Page 19 of Blood & Bond (The Bouchers #2)

“I came to give you this,” he said, grabbing a box off the table behind him. “I found my mate at the airport in Vegas. I—she—we were both on layovers, and we ended up missing our flights. We stayed there for a couple of weeks. I didn’t…I didn’t think it would matter to wait a few weeks.”

Erik took the box from him and carried it back to where he’d been standing. As Finau spoke, he pulled out a pocketknife and sliced the top open.

Mattie let out a noise somewhere between a gasp and a moan when Erik lifted out the contents of the box.

It was a tattered, multi-color quilt with no discernible pattern. Small bits of formerly blue yarn poked out at regular intervals like little gray bunny ears.

Tears filled my eyes, and I looked behind me, wondering where Charlie was.

He was going to lose it.

“Thank you,” Ambrose said, the words practically torn from him.

“I knew he’d want you to have it,” Finau replied, lowering his head in a slow nod.

“My mate and I decided to drive here. We left Vegas three days ago. Yesterday, she ran into a gas station to use the restroom, and she didn’t come back out.

When I started to worry, I followed her inside.

The attendant was dead behind the counter, and the door was wide open. ”

“Why do you think this has anything to do with Zeke?” Ambrose asked dismissively.

“I didn’t hear them kill the attendant,” Finau snapped. “He was alive when I paid for the gas five minutes before. They killed him and took her without making a fucking sound, Ambrose!”

“We believe you,” Danny said, shooting a look at Ambrose. “Now tell me everything you remember.”’

As soon as everyone was seated, the Vampire told them what time they’d left their hotel, how far they’d gone before they stopped for gas, what cars were in the parking lot when they’d pulled up, the back door of the tiny convenience store that had been left open, the tire tracks he’d found afterward.

He described his mate like a goddess come to earth, and from what I gathered, she was barely five feet tall and voluptuous, with olive skin and short black hair.

Her nails were painted purple. He seemed to think that was important for some reason, or maybe he was just getting lost in the details because he was so frantic.

Matilda sat close to Erik, barely paying attention as she ran her fingers over Zeke’s quilt.

I wondered if she remembered how long it had taken her to make it for him all of those years ago.

Zeke had told us that every time he found a rip, he’d brought it back to her to mend.

A multitude of embroidery stitches were scattered throughout, like little scars that told the story of Zeke’s life.

“We were only two hours away,” Finau mumbled, rubbing his hands over his face. “Only two more hours. Why the fuck did I stop for fuel?”

“If it hadn’t been then, it would’ve been another time when your guard was down,” Chance said, the words and tone not quite comforting.

When Ambrose ordered Finau to take him through the entire thing again, Reese stood up from the couch across from ours and jerked her head toward the kitchen.

Ambrose’s hand tightened on my thigh before he rubbed his thumb across the top and let me go.

I followed as she, Mattie, and Alice left the room.

Instead of stopping in the kitchen, they walked straight out the door.

Glancing at my bare feet, I debated for a moment before following.

The cold ground felt good on my hot skin as I met them across the lawn under some trees.

“They hear everything,” Reese explained. “And I didn’t want to distract them.”

“We could’ve gone to one of the bedrooms,” Alice pointed out, raising one eyebrow.

“Right.” Reese clapped her hands. “Well, we’re here now. Do we believe him?”

Matilda scoffed and held Zeke’s blanket closer to her chest. “Yes.”

“Did you see how badly he’s perspiring?” Alice asked. “Yes. He’s newly mated. The rest of the story?” She shrugged.

“They’ll know if he’s lying,” Matilda said, reaching out to pat Reese’s arm. “Erik and Sven can sense a lie a mile away.”

“What does he want them to do about it?” I asked, glancing back at the house. “Why isn’t he searching for her himself?”

“I think he has been,” Alice replied. “If the story is real, he’s been searching for her for over twenty-four hours. He smells like a damn goat, so that fits.”

“And if anyone’s watching, he led them straight here,” Reese added angrily, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Of course he did,” Matilda said, moving closer. “Everyone knows that my boys are home. He knew if he came here, he could ask for help. Our home is no secret, Reese. It just feels as if no one knows we’re here.”

We moved back to the kitchen just as my feet began to grow uncomfortable, and a few minutes later, Charlie strode into the room.

The dark half-moons under his eyes seemed more pronounced than usual, but I wasn’t sure if I was a good judge anymore.

