Page 41 of Hungry Like A Dragon
“That’s southwest of here. And not near a major highway. Why didn’t she send us someplace north, off I-10 or 55? It would be easier for us to get the hell out of town that way.”
Yeah, Noah wasn’t great with geography. And he’d never been to Louisiana before. As far as he knew, New Orleans was as far south as one could get without hitting the Gulf of Mexico.
“And she’s sending us to a haunted plantation. Is this all some kind of joke to her?”
If it was, the woman was more fucked up than Noah thought, and he was certain she was loony as hell.
His phone vibrated and he dug it out of his pocket. “Who’s that?” Petra asked as he pressed the button to accept the call.
“Hey, Gabe.”
“Why is Gabe calling?” Petra wanted to know, but Noah focused on the person on the line instead of answering her.
“We’re at the New Orleans airport. What’s the situation?” Gabe said.
“We’re back at Petra’s place. And things are ten times more fucked up than they were when I called.”
“You called Gabe?” She made it sound like he’d contacted the devil for help.
“All right, tell me the address and we’ll head your way,” Gabe said.
Glancing at the clock hanging above the television, Noah rattled off Petra’s address.
While Petra continued to glare at him, Gabe said, “According to GPS, that’ll take about thirty minutes by car.”
“Just fly—it’ll be quicker. We need to leave within the hour,” Noah responded.
“For where?” Gabe asked.
Because Petra looked as though she was ready to start beating him over the head with the nearest lamp, Noah quickly said, “I’ll explain when you get here,” and then ended the call.
“When did you call him?” she demanded. “And why?”
“Earlier today, after Delilah told us to meet her at the shop. I didn’t trust that woman. And I was right not to.”
“I told you I wanted to do this ourselves.”
“Yeah, well, we obviously need help. And if I hadn’t called when I did, they wouldn’t be almost here by now.”
She tossed the diapers into one of the suitcases and jerked her back to him while she dug through the closet, presumably for clothing and other essentials for herself and Sadie. Whatever happened tonight, he doubted they would return to this place. He was getting Sadie and Petra as far from Delilah and her spells as he could—as fast as he could.
But he couldn’t take her mute frostiness any longer. “Why are you so pissed about this? You honestly think we can take on this woman by ourselves?”
Petra flung her arms into the air. “All you’ve done is reinforce that I’m a complete failure.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
She began ticking off her fingers as she spoke. “First, I get passed over for reeve. Then, I nearly kill my best friend’s sister. Hell, and my best friend, if you want to get technical about it. Then, I get myself knocked up without having taken a mate first. Now, I can’t complete the assignment Gabe sent me ona year ago.”
Her chest heaved as she glared at him. And then she flipped her pointer finger into the air. “Oh, and let’s not forget I managed to get my daughter kidnapped by a crazy dragon who knows how to perform witchcraft.”
“First of all, you didn’t get her kidnapped.” He stabbed at her shoulder. “Stop blaming yourself for everything, Petra. The only thing you listed that might have been within your control was nearly killing Talia’s sister. And since I don’t know the full story, I’m guessing even that wasn’t entirely on you.”
“Trust me, it was.”
“How? What did you do?”
She wrapped her arms around herself. Noah resisted pulling her into a hug to offer her the comfort she clearly needed; she’d just push him away.
