She nodded. “Do you have a lot of siblings?”
“Four sisters.”
Beth laughed. She couldn’t imagine that. “That bathroom must have been busy.”
“Yeah, I built one in the basement of the house just so I could have my own when I was a teenager.”
“You built a bathroom yourself?”
He shrugged. “I had an uncle in construction so he helped me when he could.”
Fascinating. She shifted in her seat to study him. He glanced at her, but his expression was unreadable. “Four sisters?”
What would that be like? To have been raised in a place with siblings? Was that a good thing or bad?
“No siblings?” he said.
“How do you know?”
“You got that look as if you are imagining it. It wasn’t as good or as bad as you think.”
“I’m an only.”
He nodded as if he’d already figured that out.
“Do you and your sisters get along?”
“Yes. We do.”
The look on his face was of a man who loved that fact, but didn’t always appreciate it. “You raised them?”
“In some ways yes.”
He pressed his lips together and Beth thought the subject was done. Probably okay since he was pulling into her parents’ driveway. She tried to look at it from his perspective. It wasn’t a huge house, but it was clearly not small. Despite the modest home, her parents had a lot of money. Maybe because of the modest home.
Both garage doors were closed and when Beth peeked in, her parents’ cars weren’t there. Odd for this early on a Sunday. They weren’t churchgoers and if they went out for breakfast they would have taken the same car.
“What’s wrong?”
Trent stood by his truck, she guessed to give her some space.
“Their cars aren’t here,” she said.
“Have they gone away?”
“I just talked to them two days ago. They wouldn’t have gone away without telling me.”
“Maybe it was an impromptu trip.”
Beth shook her head as she climbed up onto the porch. “They’re not spontaneous like that.”
She used her key to unlock the front door. The place was eerily quiet when she walked in. “Mom? Dad?”
Glancing behind her, Trent was on the threshold. She looked to the right into the front room. The sun hadn’t come around yet to this part of the house so she flipped the switch to light the room. She gasped.
“What?” Trent asked, appearing at her side.
He was quiet for such a big guy. “The furniture is gone.”
He looked around. “It’s gone?”
She raced across the foyer and into the dining room. No table or chairs here. No china closet either. She blinked, not able to wrap her brain around this. Shaking her head, she backed out of the room. Her gaze went to Trent, but he didn’t have any insight.
Running up the stairs she went directly to what had been her room. When she returned to the hall, she looked down at Trent. “They’re gone.”
“All the furniture is gone? They didn’t tell you anything about moving?”
“No.”
She shuffled down the steps and plopped her butt on the bottom one. “This isn’t like them.”
As much a she’d strived to be independent, she hadn’t ever thought about her parents not being in her life. Trent strode to her and stood in front of her. “Will you tell me what happened at the party?”
Her gaze travelled up to him, like trudging up a hill. “What does that matter now?”
“Well, I don’t believe in coincidences. Something awful happened to you at that party and now your parents are missing. I need the whole story so I can help you.”
She stood, wiping her hands on her jeans. “Help me? I need to call the police.”
“They are adults, Beth. Unless you have reason to believe something happened to them and there is no sign of a break in, they won’t do anything.”
She stalked away from him. “Let me think.”
“Beth. We probably shouldn’t stay here.”
She whirled to look at him. “Why not?”
“It may not be safe.”
***
The smell of goblin in the house gagged Trent, but he stayed because Beth clearly needed him. She wasn’t a goblin, but her parents were. Or whoever took them were. He couldn’t tell if the scent was a new one or an old one.
His instincts said that it was an old one. Something niggled at his brain. Hadn’t Kel and Deke gotten involved with women and gargoyles were involved. Was he repeating history? The last thing he wanted was to get married. Even if both Deke and Kel seemed very happy.
He was getting way ahead of himself, but then he remembered that he hadn’t left Beth on her own. Now he was standing in her parents’ house with it smelling like goblin. What was he thinking?
Her wide eyes turned to him and various emotions passed over her face. She was struggling. He needed to take control. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s get out of here. I have friends nearby.”
“What about my parents.”
“Let’s see if they turn up.”
“You think something happened to them?”
He looked around. The place hadn’t been tossed, but why would they move out and not tell their only daughter?
They’d left the front door open and a woman appeared in in it. “Hello?”
She wore a suit and held a clipboard in her hand. She flinched when Trent turned to her. She was a goblin and she’d recognized him as a gargoyle. They two species had been mortal enemies for longer than human history. He schooled his face because she wouldn’t give up that she was a goblin.
“Can we help you?” Trent asked.
“Who are you?”
“The daughter of the owners of this house.”
“The bank owns this house,” the woman said.
Beth gasped. This was a crazy turn. They needed to get out of here and regroup. Something big was going on.
“What do you mean?” Beth asked, now standing next to him.
She practically vibrated next to him. The waves of her emotion washed over her, not that he could fault her the agitation.
