Marc (Bowen Boys, #4)(26)
“You mean to tell me that an ambulance came to the house, took the couple away, and not one hospital has a record of it?” He didn’t answer his question right away, but before Roy could tell him to f*cking answer him, the idiot spoke.
“Well, you see…the ambulance that was here was called City Ambulance. There ain’t no City Ambulance nowhere. We even checked with the local firehouse. He said he ain’t never heard of it.” The man gave a little laugh before he continued. “It might be one of those fly-by-night kinds. You know, here today and gone today.”
Roy stepped out of his house, pulled his gun, and fired three times into the air. It was either do that or he would have shot the f*cking phone. He had walked back into the house to tell Harris to stay at the house and wait for him. He’d be there in the morning.
And when they arrived at the house, it was to find it empty of every possession the couple had owned. Not only that, but someone had cleaned the place up and even swept the f*cking floor. There were still marks on the carpet from it. He glared at the note again.
“You know that’s what chaps my ass the most. The f*cking bastards had left a note.” He picked it up again, this time having to straighten it out after he’d crumpled it.
“Thank you for stopping by,” the note read. “Sorry they’re not here, but we gave the Thomases a better life, one that guaranteed that they would live a good deal longer. Fondly yours….”
“Who do you suppose left it?” Harris said. Roy glared at him. “I’m only asking because if we knew that, then we could find them, and then Jonny.”
“No shit, you f*cking genius. You think that, do you?” Roy walked away before he killed him too, mimicking the man. “Because if we knew that, then we could find them, and then Jonny.”
He had to find her. His clients were starting to get pissed about the deposit they’d given him and no panther. How the f*ck was he supposed to run a business when his star attraction was nowhere to be found? Damn it, all she had to do was hang around their house for a few days, steal a few things that they wouldn’t even miss, and then go someplace else. What the f*ck was her problem? And now that he’d “killed” her friend, and someone had taken her parents, he had nothing to hold over her.
“Boss, do you want me to have one of the wolves have a look around? They might not be able to find the truck, but they might be able to find out who helped them.” Roy nodded at Harris.
The wolves were stupid anyway. He figured that they’d be lucky they could find their own ass, much less find a couple who, for all intents and purposes, had been cleaned from this house completely. He watched as they moved past him into the house.
The first one came out almost immediately, the other three less than a minute behind. He watched them roll in the grass for several minutes before they moved as far from the house as they could get. Roy looked at Harris when he stepped out as well.
“What the f*ck is that about?”
Harris shrugged. “Well, ask them. Something either scared the shit out of them or they got a whiff of something.”
“Can’t. Not for an hour at least. They can’t shift back. Wolves have to stay as they are for at least an hour.” Roy asked him if he was f*cking kidding. “Nope. It’s what makes them nearly unreliable as a house pet. Once they get into the house and then report back as a human, they have to stay that way, as a human for an hour. People tend to miss them when they can’t find them after that long.”
Roy sat down on the deck and put his head on his hands. This was a f*cking nightmare. He had shifters, about a dozen of them, that couldn’t be a panther for some dumb f*cking reason, wolves that had to be a wolf for an hour, and a panther that f*cking wasn’t cooperating. And now this house. He looked over the yard and started to laugh when he noticed that there wasn’t even a bit of lawn furniture. He looked up when Anita walked out to where he was.
“Where the hell is the furniture?” Roy started laughing. Tears were streaming down his face, and every time he looked at the wolves at the back of the property with their tails between their legs, he would laugh more. Finally, when he thought he could control himself, he told her what had happened. She wasn’t any happier about it than he was.
~~~
Marc was in his office looking over the file he’d been looking at for the past ten minutes without seeing it when someone knocked. He looked up to see Dylan and Jack walk in. Jack had a laptop in her hand, and Dylan wore a grin.
“What the hell is up with you two? And I thought you weren’t going to be back here for a few more weeks.” Jack nodded and came around to his side of the desk.
“I’ve been looking up some information that Jacob gave me. It’s about Jonny.” She laughed when another knock sounded at his door. “That would be her now.”
Marc smiled at Jonny as she walked in. She blushed when he wiggled his brows at her, and he nearly burst out laughing when Dylan asked her to have a seat. She moved as far from him as she could.
“What’s the matter, honey, don’t you trust me?” She snorted at Dylan. “Ah, that’s no way to treat the man who saved your family’s treasures.”
“Did he tell you what he did?” Jonny said. He shook his head at her and looked at his brother. “He had someone go into my parents’ home and pack everything up. Every piece of furniture they had and their safe in the basement. It was delivered today and put into storage for them. He told me he had the place cleaned too. And f*cking marked.”