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“Scared little rabbit.”
“Do you still see her that way now?”
“God, no. Little rabbit might have stuck as my pet name for her, but now I know her and have a basic understanding of what she’s gone through—alone, for the majority of it—she isn’t prey, Con. She’s a fucking opossum, playing dead to protect herself when she thinks she can’t win a fight, but back her into a corner, give her no option but to fight, and I believe she’d be magnificent as she ripped someone’s throat out.”
“She’s a long way from knocking anyone out, but I agree that she’s infinitely more than what she puts on show.” Connie patted his shoulder, then rose. “The fact that you can see that, that you have the confidence to encourage her to embrace that, is reason number six on the long list of reasons why I set you up, Saul. Think about that.”
Saul filed it away for later. As he checked his watch again, he found that eight minutes had passed since Caera made her escape to the bathroom. He didn’t care if she had a bladder like an elephant’s, it didn’t take eight minutes to pee.
He tapped his fingers on his knee. She’d had a lot of information thrown at her tonight, he reminded himself irritably. She’d been given the gift of a brother she hadn’t known existed and confirmed that her potential lover was a kinky bastard, all at the end of a very trying and difficult day.
Maybe he should let her take some time to herself. He’d become used to acting as a buffer between her and pain. Was that a good thing? Or was he making things worse for her by keeping the bad shit at arm’s length?
What doesn’t kill her will make her stronger.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t believe that she was emotionally strong enough right now to handle everything that was happening in her life. It was one thing after another in quick succession, and he knew people who’d gone through that same gunfire experience—bam, bam, bam—and stumbled. Fallen.
Finally, he couldn’t ignore the feeling of dread any longer. Prepared to grovel for his impatience, Saul marched from the room, swinging left.
The bathroom door was wide open—he could see it from where he stood.
“Fuck.” He charged forward, almost running as he reached the room, slamming his hands against the jambs. Empty. Panicked, he called Caera’s name, waiting for an answer that didn’t come.
One by one, he checked the other rooms—master bedroom, office, and guest room—before spinning around with the intention of searching the kitchen. His heart seized when he saw Caera’s sneakers were gone, and the front door was open—barely noticeable, but definitely ajar.
“Saul, you okay out here?” Thane limped into the hallway.
“She’s gone.” Saul bulled past his friend, slamming his feet into his boots and yanking the door open. “Fuck, where the fuck would she go?”
“Slow down. Less fucks, more thinking. Constance!”
He didn’t have time to wait for strategic thinking and game plans. Caera was out there, in the dark, alone. She didn’t know the neighborhood, and God knew how far she would get on foot. If she crossed out of the nice family-orientated part of town, where the hell would she end up, and who would she meet?
She couldn’t fight—not long enough or hard enough to repel an attacker.
Shit, she was tall but lightweight—anyone could just pick her up and carry her off.
“What’s going on? Are you going somewhere already, Saul?”
“Caera bolted.” Thane explained, sounding a lot saner than Saul felt.
“Christ. Well, she can’t have gone far. She’s on foot, she doesn’t know the area, and her lead time is…what, ten minutes?”
“Fifteen.” Saul shook Thane’s hand off his arm as his friend tried to hold him back. “Is there a park around here? Somewhere quiet, secluded?”
“There’s a play area a couple of blocks away, but I doubt she knows where it is. She’s not from this part of town, Saul, she’s used to the hustle of city life.” Connie frowned, thinking hard. “None of us should be over the driving limit. We split up, we each take a car and go look for her.”
“She’s used to the city, but she prefers the cabin,” he replied, scanning the darkness outside as though she might appear beneath one of the glowing street lights. “Caera won’t head for the lights, Con. She wants to get lost in the dark.”
They exchanged a worried glance.
“She won’t do anything stupid,” Connie assured him, although she didn’t sound too sure of herself. “There is so much for her to look forward to, even if it is mixed up with her past. We’ll find her, Saul.”
“Find who?” Jasper demanded, joining the trio with Anarchy tucked under his arm.
“Your kid sister freaked out and ran,” Thane told him, then grunted when Connie elbowed him in the stomach. “Can’t summarize it any more concisely than that, sugar. Not saying I blame the girl, but it’s what’s happened, so we need to deal with it before she finds herself in trouble.”
Itching to do just that, Saul flipped them off. “I’m done talking.”
