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"Enough," Wolf said roughly, making my head snap up to find his gaze on Cash for a second before drifting over to mine, his face softening slightly.
"He has her, Janie..." Cash said, his voice a plea.
"I need a computer," I snapped, looking over at Wolf, not caring about the shaking in my voice. "Right now," I clarified.
There was the barest of pauses before his head gave me a jerky nod. "'Kay," he said and turned into the cabin.
"How long?" I asked Cash as we followed Wolf inside.
"Hours. I don't know. I was at Hailstorm trying to get their help in locating him before he found her again."
"Again?"
"That's why she was begging asylum at my place, kid. He got to her and he busted her up. Her face... her ribs... it was bad. He did a number. She went to The Henchmen. I just so happened to be there so I took her home. I took care of her. And then..."
There was something in his tone, something in the softness in his eyes. I wasn't exactly familiar with it, but I knew it when I saw it. He had feelings for Lo. Like... real feelings. I didn't think such a manwhore was capable, but if there ever was a woman who could intrigue him enough to tame his wild nature, it was Lo. "And then..." I prompted.
He sidestepped the question he knew I was really asking. "And then when I got home, my place was trashed. Her blood was on the walls. My neighbor gave me a make and plate of his truck. I called Malcolm and got him on it."
"They got nothing?" I asked, annoyed that they were proving so inept without me. I thought I had trained them well.
"Nothing useful. He said every other case is closed until you guys find her."
"Well... duh," I said, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. The rummaging Wolf had been doing quieted and I turned in his direction to see him moving toward me with a laptop box in his hands. Like... a factory-wrapped laptop. He had had a laptop in his closet the whole time. How the hell had I missed that? Why hadn't I asked if he had one before? He stopped in front of me, holding the box to a laptop that was already a good two years old and I felt a smile tease my lips. "You're ridiculous," I told him, taking the box from his hands.
The men moved away from me, going toward the kitchen and talking in somewhat hushed tones to, I imagine, exclude me from their conversation. Not that they needed to; I wasn't paying them any attention. I had a laptop to open and get running. Then I had the most important person in my world to find... before anything horrible happened to her. Though, a part of me knew that if she was in the hands of someone who used to beat her... well, horrible things were probably already happening. I used that knowledge to push me forward.
"Carpet store?" I called out as soon as I got online.
"Been there. Nothing," Cash supplied.
On a growl, I went back to work, their low, grumbling voices carrying on in the kitchen. "As much as I love to sit here listening to you two hens clucking like a couple chicks," I said, still tapping furiously as I spoke, "I am going to need some coffee and silence," I snapped at them, not caring if I was being a bitch.
Wolf made a grunting noise and I knew he was going to make the coffee. I flicked open a tab and put on internet radio, metal music blaring loud enough to drown out the endless stream of fears flying across my mind.
Cash moved over toward Wolf's recliner and sat down, anxious energy bouncing off of him. A part of me went out to him, knowing how helpless he felt, knowing that for a man of action to be forced to sit and wait and worry was the worst kind of torture. Especially when his woman was out there somewhere having god-knew what done to her. True, Lo was strong. But even strong women, when faced with something that once made them weak, could crumble.
Eventually, Cash slept. Wolf held silent vigil at the dining room table with me, refilling my coffee when it went empty, pretending to ignore my growling and cursing when I met dead end after dead end. Whoever Damian Crane was, aside from ex-military and wife-beater, he was air. He kept next to nothing on the books aside from that god damn abandoned carpet store he kept in town.
The longer I searched, the more that bothered me. Why would he have bought a store and not done something to renovate and reopen it? Why pay taxes on something useless? In the town where your formerly-battered ex-wife set up her business?
The answer was... he wouldn't. That carpet store meant something. Cash had said he had been there and there was nothing there. But I didn't buy that. No way. It had to mean something. Sometime around sunrise, I got into the city's website and after an annoying search, finally found the plans.
"What about the basement?" I shouted as I paused the song on the radio station.
"What?" Cash asked, bolting awake in the chair, rubbing his eyes.
"The basement," I said again, overly caffeinated and under-slept and, therefore, a little grumpy.
"What basement?"
"The one at the carpet store," I clarified.
"Kid, there wasn't a basement. No doors to a staircase. Nothing."
"Then what is this?" I asked, swinging the laptop screen in his direction and stabbing at the picture.
He flew out of his chair and across the room, his face a mask of horror as he choked out, "No..."
"Yeah. There's a basement. He must have hidden the..." I didn't get to finish my sentence because suddenly... he wasn't in the cabin anymore. I closed my mouth on a snap as Wolf got up out of his chair, grabbing the cell off the counter in the kitchen where he had put it to charge after Cash had passed out. As he passed, he fished into his pocket and brought out another cell, tossing at me.
