“Do you think it was Shane’s brothers?” I asked as I flipped our grilled cheeses over again.
“I do. I don’t think they were after Tate either,” Eli insisted. His voice had turned cold, causing fear to clench my gut. I had a feeling I knew what he’d say next. “I think they were after you, Mina.”
All the breath left my lungs. I shifted to face the stove, not wanting him to see the panic I was feeling reflected on my face. My eyes unfocused as I thought back to the sensation of someone watching me multiple times during the night and Ridley’s warning. “Do you think that’s what Ridley was trying to tell me? That Shane’s brothers were in the woods, waiting for an opportunity to abduct me?”
“It seems likely.” Fury rippled from him. It pressed against me, heating my skin.
I left the stove and placed as much distance between Eli and me as his small kitchen would allow while I searched for a can opener. A rusted one in the last drawer was all I found. Eli grabbed the can of soup before I could, and pulled the tab up on the top I hadn’t noticed. It popped open and he handed it to me. The scent of tomatoes and basil wafted to my nose. It was a familiar scent. One that should bring me comfort but didn’t.
Suddenly, I wasn’t hungry.
I dumped the soup into the heated pot. The more I thought about Tate being tranquilized, the more I wondered why I was still here. Why hadn’t they taken me once he was out of the way?
“After they took out Tate, why didn’t they come for me? I mean, if getting me was the plan all along, then leaving me behind doesn’t make sense.” As I said this, all I could think about was how Shane had been nice and too happy all night. Almost as though he’d been celebrating something…like me being abducted.
What an ass.
“I don’t know. That’s the one part I don’t understand.” Eli smoothed a hand along his jawline. The scratchy sound of his stubble found its way to my ears. “Maybe the tranquilizer was meant for you, but when they spotted Tate, they felt forced to use it on him instead. Could be you never gave them a good time to take you without it.”
I reached for a couple of paper plates from the cabinet near the stove and pulled the sandwiches off the heat.
“Maybe,” I whispered. “Or it could’ve been because I didn’t get as hammered as everyone else and neither did Ridley.”
“Hammered? You were drinking?” The edge to his words sent my stomach somersaulting.
“Shane brought a cooler of beer with him. We were all drinking. I didn’t have as much as everyone else, but the guys got smashed. Becca too. Ridley and I were the only ones who didn’t get shit-faced.” I found two Styrofoam bowls next to the paper plates and spooned the warm soup into them. “Even though Tate was in the woods, I was still worried something might happen, especially after Ridley’s warning, so I didn’t drink much.”
“You got drunk. In the woods. At night. With Shane in your presence.” He accentuated his words as though I were a small child being scolded.
I folded my arms across my chest and held his gaze. “No, I didn’t get drunk. Tipsy, sort of. It went away after I saw Violet in the woods, though. I was sober most of the night.”
Shit, Violet. I’d forgotten all about her.
“Doesn’t matter if you were sober. My point is, you drank alcohol in the woods with Shane after everything you know.”
“I think it does matter. Not being hammered like everyone else was what saved my ass.”
“How did it save you?” Eli growled.
“They probably thought I’d get drunk and fall asleep. I’m sure the tranquilizer was so I’d stay asleep during transport to wherever they planned to take me. Seeing Tate in the woods botched their plan. They were forced to use it on him instead, and since I wasn’t as drunk as they’d hoped, they were forced to leave me. So, yeah. Not being hammered saved me.”
Eli didn’t speak for a while. Neither of us did. My mind had circled back through the night, and all I could think about was Violet.
“What happened to Violet? Did Tate make sure she went home?” I asked.
“No.” Eli shook his head. “He never got to say anything to her. He didn’t even know she was in the woods last night when I talked to him earlier.”
“Didn’t you send him a message letting him know that she was?”
“I did, but he was in wolf form while watching you. He didn’t get my message until this morning.”
“So, he never made sure she got out of the woods safely?”
Eli’s eyes lifted to lock with mine. The same level of concern I felt was reflected in them. “No. He didn’t.”
