Sloane (2 page)

No. I didn’t want to think that. Leigh might be in
trouble, but I wouldn’t believe it was that serious.

Griffin ducked into the bathroom. In a second, he
came back out again.

I was going through the drawers in the dresser in the
room. I always thought it was strange that hotels provided
dressers, like you were moving in or something. Did anyone actually
go to the trouble of unpacking their suitcase into them and then
packing it back up a few days later? All of these drawers were
empty. I raised my eyebrows at him.

“Her stuff’s in there,” he said. “Shampoo. Soap. All
that weird stuff she uses on her face in the mornings.”

I pushed a drawer closed and straightened. “Her purse
isn’t here. Neither is her phone.”

He rubbed the top of his head.

“Look, Griffin, that doesn’t necessarily mean
anything,” I said. “I mean, looking at this room, it’s consistent
with the scenario of her getting up and going out to do business
somewhere.”

“She doesn’t have anywhere to do business. The stuff
with the lawyer’s done.”

“Well, it’s consistent with her getting up and going
out. With her being okay.”

He nodded. “Right.” He ran a hand over his face.
“Right.”

Of course, I wasn’t sure that I believed that. Sure,
Leigh got upset. One time, after she and Griffin had tortured and
killed Marcel—who was a really nasty prison rapist and all-around
waste of air—she’d freaked out and spiraled out of control. None of
us had seen her for months. It had been a bad time for Griffin,
who’d started drinking pretty heavily. They’d both fallen apart
without each other.

But that was the thing. When Leigh and Griffin worked
it out, it was because they realized that they were better together
than they were apart. They needed each other. So, I found it really
difficult to believe that she’d leave again.

I tapped my chin. “Look, Griffin, here’s what we’ve
got to do. We’ve got to rule out the possibility that Leigh’s mad
and ignoring your calls out of spite.”

“Rule it out.” He nodded again. “Right.”

“So, she used to live here, right? In Boston? Does
she have any friends here, people she might go to if she were
angry?”

He sighed. “I don’t know. She doesn’t keep in touch
with anyone from back then. When Leigh lived in Boston, she was -
crazy, partying cokehead.”

“Think, Griffin,” I said. “She must have had a best
friend. All girls have some other girl they tell all their secrets
too.” Leigh had been mine, after all. She should be calling me if
she was angry with Griffin.

But I’d been distant lately. I’d pushed her away.
Damn it.

He shook his head. “No, Leigh doesn’t much get along
with other girls. She told me that she didn’t have a lot of friends
that were girls in Boston.” His expression darkened. “No, the way I
understand it, she basically slept around a lot, and everyone she
slept with was also a ‘friend.’”

I winced. Okay, that was worse. “Well… do you know
who any of those ‘friends’ might have been?”

“No.” He began riffling through her suitcase. “It
wasn’t a subject I really liked talking about.”

“Still, she must have mentioned something. You guys
are married. You must have wanted to know all about—”

“All the guys she fucked before me?” He glared at me.
“No, actually I didn’t want to know about that.”

Okay. Well, maybe he had a point. Maybe that was
something that a husband wouldn’t ask his wife about too much.

“You’re her best friend,” said Griffin. “Didn’t you
guys ever talk about that kind of stuff?”

“Not really,” I said. “I, um, well, I tried to avoid
conversations like that. It’s so easy for Leigh to attract people,
you know? But nobody’s attracted to me—”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, I guess not no one, but I’ve never really had
a real boyfriend, and—”

“Not that.” He waved it away. “Who was Leigh
attracting?”

I furrowed my brow. “Well, no one anymore. But in the
past, she was confident, she got all these guys.”

He flinched. He pressed his lips together in a firm
line. “You know, maybe there’s one person I know of in Boston. But
she’d never have gone to see that asshole.”

“You don’t think we should check it out?”

“He forced her to work in his strip club,” said
Griffin. “She hates that dude.”

I wrinkled up my nose. “He has a strip club?”

