Extreme Danger (McClouds & Friends #5)(124)

The glove box had nothing but the registration and a fistful of maps. He went through all the garbage on the seats; crumpled tissues stained with makeup, receipts, paper coffee cups with bright red lipstick marks, medical journals, a silk scarf, breath mints and chewing gum to hide her alcohol breath, not that it ever worked. The package for the digital voice recorder Becca had noticed. A couple of mismatched earrings. They looked expensive.

The center console yielded a handful of CD’s, more garbage, more mints, and a stash of quarters for tolls.

He checked out the back seat and hit pay dirt with the beige raincoat. There was a small, hard object in the depths of one of her coat pockets. Just what he’d been hoping for, ever since Becca’s tale of blood and urine samples.

He fished out the voice recorder rod and stared at it, then pushed its on button. Nothing happened. Nothing lit up.

The phone rang. He pulled it out, hoping it was Becca, but the display informed him that it was Davy. He pocketed the recorder, let out a flat sigh of disappointment, and hit talk. “Yeah?”

“Nick. Get your ass over here right now.” Davy’s voice was hard and clipped. As grim as death.

His gut clenched. “What happened? Did Zhoglo—”

“I don’t want to talk about it on the phone. Hang up, and move.”

Chapter

26

“A w, Becca, come on,” Josh wheedled, scratching tufts of hairon his naked chest. “I wish you’d get this bug out of your ass and chill.”

“Joshie, you had an appointment with Carrie on Friday night!” Becca’s voice was getting shriller. “You blew her off, and then you were incommunicado all weekend! And now we can’t get in touch with her at all! Don’t you think she would have at least left us a text message?”

“I’m sure there’s an explanation,” Josh grumbled. He leaned over the big dining room table, which was covered with the remains of a bacchanalian breakfast; a bowl of fruit, a towering heap of breakfast pastries, ziplock plastic bags of sliced deli meats and cheeses. He snagged a glazed lemon cupcake. “Have a muffin and relax. What’s the big deal? So we’ll drive down to the college today and roust her out. Give her a hard time for scaring us.”

“You don’t look overly scared,” Becca observed sourly.

In fact, Josh looked like he was having the time of his life. He looked like a prince wallowing in the lap of sensual luxury, naked but for baggy silk paisley boxer shorts. He pinched a slice of honey-roasted ham out of one of the bags, and dangled it over his mouth.

“I will go with you,” Nadia volunteered. “I wish to meet this little sister.” Her cool glance in Becca’s direction clearly implied that she hoped that the little sister would be an improvement on the big one.

Becca clenched her teeth, and reminded herself to be polite. Something about this over-the-top sexpot blonde put her teeth on edge. She had already told herself that maybe it was just Kaia fallout, and the girl could hardly be blamed for that—but even so.

Becca would never have chosen to meet her new boyfriend’s sister in a pink ostrich-feather-trimmed silk robe that gaped over her breasts and barely covered her butt cheeks.

Besides. There was something strange about the whole thing. That girl was too perfect to be real. Granted, Joshie was a cute guy in his own right, with a nice body, if a bit skinny, and bright green eyes that made lots of girls swoon. But there was something so polished and gleaming and smooth about Nadia. She would look more believable on the arm of a much older man. Or, rather, a much richer one.

Or maybe Becca was just feeling jealous and insecure about a beautiful younger girl, in which case, she should be smacked. Becca sipped her coffee and fought for a more adult perspective.

It was hard to come by. Now Nadia was amusing herself by squirting whipped cream out of a tube can onto a ripe, red strawberry, thoroughly licking it all off, and then slowly inserting the pointed red end of the strawberry between her shiny lips.

Josh watched, rapt, and grabbed a berry. “Can I have one?”

Nadia licked bits of berry juice off her lips. “Of course, Josh,” she cooed. “You can have anything you wish of me.”

He held out his berry. Nadia anointed it, both of them giggling.

Oh, for the love of God. Becca couldn’t take any more of this crap.

“Nadia,” she said. “Please don’t be offended, but would you mind letting me speak to my brother in private for just a few minutes?”

Nadia froze, her pink mouth dangling open, her blue eyes wide. She stuck Josh’s berry into his open mouth, and wiped her fingers daintily with a deli napkin, looking hurt. She got up with a fluttery swirl of pink silk and feathers that revealed a whole lot more than Becca had ever wanted to see of her anatomy. She was clearly not a believer in underwear. Or even pubic hair, for that matter.

“Very well,” she said. “I go to the bedroom now. Please let me know when I am welcome again to come into my own kitchen, no?”

“Nadia!” Josh leaped up, alarmed. “Wait! She didn’t mean—”

Slam. The door to the living room rattled in its frame.

“Nice going, Becca. That was just swell,” Josh said stonily.

“Joshie, please. I need you to listen to me. You don’t have time to be fooling around like an idiot while Carrie—”

“You’ve been fooling around like an idiot with your boy toy thug, right?” Josh shot back. “Works for you, so why not me?”