is that enough information for tonight?”

“I don’t know. Are you sure you’ve told me everything?”

“Yes. You now know everything I know.”

“Then, yes, it’s enough.” I still had tons of unanswered questions, but I wasn’t sure how much more I could handle, or how much more Toby could tell me.

He nestled his chin on my head. “Any chance we can get back to where we were earlier?”

“Do you think about anything other than sex?” I teased.

“Yes. I think about you.”

“Do those thoughts involve sex with me?”

“Some of them.”

I smiled. “At least you’re honest.”

“Completely.” He repositioned me on the couch so my back was to him. He started in on a backrub.

I moaned. It felt so good.

“You’re way too tense.”

“There are a few things to be tense about.”

“None of which you can do anything about tonight.” He kissed my neck. “Besides, we leave for Hawaii next week. Even if we had a lead, Georgina would kill us both if we missed that wedding.”

“I don’t see why it’s so important I’m there. I’m not really family.” No matter what Georgina wanted me to think, I knew my existence complicated things.

“Yes, you are, but that’s beside the point. They want you there.”

“Thanks for coming with me. I know it can’t be easy for you to go.”

He continued his work on my shoulders. “It is easy since I’ll be with you.”

As much as I enjoyed the way his hands felt, I needed to see his face. I turned. “You really can be sweet sometimes.”

“Only sometimes?”

“Most of the time.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Only most of the time?”

“Yeah.”

He grinned. “I’ll show you sweet.”

Before I knew it, he had me in his arms, carrying me toward my new bedroom. The room was probably ten times the size of my closet, and the king sized bed made my twin mattress on just a bedframe seem tiny. I wasn’t sure what surprised me more, that the bed was mine, or that the guy currently hovering above me was. Either way, he was the one I cared about much more.

Rhett was easy to find. He sat huddled over his desk in a tiny office in the anthropology building at NYU. Whatever the guy was hiding, he hadn’t lied about his profession.

He didn’t glance up from the pile of dusty books on his desk when I walked in.

“Rhett?”

He pushed a pair of wire rimmed glasses up on his nose when he turned to look at me. “Can I help you?”

“For your sake, I hope so.” I didn’t wait for an invitation. I walked in to his hovel and closed the door.

“If you don’t mind, I’m kind of busy here.”

“I do mind actually.” I leaned against the door, letting him know he wasn’t leaving.

“Who are you?”

“You tell me.”

“Uh, that’s a little hard since we’ve never met.” He looked at me like he thought I was crazy. I wasn’t buying it. Toby wouldn’t have wasted his time interrogating an innocent human. “So I’ll ask again. Who are you?”

“I could be asking you the same thing. Take off those dumb glasses. You aren’t fooling anyone.”

“Fooling anyone?” He gripped the arm of his chair, betraying the first hint of nerves. “What do you mean?”

I walked over and pulled off his glasses and broke them in two. “The whole Harry Potter look is out anyway.”

“I need those!” He reached for the broken frame.

“No, you don’t. You can see perfectly fine.”

He sighed and mumbled something about it being his last pair “How’d you know?”

“Lucky guess.” I smirked.

“What? You broke my glasses and didn’t even know for sure.”

I shrugged. “Turns out my hunch was right. So what are you?”

“I’ll admit to not needing glasses, but that’s it.”

“You know what I am.” My eyes locked on his. I wasn’t asking him a question.

“I’m guessing you’re a Pteron.”

“Not just any Pteron. I’m head of security for The Society.” I didn’t break eye contact. “If I were you, I’d start talking.”

“What am I supposed to be talking about?” He slowly let his nerdy cover fall. He still looked skinny as hell, but my gut instinct had been right. He wasn’t human.

“Who you work for.”

“NYU Anthropology and a few small grants cover my salary.”

I took a chance. “How much is Murphy paying you?”

“Paying me? Murphy?”

I smiled to myself. This guy wasn’t cut out for acting. “You know more than you told Toby.”

“Toby?” He gave me a blank stare. “As in Blackwell? I haven’t talked to him.”

The witch wasn’t lying. She had erased his memory. Either that, or he was an even better actor than I thought.

“Fine. Let’s move on. Tell me about Murphy.”

“Why would I know anything about him?”

I picked him up by his collar, pulling him from his chair. “Cut the crap. Tell me about Murphy.”

“Okay.”

I dropped Rhett back into his chair.

“He’s a bear, but my guess is you already know that.”

“How do you know him?” That was the key.

“He has my cousin.”

“Vera?”

“You know about her?” He watched with surprise.

“I know her sister.”

“Casey?” He lurched out of his seat. “How the hell do you know her?”

I kept our history to myself. “That’s not what I’m here to discuss.”

“What do you want with Casey? Leave her out of this.”

“Whoa. Calm down.” Evidently, I’d hit a nerve. He was protecting Casey from something. Did he know who her real dad was?

“What are you?” He didn’t look like a shifter, but he wasn’t human.

“I’d have thought you knew that already.”

“Fill me in.” I was done playing around.

“Then tell me what you’re doing with Casey.”

“I’m trying to protect her.”

“By interrogating me?” He attempted to sound fearless, but I could see the uncertainty on his face.

I studied him, searching for a hint at his true identity. Then something dawned on me. “You’re a bear.”

“What finally tipped you off?”

“That’s how you know Murphy. How your cousin got involved. Does Casey know? Did she know she had bears in her family?”

He shook his head. “Her mom made us keep everything from them.”

