Page 48 of Hellhound AU

I advanced on the cop with the notebook, letting a little fire into my eyes. “Tell me where they are, and then we’ll talk.”

The cop, to his credit, didn’t back up, but he did close the notebook. “The car was empty when we got to it. A passing motorist reported it. There was no other car on scene. I’m sorry, but we don't know where they are. That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”

Without waiting any longer, I turned and walked back to my car. The cop yelled after me, but unless he was gonna shoot me, I wasn't planning on stopping.

Milo and Ethel were missing. I had to find them. They had to be okay. There was no other option.

20

Author’s Note:

Glitter. That’s all I have to say. IYKYK.

MILO

I woke up to the sound of Ethel grumbling. “Motherfucking, cock-sucking, rubbish bin fuckers.”

I felt groggy and confused. The last time she’d been this fired up, she’d ended up glitter-bombing the next door neighbor (long story, but he really deserved it).

“Damn snot-eating, drooling, hind-brain imbeciles,” she cursed.

“Ethel?” I asked. I felt… odd. A little muffled and still tired, which wasn’t like me. I felt like I could barely pry my eyes open, and I really just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep.

“Milo! Thank goodness. Those sons of amoebas didn’t even provide you with medical care!”

I felt her hands gently smoothing over my forehead, and I finally opened my eyes.

“Oh,” I muttered, because we were not at the retirement home. Nope. We were in a gray walled room, and I was on a bed. It was sparsely decorated and small, and it looked similar to a dorm room. Ethel was sitting on the bed next to me, where I was laid out.

“What happened?” I asked, because this whole thing made no sense to me.

“Those shit-eating fuckheads hit my car. That’s what happened,” she muttered, obviously still disgruntled.

“But you’re okay?” Because really, that was more important than the car.

“I’m fine. I got jostled around a bit, and I’ll have a few bruises to show for it all, but you took the brunt of it. Milo, I know I’vetold you to use your head, but I didn’t mean to help you stop. Really, hands are much better for that.”

I vaguely recalled an accident, and pain in my head, and then… nothing. “Where’s Rowan?” I asked, because if I was in an accident I knew he’d want to be here.

Ethel scoffed. “I’m sure he’ll be along to rescue us shortly. He seems like the type. Not that we aren’t perfectly capable of rescuing ourselves. But a little piece of advice, Milo—sometimes the person you love needs to feel needed. Sometimes we can do things for ourselves but we have to let them do it for us. It makes them feel good. Everybody wants to be needed.”

Not that I didn’t appreciate Ethel’s love-life advice, but… “Why do we need to be rescued?”

Ethel sighed and looked at me. “Milo, dearheart, keep up. The neo-Nazis took us hostage, and now we’re locked in a room in their compound.” Ethel said this like it was obvious, duh, and of course I should have known this.

“Why would the neo-Nazis kidnap us? We didn’t do anything with them yet.”

Ethel looked at her nails at this. That did not bode well.

“Ethel… what did you do?” I asked.

“Well, I was digging around and maybe hacked into their system, and maybe they’re totally doing something illegal to be moving that kind of money.”

“So they tracked you down through that?” I asked.

Ethel looked at her nails again. Well, fuck. “Ethel?”

“So they may have made some really racist and homophobic posts on their social media, so Imighthave sent them a dildo. Using their own credit card I hacked so they paid for it.”