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Nolan’s head bobbed, and he shoved the last of his muffin into his mouth. He followed it with a sip of his coffee. “That was my thought.” Leaning forward, he inspected the collection of muffins on the table. With a smirk, Sky presented him with the largest of the chocolate chip muffins.
That earned him a grin big enough to reduce Sky’s heart to a puddle of bubbling goo. How in the world was he supposed to survive being around a man this adorable? That was it. He had to find a way to keep feeding him. Food equaled smiles, and he was determined to collect all of them from Nolan.
“So, a few days ago, I get this weird call from Erik, one of Owen’s oldest friends. The guy is just as shady as my brother. They’ve been roommates on a number of occasions. At least, when they weren’t living with women they’d conned into dating them. Erik always knows what Owen is into.”
“Most likely because he’s doing the same rotten thing as your brother,” Sky muttered as he glanced at the collection of muffins, mentally debating whether he really needed another muffin. Of course, eating another muffin was the sociable thing to do. Yes, he was eating this raspberry muffin to put Nolan at ease.
“Exactly!” Nolan agreed, pointing his butter knife at Sky. “Anyway, Erik calls and says that he hasn’t seen Owen in almost two weeks. He hasn’t heard from him at all. No idea where he is.”
“At least he’s a good friend.”
Nolan snorted. “Hardly. It was getting near the end of the month. He wanted Owen’s half of the rent or the landlord would kick them out. He called me to either find Owen or get me to pay Owen’s part of the rent.”
“Asshole,” Sky mumbled with a mouthful of muffin.
“Pretty much. I didn’t take Erik’s call too seriously. At least, not until I got another call that same night from a woman I didn’t recognize, demanding to know where Owen was.”
“His girlfriend?”
Nolan shook his head. “No way. She sounded…smooth. Cultured. Articulate. Like she had a couple of college degrees and probably spoke six languages. That is not the kind of person my brother dates. Hell, that kind of person wouldn’t give my brother the time of day. It was weird. I told her I hadn’t seen my brother in months. I didn’t know where he was. Just before she ended the call, she said that if I was hiding him, they’d find out and take care of us both.”
Creepy. And likely a vampire on the other end of that call. Not great if they already had Nolan’s cell number. Sky was willing to bet they also knew where he lived. He needed to see about getting some protective warding on Nolan’s place if they didn’t get this Owen problem solved quickly.
“That got me worried about my brother. He’s an idiot, but he’s smart enough to keep to low-level petty crimes. He doesn’t get involved with crime syndicates or shit that forces him to answer to other people.”
“Like an independent contractor. He doesn’t want to have a boss.”
“More like he thinks he’s too good to have anyone bossing him around.” Nolan frowned at the uneaten half of the muffin in front of him and leaned back in his chair. “Whatever. I called his cell that night, and it immediately went to voice mail like he turned his phone off or maybe the battery was dead. I left him a voice mail saying that some woman and Erik were searching for him. We’ve never used that location-sharing software because he doesn’t trust me for shit, so I couldn’t track him that way. The woman calling spooked me, but I’ll admit that I wasn’t too worried. Owen might be an idiot and a criminal, but he’s always been pretty good at looking after himself and getting out of situations.”
Sky put aside his own half-eaten muffin, his stomach twisting up. “What changed your mind?”
“The next day, I ran an errand and I swear, it felt like I was being followed. I dropped some stuff off at the post office and grabbed lunch at this deli. It’s gonna sound stupid, but I swear, it felt like I had eyes on me the entire time. My skin fucking crawled. But when I checked for a car following me or a person, I never spotted them.” The hand resting on the edge of the table tightened into a fist. “This went on for two days. I had a lunch date with my friend and I wanted to cancel but couldn’t. I canceled our last two because of work. She’d be pissed if I bailed again, but I know someone followed me even if I can’t prove it.”
A chill ran through Sky’s veins, wrapping its way around his heart until it felt like icicles were piercing it. “Trust your instincts. If they say you’re being watched, it’s probably true.”
