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And the bloody fools hadn’t sent word to him at the Willows. No. The idiots thought they could find her before Strider found out she was missing.
That had been a week ago. A week and they’d found no trace of her.
Blasted imbeciles.
Why hadn’t she come to him?
The carriage he sat in hit a hard rut in the road and he bounced to the right. Catching himself, he stared down at his hand on the cushions. His knuckles were still split, the blood only starting to scab along the bones from when he’d cracked Egbert’s jaw loose a few hours ago.
Why hadn’t she come to him?
Because she didn’t know where he was, for one.
Because she’d already visited the Den of Diablo only to be turned away.
Because he was nothing but a common thug.
Because he’d left her without a word. Kicked her out of his life.
Because her heart couldn’t take losing him again. She’d said those very words.
How was her heart at the moment?
Strider looked across the carriage at Jasper. “Tell me again what the fishmonger said. Every word.”
Jasper cringed. Slight, but Strider still saw his eyes twitch. “He said the Flagtons’ cook said one day she was there, the next she was gone. The last the cook knew was that MissWillingtonleft for the market toget bread. The breadcame back, but not Miss Willington. She asked the footman that usually trails her when she leaves the house where she was, but he didn’t know anything either. The last he saw her, she was walking into the rear of the townhouse.” Jasper shook his head. “We’ve looked everywhere, Hop. Talked to the footman, talked to the baker. Talked to every vendor, every shop we’ve ever seen her in. No one has seen her since she disappeared into the house.”
Strider swallowed hard, trying not to explode. His arms, his legs, every speck of him wanted to crawl out of his skin. When he’d left Pen inthat coaching inn,he hadn’t been able to stomach the sight of her. Not after what she did.
He needed time away from her. Time to reconcile all that had been lost by her keeping that letter from him.
But the instant he found out she was missing, all he wanted was to see her face. Hold her. Run his hands over every inch of her skin to prove that she was unharmed. The need to do that—above everything else—had become brutally clear. Brutally urgent.
Jasper pointed out the window. “We’re almost there, Hoppler.”
“I bloody well know where it is.”
“I just didn’t know you were aware of its exact location.”
“I sure as hell know it,” he snapped.
Jasper nodded, quiet for a moment. “We’ll find her, Hop.”
Strider glared at him. Glared at him with such fury Jasper looked away, his lips pulling to the side as he suddenly found interest in the passing townhouses.
The carriage slowed and Strider was out the door before it stopped.
The townhouse the Flagtons had rented was nicer than he’d imagined.Wider than the normal townhouse, it was four stories in white stucco with crisp black trim along the windows and door.They had plenty of coin in their pockets to have paid Pen all these years.
He bounded up the front stairs, the side of his fist banging on the door.
A butler with his coat askew opened the door.
Strider didn’t bother with him, pushing past the man and stopping in the small foyer. He glanced down the hall and then up the stairs. “Flagton!” he bellowed, his voice echoing up the staircase.
A man’s head popped out of a room located down the main hallway of the house.
Flagton. He looked just like what Strider remembered of his father, except less bald.Same stringy blond hair. Same beady dark eyes. Same mouth that was too small for his face.