* * *

“Gentleman’s club,” said Axel Whitman. He was sitting
in a booth in The Golden Key, which was his strip club, er,
gentleman’s club. Axel had dark hair, a little curly at the edges.
He had piercing eyes, pronounced eyebrows, and a bow-shaped mouth.
Which he was using to smirk at us. He was wearing a pink suit,
complete with a matching pocket square—which was plaid. Seriously.
Pink. Plaid. “This isn’t a strip club. It’s a burlesque gentleman’s
club. There’s a difference.”

When Axel spoke, his voice had a purring quality. He
was completely self-assured. Everything about him projected
smugness. I hated him on sight. But I also couldn’t stop looking at
him. He was… well, let’s say I could sort of understand why Leigh
might have wanted him for a fuck buddy.

Axel leaned back in the booth. “Is there something I
can do for you?”

Griffin’s jaw twitched. I could see that simply
seeing Axel made him angry. Maybe it would be better if I did the
talking.

“Hi,” I said. “We have a mutual friend.”

He looked me up and down. He pulled his eyebrows
together. “I really don’t think so.”

“Yes,” I said. “We only want to know if you’ve
seen—”

“No,” said Axel. “I’ve never seen you before in my
life. What’s your name?” He gave me a knowing smile, arching an
eyebrow. There was something in his gaze that was mischievous and
suggestive.

I blushed in spite of myself. “I’m Sloane, but that’s
not really important. What’s important is that we find Leigh.”

Axel turned sharply to Griffin. “That’s right. That’s
how I know you. You’re the guy who started a fight in here and
stole Leigh right off the stage.” Axel got up out of the booth.
“You’re not welcome in this club anymore.”

Griffin chuckled. “Oh, believe me, I wouldn’t be here
if I could help it. I was really hoping never to see you in my
entire life.”

“You’re going to need to get out.” Axel’s voice
lowered to something like a growl. But it never lost its velvet
edge.

Jesus. His voice was… doing things to me. I backed up
a few steps.

Griffin clenched his hands into fists. “I’m not going
anywhere until you tell me where she is.”

“Where who is?” said Axel.

“Don’t be an idiot,” said Griffin. “Where—”

But right at that moment, a girl slid in front of
Griffin. She was wearing a corset and stockings. Her hair was piled
high on her head and decorated with feathers. She addressed Axel.
“So, here’s your phone. And you got voicemails from a bunch of
different girls. And your mom called to ask about the Shepherd
Foundation event. She wants to make sure that you only bring one
date.”

Axel snatched the phone from her. “Candy, is it not
obvious that I was in the middle of something?”

“It’s Cindy,” said the girl. “And you don’t pay me
enough to check your voicemails. This is the last time I’m doing
it, I swear.” She went on her way, rolling her eyes.

Axel shut his eyes, looking extremely perturbed.

“Leigh’s missing,” I blurted out. “We only came by to
see if you’d seen her.”

Axel’s eyes popped open. “Missing?”

I nodded.

“Why would I have seen her?”

Griffin’s nostrils flared. “Does that mean you
haven’t?”

“Seriously,” said Axel. “Does she talk about me often
or something? Because as far as I’m concerned, that bitch abandoned
me years ago. She was my best friend, and I haven’t heard from her
since
you
pulled her off the stage.” He crossed his arms
over his chest. “I kind of wondered if you killed her.”

Griffin’s jaw dropped. He sputtered for a second.

Axel straightened his tie. It matched the pocket
square.

“Your best friend?” said Griffin. “You forced her to
strip in this club.”

“I didn’t
force
her,” said Axel. “That was her
idea. She didn’t have any money or anyplace to stay, and giving her
that job was a favor.”

Griffin’s fists clenched again.

I grabbed him by the arm. “Come on, Griffin. He
doesn’t know where she is.”

Griffin shook me off. He put his finger in Axel’s
face. “You weren’t any kind of friend to her.”

Axel backed away. “You keep your hands off me.”

I took Griffin’s arm again. “Let’s go, okay?”

Griffin seethed, glaring at Axel for several minutes.
Then he sucked in a breath and turned away. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Wait,” said Axel. “Is she okay?”

“We don’t know,” I threw over my shoulder.

“Like you care,” said Griffin.

“I care,” said Axel, sounding defensive. “I totally
care.”