The woman smiled as if she was going to explain a difficult problem to a child. “The house was in foreclosure. The bank took it over. We’re going to put it on the market today.”
“Why hasn’t the lock been changed?” Trent asked.
“The place has been empty for months.”
Trent glanced over at Beth. She shook her head. “I was here a week or so ago. There must be some mistake.”
The real estate agent stood her ground. She didn’t make any excuses. Instead she said, “You need to leave.”
They did need to leave. This had taken a bizarre turn. His gaze found Beth’s. “Let’s go.”
“I’m not leaving until I find out what happened to my parents.”
“We won’t find that out here.”
She brushed past him and towards the front door. “I want to talk to the cops.”
Trent followed her out and stopped her on the porch with a touch to her arm. “We can’t call the cops, but I know people we can talk to.”
“This doesn’t make any sense Trent. I was here,” she stopped short. “Okay it was two weeks ago. Still I talked to my mother on the phone just a few days ago.”
“Cell phone?”
“Yes. They got rid of their landline last year.”
“That means you have no idea where she actually was. Let’s get in the truck and you can call her.”
She seemed mollified by this because she let Trent lead her to his truck. When he walked around the hood to climb into the driver’s side the real estate agent was staring at them through the sidelight. Her phone was pressed to her ear. She appeared agitated.
What was going on?
Trent climbed into the truck. The frown on Beth’s face said a lot. “Did you call your mother?”
“Yes.
It went right to voicemail.”
“Your father?”
“Same.” Her gaze went out the window. “What is going on, Trent? I don’t understand.”
He patted her hand, wanting to do more than that to comfort her. “I have some people you can talk to. They specialize in odd occurrences.”
“Odd occurrences?” She snorted. “That’s an understatement. I feel as if my world has turned upside down in a matter of a day, Trent.” She rested her head on the back of the seat. “I don’t know what’s up anymore.”
He had to help her. This was crazy, but he was used to crazy. She was a normie and she couldn’t know all about his world, but he would aid her. “Let me call a friend.”
The real estate agent came out onto the porch. Trent hadn’t smelled her as goblin, but he didn’t trust her anyway. He started the truck and found a park down the road. He pulled. “Sit tight.”
He dialed Donal Foley’s number when he climbed out of the vehicle. The Foley Brothers were gargoyles who ran a security firm. Trent and his partners sometimes helped them out with muscle. Their computer guy, Tex, could find out anything about anyone. Donal would know what to do.
“Hey Trent,” Donal said.
“Did I wake you?”
“No, because I haven’t been asleep yet. The kids are sick and I was letting Meg sleep. Let me shift this little one back into his bed.”
Rustling sounds came from the other end and then Donal came back. “What can I do for you?”
Trent gave him a quick rundown of what was going on.
“Well, then. That all seems odd, but I put nothing past the goblins. Where are you?”
“I’m in your town.”
“Then both of you come by for breakfast.”
“You sure you’re up for it?”
Donal laughed. “I’m up now. No one is going to camp today, but I can meet you in the apartment above the garage for some privacy.”
“Be there in ten.”
Chapter Five
Beth eyed Trent as he climbed back into the truck. She didn’t know what to expect anymore and Trent seemed to be the only normal thing in her life. And she’d just met him a few days ago. Did it all stem from that party? When she’d turned down the advances of the producer?
Did that have anything to do with the disappearance of her parents? She didn’t know what to think anymore. He turned to her as he started the truck. “We’re going to see some friends of mine.”
Beth couldn’t make an argument against it. Thoughts swirled in her head. “Okay.”
“You have a better idea?”
He was truly asking her opinion. “No. I don’t. My friends are either nurses or actors. I don’t think any of them can help in this situation.”
“Well, I have friends who can.”
She studied him as he drove. Where had he come from? What had he done in his life that he’d taken this all in his stride?
“What?” he asked, glancing her way.
“I don’t know who you are and I’m entrusting my life to you.”
“I have that trusting face.”
She barked out a laugh. “I’m not so sure of that, but I guess you are my only hope of finding out anything.”
“So any port in a storm,” he said.
He didn’t seem to be insulted by that. Just, well, resigned. She wasn’t sure she was accepting of the situation just yet. He had rolled with it. A man of action. “Sorry if that’s insulting.”
He shrugged and maneuvered his way through the small streets of Havertown. “It’s not. You need answers and I can help finding them.”
“Is that what you do for a living?”
“You know what I do for a living.”
“You own a nightclub. A temporary one that is exclusive.” She cocked her head. “There is more than that to you.”
“Why are you so sure?”
“Because most guys would have left me on the street when they had to deliver a truck to a garage at the end of a long night.”
“I don’t think so.”
Her gaze went out the window. “Yes they would have. One or two might have made it to my parents’ house, but would have bailed at that point. Not once have you tried to leave me. To get rid of me. As if you’ve dealt with worse. This isn’t a flat tire or a forgotten key. My parents are missing and you just took on that burden.”
