Page 19 of Pitbull
“I’ll wait here.”
In no time at all a beautiful woman with long flower hair hurried over and tapped Daniel on the shoulder. Anke couldn’t help feeling like a mere mortal in her presence. Daniel turned and hugged her tightly then kissed her forehead.
“Hey Mack,” Daniel said. “I brought you another one.”
“I know what to do.” Mack rubbed her palm up and down Daniel’s arm.
“Can I ask you something?” Daniel’s voice was soft. “Have you seen Slim?”
“Not for about—three years now? Not since I got back.” Mack replied. “Danny, what’s going on?”
“She’s missing,” Daniel said.
“And you’re looking for her? I didn’t think CIRO worked on missing persons.”
“They don’t. CIRO is on hiatus for a little bit. But…”
“She’s your sister…”
“We found her car over in Metro Valley.” Daniel shifted on his feet. “You don’t remember her mentioning having a friend over there, do you?”
Dr. Causda shook her head. “But then again, your sister was never very open with me. I stuck her with needles, so I wasn’t her biggest fan and I—” The doctor glanced at Anke. “Can I help you?”
Anke looked from the woman to Daniel. “Um…”
“I’m terribly sorry.” Daniel rubbed the back of his neck. “Mack Causda, Anke Fischer. Anke, Mack.”
The two shook hands.
“Pitbull has the manners of a grizzly.” Mack laughed. “He doesn’t mean to be rude. It’s just in his nature.”
“I’m starting to see that,” Anke said.
Daniel growled.
Dr. Causta air kissed at Daniel who grinned handsomely at her.
“I’ll go see what’s being done for her,” The doctor said. “Same thing as Slim?”
Daniel nodded. “If you can get her to talk to you let me know? She must have family out there looking for her.”
Mack nodded and with a smile at Anke, she kissed Daniel’s cheek. “You’re a good man, Daniel Hunt.”
“Don’t go spreading it around. I have a reputation as a bulldozer I want to keep.” Daniel touched Mack’s cheek gently before she hurried off.
Their interaction put a freeze on Anke’s raging libido. She’d been fancying the large cop with the steeled blue eyes. In the time she’d known him she’d already had a million wet dreams about him while still being awake. Meeting Mack Causda, the doctor, was precisely the kick in the pants she needed to refocus on the reason for coming to Sank Augustin in the first place. Anke quickly made a mental to-do list.
One—find Claudia.
Two—kick her ass.
Three—get back to life.
There wasa strain between Pitbull and Anke when they were finally on the road again. Sure, they barely knew each other and their other rides hadn’t been overly talkative. But this was different. Pitbull allowed the demons of his past to hover, trying to draw meaning or answers from every little bit of them he could.
In the end, he was just as confused as before.
There wasn’t any place they used to go that Claudia would run to. They spent all their free time at home. Claudia baked a lot with their mother and Pitbull spent most of his time trying to learn how to bake. Usually, he’d burn sometime. One night as his mother tried teaching them how to bake a carrot cake, he managed to catch the oven on fire.
