Page 24 of Kiss Across the Universe
Aran blew out his breath. “Here’s the thing,” he said heavily. “My folks are in Europe for a couple of weeks. Alannah is watching the house.”
Kit felt as though the verandah had given way beneath him. For what felt a very long thirty seconds, he was in free fall. Then the world righted, his orientation snapped back in, and he found the verandah was still beneath him, solid and unmoving. His heart thundered. “Alannah,” he breathed.
“Yeah,” Aran confirmed. “Here’s the other thing…” He paused.
Kit wondered if it was his own imagination, which was now spinning toward uncontrolled, that made him think Aran’s pause was filled with caution and awkwardness. “What’s the other thing?” His voice was strained.
“I got goosed by something, about twenty-four hours ago,” Aran said. “I just landed in Canmore. I chartered a helicopter from Calgary airport.”
Kit let out a breath that trembled. “Is that a twin thing?”
“I suppose. Alannah wasn’t answering text messages or calls. I knew I had to get there. I’m waiting for the uber guy now.”
“Archie,” Kit supplied, for there was only one uber guy in Canmore, bravely trying to take on the local cab companies.
“Go into the house,” Aran told him. “Check everywhere. I’ll be there in a few minutes. I can see the car coming now.”
“Okay,” Kit said, standing up.
“Soon,” Aran promised and hung up.
Kit put his phone away and turned back to the front door. He felt better about stepping into the house now that Aran had told him to go ahead. He moved back through the doorway and systematically quartered the house.
There were signs everywhere of someone living here alone. A single cup and plate in the kitchen sink. Only one unmade bed, in a room that wasn’t the main suite. A duffel bag in the corner of the room, with lingerie and teeshirts peeping through the unzipped opening.
All the boots in the mud room were dry except for one pair.
And a lone laptop sat at the head of the long table in the dining room. The table had been restored to the center of the room where it usually lived. The laptop lid was closed, but the computer was charging. The lead ran across the floor to the nearest power outlet.
Apart from the busted lock on the front door, there was no other sign of violence, not even subtle ones that a civilian would miss.
But the open window in the kitchen implied that Alannah had left the house suddenly, with no time to take care of things like shutting windows. Even if Alannah didn’t care about leaving her computer plugged in, the open window told another story.
Did she leave of her own free will? The question nagged him. His gut said she’d been taken. Only…why? Even sex traffickers would find hauling their asses to Canmore and trying to smuggle someone out of the country too much effort. Violent abductions only happened in the movies.
Unless they’d just happened to be in the area…. Only it wasn’t prime tourist season. Canmore was in one of the quiet periods, before the snow came in properly and the ski runs opened. But that didn’t meannotourists swinging through the town on their way to Banff. If one of the wrong types of people had spotted Alannah in Canmore…. Maybe she’d gone into town to have a drink where there were people, or to buy groceries. Perhaps she had been spotted and followed home where the asshole, or assholes, had learned she was on her own here and vulnerable.
Kit strode out of the house, his gut roiling and his heart going way too fast. He came to a halt with his thighs up against the guard rail along the edge of the verandah, and gripped the railing.
But he couldn’t just stand there.
He moved down to the other end of the verandah, his fists balled and his heels thudding heavily.
Then back again.
No way could it be traffickers. They picked on prey that were easier to get out of the country. Woman and kids, mostly, in cities near ports. That meant the Greater Vancouver area. Not mountain-locked Canmore.
But telling himself that did not lower his heart rate.
He had completed eleven laps of the verandah when the blue Ford Explorer that Archie drove turned into the road up to the house. Kit caught the blue glitter from the corner of his eyes and turned to watch the Explorer climb up the path to the bridge, then, finally, to halt in front of the house.
Aran climbed down from the front passenger seat, said something that made Archie laugh, handed over cash, and took a small but stuffed-full backpack from the back seat and waved as Archie did a careful three point turn and drove back down the hill.
Aran came over to the verandah to where Kit stood. “Nothing, then,” he guessed, studying Kit’s face.
“Signs she’s been here. Nothing to say why she’s not anymore,” Kit replied.
“Only a busted lock and an open window,” Aran said softly, glancing over Kit’s shoulder.
