by Lola Gabriel
They pulled her up the steps, half carrying her. They led her down a hallway and brought her into a room that looked like a large lounge. They pushed her onto the couch and then one of them reached out and grabbed her nose. She made an mmm sound, shaking her head until tears came to her eyes, but he didn’t let go. She opened her mouth to breathe and a bitter-tasting liquid was poured in. The man forced her mouth closed and held it tightly until she had no choice but to swallow so she could breathe again.
As soon as she swallowed, the man released her. Laila tried to get to her feet as the men walked away, but her limbs were too heavy and she couldn’t move. Her eyes slipped closed.
She heard a door opening and then a voice started to whisper in her ear. The voice told her that she had been approached by a man on the street who told her he had something he needed to discuss with her, and that if she came with him with no fuss, she wouldn’t be harmed. As soon as the voice whispered to her, Laila remembered it happening.
She had been heading home from work when a car pulled up beside her. The window had wound down and a man told her he needed to speak to her. He opened his jacket enough for her to see he had a gun and she got into the car. He brought her up into the mountains and asked her to wait in the lounge for a moment. She was afraid, but not terrified. She hadn’t been manhandled or forced to come here, but she knew there was an implication that she might be hurt if she didn’t agree.
Laila’s eyes opened and she looked around the room. She was alone, sitting on a yellow couch. She had thought for a moment that her hands were bound, but of course, they weren’t. She shook her head. It felt a little fuzzy and she wanted to be alert when she found out what the hell this man wanted with her. She thought maybe he had the wrong person.
Laila turned her head when the door opened and a man walked in. It wasn’t the man who had brought her here. He smiled warmly when he saw her.
“Laila, thank you for coming to see me,” he said.
“Who the hell are you?” she demanded, wondering how this complete stranger knew her name.
His smile widened but there was a certain sadness to it.
“Don’t you recognize your own father when you see him?” the man smiled.
6
Cassie picked her cell phone up when it rang. She frowned when she saw the name on her screen. Joan Michaels. She was the mother of one of Cassie’s students. Cassie hoped nothing bad had happened to Luke, her son. He was a sickly child and she decided he had likely picked up a bug or something and the call was just Joan letting her know he wouldn’t be in school tomorrow.
“Hello,” she said, taking the call.
“Hi. This is Joan Michaels, Luke’s mom,” Joan said. “I’m just letting you know the new teacher, what’s her name? Miss Kent? She didn’t turn up for the after-school club. It’s fine, only four children turned up for it, so I’ve taken them back to my place and informed their parents where to collect them from, but I just thought you should know.”
“Oh,” Cassie said, completely thrown by the news. “Well, thank you for stepping in, Joan, and thank you for letting me know. Don’t worry, I’ll find out what happened and I promise you that it won’t happen again.”
“No problem. The teacher is new, isn’t she? She likely just forgot. It must be overwhelming moving to a new place and starting a new job all within a day or two,” Joan said.
“Yes, that’s mostly likely it. I’ll come over to your place and take the kids off your hands,” Cassie said.
“Oh, don’t worry about it. Like I said, there’s only four of them and one of them is Luke. It’s really no problem and it saves calling the other parents again,” Joan insisted.
“If you’re sure, that would be great. Thanks again, Joan,” Cassie said before she ended the call.
It was certainly possible that Laila had gotten a little overwhelmed and forgotten about the after-school club. Wasn’t it? Cassie had meant to come by her classroom and remind her earlier in the day, but it had completely slipped her mind. Cassie decided to walk down to Laila’s place and see if everything was okay, because her forgetting about the club just felt wrong. Laila didn’t seem like she was overwhelmed and she had been really enthusiastic about the club when Cassie had mentioned it to her.
Cassie called out to Stuart, telling him she was going out and she didn’t know how long she would be, and then she slipped out before he could question her further. He already complained that she brought her work home with her, and she could do without a lecture about her going out to speak to the staff after hours. He just didn’t get it. Cassie brought her work home with her because she cared about the children in her school, not because she felt like she had to do it. If she had a staff of forty teachers, she would still do it. It was just the way she was.
She walked to Laila’s place, enjoying the cool breeze that stirred the leaves on the trees. She always liked early spring evenings when it was neither too hot nor too cold. She reached Laila’s place and tapped on the door. No answer. She knocked louder and still got no answer.
She was starting to get a really bad feeling about this, so she moved to the living room window and peered inside. There was no sign of Laila. She went back to the door and opened the letter box, crouching down and peering in.
“Laila?” she called through it.
No reply. There was no jacket on the hooks by the door. No handbag. It didn’t look like Laila had even made it home from school. Cassie knew she could be overreacting. There was every chance Laila had just forgotten about the club and that she had gone out somewhere, but Cassie knew she wouldn’t rest until she knew for sure. She tried calling Laila’s cell phone, but it went straight to voice mail.
She thought for a moment and started heading toward Cedric’s place. She didn’t want to worry him unnecessarily, but if her theory was right and she didn’t tell him, there would be hell to pay. For her and for Laila.
She arrived at Cedric’s place and went in.
“Cedric?” she called.
