Prickly Business by Piper Vaughn & Kenzie Cade

Author:Piper Vaughn & Kenzie Cade [Cade, Piper Vaughn & Kenzie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2015-07-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

NESTLED CLOSE to Dylan’s side on the couch, Avery hesitated to answer his question. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to share with Dylan. He did. Avery had realized over the last few days that he couldn’t handle the Lacey situation without someone to talk to, and he wanted to unburden himself on his mate. But something told him Dylan wouldn’t react well to what he’d been doing.

Slowly the warmth and security of Dylan’s embrace eased Avery’s tension. He went limp against Dylan, nuzzling his face into Dylan’s shirt, inhaling his scent. The dam inside him broke as his mate’s presence soothed him, and the story of Mr. Otis and Lacey spilled out of Avery in a flood. He told Dylan the reason for the invitation to Howl, where he’d been on Saturday night, and what he’d been doing since then.

When he wasn’t making deliveries, he’d been online, searching tirelessly, poring over websites about missing persons in Oregon and the surrounding states. So many people just disappeared every year, never to be seen or heard from again. A lot of them were women—pretty teenagers whose lives had barely started. He even found a few interviews with girls who worked in the sex trade where they described how it all began and discussed the young men and women who seduced and lured them into selling themselves.

Depressing couldn’t begin to describe it. That afternoon, when Avery had returned to his loft after his deliveries, he’d filled his tub with warm water, shifted into his hedgehog form, and spent some indeterminate amount of time curled up into a ball, just floating on his back in lazy circles, trying not to think. Of course, he couldn’t shut his brain off.

If Lacey had been taken or sold off as a sex slave, how would he ever find her? Where would he even begin to look? The most obvious path was to try to find Troy and figure out his involvement, if any. But for that, he’d have to loiter at Howl every night, hoping Troy showed up again, and that if he did, he’d actually be willing to talk. Though if Troy was involved, what reason would he have to admit as much to Avery? No man would simply confess to being a sex trafficker, except maybe under the threat of death or a prison sentence.

Avery wasn’t exactly intimidating. But Dylan…. Dylan sure as hell could be. Maybe he’d be willing to help.

Judging from the pissed-off expression on Dylan’s face when he finished his story, Avery didn’t think his help with investigating Lacey’s disappearance would be forthcoming.

Dylan’s jaw clenched tight and a vein throbbed in his temple. “Avery,” he said, slow and measured, as if he was fighting to keep his voice calm. “Don’t you think you should leave this to the professionals? Look what happened with Victor. You got in way over your head. If you thought messing with him was dangerous, imagine what men who kidnap young girls and sell them into sexual slavery might do to you if they caught you poking into their business.

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