Page 9 of Face

“Yeah, you’re going to wake Kalissa. She has to be up in a few hours,” Venom said.

“Someone has to keep this place clean. I don’t mind cleaning up some, but why am I doing it all?” MyAnna cried. She was so small that I had to bite back a grin at how she just looked like an angry kitten instead of a ferocious female on a verbal rampage.

“Hey, let’s take this down a notch. Everyone should be keeping their own areas clean, and not expecting anyone else to pick up after them,” Viper said.

MyAnna huffed. “It’s not the individual areas I’m talking about. The breakroom, for instance, I do the dishes almost every day. No, there’s not many, but why can’t people put their cups and dishes into the dishwasher? Wipe off the table? Sweep or mop the floor? Go to the store and stock the freezer with human food? While we’re at it, the main clubhouse out here—who do you think cleans it? Sweeps up the dog hair?” She gave Venom a pointed look.

Do female vampires get PMS? I wondered.

Phoenix raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t the prospects supposed to be doing that stuff?”

Viper nodded. “Yes, they are. We can’t very well hire a personal cleaning company to work in here, so yes, the prospects are supposed to be keeping this place kept up.”

“Just leave a broom out, I’ll sweep up my own fucking fur from now on, geez,” Venom said, his hands up in surrender. “And I’ll go to the store, tomorrow. I’m tired of Hot Pockets, anyway.”

Such a petty thing to be arguing about, I thought. If MyAnna just stopped doing it, Viper would notice and get on the prospects’ asses. A few of them had fulltime jobs restoring the bikes and sometimes a car or two, but the others just tended bar or waited tables at Cobalt or watched the club. No reason they couldn’t pitch in. I sometimes wondered if MyAnna was just bored and kept busy cleaning. She needed some kind of a job around here. The only thing she was responsible for was keeping an eye on Cobalt when Viper was out. I would rack my brain and try to think of something and then suggest it to Vane later.

A text took my attention away from the drama and I walked away as I pulled the phone from my pocket. It was the anonymous text line with a message: Two underage girls kidnapped by vampires and put on a boat down on the river. Better hurry.

Attached was a photo of three men in dark clothing escorting two young girls who couldn’t be older than fifteen onto a small speedboat.

“Shit,” I said, turning back around. “Boss, we got a situation.” I handed him the phone.

The others crowded around and read the message.

Viper enlarged the photo and asked, “Do we know these cats?”

Nobody answered.

“Do we know where exactly that is?” Shadow asked, pointing at the screen.

Phoenix said, “Let me see that.”

Viper handed him the phone.

He stared at it. “Looks like the docks where I used to work, but further down past the barges and cargo ships.”

“Let’s go,” Viper said.

“They’re probably long gone by now,” Andy commented.

Viper fished his keys from his pocket. “Doesn’t matter, let’s ride. Lieutenants only.” He turned to MyAnna and kissed her on the forehead. “Watch the club, Shortstop?”

She nodded and we headed out back to our bikes.

We parked in the lot the dock workers used for their vehicles and turned the bikes off. I looked around and didn’t see anything familiar, so I pulled the phone out and looked at the photo again.

“Head south along the river, I think it’s this way,” Phoenix said, and we followed.

Once past the large ships, we came to a small section of shore that was unoccupied. There were footprints in the claylike sand that disappeared once they reached a dent where a boat had been docked.

“Shoe size is small, like a woman’s or teen’s,” Andy said, bending down and tracing his finger over them. “There are larger, men-sized ones here too,” he continued.

“Seems to be consistent with the photo,” I said. “I wonder where they took the picture from?” I turned around and scanned the area.

Phoenix and Shadow backtracked a little until they were in a spot where the photo was most likely taken from. “There’s nothing here. Whoever took those had some balls to take pictures out in the open like this.”

“Strange,” Viper said. “What was the purpose of sending that text if there’s nothing we can do? A description of the people and boat would have been helpful. We’re chasing our tails here.”

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