Tempest, page 12
“Yes, and you know what they say. There’s a fine line between love and hate.” She straightened and tossed back her hair. “How do I look?”
I crossed my hands over my heart. “If I wasn’t straight, I’d want to date you.”
“Aww,” she cooed, and we snickered at each other.
Her eyes widened, and she hurried toward the phone. “He just texted. He’ll be here in five minutes, and I still need to touch up my makeup.”
“Go. But you better call me as soon as you get home. I want to hear all about it.”
“I will.” She blew me a kiss, her face glowing with excitement. “Later, Bestie.”
“Have fun,” I said as she reached for her phone. “I’ll be waiting.”
* * *
“We’re going to be late,” Dimitri sang in a teasing voice as we walked to the manor the following morning.
I glanced up from my phone to see he was a dozen yards ahead of me. I held up a finger and finished typing my text. Do you need bail money? That’s the only excuse I’ll accept for you not calling me last night.
Tucking my phone in my pocket, I caught up to him. “Sorry. I was texting Summer.”
He snorted. “Talking ten times a day is not enough for you two?”
“We don’t talk ten times a day. Nine times at the most.”
“And what is so important you have to text her this early?” he asked.
“She had a date last night, and she didn’t call me when she got home.” I realized how silly that must sound to him. “She said she would call.”
He grinned. “A college girl goes on a date and doesn’t call her best friend after? I’m guessing our girl Summer got a little dessert after dinner.”
“Shut up.” I lifted my hand to smack his arm and let it drop back to my side. What if he was right? Summer had joked a few times about college hookups, and she was gaga over this guy Damon.
Dimitri nudged me with his shoulder. “Stop worrying, and let the girl have a little fun.”
“You’re right.”
“I’m always right.” He picked up his pace. Turning, he jogged backward and said, “Race you.”
I laughed and ran after him. “You really are a sucker for punishment, aren’t you?”
Morning classes with Ronan were as awkward and uncomfortable as the previous day. My friends had started to notice and shot me curious looks, but no one came out and asked what was up. By the time lunch rolled around, Mongolia was beginning to look pretty good.
Phones weren’t allowed during training, so I had to wait until lunch to read Summer’s texts – only there weren’t any. I stared at the screen, and the niggling feeling from earlier grew into real worry. This wasn’t like Summer. Something was wrong.
Instead of following the others to the dining hall, I went in search of my father. I found him in the security center with Dax. They appeared to be having a serious conversation, but they stopped and smiled when I came in.
“Dad,” I said, and his smile fell away.
He met me halfway across the room. “What is it?”
“It’s Summer. I haven’t heard from her since yesterday.” I held up my phone. “She was supposed to call me last night, but she didn’t, and she’s not answering my texts today. Is there any way we can check on her to see if she’s okay?”
I waited for him to smile and assure me there was nothing to worry about. When his expression became serious and he exchanged a look with Dax, a tiny knot of apprehension formed in my gut.
“What?” I looked between them in alarm. “Do you know something about Summer?”
“No,” Dad said as we walked over to where Dax sat in front of a bank of monitors. “When did you last talk to her?”
“Yesterday around six-thirty. She was getting ready for a date.”
“Who do we have in Boston now?” Dad asked Dax.
Dax brought up a map of the country on one of his monitors. He hit a few keyboard buttons, and it zoomed in on Boston where three green dots showed the location of our safehouses there. When he clicked each dot, a box appeared with the names of the warriors stationed at them.
“Denis’s, Rachel’s, and Paulette’s teams,” he said. “You want me to call Paulette.”
Dad nodded, and Dax hit another button. Ten seconds later, a female voice came from the speaker on his desk. “Paulette here.”
“Paulette, it’s Nikolas,” Dad said. “Are you free?”
“Until tonight. What’s up?” she answered.
Dad looked at me as he spoke. “I need someone to check in on a student at Northeastern. Her name is Summer Kelly, and she’s a member of the Maine pack.”
“I’m not far from the university now,” Paulette said. “What am I checking for?”
“Summer is Dani’s friend, and Dani hasn’t heard from her since yesterday,” Dad told her. “They talk every day, so Dani is worried about her.”
“Do you know what residence she’s in? And do you have her class schedule?” Paulette asked.
I spoke up. “Hi, Paulette, it’s Dani.” I gave her Summer’s phone number and dorm room. I had her class schedule saved on my phone, and I sent it to Dax to forward to Paulette. She didn’t ask for a photo of Summer, but I sent one anyway.
“Got it,” Paulette said a moment later. “I’ll call you back in thirty.”
She hung up, and I sat on a chair to wait. Knowing we had someone on the campus looking for Summer made the knot in my stomach loosen. Paulette would call back soon and say she’d found Summer in one of her classes. Summer would tell me she didn’t call because she’d lost her phone or she forgot to charge it last night. She was terrible at remembering to do that, and she sometimes left Post-it notes on her nightstand to remind her.
Summer was okay, and I had overreacted. Maybe I was subconsciously projecting my anxiety about Ronan onto her to distract me from the real problem. She would get a kick out of it when she heard I’d asked Dad to send a warrior to check on her.