That made sense. Most human women wouldn’t want their kids knowing they had family like that. There had to be a connection between the bear in her family and what happened with Robert. Had they been introduced by a bear? Maybe that was why I kept hitting dead ends when I looked into her past. Her mom was hiding something.

“Tell me more about Murphy.” I wanted to know about the mother, but Murphy took priority.

“He has a base upstate. That’s all I know.”

“Tell me something I don’t already know.” My patience was wearing thin.

“You know about the base?” He sat forward. “Then why don’t you take him out?”

“Because I need details.” I’d found a few possible places that could be their compounds, but I didn’t have enough evidence yet.

“I don’t have those. I just know he’s upstate.”

“There’s more.” I could always tell when someone was holding back.

“Murphy’s there, but I don’t think the boss is.”

“The boss?” So I was right. Murphy wasn’t in charge.

“Yeah. I don’t know anything about him.”

“Who do you know about?”

“Murphy and his brother, Fin.”

“Fin?”

“Yeah. He dated Casey for awhile, and I think he’d be a decent guy if it weren’t for his brother.”

“So he may be the easier one to break?”

“Exactly.”

“Got it.” Kid brother who liked Casey. Great. Like a lot of other things, that bothered me more than it should have.

A knock on the door had us both turning.

“Rhett? I thought I heard voices in here. What are you doing back so soon?” a woman asked from the doorway.

“Ah, I decided to cut my research short.”

I slipped out while they talked. I needed to discover more about the boss. Whoever it was, wasn’t someone I wanted to meet unprepared.

Allie had a knack for always calling me at inopportune times. It’s not like she called often, but when she did, there was always a reason.

“Hello, princess.” I grabbed my phone as I toweled myself off. I’d heard her ringer just as I was finishing up. If it were anyone else, I probably would have let it go to voicemail, but upsetting Allie would just make things worse with Levi.

“Hi. This isn’t a bad time, is it?”

“Not unless you mind talking to me when I’m naked.” I had to push her buttons. She might be my best friend’s mate, but it was too hard to resist.

“Thanks for that fabulous mental picture, but believe it or not, I didn’t call to confess my burning desire for you.”

“Good. That could have made things awkward with Levi.”

She sighed. “I’ll get to the point. You need to make things right with Casey.”

“I did make things right. I told her to stay away.”

“Jared!”

“Allie!” I stepped into a pair of pants.

“You need to do something. I don’t want her beating herself up about it anymore. It’s not good for her.”

“What’s she beating herself up about?”

Allie groaned. “Seriously? Are you that dense? She feels awful about sleeping with you. She opened herself up to you just to have the door slammed in her face. She needs to know it’s not her fault.”

“She can’t care that much. She’s back with Toby.”

Allie sighed. “I don’t know what happened with you two, but it wasn’t love. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were under a spell or something. The girl’s crazy about Toby, she has been the whole time. I asked you to stay away from her.”

“And you’re not in charge of me.”

“Technically, I am, but anyway.”

I laughed. “Technically, you’re in charge of me now?”

“I
am
the queen.” I heard some rustling.

“What are you doing?”

“Packing.”

“Packing for what?” I put on a t-shirt and took a seat on the edge of the bed.

“The wedding and honeymoon.”

“Why would you need to pack anything for the honeymoon? Aren’t you guys going to a private island or something?”

“What does that matter?”

“Like Levi’s ever going to let you get dressed.”

“Okay, on that note… fix things with Casey.”

I laughed. “You’re such a prude, and I’ll try my best.” But I was pretty sure my best wouldn’t be nearly good enough.

I’d missed so many shifts at work that I knew there wasn’t a chance I was coming up with the money for fall tuition. You’d think with everything else going on, I wouldn’t be worried about paying for classes, but college was the only thing in my plans. I’d never imagined a future that didn’t involve a degree of some sort. I decided to take a walk over to the financial aid office. Maybe there were some other scholarships I could apply for. Too bad there wasn’t a special one for non-humans. I smiled to myself as I pushed open the door to the office.

“Sign in at the desk.” A woman barely glanced up at me from where she sat behind a glass partition.

“Thanks,” I mumbled as I scrawled my name on the bright white sheet of paper. There were four names above mine, three were scratched out. I assumed the remaining name belonged to the guy sitting in the corner, intently concentrating on his phone. It was probably a game.

I took a seat on the opposite side of the room from the cell phone kid and started flipping through a magazine. It was one of those fashion ones I would only ever read in waiting rooms.

“Donaldson,” a woman called. The kid pocketed his phone and followed her down a narrow hallway. I glanced up briefly before returning to an article about fall fashion predictions. I’d read the entire magazine and another by the time the women returned.

“Bates,” the woman called, and the cell phone kid slunk out of the office. It didn’t look like his meeting had gone particularly well. Hopefully, mine would go better. I followed her down the hallway.

“Ms. Bates, please take a seat.” The woman gestured to a chair in front of a light wooden desk.

“Thanks.” I sat down.

“What is it that I can help you with today?” She leaned back in her chair.

I noticed her name plate. Noreen Talbot.

“Well, Ms. Talbot, I’m here to see if any additional aid opportunities may have opened since I was last here.”

“Let me see what I can find. Can I see your student ID?”

I passed the plastic card over to her and she began typing on her computer. The ID was only good for another few months before it expired. I hoped to come up with the money before that happened.

She looked at me funny. “Were you looking for aid to cover your living expenses?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Just tuition.”

“According to your records, your tuition has been paid in full.” She looked at the screen again. “For seven semesters.”