My heart kick-started inside my chest. “What if she never made it back? What if they decided instead of taking me, they’d take her? Maybe it had nothing to do with me not being drunk enough. Maybe they spotted her. A young, female wolf. Alone. They’d already taken out Tate. What if they took her, Eli?”
Deep down, I already knew the answer to my question. It caused the blood in my veins to run cold.
Violet had been abducted in my place.
10
“Let’s not jump ahead of ourselves,” Eli insisted. “First, we need to find out if she came home last night.”
“And what do we do if she didn’t?” I asked. It was time we let his dad know what was going on. Violet was only sixteen. She was a kid.
“We’ll figure it out when we cross that bridge,” Eli said as he took a bite of his grilled cheese.
I couldn’t believe he was eating at a time like this. I wouldn’t be able to do anything until I knew whether Violet was safe. “Let’s swing by her place and see if she’s there.”
“Right now? Okay, sure.” He dusted his hands off on his shorts, sending buttered crumbs flying through the air, and headed toward his front door. “Let’s go see if she’s home, then.”
My heart pounded against my rib cage as I followed after him. Before I reached the door my cell buzzed with a new text. It was from Gracie.
Callie just called me. Violet didn’t come home last night. No one has seen her since yesterday afternoon. I’m going over to sit with her. Gran left to pick Dad up from somewhere. Let her know I’m probably spending the night with Callie, okay?
I reread Gracie’s text, focusing on the sentence where she said Violet didn’t come home last night. Dizziness swept through me. I gripped Eli’s shirt to steady myself.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as he paused and glanced over his shoulder at me.
“That was Gracie. Violet didn’t come home last night. No one has seen her since yesterday afternoon. She’s missing,” I whispered.
The floor beneath me spun as my heartbeat continued to thunder in my ears. I released my grip on Eli and thought I might crumble to the floor.
Violet had been abducted. She’d been taken in my place.
Eli shifted to face me. His hand gripped my hips as he pulled me into him. My skin tingled where his hands touched me.
“We still don’t know she was taken by Shane and his brothers. We have reason to suspect, don’t get me wrong, but we don’t know for sure,” he insisted.
“Are you kidding me? What more do you need?” I maneuvered my way out of his grasp. Why didn’t he just call a spade a spade? We both knew who’d taken her.
Eli ran a hand through his hair. “It’s time we take this to my dad. I’m sure Violet’s parents have already let him know she’s missing, but in order to find her as soon as possible, he’ll need to know everything we do.”
A lump formed in my throat. Would we be reprimanded for keeping so much information to ourselves? I forced the thought away before it could truly take hold. It didn’t matter. Not now. Violet was missing. Glenn was missing. Who would go missing next if we didn’t say something?
“Let’s head to my parents’ place. We need to tell my dad before he sends out anyone to search for her.” Eli exited through the front door. Thick, humid air wafted inside the trailer. It smothered all the cool air inside, making my skin feel sticky with swe
at instantly.
I started through the door behind him, taking my time on the wooden steps because my legs felt like Jell-O since learning Violet was missing. Eli reached for my hand. His fingers intertwined with mine, and the familiar rush of electricity I always seemed to feel at his touch flowed across my skin. The sensation rolled over me like a sedative.
Neither of us spoke as we started toward his parents’ trailer. Guilt ate at me from not having made sure Violet had gone home after I spotted her in the woods. I could have done something. I was there.
When we were nearly at his parents’ front door, Eli glanced at me. His hand squeezed mine. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll get Violet back. She’ll be fine.”
“I hope you’re right,” I said.
I paused once we reached his parents’ porch and messaged Gracie back, letting her know I’d tell Gran where she was. I also mentioned how sorry I was to hear about Violet.
“Ready?” Eli asked as he stepped onto their porch.
I shoved my cell into my back pocket and nodded.
Eli rapped his knuckles on the door twice before turning the knob. I climbed the stairs and stepped in behind him, my body a bundle of nerves.
