Warrior (Relentless #4)(43)

“You forget that trouble seems to have a way of finding them,” I ground out. “Keep looking for her. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

When I got to town, I rode straight for the waterfront. The first thing I saw was Peter sitting in a car outside her building. He paled when I pulled up beside him.

“I don’t know where she is, so please don’t yell at me,” he blurted out before I could speak. “Roland figured she was up to something, and he said he was going to follow her. He told me to wait here for him.”

“Where would she go around here?”

He shrugged. “There aren’t a lot of places Sara would go. She likes to go down to the wharves, but she doesn’t need to sneak away to do that. I checked, and they’re not down there. And neither of them is answering their phones.”

“Give me your phone number,” I ordered, and he rattled off the number. I punched it into my phone and called his. “Now you have my number. Call me if she shows up.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to ride around and see if I can find her.”

I rode slowly through the streets, trying to feel her presence. With each minute that ticked by, my frustration and worry grew. Where could she have gone without a vehicle? If she was around here, I should have felt her by now. Did her disappearance have anything to do with the last time she took off, or was Chris right and she just needed to be alone?

Half an hour later, I looked at the dark sky. A storm was brewing, and a bad one by the look of it. She’s too smart to stay out in bad weather, I told myself as I turned back to the waterfront.

Peter was still in his car, and he shook his head when I pulled up. At that moment, a gust of wind hit me and it began to rain. It was growing darker by the second.

Fear started to gnaw at me. Abandoning my bike, I began to pace. Where are you, Sara?

My Mori fluttered, and I sucked in a sharp breath. I spun and looked down the waterfront at the two figures emerging from the darkness. A mixture of relief and worry-fueled anger filled me, and I strode toward them, not knowing if I was going to hug her or shout at her. Maybe both.

My nose twitched when I got within a few feet of them and picked up the strong smell of fish and brine. Then I noticed the two of them were drenched from head to toe.

“What the hell happened this time?”

Roland started to answer, but Sara cut him off. “Nothing,” she replied with a stubborn set to her jaw.

“Iisus Khristos!” I said under my breath, ready to pick her up and carry her inside whether she liked it or not. “I’ll take her from here,” I said to Roland.

Her tough stance faltered. “I don’t think so!”

Relief flashed in Roland’s eyes, even as he protested weakly. “I’m not sure that’s such a good –”

“Sara and I need to talk – just talk. And judging by the look on your face, I think you agree with me.”

He looked away, telling me all I needed to know.

“Roland?” Confusion and hurt laced Sara’s voice when she faced her friend.

“You won’t listen to me,” he replied weakly. “Maybe it will be good for someone else to…”

She stared at him for several seconds before she pushed past us. “Traitor,” she uttered without looking back.

“Sara, wait.” Roland started after her, but I put a hand on his shoulder. I expected him to push me away. Instead, he just watched her walk toward home. “She won’t forgive me for this.”

“Yes, she will.” It was easy to see how much Sara cared about her friends. She was upset right now, but she wouldn’t hold this against him.

“Maybe I should talk to her.”

“I think it would be better for everyone if I talked to her.” We followed her. “Do you want to tell me where you two went and why you came back smelling like the harbor?”

He shook his head. “You’ll have to ask Sara. If I tell you, she won’t be happy, and I’d rather have you mad at me than her.”

We reached the bottom of her steps, and he looked like he wanted to say something else. But whatever it was, he decided against it and ran to Peter’s car instead.

I ascended the steps and reached for the doorknob, expecting to find it locked. I was surprised when it opened under my hand.

Sara was in the main hallway pulling off her wet coat and shoes, and she didn’t look up when I entered. “Make yourself at home,” she called coolly over her shoulder before she disappeared up a set of stairs at the end of the hallway. A few seconds later, her three-legged Beagle emerged from the living room and followed her as if I wasn’t there.

I shot off a text to Chris to let him know Sara was home, and then I removed my leather jacket and threw it over the back of a chair in the kitchen. Water dripped from my hair onto my shoulders, so I went in search of a towel in the bathroom on the main floor.

I was rubbing my hair dry when a shower came on overhead. My hands stilled as my mind suddenly filled with an image of her standing beneath the steaming water.

My Mori fluttered in excitement. Solmi!

“Khristu!” I threw down the towel and stormed to the living room, trying to banish my wholly inappropriate thoughts. It was natural for a bonded male to be sexually attracted to his mate, but there was nothing normal about my relationship with Sara. She was young and innocent, and she deserved better than me behaving like a horny teenage boy.