“In here,” he replied.
She followed the sound of his voice and found him sitting in his home office at his desk.
“What’s up?” he asked, frowning when he saw her expression.
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing. Probably nothing,” she said, sitting down in the chair opposite Cedric’s with a sigh. Now that she was here, she was sure she was overreacting, but she still wasn’t sure enough to not tell Cedric her thoughts. “Laila was supposed to be manning the after-school club tonight, but one of the students’ moms just called me. She didn’t turn up. I’ve been to her place and there’s no sign of her. And I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling about this, Cedric. Do you think it’s possible Fabian took her?”
“Wow, Cassie, that’s some leap. Someone misses a shift at work and you assume she’s been taken by Fabian? What would he want with her?” Cedric frowned.
“What does he want with anyone?” Cassie countered. “Maybe he’s heard that you’re interested in her and he’s using her as bait to lure you in and take you out.”
“Cass, listen to yourself,” Cedric said. “The only people who even know I have taken an interest in Laila are you and Josh. And neither of you has run and told Fabian, have you?”
“Well, I haven’t…” Cassie said, tailing off.
“And neither has Josh,” Cedric finished for her. “You’re not actually suggesting Josh, my best friend, would be working with Fabian behind my back, are you?”
“No,” Cassie said. “Of course not. And like I said, it’s probably nothing, but I really don’t feel good about this, Cedric, and you’re the one who is always telling me to trust my gut instincts.”
“Okay,” Cedric said, standing up. “You’re right, I do say that. Let’s go back to Laila’s place and take a look around, see if we can find any clues as to where she might have gone.”
“How will we do that?” Cassie asked.
“You’re her landlady. Use your key,” Cedric said.
/> “What if she comes home and catches us in there?” Cassie protested as she followed Cedric out of his house and toward Laila’s place.
“Well, hopefully your instincts will kick in and tell us when she’s on her way,” Cedric grinned.
Cassie opened her mouth to tell Cedric off for mocking her, but she closed it again when she saw Gretel, one of the pack, hurrying toward them. Gretel’s expression looked grim.
“I was just on my way to your place, Cedric,” she said. “I was just down at the store and old Mavis Tierney approached me. She looked freaked out and I asked her what was wrong. She said she saw a woman being dragged into a car. I quizzed her and it was one of Fabian’s cars. Don’t worry, I gave Mavis some water under the pretense of calming her down and I slipped a little memory potion in it so she won’t remember seeing anything untoward, but I think Fabian has taken someone and people are going to notice someone is missing. We can’t wipe the whole town’s memories.”
Cassie and Cedric exchanged a glance and Cedric turned back to Gretel.
“Did Mavis know the person who was taken?” he asked.
“No,” Gretel said. “She didn’t recognize her. She said she had long, blonde hair. Curly hair, I think she said.”
“Thank you, Gretel. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it,” Cedric said.
Gretel nodded and began to walk away. Cedric glanced at Cassie and started walking, now heading in the direction of Main Street and the mountains behind it.
“Don’t even think about saying I told you so,” he said.
“I wasn’t going to,” Cassie said, running a few steps to catch up with Cedric, who was moving with a lot more urgency now. “What are you going to do? You can’t go up there alone to fight Fabian. He has guys up there that are loyal to him. You know that.”
“I’m not going to fight him. I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse,” Cedric said. “Don’t ask me what the offer is because I don’t know yet, but I’ll work it out on the way up there.”
“I’m coming with you,” Cassie said instantly. “And don’t even think about arguing with me. You might be our leader, but you’re still my brother and that means I get to have a say when your safety is at risk.”
Cedric did want to argue with Cassie. Fabian was damned dangerous and he didn’t want Cassie getting mixed up with the dark side of their species, not because of him, but he knew it was pointless to argue with her. Alpha or not, when Cassie’s mind was made up, she didn’t take orders from anyone.
They walked in silence, both of them lost in their own thoughts as they headed toward the mountains. Cedric had debated going back for his car, but he figured it might be better to be able to sneak up on the castle and have a scout around before his presence there was noticed and there was no way he could do that in his car.
Although he was angry with Fabian for taking Laila, and worried about her safety, he was also a bit excited. The fairies of Greer all knew that Fabian occasionally dabbled a bit as a Matchmaker, and if he had an interest in Laila, that could well mean that she had Sanmere in her blood. That could only be a good thing, assuming he could get her back before Fabian sold her off to the highest bidder. He figured he could. She hadn’t been missing long and Fabian would have to find a buyer for her and have them get to the castle to collect her, which could take time. Unless he already had a buyer up there waiting for her. Cedric refused to listen to that thought. It was too much for him to even bear thinking about.
“You know, I’m starting to think it’s time we did something about Fabian’s presence here,” Cassie said from beside him, pulling him back out of his thoughts at just the right moment to cut off the voice of doubt in his head. “This Matchmaking thing is sick, and I hate having him so close to us. And if anyone ever gives our secret away, it’ll be him. Like Gretel said, we can’t wipe the memories of the whole town, and sooner or later, Fabian is going to take someone that makes people sit up and take notice. That means cops. And that means IDs, real ones, which none of us have.”
