“Maybe they’ll go away,” Scotty said with a frown at the door, and then grimaced when another knock sounded. “Or maybe not.”

Smiling wryly, Beth slid off the bed and walked to the door to open it, her eyebrows rising when she saw Donny on the other side.

“Oh.” The young immortal looked surprised and then smiled back. “You’re awake and up. Rachel said you were better, but I expected you still to be resting.”

“She will,” Scotty assured him, walking up to stand behind Beth. “Were ye lookin’ fer me?”

“Oh, yes, sorry,” Donny said with a grimace. “Mortimer wanted me to find you and let you know he needs to have a word with you.”

Scotty hesitated, and then asked, “Do ye ken what about?”

Donny shook his head. “Do you want me to go ask him?”

“No.” Scotty sighed and then glanced to Beth apologetically.

“Go,” she said quietly. “We can finish our talk later.”

Nodding, he bent to press a kiss to her cheek and slid out of the room to hurry to the stairs with Donny on his heels. Beth turned back into the room, frowning and grabbing the back of her gown when she caught a draft. Damned hospital gowns, she thought as she closed the door. She hadn’t even realized she was wearing another one until now. But her clothes had probably been ruined in the bomb blast, so Rachel had changed her.

Beth walked to the dresser and pulled out a pair of underwear and a bra, then grabbed some jeans and a T-shirt from the closet and stepped into the bathroom. A quick shower and change of clothes and then maybe she’d go down to see about something to eat if Scotty wasn’t back yet. She was kind of hungry now that she wasn’t distracted with emotional issues.

With food on her mind, Beth was in and out of the shower in a hurry and pulling on her clothes. She stopped long enough to brush her teeth and hair, but then headed for the door to the hall, and gave a start when she pulled it open to find Odilia there, hand raised to knock.

“Oh,” Beth said with surprise.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” the woman said at once.

“No. That’s fine. I’ve always had a high startle reflex,” Beth admitted, and then added, “If you’re looking for Scotty, he went downstairs a few minutes ago to see Mortimer.”

“Actually, I was looking for you,” Odilia said with a crooked smile. “I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but it’s Scotty’s birthday next week.”

“It is?” Beth asked with alarm. Jeez, she didn’t even know when the man’s birthday was. Or his favorite color, or his favorite food, or, or, or . . . They had a lot of talking to do.

“Yes, on Friday,” Odilia said. “And I was kind of . . . Well, I had a big birthday party planned for him back in Scotland, but of course he will not be there so I canceled it, but I thought maybe we could plan something here. Something smaller, obviously, since we only have a week, but . . .”

“That sounds wonderful,” Beth said quickly. “I’m in.”

“Oh good, because I’m not sure what to do about—” She sighed with frustration and threw up her hands. “I have a list of venues and a bunch of samples to taste down in the garage. Speaking of which, I should get back there—I am on car duty today—but I brought the list and samples into work today and thought if you got a moment, maybe you could come down to the garage . . . ?”

“Actually, that’s perfect,” Beth assured her with a grin. “I happen to be hungry so the samples sound good. Do you want me to come down there with you?”

“That would be great,” Odilia said with relief and turned toward the door. “Scotty is so difficult to plan for.”

“Is he?” Beth asked with curiosity. Other than his bossy tendencies and the issues he’d had with her previous profession, she’d found him pretty easygoing.

“Yes, he—Oh, wait,” Odilia said, catching her arm to stop her as they approached the stairs.

“What is it?” Beth asked with concern.

Odilia made a face. “I just want to make sure the coast is clear before we go down. Like I said, I am supposed to be in the garage. Mortimer will be pissed if he sees me in here. I should have just called you or something, but I was not sure you would be up and about yet, and I didn’t want to wake you if you weren’t. I wish they had outdoor stairs here. I don’t—”

“It’s okay. Come on. We can avoid the house altogether,” Beth said, turning to lead her back to her bedroom and thinking she hadn’t realized how anxious Odilia was. On the other hand, the woman had endured a pretty traumatic childhood. At least Beth had been older when the entirety of what she considered to be her family had been attacked by Jamieson.

“Where are we going?” Odilia asked as she followed her into her room. “I really need to get back to the garage.”

“You will. We’ll use my balcony,” Beth said easily as she crossed to the sliding glass doors in her room. They led to a small balcony overlooking the backyard. Beth opened the door, ushered Odilia out and then closed the door and moved to the rail. It was dark out. Nighttime, then, Beth noted. It had been afternoon when they’d gone to the apartment to get her clothes, but she wasn’t sure if it had been just hours or days ago. Beth had no idea what day it was. She was really losing track of time with all these attacks and such.

“Now what?” Odilia asked.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Beth smiled and said, “Now we jump.”

