Page 26 of Fanged Desire
"Wait, go back!" I lurched forward over Hunter’s shoulder, and she dutifully rewound the footage.
It was uncomfortably easy to single her out – a woman lingering in the background, always nearby whenever Penelope was on screen. She appeared in different scenes, always just a short distance from my sister.
The woman was tall, unusually so, and well-dressed. The kind of well-dressed that insinuated money – enough to spend on a lavish wardrobe. The most damning piece of evidence was thesunglasses, big and reflective, but the direction of her gaze was clear. She was always, always, watching Penelope.
In the first clip, the woman was seated at the bar, nursing a drink while Penelope moved past her. In another, she was at a table near the dance floor, her shaded gaze following Penelope’s every move. There was something predatory in her presence, a quiet intensity that made my skin crawl.
"This is the lead you've been looking for?" Hunter muttered, eyes still locked on the screen.
I nodded, heart lodged in my throat. “I heard there was a woman who was always hanging around Penelope, a private client who seemed a little too eager. She matches the description.”
For a moment, I just stared at the screen. As the footage flickered before my eyes, showing Penelope’s world as it had been a few months ago, the distance between us felt like a chasm I couldn’t cross. All I wanted was to reach through the screen, take Penelope’s hand, and pull her back to safety. But my sister was long gone from this place, and the woman with her, the one who might have taken her, was still a mystery.
Hunter frowned, her fingers hovering over the keyboard as she replayed the footage. “Who is she?”
"I don’t know, but this… this is important. Hunter, I need to find out who she is. I don’t know if she had something to do with Penelope’s disappearance, but I can’t ignore this."
Alongside the sense of foreboding that haunted my every waking hour these days, there was a burgeoning determination igniting in my chest. This woman was a mystery, sure, but I was one step closer to finding my sister. And maybe, just maybe, I didn’t have to do it alone.
“You know…” the idea was half-formed and ludicrous, but batting my lashes had worked so often before, so I leaned near Hunter’s ear and tried my luck. “We make a pretty good team.”
Hunter promptly turned in her seat to look at me, brow raised and clearly not buying my bullshit. "What are you getting at?"
Despite everything, I cracked a smile, hovering like a devil on her shoulder. “You down for a little more snooping?”
Chapter 11
Hunter
I lounged in the conference room at High Stakes headquarters, staring at the stack of papers on the table but not seeing any of it. Jordan and Maxine were deep in conversation, hashing out the details of some new advertisement while I willed away the minutes, slouching in my seat.
Jordan was animated, waving her hands with each word as she paced back and forth. "And I'm telling you, Maxine, if we position the product just right, it's going to fly off the shelves!"
Maxine, occasionally the voice of reason despite her penchant for drama, followed the redhead’s movements with a skeptical nasal exhale. "Jordan, darling, you could sell sand at the beach, but even you can't convince people that a health drink can double as car fuel. Let's keep it realistic, please."
Jordan stopped pacing, pointing a manicured finger in Maxine’s direction. "But that's the brilliance of it! It’s not just a drink, it’s a lifestyle!"
Maxine sighed, scribbling notes on her pad. "And my lifestyle includes keeping you from landing this company on an episode of ‘MythBusters’."
Their voices blurred into the background. I was miles away, my mind stuck on Addison. Addison Moore, the doctor-turned-dancer who had no idea how deep she was in over her head.
I ran a hand through my hair, trying to snap back to reality. After everything that happened at the club; after fighting off those elf assholes, committing petty theft, and sneaking Addison into this very office block, I had driven her home.
She’d given me her number, asked me to call her once I made a decision. But I still didn’t have an answer for her. Helping her meant more trouble. Helping her meant crossing lines that I knew would come back to bite me in the ass.
Helping Addison meant I was in for a major headache, plain and simple.
I had no real ties to her beyond that night, and with the footage in my possession, the elves who attacked us were off my back. I could wash my hands of it all, move on without worrying about them or whatever mess Addison was getting into.
But even though walking away made sense, it felt… wrong.
Addison’s explanation of her sister’s kidnapping had been wonky at best, delivered through a shower of tears and unhelpful tidbits, but she had told me enough to have me mildly concerned for her safety.
Penelope’s sudden disappearance at an elf-run club, the unusually tall woman following her around – it made me wonder if some kind of supernatural being was involved. A powerful one, maybe, if they were able to nab a Micere employee with no repercussions. And if that were the case, Addison was wading into dangerous territory.
She was human, vulnerable, and nearly completely oblivious to the supernatural world she was getting tangled up in. Hell,she thought I was a shifter. The poor woman knew next to nothing about the real supernatural world if that was the conclusion she jumped to.
And if I was being honest, I just really wanted to see her again.