Griffin tensed, and I could tell he was really
thinking about hauling off and beating Axel to a bloody pulp.

“Griffin,” I said. “Let’s
go
.”

He hesitated. Then he nodded.

We walked out of the club.

CHAPTER TWO

I opened my laptop. “Give me a little bit, and I’ll
see if I can pick up the GPS on her phone, okay?”

Griffin and I had checked into a hotel room in the
same hotel where Leigh was staying. I was sprawled on one of the
beds and Griffin was pacing.

“How long’s that going to take?” he asked.

“Probably not too long. I have to pull up a program
and input some info,” I said. I was okay with computer stuff. I’d
gotten more training on that side of things back when we’d been in
Op Wraith. My brother Silas had always volunteered for the really
dangerous stuff, leaving me behind for strategy and backup. That
meant I was a good sniper, and that I had some computer skills and
other somewhat helpful things. Honestly, I sometimes wanted to be
able to do the dangerous stuff instead of Silas. I worried about
him, and it was hard being stuck in the background all the time.
But Silas wouldn’t let me.

Besides, I think he worried that I’d freeze up, like
I had before. Silas was always trying to protect me. We were twins,
but he was older by a few minutes, and he’d always played the big
brother card. He did his best to make sure that I was safe.

Freezing up was a problem that I’d had for years now,
ever since our parents had…

Well, anyway, it had been going on for a long time.
It made me unreliable, and I knew that. When I got in the middle of
a dangerous situation, especially if there was a group of people
closing in on me, I would lose the ability to speak or move. I
didn’t plan for it. It would hit me out of nowhere, and then I’d be
completely worthless. It was better for me to stay back, further
from the action.

I knew that. Silas knew it. That didn’t mean that I
liked it, however.

I typed on the keyboard of the laptop, making a face
at the screen. There. Now, I’d just wait to see what results came
back.

Griffin walked to and fro, mumbling to himself.

I went back to the computer screen.

Nothing yet.

My brother Silas was big and tough and no-nonsense.
He got things done, even if it meant killing people. Between us,
he’d always been the guy who did what had to be done. And he often
did it to protect me, or so I didn’t have to do it.

Back when he lived with me, I used to think that he
scared off any guy who tried to get close to me. Silas could be
scary if he wanted to be, and I had been sure that the reason that
no guys ever wanted to get close to me was that they didn’t want to
tangle with him.

But he’d been gone for nine months, and nothing had
changed.

I went out sometimes. By myself. I tried to meet
people, but I usually spent the night alone, nursing a few drinks
at a corner of the bar. Sometimes, I tried to strike up
conversations with people. Well, to be more accurate, I thought
about striking up conversations. I didn’t actually ever say
anything. I’d see a guy that I thought was attractive, and I’d
think about what I could say to him.

That was the problem. I could never think of anything
to say. Not something that didn’t sound stupid anyway. I’d discard
ideas.

The weather? Stupid.

Asking about someone’s major? God, could I get more
cliche?

Ask him what he was drinking? Well, what would I say
after he told me?

So, I never said anything. And they never came up to
me, either. I wasn’t sure what that was about. I wasn’t ugly or
anything. Well, I didn’t think I was, anyway. It was kind of hard
to judge stuff like that. I spent a lot of time looking at my body
in the mirror and trying to figure out if anything was glaringly
wrong with it.

I wasn’t a blond, sexy bombshell like Leigh, of
course. But I wasn’t fat or anything. Sure, there was a little bit
of extra flub on my tummy. It kind of protruded a little bit. But
didn’t everyone’s body do that? And if I was being really critical,
my thighs definitely touched when I was standing up. But whose
thighs didn’t touch besides models and actresses anyway?

I thought I was kind of… well, cute. I had dark hair
and a pretty face. I’d seen girls who didn’t seem as attractive as
I was with boyfriends.

So, I didn’t think it was the way I looked.

And I knew it wasn’t Silas.

I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. Maybe
the sad truth of the matter was that I was simply useless at
everything. I couldn’t fight people in groups, and I couldn’t
attract the opposite sex. I was a waste of air.

I shut my eyes. It wasn’t any good thinking thoughts
like that.