“Jump?” Odilia asked dubiously, peering at the bushes below with the rocks surrounding them.

“Try to hit the grass and not the rock garden,” Beth said with a grin and vaulted over the railing to land lightly on the grass in front of the bushes. Straightening, she glanced back up to Odilia and smiled encouragingly as she waved her down.

Odilia hesitated, but then gripped the railing and vaulted over it to land next to her. She straightened with a laugh and shook her head as they started to walk across the dark yard. “You would have been a nightmare to raise were you a teenager right now,” she said with amusement. “You would probably be one of those girls who sneak out in the middle of the night to meet their boyfriends all the time,” she teased.

“Yeah, I probably would,” Beth admitted and smiled at the idea as she thought, especially if that boyfriend was Scotty. She would have taken every opportunity to slip out to see him, she thought, and then glanced around the empty yard and frowned. “I wonder where the dogs are?”

“Waiting in the kennels for me to feed them,” Odilia explained, and added, “I’ll have to do that and let them out before we try the samplers.”

Beth shrugged. “I’ll help.”

“Thanks.” Odilia sounded surprised, but smiled as she opened the garage door for her to enter.

“How did you get stuck on garage duty?” Beth asked as she led the way through the building to the door leading to the kennels and cells.

“I wondered that myself when I arrived and Mortimer assigned me to it,” Odilia admitted as they passed into a hall with a door on the left and cells lining the right side. She paused at the door on the left, pushed it open and waved Beth in as she continued, “Donny has done it the last couple of days, and I was surprised when Mortimer said I’d be doing it today, but . . .”

Beth had entered the kennels as Odilia talked, her gaze sliding over the excited dogs waiting to be fed, but when the other woman stopped talking, she started to turn in question, only to pause at a sharp sting in her side. Glancing down with confusion, she peered at the dart there and then shifted her bewildered gaze to Odilia. She saw the dart gun the woman held just before the lights went out.

“So you think one of the cameras from a convenience store by the apartment might have caught footage of whoever set up the bomb on Rickart’s car?” Scotty asked with interest.

“We hope so,” Mortimer said. “Magnus took Rickart with him to the store to get copies of the film footage from all four cameras. I asked Magnus why all four and why not just whatever one, or ones, might be pointing toward the parking lot, and he said—”

“—because we might get the license plate number or a closer image of the rogue as they were coming or going,” Scotty said, nodding.

“Hmm,” Mortimer said. “You two think alike.”

Scotty shrugged mildly. “We’ve worked together a long time.”

“Well, I appreciate your coming to help out and bringing your men,” Mortimer told him solemnly. “Even I am learning off of you, because I would only have had them get film footage from the cameras that might have got the parking lot. I will know better in future.”

Scotty smiled faintly, but then asked, “When do you expect Magnus and Rickart back?”

Mortimer glanced at the clock and pursed his lips. “They should be there now. But I am not sure how long it will take to copy the footage.” He considered it briefly, and then said, “At a guess, maybe an hour or an hour and a half, depending on traffic.”

Scotty stood up. “I’m going to go tell Beth, then.”

Mortimer nodded. “If you are not back by the time they return, I will send Donny to get you, or text you.”

“Thank ye.” Scotty left the office, headed for the stairs. Halfway there, however, he detoured into the kitchen. Beth hadn’t eaten for twenty-four hours. She could probably use more blood too, he thought and shook his head. It seemed that lately all they’d done was recover, eat, and feed . . . well, and make love. The thought made him smile. It was making love. He was pretty sure he loved her. She was a special woman, kind, generous, giving, brave, smart, sassy. He even liked the sassy. Maybe the truth was, he especially liked the sassy. A lot of people found him intimidating for some reason and few would dare to sass him, or say anything they feared he wouldn’t like. Magnus was one of those few, and it was why they’d been friends so long. Beth also had no fear doing either, and he liked that, Scotty thought as he checked the refrigerator for possible snacks to take to Beth.

His gaze landed on the cheese and he grabbed it, collected a couple of plates and quickly sliced off several pieces for each. He then found the leftover apple pie from the night before and cut a wedge for each plate. He put both on a tray, grabbed a couple of bags of blood and then poured two glasses of milk. He knew Beth would probably prefer coffee, but there wasn’t any made at the moment, and he didn’t know how to make it.

He’d have to ask Sam to show him how, Scotty decided as he gathered the tray and headed for the stairs. If Beth liked coffee, he’d learn and be pleased to surprise her with it when she woke. The idea of waking her with a kiss and a cup of coffee made him smile and think of lazy mornings in bed . . . and not-lazy mornings in bed, as well as a future full of both. Scotty seriously regretted that he’d been so stubborn and foolish for so long. He’d nearly lost her because of it. Thank God she’d been willing to listen to him and was giving him the chance to make up for it.

