Heat spread between her legs when he nipped at her earlobe. “It’s only ever held one before.”
His hands slid up her rib cage to cup her breasts. And shards of arousal ricocheted through her veins at the intimate touch. She tipped her head to the side and glanced over her shoulder so she could see his tantalizing mouth.
“I’m glad to hear that,” he said with a wicked turn of his lips. “Because I don’t want to think about anyone else doing to you what I’m about to do to you in that tub.”
Fire exploded in her veins.
Neither did she. She just wanted to think about him. She wrapped her hand around the back of his head and dragged his mouth toward hers.
Chapter Seventeen
Titus waited for traffic to clear on the small Coeur d’Alene street, then crossed the road and ducked into the Internet café. The few humans scattered throughout the space cast curious expressions his way, but he ignored them and moved toward Skyla and Orpheus at a table in the back.
They both looked up from the computer they were using. “Well?” Skyla asked.
Titus pulled up a chair at the Siren’s side and looked past her to Orpheus, whose thoughts screamed, What the hell are you waiting for? “Got it. It’s an Idaho license plate.”
He recited the numbers for Skyla, who quickly typed them into the search engine for the Idaho Division of Motor Vehicles, which she’d hacked into. After tracking the truck Gryphon had stolen in Montana here to Coeur d’Alene, they’d run into a wall. Titus had spent all morning hanging out around the police station, trying to pick up any tidbits about the stolen vehicle, and had finally struck gold.
“The truck was found abandoned on a side road near the water. A sailboat was missing. Cops found it all the way across the lake.”
“Are we sure it was them?” Orpheus asked.
Titus looked around the café, then lowered his voice. “There was no damage to the inside of the boat, but cops found a bloody towel onboard. Blood of an ‘unknown origin.’ Matched bloody rags they found in the truck. It was all the talk—and thoughts—at the station.”
“That’s Gryphon,” Orpheus breathed.
Titus agreed. And no damage meant it couldn’t be daemon blood. Argonaut blood, while partly human, contained unidentified alleles, and couldn’t easily be tracked.
“Here it is,” Skyla said. “Black, 2010 Nissan Pathfinder.”
“It was stolen from the marina where the boat ended up,” Titus told them while Skyla jotted the info on a piece of paper. “And get this. There was a note left on board. Apologizing for borrowing the vessel.”
“Oh, that’s so Maelea,” Skyla said as she looked up. “Which is good,” she added, glancing toward Orpheus. “It means she’s still alive.”
“For now,” Orpheus said with a frown.
Titus rubbed his forehead. “This would be a helluva lot easier if Gryphon were wearing his damn Argos medallion. We could track that.” He gestured toward the computer screen. “We’ve got the make and model but no fucking clue which way they’re headed.”
Skyla leaned back, crossed her arms, and stared at the computer screen. “I say we focus on Maelea. If she’s still alive—which she is,” she added, glancing toward Orpheus again—“then my guess is, Gryphon’s likely keeping her alive for a reason. She lived in the Seattle area for over a hundred years, right? Orpheus, you saw that huge house she had. The woman has money. Hell, she’s been alive for three thousand years, she’s probably got money coming out her ears. It’s highly likely she’s got more residences than just that one.”
“You’re thinking Gryphon might have forced her to take him to one of her other properties?” Orpheus asked.
“I’m thinking he needs a place to regroup. To figure out what to do next. He can’t do that when they’re on the run. They’re moving west. Toward where Maelea used to live. It’s worth checking, isn’t it?”
Thoughts of the redhead who’d been snooping in Maelea’s room at the colony pinged around in Titus’s brain, but this time the thoughts weren’t personal. Or so he told himself.
He pulled out his phone and dialed.
“What’s the story?” Theron said as soon as he answered the call.
“The redhead,” Titus said, looking at Orpheus and Skyla, who were watching him with curious eyes. “She was looking for Maelea. I need to talk to her. She might be able to help us figure out where Gryphon is taking Maelea.”
“I let her go.”
Disbelief and panic rushed through Titus before he could stop it. “You what?”
“She wasn’t here for Maelea,” Theron said matter-of-factly. “She was here for something else. Something we don’t need or want to get involved with. Where are you? What’s the line on Gryphon?”
Titus’s vision swam. Theron had let the female go. The first person ever whose thoughts he couldn’t hear. Though he knew she was someone he was better off leaving alone, he couldn’t stop the panic rushing through him.