Sometimes when I looked at him, I didn’t immediately notice the way grief had ravaged his body, and that scared me.

It meant that my mind was starting to automatically see this new version of Charlie as normal.

“I can’t believe you have it,” he said, walking straight for Matilda. “Can I?”

“Of course,” Matilda said, giving the quilt a squeeze before handing it reverently to Charlie. “It’s yours now.”

“Oh, I couldn’t take it,” Charlie protested as his hands clenched around the fabric.

“Nonsense,” Matilda countered. “Zeke would want you to have it.”

“But you put so much work into it?—”

“It was Zeke’s, and now it is yours,” she said firmly. “Have they made any headway in there?”

“I’ll be there in a minute, Mattie,” Erik called.

Reese let out a breath of a laugh as Alice looked at the kitchen clock.

“It’s getting late,” she said grimly. “The search won’t begin until tomorrow, in any case.”

“You’re right, as always,” Sven announced as he entered the room. He glanced at Charlie and then looked away.

I looked back and forth between them, wondering what that was about, when Ambrose wrapped his arms around me from behind.

“Finau is going to stay in the pool house,” Erik told Mattie as he leaned down to kiss her.

“You guys have a pool?” I looked over my shoulder at Ambrose.

“No, but it sounds less pretentious than guesthouse,” he replied. “It’s just a studio. One room and a bathroom.”

“Fancy.”

“No one was comfortable with him staying inside the house,” Beau said as he pulled Reese against his side.

“Understandable,” Alice replied. “His story is plausible?”

“He’s telling the truth,” Sven confirmed. “The boy is going out of his mind.”

Ambrose’s arms tightened around me.

No one spoke, but the silence wasn’t comfortable. It was weighted, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know why that was.

“You’re going to help him?” I asked finally.

“We have to,” Beau replied. “If not us, who?”

“If not now, when?” Danny said quietly.

“Nothing else to get done tonight,” Erik said tiredly.

The kitchen cleared out as everyone headed to their respective bedrooms. I followed Charlie as he carried Zeke’s quilt up the stairs to his room. Ambrose came along quietly, not willing to let me out of his sight.

When we reached the main room in the suite, I looked around it again.

It was similar to Ambrose’s room in shape, but the way Zeke had decorated was almost the opposite.

Framed movie, music, and video game posters covered the walls.

The couch was short and sleek—clearly from a different era—and the rest of the furniture matched it.

If it hadn’t been for the espresso machine on the counter and the modern posters, it would’ve felt like we’d stepped back in time.

“I’m exhausted,” Charlie announced as he moved toward the bedroom.

I’d heard the phrase so often that it didn’t even phase me as I followed him inside. He may be tired, but he’d slept quite a bit already, and it wouldn’t hurt him to hang with his baby sister for a while.

“I can’t believe that guy brought it back,” I said, sitting down cross-legged as Charlie lay down on the bed, clutching the quilt to his chest.

“I know,” he said softly. “He considered leaving it with me,” he mused, running his fingers back and forth over a spot mended with purple embroidery. “But he said that he hadn’t slept without it for so long that he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to.”

“What a baby,” I joked, my heart aching.

“I know, right?” Charlie let out a watery laugh. “Even I didn’t sleep with a lovey.”

“Like our parents would’ve ever let you,” I snorted. Our parents did their best. They were present at least, but they’d never been the cuddly type and hadn’t fostered it in us kids either. It was either a miracle or inevitable that Charlie and I had stayed so close as we grew up.

Hell, it was a miracle that we’d been born at all. I wasn’t sure our parents had ever been affectionate with each other.

“It took her so long to make it,” Ambrose said, leaning against the doorframe. “That he slept with the top piece for almost a year before she’d added the rest.”

“Really?” Charlie asked.

“He was obsessed with it,” Ambrose confirmed. “On wash day, he refused to play anywhere except the backyard while it hung to dry. Chance used to tease him about being afraid a wild animal would steal it.”

“Sounds like Chance,” I grumbled.

“He took that thing everywhere,” Ambrose said. “I wondered if you had it, but I didn’t want to ask.”

Charlie nodded. “I have a few T-shirts,” he said quietly. “And the dollar coin he carried in his wallet.”

“Did he tell you the story of that?” Ambrose asked.

“No, just that it was worth a lot more than a dollar,” Charlie replied.

“The one with the lady on the front?” I asked, intrigued. I knew I’d seen it when Zeke had emptied his pockets at some point, but I couldn’t remember any significance to it.