A shiver slipped through me. The place was like an icebox. Cold air blasted through the vent above where I stood. Eli stepped farther into the living room and I followed. My flip-flops slapped against the laminate wood floors as I walked.
“Hey, honey,” Eli’s mom’s soft voice floated to my ears. “To what do we owe the pleasure of this surprise visit?”
June Vargas was a sweet woman in her mid-fifties who was absolutely stunning. She was short and slender with dark hair down to her waist. It was her bright green eyes each of the Vargas boys had inherited.
“Hey, Mama,” Eli said in a voice that sent goose bumps prickling across my skin. He was a mama’s boy at heart. I could tell from the way he talked to her, and I thought it was the sweetest thing ever.
“Is that little Mina Ryan behind you?” Mrs. Vargas peeked around Eli to get a better look at me. “How have you been, sugar? That daddy of yours doing okay?”
“Hi, Mrs. Vargas. I’ve been good. And yeah, Dad is okay.” I stepped around Eli so she could see me better. She sat on the couch, folding clothes while the TV played softly in the background. From the few seconds I’d heard, it sounded like a daytime soap opera.
“That’s good. What about your grandmother? She doing all right?” Her hands continued to fold laundry as her gaze remained on me.
I nodded and tucked a few strands of hair behind my ear. “She’s good.”
“That garden of hers still doing well? I thought I saw your sister out there last week with her. I just love that Gracie likes to garden. It’s so sweet.”
“Gran’s garden is her pride and joy. She’s out there every chance she gets,” I insisted. “And Gracie does like it. She soaks up Gran’s knowledge whenever she can.”
A wide smile stretched across Mrs. Vargas’s face. “That’s good. Hobbies are good things to have. They keep people out of trouble.” She reached for a fluffy towel and folded it in half. “So, what are the two of you stopping by for?” Her eyes shifted from me to Eli.
“We have something pack related to share with Dad. Is he around?” Eli asked.
“He is. He’s in the back bedroom. Let me get him for you.” She laid the towel she’d folded on top of the stack beside her and stood to walk toward the back of the trailer. Her footsteps made little noise across the laminate flooring when she started down the hall.
“You can sit down if you want.” Eli motioned to a recliner. “I’ll do all the talking.”
“Okay.” I stepped toward the recliner, deciding I had no qualms about him doing all the talking.
“He’ll be out in a second. Let him finish up with the call he’s on,” Mrs. Vargas said as she positioned herself in the same spot on the couch from before and resumed folding clothes. “He’s been so busy lately. I don’t know what’s going on, but it must be serious. He’s been under a tremendous amount of stress. I’m presuming whatever the two of you have to say is going to add to it, am I right?” Her gaze drifted between the two of us.
“Yeah, but I don’t have any choice,” Eli said.
“Oh, lord. I’m not mad at you. All I’m saying is he’s been under a lot of stress lately. I’m hoping everything will mellow out again soon.”
“It will. It always does,” Eli insisted.
“I know.” She sighed. “He’s getting too old for this, though. I keep telling him he needs to give the alpha responsibilities to you. The man needs to retire. He needs a dang break.” Her full lips twisted into a frown as the area between her brows creased with worry. “You’re old enough to handle everything. Heck, you’re a year older than he was when he took over for his father. He’s such a control freak sometimes.”
I pretended I was invisible. Never had so much pack information been said in front of me before. Being privy to it felt like I’d invaded their privacy somehow. I forced my eyes to take in the inside of their trailer. It had been years since I’d been inside.
The last time cream-colored wallpaper had decorated the living room walls. I remembered it had tiny blue and pink flowers on it. I wasn’t sure if it had come with the trailer or if it had been something Mrs. Vargas had added to give the place a touch of femininity. While I wasn’t a fan of wallpaper, it had been nice. Now, it was gone, though. Soothing gray walls were in its place. The beige carpet I remembered had been ripped up and replaced by light colored laminate. Even the kitchen cabinets seemed to have undergone a makeover from where I sat. Instead of the dark wood they used to be they’d been painted a smoky blue.
