Page 79 of Moth
“Faith Wen didn’t come home the other night,” Mara explains. “Her parents are freaking out. My dad is arranging a search party for her tonight. We’re meeting at the restaurant if you want to join.”
“Faith?” Frowning, Rafe snatches one of the flyers.
“She’s a sweet girl,” Mara says. “She works at the Red Duck.”
Alarm shoots through me, and I finally realize why the woman’s smiling face looks so familiar.
“I know her,” Rafe says softly.
And now I remember exactly how. She visited him in his warehouse the night I went there for Mr. Zhang’s debt. “He’s fucking insane,”she’d told Rafe. “I have no idea what he’s going to do now…”
“She’s been gone for over forty-eight hours,” Mara adds. “Her parents are worried.”
“I’ll make some calls and have my boys join in,” Rafe offers, returning the flyer to her.
“Thanks,” Mara says, but I don’t miss the slight change in her posture that has her angling herself toward him. “I think she has a boyfriend out of town, so she could have just taken off for a few days.”
“Yeah,” he agrees, but he doesn’t sound convinced. His gaze turns distant as if he’s miles beyond this space.
“Are you okay?” Mara asks, placing her hand on his shoulder.
He blinks and then nods. “Yeah. I’ll keep an eye out. See you around, Chan.”
She calls after him, “Maybe later tonight for dinner, after the search?”
He stops and looks back, but his gaze cuts straight over Mara’s head toward me. “Maybe.” With that, he exits the store.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Mara turns to me once he’s gone, eyeing me skeptically. “You look… Oh my God!” She fingers the end of my scarf. “Is this what I think it is?”
I grab for it, but she’s too fast, yanking it loose.
“I knew it.” She gasps, her eyes widening at the sight of my throat. “Jesus, Hannah—”
“It’s nothing.” I lift my hands to obscure as much of the bruising as I can.
“Yeah, right, it’s nothing! I pioneered the ‘scarf to hide the hickeys’ trick.” She prods a mark on my collar despite my attempts to cover them. “But no one’s ever gone at my neck like that. Was he trying to hickey you or eat you? God, I bet that was so hot—”
“Mara!” I grab the scarf from her and secure it. “It’s a rash.”
“So, I don’t get any of the deets?” She pouts, crossing her arms over the flyers. “No fair. I dish to you about all my guys. Or Iwould, if I were getting laid. Who knew Rafe played hard to get?”
“No luck yesterday?” I try to sound as neutral as I can, but it’s a futile effort. Nothing could disguise the unease in my voice.
“Nope. He said he was busy—again. I think I’m going to start going back to the gym.” She eyes her slender frame with a frown. “Anyway, if you’re going to join the search party tonight, hit me up. Maybe I can see if Rafe will let us into the club for free after—you know, once they find Faith and everything. What was he doing here, anyway?” Her brow furrows as if she finally realized our location, which is the farthest thing from a tattoo shop.
I turn to the nearest shelf, adjusting a section of books. “I don’t know.”
“Well… I have to hand the rest of these out. I’ll see ya, Hannah!”
She skips off, and I make it through the next phase of my shift in a whirlwind daze. I barely notice when Mr. Zhang returns from his errands, bustling with excitement.
“You can go home early,” he declares once we’ve hung one of his new banners over the front of the store. “Go on. You’ve earned it.”
I hesitate, eyeing a row of books I could straighten. Anything to stall having to leave. I’m desperate enough to admit as much out loud. “I can stay—”
“Go. And take a bonus while you’re at it as thanks for delivering this…” He slips me two envelopes and takes my position behind the counter, his head lowered to disguise his expression. “Go.”
I look down, eyeing the material in my hands. One envelope is white, containing a few crisp bills. The other is a slimmer, starker red, and feels significantly heftier.
