Abigail slept soundly. Finnian crept from the bed, moved to her purse, opened her wallet, and grinned. Full of hundred-dollar bills. He grabbed the money and his clothes, then headed for the living room where he quickly dressed and hurried outside and down the road.
He heard his name carry on the wind and he ran as hard as he could, back toward the city. He needed to find his way to the airport and find a flight toward his daughters.
If Danika refused to use her luck, he would take it from her. She didn’t have long left if she was sick already. He could sense it on her. The illness from before.
Closing his eyes, he caught a fence and held on as he drew a slow breath. A part of him wished things could have been different. He remembered when Diedre first gave birth. Danika was so precious, so sweet. But as she grew older she didn’t want anything to do with him. She started to resent him. She claimed it had to do with how he treated her mother, but he treated her like a queen.
Sure, he’d leave. Only to make more money to make them more comfortable. And the farther away Danika pulled from him, the more Diedre started to question everything. At least until the end. In the end, she was happy. All she needed was him. If only they had never had the children to begin with. They could have stayed free and he could have convinced her to be something more so they would have had forever.
A creeping feeling slithered up his spine and he hurried to the park and hid in the trees just before a cop car crept by, searching for someone.
He heard a growl and looked up in time to see a Doberman Pinscher stalking his way, his lip curled.
Normally a squirrel would have run by, capturing the dog’s attention. Maybe a cat would get too close and the snapping dog would go that way.
The dog lunged, and he dodged, but faceplanted as the dog grabbed the back of his arm and set his teeth, growling harder.
“Down, Princess Fluffles. Leave the poor man alone,” a woman shouted, rushing over. “Oh my God. Are you all right?” She managed to pull the dog back and she kept growling.
He covered the back of his arm and winced. “Will be.” Just needed to get to the airport.
“I feel really bad about this. Could I take you somewhere?”
He eyed the dog dubiously. “Can you keep her from me?”
“I’ll run her home and come back with my car if you’ll wait on the bench.”
“Sure.” Why not. At least something was going his way. He made it to his feet and headed for the bench.
“I’ll be right back,” the woman called.
It felt like forever before she came back with a man who carried a first aid kit. He cleared his throat. “My wife says Princess Fluffles bit you pretty bad.”
He’d managed to heal some of it, leaving only a little damage so as not to totally freak out the humans. If he were totally healed, they would wonder what was up.
“Looked worse than it is.”
“Still, I’ll give you that ride to the airport. Sonja works early. I’m Jack.” He moved closer and took a look at his arm. “Yeah, this isn’t too horrible. Still, a ride is the least we can do.”
“Thank you.”
“But why were you walking?” He glanced around the park. “You would have been walking a long time.”
“Car wouldn’t start. Probably should have called a cab.”
“No worries, I’ll get you there,” Jack promised.
The guy was big, looked like he spent most of his time in a gym. With the way his luck was going, he wasn’t going to try anything.
“Thanks again,” Finnian said.
* * * *
Robert yawned, then rolled over to grab the phone. “Hello?”
“Robert, thank God. That prick Finnian stole from me before leaving.”
A laugh bubbled out of Robert. “I’m sorry, when did he get the chance to steal from you?”
“I was asleep…damn it.”
“You took him home? Let me guess, you figured since I gave him a hard time, he must be one of the good guys?”
She sighed. “You don’t have to make this worse.”
“Sorry. What do you need?”
“Think you and Preston could come out here and find him?”
“No, we’re both busy right now. I’ll call the woman in charge out there. She’ll send a wereanimal with a mage to track Finnian.”
“But he took my cash.”
He almost asked how much, but he didn’t want to know. He knew she was getting into shadier things after being demoted from being an enforcer. They had no choice. She was as dirty as a mudhole, taking bribes, cutting corners, killing innocent people instead of investigating. She was dirty, and he wanted the corruption wiped from the Enforcer program.
“I’ll have the proper people contact you.” He hung up and scrolled through his phone for Lyla Ortez, who was the senior officer in Charleston. He quickly gave her the details he had and dropped the phone on the bedside table.
Last thing he wanted to do was deal with chasing Finnian. He had a solid idea where he was heading. He wouldn’t be there until early in the day, and unless someone had given him some information, he didn’t know where to find either daughter. Only that they were in Edenton. No one was going to let anything happen to either.
Tremaine looked over Liz’s shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“Finnian stole whatever cash Abigail Tormley had. He’s now on his way back here. I’m letting them try to find him. If he’s lucky enough to get here, it will be a miracle. Even then, I’m not too worried about what he’ll do to anyone.”
Tremaine chuckled and put his head back down. “Going back to sleep?”
Robert yawned. “I am. And I want to take a vacation soon. With my family.”
“That sounds perfect,” Tremaine answered.