Wild and Free (The Three #3)(57)

He closed the door and we walked down the murky hall made of cement (at our feet) and cinderblock (at our sides) toward the sun shining on the stairs at the end.

“Any idea where he’d be?” I asked as I hit the stairs.

“No clue,” he answered.

But he had a clue.

I had a clue too.

The Biltmore.

And if he went there, when he got back (and I hoped to God he got back), I was going to kick his ass.

Chen escorted me through the back door of the restaurant and, thankfully, straight to the coffeepot. I poured Chen and me a cup. We were sipping, and I was doing it angrily in order to stop being scared out of my brain, when Jabber filled the door.

“Your boy’s back and he wants his ma,” Jabber announced.

My extreme relief that he was back, and the resulting closure of that f*cking hole in my belly, was instantly replaced with extreme fury.

“Abel’s back?” Chen asked before I could.

“In the war room. And warning, man, he’s pissed,” Jabber told Chen. “Like werewolf pissed, and this I’m seein’ is not a good thing.”

He was pissed?

I looked to Chen and saw he felt like me—that others should be pissed, not Abel. Then Chen moved to the stairs.

I moved to the war room with Jabber at my heels, prepared to go head-to-head with Abel for disappearing.

I stopped in the door when I saw him prowling the room like a caged animal.

One could say the sight of it was more than a little scary.

I ignored the scary and demanded, “Where were you?”

He stopped prowling and turned eyes to me that were even scarier than the prowling was.

They were both brown.

I was getting a lock on the “magic” of his eyes turning—they got brown when he felt something deeply, that being turned on or another good emotion.

Obviously, this also included bad emotions, like him being pissed off.

“Not now, Lilah,” he growled.

“Now, Abel. You’re not supposed to leave. It’s dangerous,” I shot back.

“Not now!” he roared. I jumped in surprise and Jabber got close to my back.

Moose and Snake, who were sitting in the war room sipping coffee while cautiously observing Abel, took their feet and inched my way.

“Calm down,” I whispered.

“Where’s Jian-Li?” he returned in a snarl, which I didn’t like much, but at least it wasn’t a roar.

“Chen’s getting her,” I told him. “But you need to calm down before she gets here.”

“I’m not calming down,” he replied.

“Take a breath, Abel,” I advised.

“Delilah—” he started, just as Jian-Li said from behind me, “What’s going on?”

Jabber and I turned to our sides and I saw Jian-Li with Dad trailing her, Chen trailing him.

My movement was the wrong one. This afforded her the opportunity to slide in front of me and into the room.

And when she did, Abel thundered, “Have you lost your f*ckin’ mind?”

Jian-Li came to a quick stop just inside the room. I slid in beside her and felt the others do the same.

“Abel, honey, calm the f*ck down,” I snapped.

“Went out, seein’ as the boys can’t smell what they’re lookin’ for and I can. Seein’ as I can’t be cooped up and everyone knows it. Smelled nothin’ ’til I went to The Biltmore to see if I could get a sense of what we were dealin’ with there. And when I did, I got hints of you,” Abel informed Jian-Li, totally ignoring me for he was not calming down in the least.

But I was stuck back at The Biltmore.

“You went to The Biltmore?” I asked Abel.

His eyes sliced to me. “I went to The Biltmore.”

“Alone?” I demanded to know on a near-shriek.

“This is not for now, Delilah,” Abel bit out.

“It f*cking is!” I shouted, moving further into the room, Jabber sticking close, Snake adjusting so he was closer. “They could have smelled you, set on you, killed you.”

“They didn’t. Didn’t see them. Smelled them, didn’t see them,” Abel returned and looked to Jian-Li. “And, as I said, also smelled you.”

“I went there yesterday,” Jian-Li shared calmly, and my mouth dropped open as my eyes went to her. “I sat down and spoke with them,” she went on, and that was when my eyes got big. “They were very gracious.”

“You went to The Biltmore alone without tellin’ anyone?” Abel asked, his voice quiet but frightening.

“I did, my Abel,” Jian-Li confirmed.

“Then I’ll repeat, have…you lost…your f*cking mind?” Abel fired back.

“No,” Jian-Li answered. “And I would have shared with you earlier, but you were with Delilah and you haven’t had much quality time together. Even if their message seemed urgent, you connecting with Delilah was more urgent, so I decided this morning would be soon enough. Unfortunately, you found out before I could explain.”

“Unfortunately I did,” Abel clipped. “Now tell me, tian xin, how the f*ck am I supposed to keep you safe if you walk your ass into a den of vampires and werewolves?”

“I took a chance for you, Abel, to keep you safe, and that risk bore fruit,” Jian-Li replied. “They’re not like the ones who attacked you and Delilah. They have urgent things to share with you. But they’re good.”