“Marcus,” Rain growled in his gravelly voice.
Sighing, I cleared my thoughts and focused on the man. “When I got home after my brother passed, she was gone. Ariel claimed to have never seen her mother since she’d left with me in the middle of the night.” I shrugged my shoulders. “What was I supposed to do, hunt her down? I had a dead brother to put in the ground and a seventeen-year-old girl to take care of. I didn’t have the time to go looking for Vivian. I had assumed she’d met another man, probably a richer one, and had run off with him and left Ariel and I both behind. What more do you want from me?”
He leaned over the armrest that separated our seats in a threatening manner. The only reason I took it as a threat is because his body grew visibly tight, like he was ready to fight me at any given second if he had to. His cold, dead eyes never changed a bit. They also hadn’t changed when he’d talked about his sister or his daughter.
“What more do I want from you?” He whispered in a dark voice. “What more do I fucking want from you? I want what that bitch denied me. I want my fucking daughter.”
He stood abruptly and walked away on silent feet. His black trench coat billowed out behind him like a second shadow.
I turned my head back to the screen, not seeing the movie playing in front of me.
Instead, I was planning.
I needed to have a word with Quinton before moving. Quint had to know about Ariel’s dad, I had to tell him everything.
I waited fifteen minutes after Rain left before climbing to my feet and exiting the deserted movie theater.
The urge to run out and find Ariel, kidnap her and go into hiding was strong. I had to shake it off because I knew if I kidnapped her, Quinton’s coven would come after me and they wouldn’t stop until they found us, after that, things would get ugly for me.
I left the movie theater with a ball of dread sitting heavy in my stomach.
If I got in my car now and started driving, I could get there by midafternoon.
I wouldn’t rest until I spoke to Quinton. And, if he couldn’t keep her safe, I would kill him.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I sat up in bed and tried to rub the sleep out of my eyes. I had slept the entire night without waking up once, and, if I had dreamed, I didn’t remember it.
I looked up at the dreamcatcher dangling from the ceiling and smiled.
The smile lived a short life because I noticed the letters and pictures spread out all over the bed. I must have fallen asleep while reading. There had to be years and years worth of letters, and I hadn’t even made it through half of the box yet.
Purring came from the end of the bed and I grinned at Binx who was curled up into a little ball besides my feet.
Yes!
I wanted to jump up and down and cheer.
I had successfully stolen Dash’s cat away from him. And, this had only been my first time staying here. I hoped I could continue to lure Dash’s furry little beast away from him on the daily and maybe, eventually, Binx could turn into my furry little beast. If not, I might have to look into getting one of my own so I wouldn’t have extreme pet jealousy.
Maybe I could see about getting one of those (so ugly, they were cute) hairless cats. They always looked ornery, and their wrinkles were adorable.
I wanted one.
“What do you think, Binx? A little hairless baby to play with? Or, do you think you’d get jealous and hate it for stealing away some of your lovin’? I bet you’d hate it.”
And, I was talking to a cat like I was a freaking crazy person.
There was a light knock on the doo before it was slowly pushed open.
Dash walked into the room wearing only a pair of black and gray pajama pants.
Did he have a thing against wearing shirts when he was at home?
“Hey,” he said. “I heard you talking. Who are you talking to?”
I smiled and pointed towards the foot of the bed towards his traitorous cat.