Page 124 of The Mercenary's Guide to Mishaps and Romance

“It’s just too hard to do that. She doesn’t have a phone on her at the moment,” she responds.

I reach out and set a hand on Ellis’s before giving it a squeeze. “She can have the number,” I say, confident she can’t track it no matter how hard she tries. Cassel’s not that sloppy. And it’s not like they carethatmuch. Ellis isn’t someone they’re breaking their neck to find since he doesn’t pose any threat.

Ellis gives her the number before hanging up. “I’m weirdly anxious.”

“About talking to your mother?”

“About everything. Not just talking to her, although I’m confident she’s going to be pissed. I’ve never pissed my mother off before, Tavish! I’m a good boy.”

That makes me laugh, especially because he sounded so comically pitiful at the end.

Ellis starts laughing as well, startling his half-asleep bird. “Aw, sorry, Jolene. I didn’t mean to wake you. Tavish’s meanness made me laugh.”

“Meanness?” I give him a look of surprise. “I didn’t say a damn thing!”

“You were thinking it!”

“Maybe…”

We wait about five minutes before a call comes through that Ellis answers immediately.

“Hello?”

“Ellis!” a woman says with a soft Spanish accent.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Where the fuck are you? This isn’t funny. You don’t tell me all this shit is happening and then run off and refuse to go somewhere safe. You get your ass here right this damn minute, you hear me!”

Ellis is all smiles, looking quite happy about hearing his mother’s voice, all worry immediately wiped away. “I hear you. I hear you loud and clear.”

“Then you better be trotting your ass on over here,” she says.

“I saw Dad.”

She falls quiet. “Your father’s alive?”

“Sure is,” Ellis mutters.

“You… don’t sound very happy about it,” she says. “Ellis, what happened?”

“What happened is…” He hesitates, like he realizes that if he says anything more, he’s just going to end up giving his mother more to worry about. I can’t help but wonder what it’d feel like to care that much about a family member. “Uh… he just… he sure didn’t make it seem like he gave a shit about me. Let’s just leave it at that.”

“No, honey, I’m sure that’s not the case,” his mom says.

Ellis doesn’t seem so sure. He just bites his lip and looks the other way. “Yeah. Um… Mom, there’s a guy here who… is helping me, and we wanted to ask you some questions.”

“What do you mean ‘a guy’? Honey, are you getting caught up in something shady? Please, I really want you to come in with Sienna and me. You don’t need help from shady men. Let the police handle it.”

“He’s not shady,” Ellis says as he looks over at me. “Not super shady, at least. Maybe a little shady.”

I grin at him as he gives me a smile and a wink.

“Mom, you remember the case he was on some time before he disappeared? That Jasmine lady who got hit and killed in a hit-and-run? At the time, I guess he was buddies or something with her father Arthur, although I don’t remember that.”

“What about it?”

“Mom, if you know anything, please tell me,” Ellis begs. “Please. You don’t have to protect him or whatever you think you’re doing.”

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