As much as Cedric wanted to dismiss Cassie’s worries as pointless, he knew she was right. The humans in Greer already had a legend about a castle in the mountains where a dark fae lived. A dark fae who took women. In the story, he kept them a prisoner in his castle rather than selling them, but it still wasn’t good that they knew so much. And if that story got into the hands of the police, Cedric knew it wouldn’t be good. They wouldn’t believe it at first—who would?—but all it took was one immortal on the force who gave the theory a bit of thought and looked into it. It wouldn’t lead to Cedric or the pack being arrested, but it wouldn’t bode well for him as an alpha that he had a Matchmaker right on his doorstep and he hadn’t taken care of it yet.
And then there was Laila. He wasn’t entirely sure he could convince her to keep all of this quiet, even if he managed to rescue her. That would mean using a memory potion on her, and the thought of tampering with the mind of someone his fae recognized as his mate was almost unthinkable to him.
“Yeah, you’re right,” he admitted. “Let’s sort out this thing with Laila, and then we’ll talk to the pack and come up with a way to rid Greer of Fabian’s influence once and for all.”
7
Laila’s jaw dropped when the man before her tried to claim he was her father. She didn’t know what she had really been expecting him to say, but it most definitely hadn’t been that.
“You look surprised,” he smiled.
“I’m surprised you think I would be stupid enough to fall for that,” Laila said, forgetting for a moment that this man could well be dangerous. “My father died when I was just a baby. So why don’t you tell me what you really want with me?”
“Your father died when you were a baby, huh? Is that what Polly told you?” the man smiled.
Laila’s heart skipped a beat.
“How do you know my mother’s name? Or my name, for that matter?” she asked.
The man sighed and sat down on a chair opposite where Laila sat.
“I know your name because you are my daughter, Laila. And I know Polly’s name because she’s the one who stole you away from me. I’m Fabian, by the way. I think it’s only fair you should know my name when I know yours, don’t you?” Fabian said.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Laila demanded, ignoring his introduction.
Polly had stolen her? Fabian was clearly mentally ill or something.
“Polly posed as a midwife and got quite friendly with my wife, your actual mother,” Fabian explained. “Your mother went into labor while I was at work in the town. Polly didn’t bother to call me. And by the time I came home from work, your mother was dead, murdered on the very bed she gave birth on. And you were gone. I always wondered what your mother thought of me for not being there for your birth. If Polly pretended she had called me and I just never showed up. But in the big scheme of things, that was the least of my worries.
“I called the police, of course, but by then, hours might have passed for all I knew. The police never found Polly, and in the end, they closed the investigation. I hired a private investigator of my own. He was able to find out that Polly was never a midwife. Before she moved to Greer, she had lost a child of her own. Stillborn. I believe she took you as her replacement child. She was clearly mentally ill. It gave me hope in a way, though—it meant she wasn’t likely to hurt you and that meant I still might be able to find you and bring you home with me.
“The private investigator found out that your birth had been registered, and that your name was Laila Kent. And that was it. He couldn’t find hide nor hair of Polly, and in the end, I had to accept that you weren’t to be found. I never gave up hope, though. Not fully.”
“And what? I turned up here and you just assumed I was your prodigal daughter for no apparent reason?” Laila asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Not quite,” Fabian smiled. “I saw you on Sunday. You were coming out of the library. I did a double-take when I saw you. It was like your m
other had come back to life and not aged a day. I told myself it had to be a coincidence how much you looked like her, because the chances of you ending up here of all places was so small as to be impossible. But I couldn’t let go of the idea that you could be my daughter. In the end, I called my private investigator again, Alan, the man who brought you here today, and he confirmed that you were indeed Laila Kent and that you were the same Laila Kent who had been registered as born to Polly Kent.”
Laila took a moment to try to process everything he was telling her. She wanted to just dismiss it as nonsense. As if Polly wasn’t her real mother! As if Polly had killed a woman and stolen her baby! It was absurd. But there seemed to be something genuine about the way Fabian spoke, something that felt like there was a certain truth in his words.
He reached into his pocket and Laila flinched. Fabian didn’t seem to notice. He pulled his hand back out of his pocket holding a wallet. He opened it and smiled sadly into it. He turned back to Laila. It was like he had forgotten she was there for a moment.
“I know this all sounds crazy, but seriously, take a look at this picture and tell me I’m wrong,” Fabian said.
He handed Laila his wallet, opened to a photograph. Laila felt a shudder of fear run through her.
“Why do you have a photograph of me in your wallet?” she asked.
God, he’s some sort of crazed stalker type, she thought to herself. But he didn’t seem crazy. He seemed rational. Normal.
“You see it, then,” he smiled. “You must if you think that’s a photograph of you. Look at the photo again, Laila. Look at the background of it.”
Laila did as he said, simply because she didn’t know what else to do. Her eyes widened when she saw the castle she was in right now in the background of the picture. She studied the woman carefully and now she saw a few subtle differences. Her eyes were brown, not blue. And she was a couple of inches taller than Laila. She looked up at Fabian and he smiled again.