Page 40

Randy

My phone buzzed and rang on the table next to the bed. I shot up immediately, my heart slamming in my chest. I scrambled to pick it up, but it slipped through my sleep deprived fingers not once but twice. Gabe and I had been out searching all the places we could think of for Liam. We went to Headquarters, restaurants, the library. He wasn’t anywhere. But who else called in the middle of the night when you were searching for a missing person?

I stared down at the screen where a simple phone number stared back at me. Not Liam’s name, but he could be anywhere at this point. I swiped at the screen. “H-hello?”

“Ah, Randy.”

I gripped the side table, not recognizing the voice.

“You want to tell me why your girlfriend was at the Reid’s place tonight?”

My heart clenched, simultaneously afraid for two different reasons. One, that it hadn’t been Liam on the other end of the line, and two, that Ren was talking to me about Norah. “What?”

“Your girlfriend. Miss Sexy Southern Accent. You know, the one with the—”

“I swear to God, if you finish that sentence I will fucking end you. I know who my girlfriend is.” My lips felt numb. Girlfriend. I’d just said girlfriend. I wasn’t the type to have a girlfriend, but it was all out there now, and the truth to it was evident, seeing as how I wanted to blast Ren with a shit ton of my own magic right to the chest.

Ren chuckled. “Which is why I’m fucking calling you. Your girlfriend was at the Reid’s place tonight trying to cozy up with one of the guards to get the book I told you about. She might have gotten it too, except for Dean Reid himself came home. You know enough to understand you don’t wantanyof the Reid’s interested in what you have. I covered for her as much as I could, but Dean’s not likely to forget a pretty face like that.”

I ran a hand through my hair. “Where is she now?”

“On her way home to you, I guess. I didn’t ask her for a play-by-play, but I tried to warn her from doing anything stupid like this ever again.”

I threw the blankets off, my bare feet sinking into the carpet. When I’d gotten home, she’d been laying on the couch with Travis sound asleep. “You better not have touched her.”

“If I had, do you really think I’d be calling you or letting her go? Come on, I may not be an Enforcer, but I’m not a fucking idiot either.”

“Let’s just keep it that way.”

Silence descended on the conversation. I got up from bed and searched the room for something to pull on. I was going to head downstairs and wait for her ass to come home to make sure she was securely in bed. We didn’t need another missing coven member right now. Fucking Christ, she could’ve just told us where she was going.

“Listen, Randy, I know you need the book. That’s why I’m over here tonight,” he said, lowering his voice. “I’m going to see what I can do. I’ve tried making a business partnership with the Reid’s before, but that was with the dad. I thought I might give junior a try to he seems more open to the type of business I’m in. I’ll see what I can find out.”

“And why the hell would you do that?”

“We’ve all got our reasons. Just know there might be a time I might need a favor and I’ll expect it.”

I stood up straighter. “If it’s a favor of the black magic kind and I’m not allowed to mark you, you can just stop right there. That’s what we do.”

“No, it’s nothing like that. It’s something far more personal.” His voice held a hard edge.

There was no weighing options. We needed information and Ren was the closest to getting it.

“Shall I continue?”

“Yes,” I said. I’d be willing to give up a whole hell of a lot for that book.

At that, I ended the call and pulled my sweats on before heading downstairs. I stopped at the end of the staircase. Travis was there pacing in and out of the foyer. “Dude?”

He looked up, startled. When he got his bearings back, he said, “Norah’s gone. She’s on her way back though.”

“I know,” I said, holding up my cell phone.

“She called you?”

I shook my head. “No. Ren called me. She was at the Reid’s house trying to get the book we told you about.”

Travis ran a hand through his thick dark hair. “What the fuck?”