That thought had his smile widening as he moved down the hall to her bedroom. With his hands full, he used his foot to “knock” at the door, and then waited . . . and waited. Frowning, he lifted his foot to “knock” again, and then—concerned that Beth might be sleeping—Scotty shifted the tray to balance on one flat hand, freeing the other to open the door himself. He turned the knob, pushed the door open and started into the room, only to pause when he saw that the bed was empty. His gaze slid to the open bathroom door and the empty room beyond, and then he turned and headed back downstairs a lot faster than he’d gone up.

Scotty looked into the living room first and, finding it empty, started going from room to room. He checked in Mortimer’s office last. The head of the North American Enforcers glanced up from the paperwork on his desk, his gaze landing on the tray, and his eyes widened.

“That looks good,” he said, straightening in his chair. “Beth sleeping?”

“She’s—I can’t find her,” Scotty said rather than what he’d originally intended, which was “She’s gone.” He really didn’t want to say that. He had that bad feeling again and was afraid to give voice to it.

“She is not in her room?” Mortimer asked with a frown, standing up.

Scotty shook his head. “And not anywhere on the main floor. I didn’t check the other bedrooms upstairs, though.”

“Could she have gone to your room to surprise you?” Mortimer asked.

Scotty considered that briefly and then shook his head. “I told her I’d go back to her room after I finished talking to you. But I’ll look and see,” he said, turning away.

“While you do that, I will call down to the gate just to make sure she did not take a car and go out anywhere,” Mortimer said.

Scotty didn’t respond other than to nod as he hurried back to the kitchen to set down the tray. He jogged upstairs afterward, checked his room and then checked every other room on the upper floor as well, including double-checking her room again, before heading back downstairs. Mortimer was just coming up the hall from his office when he stepped off the stairs.

“Not there?” Mortimer asked.

Scotty shook his head. “The gate?”

“No. No one has left since Magnus and Rickart.” Pausing, Mortimer turned to look around, and then said, “If you want to check the garage attached to the house, I’ll check the basement. If we do not find her inside, then we will check the yard and the outbuildings.”

Nodding, Scotty turned to head into the kitchen and the connecting door to the attached garage. It didn’t take him long to assure himself she wasn’t there, and then he went down to help Mortimer search the basement. Finding nothing, they headed outside.

“The dogs aren’t out,” Scotty commented as they started across the back lawn. It didn’t take more than a glance to see that the yard itself was empty.

“Odilia is probably feeding them,” Mortimer said. “You check the outbuilding and I will look in the front yard.”

Nodding, Scotty continued on his way as Mortimer broke off and turned to walk around the house. Beth would be in the outbuilding, he told himself. She had to be. There was nowhere else to look for her.

He didn’t see anyone when he entered the building, not even Odilia. Frowning, he scanned the vehicle bays, glanced into the offices and then opened the door to the hall that led to the kennels and cells. A quick look showed him that the cells were empty, and he was reaching to open the door to the kennels when it swung toward him. Backing up, Scotty frowned in disappointment when he saw that it was only Odilia.

“Is Beth with you?” he asked as she stepped out.

“Beth?” she asked with surprise. “Is she not still recovering from the explosion?”

“Nay,” Scotty said, his mild concern turning to real concern as he realized she wasn’t here either. “She’s missing.”

Odilia looked confused. “She cannot be missing, Scotty. Did you look in the kitchen? Perhaps she was hungry when she woke up.”

“We checked the house, upstairs, downstairs, even the basement and garage. This was the last place.”

“You must have missed her,” Odilia said with certainty. “Just give me a minute to let the dogs out and I will come up to the house and help you search it again.”

“No.” Scotty shook his head. “Stay here. Mortimer and I will look again.”

“What about Donny?” Odilia asked.

“Donny?” Scotty echoed with confusion.

“Is he not helping you look for her?” she explained.

“I did no’ see Donny either,” he realized aloud.

“Well, maybe they are together somewhere. I know he has not left,” she said with certainty. “His vehicle is still here.”

Scotty frowned, but turned to head back out of the hall into the main part of the building. Now Donny was missing too? Or he might have been in the front yard when he and Mortimer searched the house. For that matter, Scotty thought suddenly, perhaps Beth was too. She had to be here somewhere. The car she’d rented until she bought another vehicle was still in the parking lot. He’d noted that from her bedroom window when he’d checked her room the second time.

His gaze slid around the yard. It seemed strangely empty without the dogs, and he now wondered how long they’d been in the kennels for feeding. The dogs, the fence, and the gate worked together to ensure the security at the Enforcer house. So long as the dogs were out, no one could get over the fence and around the property unnoticed, but while they were inside . . . that was another story. He should have asked Odilia that.