Bethany hummed to herself as she put the chairs up on top of the tables for the night and shut down all the lights. The bar closed at one AM at this time of year, and the last customer had left ten minutes ago. As usual, Alexei had gone back to the house around eleven thirty to help Calum into bed, and as usual, the place had seemed quiet and a bit empty without his overly large presence. She didn’t even want to think about how it would feel when he was gone for good.
Alexei. She couldn’t believe what he’d done tonight. She would have bet a substantial amount of money that nothing he could do would surprise her, but it turned out she would have been wrong.
When that creep had started in with her, then kept pushing and pushing, she was certain Alexei was going to flip out and go into what she privately thought of as “Hulk mode.” She’d seen it coming, and could already visualize the damage the two huge men would wreak as they battled back and forth across the bar.
When Alexei stood up, she knew she was doomed. She’d have to ban him from The Hook and Anchor for good, get everything repaired again, and maybe even kick him out of the guest house, even though she still hadn’t found a new aide for her dad. Her stomach had clenched so hard, she was afraid she was going to throw up.
Then he’d done the completely unexpected. It had taken her a minute to understand what he was doing, but she’d almost cheered when she realized he was purposely driving his opponent in the direction of the door. When he’d shoved the guy out into the parking lot and then refused to fight, she’d been overcome with a rush of emotion - part stunned amazement, part gratitude, and part sheer unadulterated lust. She always found him ridiculously attractive, but in that moment, he had been almost irresistible. The impulsive kiss in front of an entire bar full of customers was probably a mistake, but she couldn’t bring herself to regret it.
He was definitely going to get lucky when she got home.
She hefted the last chair up and turned off the lamp behind the bar, then made her way down the hall past the bathrooms to the back exit. She couldn’t wait to get into her truck and go give Alexei his reward for not wrecking the place again.
As always, she turned around once she was outside to jiggle the old brass doorknob and make sure it was really locked, a habit her father had instilled in her when she was still in her teens. But this time, when she turned back to go to her truck, she saw a silhouette standing under the lone light in the parking lot next to the bar. Before her brain could even process what she was seeing, someone came up behind her and grabbed her, sticking a nasty-smelling cloth over her nose and mouth.
Bethany struggled briefly, her heart stuttering with panic, pulse racing as she struggled not to breathe in. But despite her best attempts, her vision blurred and her knees buckled, and then the world went away.
* * *
Alexei sat at the kitchen table and tried not to worry. After all, Bethany was a grown woman who had been managing for years before he ever came along, and who would undoubtedly manage just fine when he was gone. Still, it was unusual for her not to be back by now. The hands on the old crooked clock pointed at two; she should have been back at least a half an hour ago. He’d been looking forward to collecting his reward when she got home…now he just wanted to know that she was all right. He could almost hear his brothers teasing him about becoming a mother hen, but he couldn’t help it. Something was wrong. He could feel it in his bones.
He could hear the faint sounds of Calum’s snoring echoing through the house, and thought about taking a quick run to the bar to check and make sure everything was okay. But he’d promised Bethany not to leave her father alone - she worried about things like fire, or medical emergencies, or anything else where Calum wouldn’t be able to manage without help.
Alexei figured the old man would probably be fine for ten minutes on his own, but he’d made a promise, and if he broke it, Bethany would kick his ass. Assuming she was okay.
She had to be okay. He was just being paranoid. But if she hadn’t shown up by two thirty, he was going to wake the neighbor and go to the bar and check, even if he got yelled at for his efforts.
He’d even gone so far as to try calling her cell phone, much as he hated the things, but there had been no answer. No doubt there was a perfectly reasonable explanation, and she’d walk in any minute and laugh at him for worrying. That would be okay with him.
A knock at the back door made him jolt up in relief. Finally. But then he realized that Bethany wouldn’t be knocking at her own door, and the relief morphed into a sharp stab of concern. So it was with a mix of pleasure and anxiety that he opened the door to find Beka standing there instead.
“Hey,” he said. “You’re back.” He motioned her into the kitchen and she sank into a chair with a sigh.
“Yeah. Finally. This search took a lot longer than I anticipated. I kept chasing down rumors and finding people who had bits and pieces of ‘Gee, that sounds like something I might have heard a hundred years ago,’ or ‘Have you asked Symon the blacksmith who lives under the enchanted mountain?’” She took the cup of tea he handed her and smiled at him gratefully.
“I know it’s late, but I parked the school bus in the street out front so I could talk to you first thing in the morning, and when I saw the light on, I figured you might still be up.” Beka glanced around the kitchen. “Is Bethany here? I thought you two were probably sitting here gabbing.” She winked at Alexei. “Mind you, I was hoping I wouldn’t be interrupting something else. Like something that involved whipped cream and nakedness on top of the table.”
She thought a second. “Or maybe I hoped I would be. How are you two doing, anyway?”
Alexei ignored her second question to answer the first, more pressing one. “No, Bethany isn’t here. And she should be. I’m starting to get worried.”
Beka raised one blonde eyebrow. “Really? It isn’t like you to worry about other people. Gregori once vanished for six months and you just said, ‘He’s probably staring at his damned navel.’”
