The Reluctant Vampire - Lynsay Sands [103]
“An hour ago,” Teddy said, when Mirabeau paused uncertainly.
“It can’t have been that long,” Mirabeau protested with a frown.
“I checked my watch when they left,” Teddy said quietly.
“They should be back by now,” Harper pointed out with concern.
Drina reached automatically for her back pocket and her phone, but paused as she recalled she was wearing joggers. Her phone should be—She cursed as she realized it would have been in the back pocket of the jeans she’d been wearing when she was sprayed. Only she’d emptied her pockets before handing over her jeans to be bagged and tossed, and there had been no phone there. It must have fallen out when she was rolling around on the front yard of Casey Cottage, she thought.
“I’ll call Anders,” Mirabeau announced, retrieving a phone from her own pocket. She’d just started to punch in numbers when they heard a vehicle pulling into the driveway. Mirabeau stood and walked to the window, relaxing as she peered out. “It’s the SUV.”
Everyone at the table seemed to relax at the news.
Mirabeau had just sat back in her seat when Anders burst into the house and appeared at the dining room door. “Is she here?”
Drina raised her eyebrows. “Who?”
“Stephanie.”
Drina stilled at that hissed name, foreboding slipping through her.
“She was with you,” Mirabeau said, as if he might have forgotten it.
Anders cursed and turned back to the entry.
Realizing he was about to leave again without explaining himself, Drina stood and rushed around the table to stop him. “Just a minute. What’s going on? Where is she?”
Anders paused, but then sighed and turned back, running one hand through his hair with frustration. “I don’t know. I stopped for gas, filled up, went in to pay, and when I came out, she was gone.”
“She probably just went to use the bathroom or something,” Teddy said soothingly as the tension in the room ratcheted upward. Standing, he moved to the desk and pulled out a phone book. “Which gas station was it? Esso or the Pioneer by Wal-Mart?”
“Neither,” Anders answered. “The other one. I don’t remember the name.”
Teddy turned to peer at him blankly. “What other one? We don’t have another one.”
“The one up by the highway,” Anders said. “It doesn’t matter anyway, I did check the bathroom.
Teddy let the phone book lower to the desk. “Why the hell would you go all the way out there? The other two are half the distance.”
Anders muttered something Russian under his breath and turned away again. “I’m going back out to look for her.”
“The hell you are.” Drina caught his arm and pulled him back around. “What’s going on, Anders? Where were you taking her?”
“I can’t tell you,” he said grimly.
“Why not?” Mirabeau demanded, joining them.
“Because Lucian said not to.”
Drina blinked in surprise at those words, then narrowed her eyes. “You were taking her to Toronto.”
He didn’t confirm that, but he didn’t deny it either, and she knew she was right.
“Why didn’t Lucian want Drina to know that?” Harper asked, crossing to join them as well with Tiny on his heels.
“Because she would have felt she had to come too, and he wants her to stay here with you,” Anders said dryly.
Drina felt Harper peering at her but was too busy worrying over what Anders had said and what it would mean for Stephanie. Being in Toronto, closer to Lucian, and without anyone who cared about her. Drina knew Stephanie’s sister, Dani, was somewhere down in the States right now, playing bait, and Mirabeau and herself were here in Port Henry. The kid would have been on her own.
“Well, she couldn’t have gone far without a coat. She was probably in the bathroom while you were in the store and in the store while you checked the bathroom. It’s not like she’d walk back, Anders,” Teddy said, picking up the phone. “It’s too damned far and cold for that. She’s probably standing around in the gas station waiting for you to come back.”
“No, she ran away,” Drina murmured, and Mirabeau nodded solemnly.
“What?” Anders frowned. “Why the hell would she run away?”
“Because she likes it here,