“You’re positive?” she asked, surprised by his quick answer.
“One hundred percent. This one smells like a particularly nasty fucker too.”
* * *
“How can you tell?”she asked, genuinely curious about his abilities.
“I can smell his anger and hate. Also, his fear,” Adam explained. “This shifter is dangerous and will likely be unpredictable at best. I need to spend a little time here, by myself, to see what else I can pick up.”
“Is that how it works for you? The more time you spend around the scent, the more you pick up?” Gerri asked.
“Something like that.” Adam couldn’t really explain his ability because he didn’t know exactly how it worked or what triggered it. The more time he spent around someone’s scent, the more questions he had.
As the questions flittered through his mind, images seemed to appear out of the blue, answering the questions he had. Sometimes, he would see exactly what the fates wanted him to see. Other times, he would only get partial flashes.
“Well, I’ll let you do your thing.” Gerri handed him two sets of keys. “This is the key to the apartment. I had a copy made for you. And this is the key to the SUV parked right outside in the visitor space. Let me know if you find anything out or need any help. I do have friends around here who would be willing to help any way they can.”
“Thanks for everything you’ve already done. I’ll let you know as soon as I know anything.” He watched as Gerri offered him a kind smile then she turned to leave.
As soon as the door clicked closed behind her, he got to work. The thing he didn’t tell Gerri was that he was afraid that he was already too late. His heart sank, and his anxiety ratcheted up tenfold.
“Concentrate,” he said to himself, trying to fight the panic racing through his veins. No matter what, he had to find her. And soon.
Sucking in a deep breath, Adam closed his eyes and focused on the shifter’s scent. Images of the man filtered into his brain. The man was tall with greasy black hair and a patchy, uneven goatee. He was thin. Not a muscular lean, but a methhead, skinny with open sores over his face and more than half of his crooked and rotten teeth missing. He sported several prison tattoos on his face and arms, along with several gang-specific images.
He had no idea what connection the man had to Joy or what the hell he even wanted with her. None of this made any sense to him.
The image of a rickety old trailer surrounded by swamps filled his mind. The image of Joy shackled to a bed and passed out cold followed the first. His bear banged around in his brain, trying to break free, demanding they rescue their mate.
After a few minutes of different images flashing in his thoughts, a street sign popped into his mind, telling him exactly where he needed to go. It was the exact information he had been searching for. Adam yanked his phone from his pocket and pulled up the street name. He set Joy’s address as the starting point to get step-by-step directions on how to get where he needed to be. According to the map, it would take him about fifteen minutes. From there, he would search for the dilapidated trailer.
He texted Gerri to let her know he had a location that he was going to check out, and he would let her know if he found anything. Locking up Joy’s apartment, he raced out into the brutal heat and hit the auto start button on the key fob. That way, he didn’t have to guess which SUV was his to use.