What’s New Pussycat(29)

Derrick fought his urge to yell again. Because, you know, he was a yeller. “Damn it, I had half a glass. She was in my be—er, in the room and then she was gone. Just like that. Swear it.”

Nat’s mouth fell open as she rushed to his side, rubbing his bicep. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. So what does this mean? You know all about this kooky-spooky shit. What could possibly make a shifter disappear into thin air without warning?”

Her eyes went wide. “I have no clue. Unless she’s not a shifter? Okay, let’s not panic. First, what were you doing when she disappeared?”

“None of your business,” he responded all too quickly, wanting to rip his tongue from his mouth.

Now his pretty sister’s face went all disgusted and disapproving. “You already bagged her, Derrick? She’s been here, what? Two days? God, pal. Does no one ever turn you down? Do you even know what rejection is?”

“I didn’t prop her. She propped me. And that’s beside the point. We had just finished…and she was just gone.” So gone he was starting to worry. Really worry. What if this was because of his curse? What if she had no control over it and ended up hurt?

Nat snorted. “She propped you? Jesus.”

He narrowed his eyes at his sister. He’d been subject to plenty of rejection. He just preferred everyone thought otherwise. It kept his loner reputation intact. “Not the point, Nat.”

Nat’s face softened, her eyes gentle when she gave his arm a squeeze. “You’re worried, aren’t you?”

Yes. Yes, he was damn well worried. He liked her. If he had to have a mate, she was the perfect one because she didn’t want anything from him.

That’s not why you’re worried, Derrick. Don’t lie to yourself.

“Are you worried because she might not come back to mate? Or are you worried for her? Like her safety?”

He’d have liked to give the response Nat expected of him, but he couldn’t. “I’m worried about her and her safety.”

Nat was suddenly all business, her disbelief shelved. “Okay, first thing’s first. Has she told you anything about her background? A clue as to why or how she’s capable of vanishing?”

“Not a word. She asked that we keep things impersonal.”

Nat nodded, grabbing his laptop and dropping to the couch, tucking her long legs beneath her. “She was pretty vague with us, too. She did say she has no family to speak of and no job.”

Which was more than she’d told him. Which made him angry. Which shouldn’t. He’d agreed to no personal questions. That she was able to share with his sister and JC shouldn’t upset him. Yet, it stuck in his craw.

He sat down beside his sister and squeezed his temples. “So now what?”

Nat nudged his shoulder with hers. “Did she use your laptop at all?”

He nodded, leaning back into the couch and closing his eyes. “Asked if she could use it this morning before I left for the bar.”

“Then let’s search the history.” She flipped it open and began clicking, her expression going from passive to concerned.

“What?” he coaxed, sitting upright, fighting the urgency in his voice.

Nat pointed to the laptop screen. “This is her Facebook page. Apparently, Martine Brooks owns a wedding planning business she all but abandoned six months ago.”

His eyes scrolled the messages left on her page, one angry comment after the other, until he had to push the laptop away for the anger the messages stirred in him.

Not for a second did he believe she’d just up and abandoned her life. There was no rationale for that gut feeling, especially after the way she’d talked about her dislike of getting too involved, her disconnect with who she was as a shifter. The way she wrinkled her cute nose when she spoke of how unfair their world was.

But he didn’t believe she’d abandoned it willingly.

And he didn’t know why.

He just knew.

* * *

Martine fell to the hard ground with a grunt and a harsh slap against the freshly fallen snow.

That was snow, wasn’t it?

She let her hands feel around before she opened her clenched eyes.

Yep. That was snow, powdery and still falling, and damn cold when you were buck naked. Where was she? Her eyes popped open, and she found herself surrounded by a midnight-blue sky and trees, lots of trees.

And bunnies. Wow, so many bunnies. Their glowing eyes assessed her from their hiding places. Rolling to her side, wincing as the sting of snow hit her unclothed sides, she made a face at the lot of bunnies poking their heads out from beneath the shrubs. “Don’t judge, okay? Derrick’s a good cook. Now scoot!”

So, if all the small woodland creatures and the trees were any indication, she was definitely still in the town known as Deliverance. Er, Cedar Glen.