Page 42 of Savage Secrets (Vigilante Kings)

CHAPTEREIGHTEEN

Madelyn

We walked two blocks from where the Vigil guys had parked Logan’s car, through a middle-class residential neighborhood that was mostly quiet in the late morning. The empty driveways and vacant lawns suggested almost everyone who lived here had gone off to work or school.

The guys hadn’t told me what exactly we were doing in this part of the city, only that they’d found a potential connection to my car thief. They slowed when we reached a two-story home with neat flowerbeds out front and white wicker furniture on the small porch. Then they walked along the narrow path between it and the neighboring house to the backyard as if they belonged there.

I hurried along with them, curiosity and apprehension nibbling at me in unison. “You think the person who stole my car—or the box—lives here?” I whispered, knitting my brow as I took in the backyard with its well-maintained lawn and cedar patio furniture. Obviously you couldn’t identify a thief from a glance, but I hadn’t expected a criminal’s house to look quite this tidy and ordinary. I could have imagined one of Mom’s friends living here.

“We think this person is involved somehow,” Logan said, low and terse. “Maybe not directly. But there was someone suspicious checking out the mechanic shop not long before your car was dropped off, and the car they were driving is registered to this address.”

“How did you findthatout?” I asked.

He shrugged, not meeting my eyes. “It’s amazing what you can learn if you just ask around.”

He obviously wasn’t going to tell me more than that, but I wasn’t too worried about that, only annoyed. I had trouble believing he was going to badger a stranger without a solid reason. Even so… “Will they tell us anything? They don’t even know us.”

Slade tapped his elbow against mine as we approached the back door. “The woman who lives here doesn’t need to tell us anything. She’s at work. We’re just going to take a little look around.” He grinned at me.

“What?” I clapped my hand over my mouth after the question burst out louder than I expected, my eyes darting toward the neighboring houses. The high wooden walls obscured all view of us except from one second-story window next door, and it was covered by thick curtains.

But what if someone noticed? The guys couldn’t seriously be planning on—

Dexter was already kneeling by the back door, pulling a couple of slim metal tools from his pocket. I couldn’t help gaping as he worked them into the lock.

“What if we get caught?” I hissed.

Logan shot me a look that felt like a dare. “It’s just a little light breaking-and-entering. We’re not going to hurt anyone or damage anything. We’re only looking for information. You want your dad’s trinket box back, don’t you?”

He was probably hoping that I’d back down, turn tail and run so they could continue the investigation on their own. No doubt he wouldn’t have brought me along at all if Dexter hadn’t updated me as promised.

I clamped my mouth shut, my teeth on edge. My heart was thumping faster. I did want Dad’s box—I wanted to know what was going on with the whole theft. I just hadn’t realized we’d do something quite this illegal to get there. But the guys were acting like they’d carried out operations like this dozens of times.

What the hellhadLogan been up to all these years since he’d pulled away from the family?

Whoever lived in this house was a criminal or had some association with one, I told myself as the lock clicked and Dexter stood with a satisfied smile. It wouldn’t hurt them for us to look around. The guys seemed sure no one was home.

If I didn’t trust them at least this much, what the hell was I doing here in the first place?

Dexter tugged the door open, and the guys marched inside. I followed at the back of the line, resisting the urge to hug myself. My stomach had knotted, but as we stepped into the narrow kitchen where the sweet scent of syrup hung in the air from whatever the owner had for breakfast, a little thrill shot through my chest too.

We were sneaking into someone else’s life, getting a glimpse of a stranger that most people never did. Maybe we’d discover things no one else knew about her. Maybe I’d get some answers about why I’d been targeted.

We were taking control of the situation, and something about that felt right even though I knew the cops would have disagreed.

“What are we looking for?” I whispered.

“Anything suspicious,” Slade said, already riffling through a stack of mail on the kitchen counter.

“The homeowner’s name is Melinda Hughes,” Dexter elaborated. “She’s divorced and has lived alone since her kids moved out several years back, so she’s the only one who’s been residing in the house for a while. If you see any documents addressed to someone with a different name, we’ll want to take a closer look at those. Or anything related to cars or pawn shops or that sort of thing.”

Okay, I guessed that gave me a general idea. I crept deeper into the house, down a hall that led to a combined living-dining room. There were a couple of papers on the dining table, but on closer inspection I found they were only takeout menus. Maybe Melinda Hughes had ordered in dinner last night.

Dexter walked past me, snapping pictures of just about everything in sight. I got a little more into the search, easing up the sofa cushions to peek underneath, checking behind the chairs in the living room for anything that might have fallen, always careful to set things back as they’d been before. My shoes rasped softly over the thick carpet.

“If this woman isn’t the thief herself, how could she be connected?” I asked.

Logan had moved to the front hall, flipping through a calendar that hung on the wall there. “So far I’m not seeing any sign of her being a criminal herself, so I’d guess that the actual perp is using her address as a cover. It’s a pretty common tactic. He’s probably a relative—son or nephew or cousin. Something like that.”

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