I perked up in spite of the less-than-subtle censure of my familiar manner with Jace. “What did he say?”

“She had some interesting information that may or may not be of any help to us.” He took a moment to enjoy my surprise over his informant’s gender, then carried on. “Camilla doesn’t know of any tabbies who have gone missing recently, but she said that four and a half years ago there was a rash of disappearances across the area.”

“All tabbies?” Vic asked, and I went still, half afraid I’d miss part of the answer if I moved.

My father nodded. “They disappeared one at a time over a period of six months, from four different countries. For the most part, the Alphas were not on good terms with one another, and it never occurred to any of them to ask for help, or even to alert their neighbors, until it was too late.”

“How many did they get?” I asked, my fist pressed into my abdomen as I tried to ease the knot forming in my gut. The connection was obvious. Luiz and Miguel and their recruits had snatched three American tabbies—including me —before we were able to catch them. The chances of them not being involved in an apparently identical plot in their own corner of the world were almost nil.

“Four.” My father wore his business face, which told me how bothered he was by the new information. “They got one tabby from Colombia, one from Ecuador, one from Peru, and one from Venezuela.”

He paused, watching me carefully.

“None of the girls was ever found.”

For a moment no one spoke, and I assumed that, like me, they were paralyzed by horror and outrage. Four girls taken, and not one of them found in more than four years. Could they still be alive? And if they were, what kind of hell had they endured at the hands of their captors?

I couldn’t bring myself to voice the questions we were surely al thinking. I couldn’t even see past the black fog drifting around in my brain, obscuring reason and logic in a cloud of rage and indignation.

Jace cleared his throat, and the sound broke through my shock.

“Okay, if Faythe’s right, and Luiz is stil alive, Camil a’s information could be pretty important. Although now he’s taking human women, not tabbies. But what does any of that have to do with the tabby we’re after?

I don’t see the connection.”

I didn’t see it, either, but an image was forming in my mind as the fog began to thin. It was still hazy, large parts sketched with a frustrating lack of detail. But one part of the image was clear. “It’s Luiz,” I said, staring absently at the rug as I tried to organize my thoughts. “I’m not sure how or why, but he’s the connection. The tabby’s hunting him and killing tomcats along the way. She has to be after Luiz, because I don’t see any connection between her and Andrew, but she and Luiz are both from the same area of the world.”

Okay, that was a flimsy link at best—just because they were from the same continent didn’t mean they’d ever even set eyes on each other.

After al , how many Canadian cats had I never met? But I was more than ready to grasp at straws.

“Maybe she’s the mother of one of the missing tabbies, out for revenge,” I suggested.

Vic laughed. “Yeah, you gotta watch out for those renegade mommies. They’re the worst.”

I glared at him. “You ever heard the phrase ‘one bad mother’?”

“Let’s focus on the topic at hand, please,” my father said.

“Sorry.” Vic tried to stop smiling but couldn’t quite manage.

“We have to find Andrew, before he makes trouble too close to home. It’s time to cal him.” My father frowned, his attention narrowing in on me, and I struggled to concentrate in spite of encroaching exhaustion.

My father cleared his throat to catch my attention. “Do you know what you’re going to say?”

“Yeah.” I clenched my phone in one fist. “I’m going to tell him how he was really infected and apologize. If there’s any of the old Andrew left in him, he’ll respect that.” And frankly, I didn’t know what else to do.

“If he still doesn’t know you’ve told us about him, don’t enlighten him. He’ll be more willing to play into our hand if he thinks he can get you alone,” my father said. I nodded, and he gestured toward my phone.

“Dial.”

No pressure, I thought, acutely aware of every pair of eyes on me, ready to judge my burgeoning enforcer skills. My fingers shook as I pressed the appropriate keys. Holding my breath, I pressed the last button and held the phone to my ear. It rang, a synthesized bleating sound that grated on my already-frazzled nerves.

I heard a click, then the soft hiss of an open line when Andrew answered his phone. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you’re nervous about seeing me again.”

It was a typical Andrew-style greeting—not so much as a hello. But that little glimpse of the man I’d known left me hope that there may yet be more of the old Andrew in there somewhere. “Should I be nervous?”

“In my humble estimation…yes.”

On the couch across from me, Vic rol ed his eyes, unimpressed by Andrew’s high opinion of himself.

“Why?” I asked, plucking at a thread dangling from my shorts.

Clothing rustled over the line. “We have something special planned for our little reunion.”

“We? Who’s with you?” I glanced at my father, asking wordlessly for permission to voice my suspicion. He nodded, so I continued. “Is it Luiz?”