Uma by Alice Gaines

Author:Alice Gaines [Gaines, Alice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIN 009877-03204
Publisher: Changeling Press LLC
Published: 2021-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

“How would you feel about coming to New York?”

Uma nearly dropped the book she’d been reading and glanced at Mark. He had Nate’s laptop open and continued to stare at it as if he hadn’t spoken at all. They’d decided to sit on a blanket outside and wait until the charcoal in his small barbecue unit caught fire while he continued to search for any information about where his friend might have gone.

“New York?” she repeated. What a ridiculous idea.

He shrugged, still looking at the screen. “You might like it.”

She scooted over to him, closed the computer and stared into his face. “Why would I go to New York?”

He stared right back at her. “Because that’s where I live.”

“But you’re busy here.”

He ran his hand through his hair. “I’m not finding anything that will help me locate Nate. At some point, I’m going to have to alert the authorities that he’s missing and have them search.”

“No.”

“What do you mean ‘no’? You’re not in charge here.”

She sputtered a bit. She hadn’t counted on him giving up so easily. If he called in the Ecuadorian government, they’d interrogate her, and non-answers wouldn’t work with them.

“You can’t give up on finding your friend. He must be here somewhere.”

He gestured toward the ocean. “Do you know how many islands there are out there?”

She almost laughed at that. She had a much better grasp of the number of islands than he did. “But the authorities will shut your friend’s research down. He was only allowed to stay here by the government.”

“His research doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, does it?” he said.

As Mark would say, shit. She hadn’t planned to stay with him forever, but she should have had some more time with him. If he planned to give up on his search, he might bring the authorities down on the Sisterhood. No one, not even Mother Inu, had contemplated what would happen when Nate disappeared. They’d have to figure out a way to fix that.

“You can’t give up,” she said. “All his work will be for nothing.”

“At some point I have to.” His jaw tightened. Determination? Anger? Who could tell? “And when I do, I’ll be headed back to New York.”

“Don’t you like it here?”

He looked all around. Gods only knew what he saw. He didn’t believe in magic. Maybe he didn’t believe in beauty, either. “Honestly, no.”

“People pay lots of money to come here.”

“That’s other people. I like cities.”

“But, the animals, the ocean, the sky,” she said.

“I’ve seen enough reptiles for a lifetime.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “But you’ve never even seen a city, have you?”

Her kind visited inhabited islands in their human form. They bought things they needed and spent time learning about human ways… basic computers, television… that sort of thing. Probably none of that qualified as a city, at least not to someone from New York. “I don’t need to.”

“In my apartment, I have a king-sized bed, a machine that has my coffee ready when I wake up, and a shower.

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