The phone rang, startling me, and I stood as Paulette’s voice came over the line. “No one answered at her dorm room, and she’s not in the class she has now according to her schedule.”
I sucked in air, and Dad laid a hand on my shoulder.
“You want me to go back to her dorm?” Paulette asked, and I knew she was asking if we wanted her to pick the lock and go inside.
Dad didn’t hesitate. “Yes. And bring in anyone who is free on your team to search the campus.”
“Will do. I’ll get back to you after I check her room,” Paulette said.
Dad’s mouth formed a grim line, and neither he nor Dax said anything. I caught another look between them, and the knot became a cold lump of fear in my gut.
“What are you not telling me?” I demanded.
Dad looked at me, and what I saw on his face was not the warm reassurance I was hoping for. His eyes were troubled, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him like this.
“Roland called us an hour ago,” Dad said. “He learned this morning a young male wolf from the Montana pack has been missing for five days.”
I felt the blood leave my face. “What?”
Dad held up a hand. “There is no reason to believe it has anything to do with Summer. She’s on the other side of the country, and we don’t know yet if she is missing.”
I wanted so much to believe him, but his expression after Paulette’s call told me he did suspect a connection. My father did not believe in coincidences, and his intuition was one of the things that made him a great warrior.
Paulette called back fifteen minutes later. “No sign of trouble in the dorm room, but I did find her backpack and books. She could have dropped them off at any time today, though.”
“What now?” I asked no one in particular.
“I found her roommate’s class schedule, and I’m going to track her down and see if she can tell us anything,” Paulette said. “Dani, is there anything you can think of that might help? Friends she mentioned, places she likes to hang out, a boyfriend.”
My mouth went dry. “She had a date last night.”
“A date with whom?” Paulette asked.
“His name is Damon, and she met him on campus a few weeks ago.” I thought back on our conversations about him. “She said he’s an engineering student there.”
Dad pulled over a chair to sit beside me. “Did she tell you where they were going on their date?”
I nodded. “A Thai place. She didn’t say the name, but it’s close to the university.”
“There shouldn’t be many Thai restaurants nearby,” Paulette said almost to herself. “This is good, Dani. I’ll check it out after I talk to her roommate. Meanwhile, I shared her photo with the team, and they are going to search the campus. She had to leave a trail somewhere.”
“Her student ID,” I blurted. “She needs her ID to access her dorm. The university must log that somewhere.”
Dad smiled. “Good thinking, Dani. Dax?”
“On it.” Dax started typing. “This will take a few minutes.”
“See if you can track her phone, too,” Dad said. I hadn’t thought about doing that, and it gave me renewed hope.
Dax brought up a window on another screen. “I’ll do that first. It’s quicker.” A minute later, he said, “No luck with the phone. It must be turned off.”
“Let me know what you find with the student ID,” Paulette said. “Don’t worry, Dani. If she’s here, we’ll find her.”
“If she’s here.” Paulette’s words echoed in my mind as Dad thanked her and ended the call. What if they couldn’t find her? I didn’t want to consider that outcome.
Summer, where are you?
“It’s time to call Roland,” Dad said, pulling me from my thoughts. “Someone there might know where Summer is. And her parents need to be informed.”
I felt sick as he made the call. Uncle Roland answered, sounding surprised to hear from Dad again so soon. Dad wasted no time getting straight to the reason for the call.
Uncle Roland’s voice went from congenial to hard by the time we had brought him up to speed, but he softened it when he spoke directly to me.
“Summer talks to you more than anyone else, Dani. Is there anything you can think of that you haven’t told us about this man she was dating?”
“They weren’t dating. She ran into him around campus, at the library and dining hall, places like that. They flirted, but he didn’t ask her out until two days ago.” I racked my brain for any little thing that could help. “Her roommate, Sydney, met him. Summer was with her a few of the times she saw Damon.”
Dad pulled out his phone and sent off a text. “I let Paulette know so she can ask the roommate about him.”
The door opened, and Mom hurried in. Dad must have told her about Summer through their bond. She took one look at our faces and said, “You haven’t found her.”
Dad shook his head. “Not yet. We have Roland on the phone now.”
Mom came over to stand beside me. “Is Peter with you?”
“Pete and Shannon are in Portland. Emma is on the phone with them now.” Uncle Roland let out a heavy sigh. “It’ll kill them if anything happens to her.”
“Don’t even think that,” Mom told him in a firm voice. “We’re going to find her.”
The phone beeped. Dax looked at the display and said, “It’s Paulette.”
“Conference her in,” Dad told him, and it felt like every one of us held our breath as we waited for her to join. He let her know Uncle Roland was on the call, and she responded with, “Good,” before she let us know what she’d found.
“The roommate doesn’t think Summer came back to the dorm last night. She took something to help her sleep, so she said it’s possible Summer came in without waking her and left early. But Summer borrowed a dress from her, and it hasn’t been returned.”
Uncle Roland swore, and Mom put a hand to her mouth. It felt like Paulette had reached through the phone and punched me in the stomach.