“And I was right, wasn’t I?” Alexei mocked, although his heart wasn’t in it. “When he finally turned up, he’d been at a Buddhist monastery in Tibet, helping the Abbot there solve some kind of weird Paranormal mystery.”
“Oh, right. I’d forgotten that,” Beka said. “But still, my point is, you weren’t at all worried. And he’s your brother.”
“He was also a Rider, and better equipped to take care of himself than some small armies,” Alexei reminded her. “Bethany, well, Bethany is tough, but she is still a Human, and therefore fragile. What if she has been in an accident or something?”
Beka stood up and gave him a hug. “You’re really concerned, aren’t you?” She gazed into his eyes. “I can’t believe it. You’ve finally fallen for someone.” Her grin could have lit up half of Broadway. “It’s about damned time. I like her, too. She may be tiny and Human, but I think you’ve met your match.”
Alexei shook his head, not even bothering to deny it. “It’s impossible, Beka, and you know it. We’re too different. And I don’t stay in one place. It could never work out between us.”
“Seems to me like you’ve been in one place for a while now,” Beka said softly. “I don’t see any signs that you’re suffering, either. As for differences, I don’t think anyone could be more different than a powerful witch who is also a California surfer chick and a former Marine turned fisherman, and Marcus and I have made it work. I’ve never been happier. Maybe you should give yourself a chance at that same happiness, Alexei.”
He stared at the clock again. “I’d be happy if she would just walk in the door. I have a bad feeling, Beka.” Fear clenched at his belly, making it feel as though his entrails were on fire.
“She probably just has a flat tire or something,” Beka said, laying a gentle hand on his arm. “You went through some pretty terrible things, and I know it was awful not to be able to help your brothers when you were all suffering at Brenna’s hands.”
Lines formed around the sides of her mouth and she suddenly looked much older than her usual carefree appearance. Brenna had been her mentor, the one who had raised and trained her, all the while subtly undermining Beka’s confidence so that Brenna wouldn’t have to give up her position as Baba Yaga.
“I hate what that bitch did to you all. But I especially hate that she left you all so broken that you felt as though you couldn’t be a part of each other’s lives anymore, or of ours. I can’t tell you how wonderful it has been to be able to reconnect with you, and I know the others will feel the same when you’re ready to reach out again.” She blinked back tears that tugged at his heart.
Then she sniffed and punched him on the arm. “But don’t wait too long, okay? Your brothers have finally come back to us, and you need to too, you big jerk.”
Alexei bit back a smile. “This was the point you were trying to make?”
Beka wiped her eyes. “No, sorry. I kind of got side-tracked there. What I meant to say is that you’re still raw from the experience. Humans would call it PTSD - post traumatic stress disorder - and say it is normal that you’re jumping at shadows that aren’t there. I’m sure Bethany is fine.”
Alexei felt his shoulders relax a little bit. Beka was probably right. It was probably something perfectly benign, like a problem with the truck, or something minor that had needed to be dealt with at the bar. Maybe her cell phone had run out of whatever it was regular cell phones were powered by, since they didn’t have magic.
“Yeah,” he said. “I guess. But look, since you’re here, would you mind staying with Bethany’s father so I can run over to the bar and make sure she doesn’t need help with something? I’d feel a lot better if I could go check. Even though she’ll probably give me hell for not trusting her to be able to take care of herself.”
Beka laughed. “Oh, she definitely will. But I don’t mind staying. You run off and check on your woman.”
Alexei rolled his eyes. “She’s not my woman.”
Beka just snickered and settled back into her chair with her cup of tea. “If I’m asleep when you get back, just roll me out to the bus, will you?”
“With pleasure,” he said and headed out the door at something that wasn’t quite a run.
* * *
Anxiety prickled up his spine when he saw that the bar was shuttered and dark. Alexei drove around to the parking lot, figuring she might be in the tiny office in the back, but there were no lights on anywhere that he could see. He hopped off his Harley and went to check the door.
Locked. But his foot kicked something that jingled when he hit it, and he bent down to retrieve a set of keys he recognized from the tiny metal anchor that hung from the ring. Bethany’s keys. But no Bethany. He couldn’t seem to draw air into his lungs, and he had a sudden flashback to the moment he’d awoken in a dank, dimly lit cave to see his brothers bleeding, locked into cages where he couldn’t reach them.
If someone had harmed Bethany…
He glanced around the area and his eyes fell on her father’s beat-up old truck, parked at the far end of the otherwise empty lot. He raced over to check it, but it was as empty and abandoned as the bar.
A small white square tucked under the windshield wiper caught his eye, and he forced himself to stop and breathe before plucking it out from underneath the rubber wiper. He walked slowly to stand underneath the light, tilting the paper so he could read it. It felt strangely heavy in his hands, like old-fashioned parchment, and the message appeared to be written with a fountain pen. The writing was flowery and bold, and the nib of the pen had bitten so deeply into the paper it had left grooves that could be felt with Alexei’s trembling fingertips.
In contrast to the elaborate delivery system, the message itself was quite simple:
Leave town immediately and never return. Or the woman dies.