“You’ve done so much to the place since the last time I was here,” I said once I realized everyone had lapsed into silence.
“Thank you.” Mrs. Vargas smiled. “It’s been a labor of love for years. We’ve had the storage shed outside slap full of things Wesley’s picked up from carpentry jobs over the years. I finally got him to put some of the items to good use.” She finished folding the dishrag she held and stood. “Come look at this bathroom. It’s the only room in the house we’ve completely finished.”
I stood and followed her down the narrow hall.
“The last time I was here, I remember the cream-colored wallpaper you had with the blue and pink flowers. This gray looks great, though. I love the color.”
“Thank you. I think it makes the whole place look bigger.” She swung open the third door on the left. I’d never been this far into the Vargas trailer. In fact, I’d never made it past the kitchen and living room area. “We finished this room a couple weekends ago. I don’t know if you ever saw it before, but everything in here was a god-awful pink. The sink, the toilet, the bathtub. It looked like somebody vomited Pepto all over the darn room.”
I wasn’t surprised. Some of the trailers Bobby rented out where what some would call vintage. I called them ugly. Thank goodness Gran’s trailer hadn’t been one of them. It was decent. Not completely updated on the inside but decent.
“This looks great,” I said as I took in the small room. The walls had been painted a light coffee color that matched the tile in the shower and the light-colored flooring made the room seem larger than what it was. There was a rustic farmhouse vibe I found appealing. “I love those wire baskets on the wall.”
“I found them at a thrift shop in town and painted them myself.”
“Crafty.”
Male voices sounded from the living room. Our alpha seemed to have finished his phone call. Suddenly, I found it hard to breathe.
“Oh, sounds like Wesley finished his call,” Mrs. Vargas said as she closed the bathroom door and started back down the hall. I followed after her, my nervousness coming back full force.
“I know I should come by more often,” I heard Eli say as we stepped into the living room.
“Dinner once a week with you would be nice,” Mr. Vargas insisted as he positioned himself in the recline
r I’d been sitting in previously.
I couldn’t believe Eli had let me sit in his dad’s chair.
Mr. Vargas’s eyes bypassed his wife and flicked to me as I stepped to Eli’s side. The corners of his lips twisted upward.
“Mina,” he greeted me. His rich voice rumbled through the trailer, bouncing off the thin walls and causing my heart to pound ferociously inside my chest. So much power emanated from him. “How have you been?”
“I’ve been well,” I said, trying my damnedest to hold his gaze. “Thank you.”
“Good, and I presume your family is doing well also?”
“Yes, sir.”
Mr. Vargas’s eyes shifted back to Eli. “Then to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”
Eli cleared his throat. “Have you heard about Violet Marshal?”
“What about her?” From his tone, it was clear he knew something but he wasn’t willing to give away any details.
“Did you know she’s been missing since yesterday?” Eli asked.
Mr. Vargas nodded. Sadness drooped his expression and weighed down his shoulders. “Yes, her parents came to me early this morning with the news. Do either of you know anything about her disappearance?”
“Unfortunately, we do.” Eli scratched the back of his neck while I shifted on my feet. “We have reason to believe there are poachers abducting wolves from the pack.”
“What led you to believe this?” he asked.
Eli glanced at me and then back to his father before speaking again. I wasn’t sure if he was checking to see if I wanted to tell his dad what I’d found in the woods, or if he was making sure I was still breathing. When I barely acknowledged him, he continued talking. “Mina has seen some interesting things in the woods lately. She thought she witnessed Glenn in wolf form running through the woods the night he disappeared. A couple of days later, she stumbled upon an area in the woods that looked as though a struggle had taken place. There was blood on the ground and some scratch marks.”
“Did you see the area where a struggle happened with your own eyes?” Mr. Vargas asked Eli. He wasn’t calling me a liar but instead seemed to be making sure there was a witness for what I’d seen all the same.
Mirror Lake Wolves 02 - Moon Hunted Page 8