“What is it you want me to say, Beth?”
“Who are you?”
“I’m just Trent Mulligan.”
She frowned, not accepting that answer, but letting it go as he pulled into a short driveway. The house was a simple two story deal with a garage that sat at the end of the property not attached. Built in a time when not everyone had a car. Trent parked his truck in front of that garage.
A man who was as tall as Trent leaned against the corner of the building. Beth climbed out as another truck pulled in behind them. Two men disembarked from the truck and they all had the same hair and eyes. If they weren’t brothers, they were related.
“Beth, this is Donal, Declan and Sean Foley. They want to hear your story.”
She eyed them all, feeling even shorter than usual. But safe. For maybe the first time in her whole life she felt that nothing could get to her. If someone had asked her, she would have said that her parents were good people, but they didn’t possess the warmth that these men did.
How odd to feel so connected to people she’d just met when she’d felt out of place all of her life, especially with her parents. As if their agenda had been different from hers and she didn’t see it. “Hi.”
“Shall we go upstairs before I’m roped back into a sick kid duty? I only have a little bit of time. I think Meg is coming down with whatever the kids brought home from camp.”
All four men motioned for Beth to go first so she did. Donal reached around her to open the door when she reached the top. She smiled at him. At that point he was just about eye to eye with her because of his height. “Thanks.”
The place was an apartment and the men settled onto some chairs once Beth had picked hers. She’d never seen such chivalry. Trent sat on the arm of the chair she occupied. She appreciated his presence. Looking around she wasn’t sure where to start.
“Why don’t you tell us what happened at the party,” Trent said.
She glanced up at him. Would they believe her? She didn’t believe it herself.
“Where was the party?” Donal asked.
She gave him the address. Sean punched it into his phone and then showed his brothers. They all nodded as if it meant something.
“Go ahead, Beth. We’re here to listen,” Donal said.
She told him of the party and the invitation to meet. Then what the producer did and what he said. It seemed surreal except that the emotions it had stirred in her were still there. Then she described the people in robes. They didn’t interrupt. They listened. They didn’t even look at each other as if they thought she was crazy.
“You need some water?” Trent asked.
She nodded. He rose and crossed to the kitchen. He came back with a glass of water and she gulped it down waiting for them to tell her she was crazy. They didn’t. Instead they gave her a moment then began asking questions.
***
Trent wasn’t a violent man, but he wanted to punch that producer. The one who had thought himself good enough to put his hands on Beth. Trent had to tamp down his reaction. It might scare Beth. He had a feeling that the Foley brothers would understand. They were men who would readily protect their wives and families.
Trent would protect his sisters even if they drove him nuts.
This felt different. This felt as if it came from somewhere deeper in his soul. Not just his usual protector mode, but that his life might depend on protecting Beth. He shook himself. How odd. They’d just met.
He let the Foleys take the lead on this one. These crimes were out of his depth. He did security once in a while for some clients of the Foleys, but they were involved in many othe
r avenues including some stuff that was undercover. Had they encountered worse than this?
When the Foleys ran out of questions they turned their gazes to Trent.
“What’s the plan?” he asked.
“Plan?” Beth asked.
“We need to keep you safe,” Donal said.
“You agree with Trent? That I’m in some danger?”
“At the very least, it is suspicious that your parents are missing,” Trent said.
“That alone makes me think you are in danger,” Sean said.
The other brothers nodded. Beth’s gaze went to his face. He nodded. “You’re in danger, Beth, but we’ll take care of you.”
Her demeanor changed. Her back straightened. “I think I can take care of myself.”
Trent sighed. “We aren’t saying you are weak, Beth. We are saying that you need our help. I have a place with great security as does everyone else in this room. But you.”
“I want to go home.”
“You don’t, Beth. They probably know where you live. If whoever did whatever to your parents are looking for you, they’ve found your apartment,” Trent said.
“How can you be so sure?” When Trent frowned, she put a hand on his arm. “I’m not being obtuse. I want all of the information so I can make the right choice. I have no death wish.”
Donal cleared his throat and Beth looked at him. “The fact that your parents are not only missing, but the woman at the house insisted the place had been empty means they are trying to cover up something. That isn’t normal behavior for people who are doing good deeds. These people are bad.”
Trent wished he could tell her about goblins, but then he would have to explain that the men in that room were gargoyles. That would lead to opening a can of squiggly things that he had no interest in opening. She would have to trust them and that didn’t seem as if it would be easy for her.
“Who?” she asked.
“It’s better if you don’t know.”
“Don’t worry my pretty little head?”
“No, Beth. It’s not like that at all. The less you know the less danger you are in, but we still need to protect you. You choose where,” Declan said.
She looked around the room. Her gaze finally rested on Trent. “I guess my choice is with Trent.”
It didn’t sound like she was excited about it.
Stone Defender Page 3
