cocked her head and tried to read the granite set of his face. “And if I don’t play nice—”
“You don’t get any of your questions answered.”
“Noted.”
He paused over his eggs. “Rory—”
“I’m not stupid.”
“I never said you were. Just determined.”
“I need to find her.”
“I know. But you digging might make things harder for Felicia.”
She stopped her fork midway to her mouth. “What do you mean?”
He handed Hannah the corner of toast she was reaching for. His voice was low, barely above a whisper. “There’s more than Felicia at stake here. Can you understand that?”
She stirred a bite of French toast in the lake of maple syrup at the bottom of her plate and sighed. She could understand how stopping the traffic of drugs was just as important, but it seemed a whole lot less real than Felicia’s disappearance. “Yes.”
“Good girl.”
She shot him a killing look he chose to ignore. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t do everything I can to find her.”
“Couldn’t stop the avalanche if I wanted to. Just don’t go stepping on any toes, okay? Determined could get you killed, and that really wouldn’t look good on my record.”
Of course not. “I’m not a toe-stepper by nature.”
He pushed away his plate. “Could’ve fooled me.”
“Who did Felicia hang out with? Besides Mike.” Rory pushed Cheerios one by one toward Hannah who thought it was hilarious to drop them on the floor.
Ace leaned back in the red vinyl seat and crossed his arms over his chest. “They’re not going to talk to you.”
Rory shrugged. “It’s worth a try.”
“Heidi, Meg and Terra are motorcycle mamas.”
She lifted both her eyebrows. “Motorcycle mamas?”
“They belong to the club.”
“‘Belong’ as in members?”
“‘Belong’ as in belong to every member.”
The French toast that had seemed fluffy moments ago now felt like lead. “Felicia’s a mama?”
He shook his head. “Felicia’s an old lady. She belongs to Mike.”
Rory tried to digest the information, but it only managed to burn into indigestion. “Is Terra a waitress, too?”
“No, she works for the phone company.”
Rory turned her cup of coffee in slow circles, studying the black tide for answers. “Did Felicia have any regular friends?”
“Just Candace and Penny, as far as I know. The only reason I know that much is because she belongs to Mike.”
And he was investigating Mike. Felicia was important to him only because of her relationship to Mike. There was so much, she now realized, she didn’t know about her own sister. She should have… Pursing her lips, she waved the thought away. Making a relationship work took two, and Felicia had made her feelings clear a long time ago.
Ace rose and dropped enough cash on the table to cover both their breakfasts. She started to protest, but he gave her a look so sharp it silenced her. Then his face transformed as he bent toward Hannah and tweaked her nose. He was no longer the hard-edged pirate, but a man a woman could melt for before she realized it had quite happened. Rory rubbed her temple. Ugh, I need to get some sleep.
“Bye, Hannah-banana,” Ace said.
Like every other female in the place, Hannah turned her sweet face up at him and glowed with pleasure. The man could turn heads, but that didn’t mean he knew everything. She would find Felicia and that would put him in his place.
HEIDI AND MEG proved harder to corner than rats in a sewer. Rory had gotten nowhere with Meg, who’d told her to back off and threatened bodily harm when Rory insisted on having a couple of questions answered.
When Rory finally caught up with Heidi outside the café, Heidi promptly pushed herself off the budding oak tree, crushed her cigarette beneath her sneaker and started for the kitchen.
“Wait!” Rory shoved herself, along with Hannah in her stroller, between the waitress and the door. “I just want to ask you a few questions.”
“I don’t know anything, okay?” Heidi fisted her hands and leaned forward as if she would charge to get through Rory.
Rory tried to make eye contact with Heidi with no luck. “You know she’s gone.”
Heidi dropped her head to her chest, sighed, but made no attempt to acknowledge or deny anything.
“Do you know where she is?” Rory pressed.
“No.”
“Take a guess.”
Heidi twirled her disposable lighter in one hand and twisted the end of her blond ponytail with the index finger of her other. “I don’t know.”
“Try. Please. This is important.” Hannah dropped her purple bear and screamed for it. Rory bent down to pick it up and lost her strategic position.
Heidi scooted by her and grabbed the doorknob. “Look, I really don’t know anything.”
Rory handed the bear to Hannah. “Then why are you so nervous?”
Heidi’s gaze dropped to Hannah. “All I know is that she loves that baby. She would never leave her for this long.”
“You think something happened to her.” Rory swallowed hard, hoping to calm the gallop of her pulse.
Heidi shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. I hope not. I just don’t know, okay? I’ve got to go back inside.”
“You were close—”
“Not really.”
Desperately, she reached for Heidi’s arm. “You worked together.”
Heidi yanked her arm free. “That doesn’t mean we were close.”
“You belonged to the same gang.”
“Club. It’s a motorcycle club.” Heidi’s eyes widened like that of a puppy who knew it was in trouble. “I’ll lose my job if I don’t go back in.”
“Who are you afraid of?”
Heidi’s face drooped as she jerked on the handle and the door squeaked open. “Nobody.”
