He didn’t need to tell me twice.
I hoofed it to my bright red Jeep, but when I got in, I propped my head against the steering wheel and just sat there. What the hell just happened in that doctor’s office? I was normally so cool under pressure. Buffy Summersault? If I’d just risked the safety of one of my clients, I’d never forgive myself. Shawn had come to me in the strictest of confidences. It didn’t get much more delicate than investigating your own parents for child abduction. What would they do if they found out he knew?
When I looked back at Reyes, he’d shifted his attention from the angel and onto Mrs. Foster. She rushed out of a side door and hurried to a gold Prius, her movements harried, her expression lined with worry.
“And just where might you be going?” I asked no one in particular.
I turned the key, but the moment I threw Misery into drive to follow the nice kidnapper, a knock sounded on my window. My heart jumped into my throat. I turned to see the receptionist motioning me to roll the window down.
“Hey.” I couldn’t help but notice the stiff line of her mouth.
“You upset Eve,” she said.
“Yeah.” I watched as the taillights of the Prius disappeared around a corner. “Sorry about that.”
“You don’t really sell copiers, do you?”
“Sure I do. I have a card right—”
I looked around Misery, ignoring the smirk my thirteen-year-old investigator sent me from the passenger’s side. Artemis bounced up in the backseat when Angel popped in, whining in excitement, her stubby tail wagging at the speed of light.
I understood. That was often my reaction when Reyes appeared.
Angel reached back and rubbed her ears, before nodding toward the actual angel loitering in the dark garage, and asking, “What’s with all the angels?”
“Oh,” the receptionist said. “Okay. Sorry.” She started to turn. I was clearly about to lose a lead. Her demeanor was one of concern and apprehension, not triumph for having busted me for fraud.
“Okay,” I said, stopping her. “I don’t sell copiers.” I let it go there. If she had something to say, she would. If not …
She faced me again.
“She’s hot,” Angel said.
“Then what were you doing here?”
“I was just getting a feel for the place. You know, should I ever need a pediatrician.” I bowed my head and tried to ignore the fact that I would’ve been in need of one had I been able to keep my daughter. But she was safe. That was my mantra. Beep was safe. Safer than she would be around me.
“You’ll get her back,” Angel said.
I had one hand on the gearshift. He covered it with his. I turned mine up and laced our fingers together.
“You know, we could make out and she would never know.”
I rolled my eyes, then held up an index finger to the receptionist. “Excuse me.” I took my hand back and picked up my phone so I could pretend to talk on it, but first I had to set up my pretend conversation. “Hello? Yeah. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.”
“Are you going to do this all day?” Angel asked.
I cast him my evilest grin. And continued. “Seriously? No way. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.”
Angel laughed, then slowly leaned forward like he was going to kiss me. The little shit.
“You do realize my husband is not fifty feet away.”
And he was now watching us from beneath hooded lids.
Angel snorted and moved in even closer. “I’m not afraid of your husband.” When Reyes’s arm snaked around his neck and he pulled Angel back against his chest as he materialized, locking him in an inescapable chokehold, Angel added through a strained larynx, “Much. I’m not afraid of him much.”
Artemis pawed at them, wanting to play, too. Angel chuckled, ducked under Reyes’s arm, and lunged into the backseat to wrestle with her. Thank goodness the laws of physics didn’t apply. There was no way all three of them would have fit in my backseat had they been corporeal.
“Aren’t you supposed to be watching Uncle Bob?” I asked him.
“I have been. He’s perfectly safe. Swopes is on watch now.”
“Oh, okay.” I’d trust Garrett Swopes with my own life, so I felt Ubie was safe in his hands.
Angel let out a squeak that I assumed was a plea for help, but I ignored it.
“Sorry about that,” I said to the receptionist, pretending to end my pretend call.
“That’s okay.”
Reyes materialized in my passenger seat but stayed firmly planted in the supernatural realm. Otherwise she would have been in for quite the shock.
She kicked at the ground. “Well, I’ll let you go. I got off early and—”
“I guess Mrs. Foster did, too?” I asked, nodding toward the exit.
She lifted a shoulder. “I guess.”
“Do you know where she went?”
The girl narrowed her lids. “Why do you want to know?”