Free Leopard's Kiss (Shadow Guardians) (Shadows Guardians Book 1) by Stephanie Rowe Page B

away from him. "It's my comfort thing. I make bread. I have a small online business, and I ship anywhere in the world."
    He frowned. "How do you have an online business if you've lived on the run?"
    "Believe it or not, there are kitchens in most houses." She rubbed her hands together, her stomach rumbling at the mention of food. "Baking grounds me. Not that it matters, right?" She turned toward him. "I don't know who my mom and Marjorie were running from my whole life. They wouldn't talk about it. I have no idea."
    "What about your dad?"
    She bit her lip. "I don't know anything about him. I wasn't allowed to ask about him."
    He raised his brows. "Didn't you find that unusual?"
    It was difficult not to gape at him. "Do you think I'm a complete idiot? Of course I knew it was unusual. What was I going to do about it? She wouldn't talk about him, and I learned not to ask." She ran her hand through her hair, trying to smooth it. "Listen, we were in a warehouse in New York City. We'd been there two days. Nothing was different. But when Julia and I came back, it was burning up. We saw the fire from three blocks away, and we knew it was our place."
    "The warehouse was on fire?"
    "No, just the part where we were living." She paced away from him, hugging herself. "Fire trucks were on their way, but we beat them there. When we got inside, the place was a disaster. It looked like there had been a fight. Everything was tossed, and my mom and Marjorie—" She swallowed at the image that flashed through her mind, the one she'd tried so hard not to think of since that night.
    He leaned forward. "They were what?"
    She looked at him. "They were dead. They…" She hesitated, not sure whether she should tell him.
    He raised his brows. "They what?"
    Oh, hell, what did it matter if he thought she was crazy? Or if he figured out the secret they all shared? It wasn't as if he could hurt her mom or Marjorie now. "It looked like they'd been attacked by a wild animal, like they'd fought for their lives, and lost." Teeth marks. Throat torn. Eviscerated. Torn to shreds while she and Julia had been out shopping.
    He didn't even react. He just nodded, as if he encountered that every day. "Did you stay around to see what you could find out?"
    His ease with her description made her relax slightly. She shook her head. "The sirens were close," she whispered, hugging herself. "We knew we couldn’t stay. We couldn't be found. So, we grabbed what we could reach, and then ran." She looked at him. "We left them there, Slade, alone. We didn't even give them a proper burial. We just lost everything in that one second." Grief ached deep in her heart, the agonizing pain of a past that could never be changed, no matter how much she wished it.
    "She didn't want a burial," he said gently. "She wanted you safe."
    "I know." She wiped the back of her hand across her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to settle. "I know that, but I still think of how she looked, laying on that concrete floor, so alone—"
    "Not alone. She had you, even in death." Slade took her hand, squeezing gently. "What happened after that? Did anyone contact you? Did you get any more information on what had happened?"
    "No. The papers didn't even report anything. It was like someone buried it." She looked at her hand in his, almost unable to comprehend the fact he was offering kindness to her. "We stayed off the radar for six weeks. I didn't even bake bread. Then, one day, Julia left our hideaway to get food. She never came back. I followed her path, and her scent ended at the grocery store. She just disappeared."
    "Her scent stopped?" At her nod, he narrowed his eyes. "No other trace at all?"
    She shook her head. "Nothing." She managed a smile. "But if they'd killed her, then they would have left traces, right? So, I think she's okay."
    Slade studied her for a long minute, and she could almost see his mind working through the information. "Are you sure she didn't leave on her own? Why do you think