Paulette continued. “Sydney gave me a good description of Damon, but she never got his last name. He didn’t set off any red flags with her. She said he was clearly pursuing Summer, but he wasn’t aggressive about it.” She paused. “That’s all I have so far. I’m headed out to find this Thai restaurant.”
“Thanks, Paulette,” Dad said.
Uncle Roland spoke up. “Peter and Shannon left Portland to drive to Boston. If anyone can pick up Summer’s scent, it’s them.”
“Can you let them know I’ll meet them there?” Mom asked.
Dad leaned closer to the phone. “We’ll use every resource we have, and we won’t stop until she’s found.”
The confidence and authority in his voice gave me hope for the first time today. We had more money, technology, and connections than the FBI and CIA combined. If Damon had taken Summer, he had no idea what he was up against.
“Thank you.” Uncle Roland’s voice was rough with suppressed emotion.
“You and Peter are family,” Dad told him.
“And family takes care of each other.” Mom’s eyes were bright with tears. Uncle Roland and Uncle Peter had been her best friends since they were kids, and she couldn’t stand to see the people she loved in distress.
Uncle Roland cleared his throat. “I’m going to get my best trackers together. If Pete doesn’t find her, we’ll scour the whole state if we need to.”
They ended the call, and I turned to Mom. “I want to go with you.”
She shook her head. “We don’t know who or what we are dealing with. It’s best if you stay here.”
“Summer is my best friend.” I fought the lump trying to form in my throat. “I can’t stay home while she’s in trouble.”
“Boston is no place for a young Mohiri,” Dad said in a firm tone I knew well. “We have three teams in the city because vampire activity is increasing there.”
“But I would be with Mom.”
Mom placed her hand against my cheek. “I don’t know what I’ll have to do. I won’t risk leaving you unprotected even for a minute.”
I stared into her eyes, identical to mine. “If I had my magic, you’d let me go, wouldn’t you?”
A few seconds ticked by before she said, “I don’t know.”
I wanted to argue that it wouldn’t be any more dangerous than my last lesson with Eldeorin, but I couldn’t say that in front of Dad. He was able to sleep at night only because he didn’t know exactly what my lessons entailed.
“We will find her.” Mom kissed my forehead. “I’ll see you soon.”
She kissed Dad and vanished.
“Got it,” Dax announced. Dad and I crowded around his chair to see the text file displayed on his screen. All I could make out were columns of numbers and datetime stamps.
Dax pointed to a number in the first column. “I had to find her student ID number first. This is hers. The second column of numbers is the building where the ID was scanned, and the third column shows the exact time and date.”
His finger moved down the rows to the last one. “According to this, the last time her ID was scanned was at 3:47 p.m. yesterday.”
My heart sank. “That’s around the time she got back to her dorm from her last class.”
Dad picked up his phone. “I’ll let the others know.”
A small blue couch sat against one wall. I sank onto it and pulled my knees up to my chest as fear and guilt assailed me. I should have known something was wrong when Summer didn’t call last night. If I had come to my father twelve hours ago, we might have found her by now.
Forty agonizing minutes passed before Mom called. She and Paulette had found the Thai place, and the hostess recognized Summer’s photo. She and Damon had been there for dinner, and the time on their credit card receipt was 8:02 p.m. The question was where did they go when they left the restaurant?
“I think we need to bring David and Kelvan in on this,” Mom said. “No one is faster at gaining access to city traffic cams and the university security cameras than them. No offense, Dax.”
He grinned. “None taken.”
While Dad called David, I retreated to the couch and read every text from Summer over the last two weeks. I thought back to our calls and tried to think of any tiny detail I’d overlooked that could be important. There was nothing.
An hour and a half later, Mom called again, and the second I heard her voice, I knew it was bad news. Dad did, too. He put an arm around my shoulders when I walked over to where he stood by the phone.
“I’m with Peter and Shannon. They picked up Summer’s scent at the Thai restaurant and followed it to a parking lot down the street. We found her phone; it was smashed to pieces.” Mom drew in a ragged breath.
My body went cold. No.
“There were several drops of blood near the phone. It’s Summer’s.”
Chapter 8
“DAVID, WHAT DID you find?” Dad asked the man on Dax’s central monitor.
David Ito, a fortysomething Japanese man, sat in a room full of computer equipment. His round glasses reflected his screen, hiding the faint gold ring inside his irises that identified him as an Emote.
“We searched the college security recordings for the days and places Dani said Summer encountered Damon, and we were able to capture a decent image of him,” David said. “Kelvan ran it through his face recognition software, and he got a hit.”
I held my breath as a slightly grainy headshot of a dark-haired man appeared in the corner of the screen. He appeared to be in his early twenties.
“Meet Damon Webb aka Andrew Ried aka Richard Hill. His real name is Reese Meyer, he’s twenty-six, originally from Miami, and he’s wanted in four states for grand larceny, computer fraud, wire fraud, and a host of other crimes.” A collage of photos replaced the first one. Each one showed Reese Meyer with a different woman, all older than him. “Meyer likes to get to know rich women and swindle them out of large sums of money.”
“A con artist.” I studied the photos. “What would someone who targets wealthy women want with Summer? She’s on a scholarship and far from rich.”
