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“Chance! Clio is about to drop your second child any day, and you said that?” Bunny blurted, entering the bar. She walked past the big man and smacked him around the head.
“Hey, at least I didn’t do what Bear did!” Chance exclaimed indignantly.
Bunny and I both turned on Bear, and the walking mountain ducked.
“Bear,” Bunny growled.
“Told Thalia that when she had her back to me, I couldn’t tell she was pregnant,” Bear admitted.
I puzzled that over.
Chance hitched an eyebrow.
“And then said Thalia looked like she swallowed a beach ball, and her stomach announced her arrival before her body,” Bear muttered. My jaw fell open as Bunny climbed onto a stool and whacked Bear twice. “Earned that,” Bear agreed.
Magic was staring over my shoulder through the windows at something in the car park. I wondered what he was watching and rose to my tiptoes. What I saw out there made me freeze in horror, and then I sank to the floor in terror. Shaking, I clutched Magic’s leg as I heard the door open.
“Good morning, fellow brothers,” a man said as I huddled on the floor.
My mind scrambled, and then I yanked out the blue bin that held empty bottles and crawled into its space.
“What do you want? We ain’t your type of establishment,” Magic demanded, ignoring social niceties. No, we weren’t.
Just from the brief glance, they were wearing cream linen slacks, with a white tunic over the top and a patch over their right breast stating their rank. I knew they would both be wearing simple loafers on their feet too. Those two stood out a mile away and didn’t belong here.
“We’ll get down to business. Have you seen this woman? It’s a picture of her when she was younger, but you can see her features well enough,” the Fifth Minister sought. His voice was smooth and calming, and I shook upon hearing it again.
“Could I see?” Bunny urged. “No, not seen her around, and she’s so beautiful that I’d have taken note.”
“Who is she?” Chance asked, taking the picture.
No, don’t give me up!I silently begged.
“Poor Alexis was a member of our church. She was injured in an accident and retained a head injury. Alexis became unstable and fled one night. We thought she was dead… until nearly two weeks ago. There was a report on a local wildfire and a scene where a missing boy was reunited with his parents. It was a report from two months ago, but one of our members caught it in a documentary about wildfires.
“The Black Hills fire was mentioned, and we caught sight of Alexis in the background. We have a screenshot, but that’s Alexis, just older. Our church would like to bring her home to her father, who is frantic with worry. The man hasn’t stopped searching for her,” the Fifth Minister replied.
Is that the lie they’d fabricated?
“Oh, that poor little girl. How awful,” Bunny expressed in a sad voice.
“That’s a shame when a family splits,” Chance drawled.
Oh no, he was going to buy the story.
“Ain’t sure that is her,” Magic announced, squinting at the image.
“Well, she’s older now, but have you seen her around?” the second man asked. I didn’t recognise his voice.
“Nah, dude, she doesn’t work here, and she ain’t local,” Magic replied.
“We’d have noticed a fine piece of ass like that,” Diesel stated in a tone that made me cringe.
“Please show some respect. Alexis is a very sick girl. When Alexis was little, she had an extremely vivid imagination. I can’t bear to think what’s going through her mind now,” Fifth Minister chided.
“Dude, girl ain’t from here, so got no idea,” Magic drawled. My magical man!
“Well, Alexis is serving food there, so someone must know her,” the other guy challenged.
