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I restrained another growl. “You really don’t want to fuck with me today.”
“Because Lou’s gone? Do you think you’re going to find her in a hedge?”
If he hadn’t caught me so off-guard, I might have grabbed him and slammed him into the concrete wall of the building behind him. Instead, I froze.
Rafael didn’t have the same problem. He must have come up behind me while we’d talked—he definitely caught that last remark.
The bodyguard barreled past me and snatched Quentin by the front of his white tee, jerking him within reach of his balled fist. “Tell us what you know—now, before I have to start breaking bones you’d rather keep whole.”
Quentin flinched but kept his chin up. To my annoyance, I had to respect his composure in the face of Rafael’s threat, just a little.
“All right, all right,” he said tersely. “I was going to tell you about it anyway. I just wasn’t sure— I came by to see Lou this morning. I wanted the chance to talk to her without the three of you hovering around her like vultures.”
I rolled my eyes at the description, my own hands balling. “Talk to her about what?”
“That’s none of your fucking business.” Quentin’s shoulders hunched slightly, but I couldn’t tell whether it was the subject of their conversation that he was uncomfortable with or what he had to say next. “After we had our chat, I made to leave, but I wanted to see what she’d do. So I stuck around over here where she wouldn’t notice me.”
Niko had come over to join us too. He knit his brow. “You know you sound like a stalker, don’t you?”
Quentin glowered at him. “It wasn’t anything likethat. And you should be glad I did, because I saw what happened next.”
Rafael gave his shirt another menacing tug. “And what was that?”
“A car showed up right after. A woman got out and walked over to Lou.” Quentin’s mouth twisted. “Lou obviously wasn’t happy to see her. It looked like they were arguing, but quietly. I couldn’t hear them from over here. Finally, Lou went over to the car with her and they drove away. But I don’t think she wanted to go. She didn’t even go back to the apartment to get any of her things.”
Rafael swore under his breath and relaxed his hold on Quentin. “Describe the woman. What did she look like?”
Quentin tilted his head as he thought back. “Middle-aged, thin, long dark hair. Stylish clothes. Like she was on her way to some high-class business meeting. It was weird.”
I could tell from Rafael’s expression that this was not good. He raked his fingers back over his black coils and sucked a breath through his teeth with a hiss. “God fucking damn it.”
Quentin focused on him. “You know her? Lou seemed to—not in a good way.”
“No, it’s incredibly fucking bad.” Rafael turned away from him to face me and Niko. “That’s got to be Mireya—Lou’s mom. You know everything Lou told you about her. And that’s only a bit of it. If she’s got her claws into Lou again, there’s no way she’s letting her go. She figures Loubelongsto her.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Doesn’t she care at all what Lou wants?”
Rafael shook his head. “What Mireya wants, she sees that she gets. And she wants an heir, not a figure-skating sensation. She’s already killed to try to ensure she’s got Lou under her thumb.”
A chill sank into my skin, sharper than the late autumn air. “What the hell are we going to do?”
Niko shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “She’ll have taken her back to Austin, then?”
“Most likely,” Rafael said. “That’s her base of operations.”
I grimaced. “No point in sending a text or making a call, I guess. We know her mom’s gotten control over her phone.”
Quentin cleared his throat. “I don’t know anything about this woman, but we’re going to go to Austin and get Lou back, aren’t we?”
I swung toward him. “We?How the hell do you figure you’re any part of this situation, Wolfe?”
He glared back at me. “I figure I’m the person who told you how to find Lou in the first place. If she’s in trouble, I want to help get her out of it.”
A harsh laugh tore from my throat. I could barely believe what I was hearing. “Are you for real? After everything you’ve put Lou and me through? I have no idea what you’re playing at now, but you can fuck off.”
“If I’d done that to begin with, you’d have no idea what happened to her.”
“Great. Now you’ve gotten to lord that over us. If you imagine you haveanyright to weasel your way into some rescue mission when I know you’d rather spit on us than—”
