Knight wasn’t someone who was used to waiting. As the boss of his own company, people waited for him, not the other way around. He supposed it was good for him, every now and then, to get a lesson in patience.While he waited in the car, he tried to train his hearing, to find Sue and listen in, but the apartment must have been at the back. All he could hear was a baby crying with a woman singing to it and a lot of different TV sets blaring different things.He tried not to think about his real dad, but it was hard. He had the name in his head now, and he felt as though he at least needed a face to go along with it. He pulled out his phone and pulled up his browser app before typing in the name, Charles Garcia. He felt a swell of nerves go through him as he waited for the page to load but it soon turned to dread as a thousand or so different Charles Garcias showed up.Thankfully, he was spared having to think on it any further. Sue and, surprisingly, Joey came out of the apartment bloc
After a late second dinner, Joey went straight to bed, the emotional turmoil of the last few days no doubt finally catching up with him. Sue went out onto the balcony that was accessible from the living room and the main bedroom. It had a great view of the city but neither she nor Knight spent much time out there.It had been the gentle sound of the rain falling, hitting the awning above and running off over the side, that had drawn Sue out.“What are you doing out here?” Knight asked as he came out. The werewolf closed the door behind him.“Just getting some air.”“Are you okay?” Knight asked as he circled his arms around Sue from behind and rested his chin on her shoulder.“Yeah, are you?” Sue asked. “What did you and your mom talk about?”Knight sighed and placed a kiss on Sue’s neck. “She told me who my real dad is.”Cold turned sharply in her arms. “Are you serious? That’s huge.”“I’m trying to pretend like it’s not.”“Right,” Sue said with a nod. “The typical West way of doing
Over the days that followed the revelation about Knight’s real dad, Sue had seen the internal struggle going on inside him. Knight had told her about the conversation he’d had with his mom and the fact that he had even looked him up to no avail. However, when Sue had offered to help search for him, having far superior Internet skills, Knight hadn’t been sure and told Sue that he needed some time to think about it.Of course, Sue wasn’t one to wait, or to do as she was told, so she had been looking for this Charles Garcia ever since. She told herself that she was just going to find him in case Knight wanted to meet him, that way he wouldn’t have to wait around. She also wouldn’t have time to change his mind.Her article about the bombing had gone over well, and she had decided to write a follow-up. She had been busy leaving messages all over the Internet looking to interview someone who had either been a part of a humans-first movement in their past or were close to someone who was.S
The drive out to his dad’s place wasn’t nearly long enough. The sun was low in the sky, making everything look more golden and beautiful than it actually was. Beside him, Sue chatted away as usual, no doubt wanting to distract Knight from what he was about to do.“So I found these erotic cookies online,” Sue told him. “They’re in the shapes of two people getting it on in different positions. I thought I’d get some for Jared and Sarah for the wedding.”Knight looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “You want to give them erotic cookies for their wedding gift?”Sue shrugged. “I mean, they’re rich, like you, so I thought rather than get them the usual crap that they’ll get three of, we could make them up little gift bags filled with things they like.”Knight gave a little smile at that. “That’s a nice thought, but I don’t really know what Jared likes.”“Sure you do. Food, booze, and football,” Sue said. “I already found him a few Seahawks things. We throw in some bottles of scotch o
Sue had asked the mysterious F to meet him at the café across the street from the Fang and Claw building. The oversized clock on the wall behind the counter said that it was coming up to three thirty. She was sitting at a table by the window, watching the people walk by, wondering if any of them were F. She had gotten there a little early, wanting to make sure they had a table to themselves so that they wouldn’t be disturbed. On her phone was a list of questions she wanted to ask F about life inside the humans-first group and what had happened to make him, or her, get out.Sue sat nursing her coffee, her eyes darting to the clock every few seconds. She had her book bag with her with a rough draft for the article she planned on writing. She was about to get it out to read over what she had so far when she heard someone approach her table.“Sue Andrew?” a man not much older than Sue said as he stopped at the table.Sue looked the stranger up and down. He was in his late twenties with a
Frankie had led Sue over to his car, an old piece of crap that had trouble starting at first. Once they were on their way, Sue tried to think of every piece of advice she had ever learned from movies. Unfortunately, she mostly liked movies that involved superheroes.Her brain whirred like a supercomputer—or at least, she liked to think that it did as she tried to think her way out of this. She was sure she had heard somewhere that if a person was ever kidnapped, they should try to bond with their captors, to make them sympathize so that it was harder for them to kill the person they abducted.Oh, God, Sue thought as she looked over at Frankie. I’m going to die.No, there would be no dying, not while Joey was depending on her. She had to do something. She had to reverse Stockholm syndrome this guy.“So, how long have you had this car?” she asked, because it was the first thing that came to mind.Frankie looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “What?”“Your car. I only ask because I
Frankie had driven them pretty far out of the city. Sue only knew the area from times when she had driven through it on her way to somewhere else. It was a pretty run-down place that was filled with shabby apartments that used to be industrial buildings.Sue had been trying to give Frankie little bits of information about herself in her attempt to humanize herself to her captor, though as she had gone willingly, she wasn’t sure that captor was the right word. So far, all of her efforts to get Frankie to tell Sue anything about herself had failed.When they pulled off the road and into an abandoned parking lot that was surrounded by old buildings, Sue knew that she had to act quickly. On their drive, she had considered every possibility. All she had on her were her wits and her workbag. She had been slowly inching her hand inside the bag to grab the paper clip from her research. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to be able to do with it, but it was sharp and pointy, so that
Sue was led inside the warehouse by Frankie and the guy who opened the door for them.“Everything went okay?” the guy asked Frankie.“Sure,” Frankie answered in a clipped tone. “Let’s just get this over with, all right?”The man gave Frankie a look before he turned to Sue. “So you’re the one who likes wolf cock, huh?”“Shut up, Lee,” Frankie said, his tone clearly annoyed. “Where’s Tray?”“Where’s my brother?” Sue asked, butting in. “If you’ve done anything to him, I swear to God I will—”“You’ll what, werewolf-fucker?” Lee interrupted as he got up in Sue's face. “You ain’t in charge here.”Frankie grabbed hold of Sue’s arm and started leading her away. “Just stay by the door like you’re supposed to, Lee.”There was obviously some tension between Frankie and Lee. It could have just been Sue’s overactive imagination, but she was pretty sure that Frankie had warmed to her enough that she hadn’t liked Lee talking about her like that.“Please,” Sue said in a whisper, hoping to once again