“I really don’t know exactly. I was shocked to discover she’d left.” The little brat’s mock surprise crawled all over Kellan.
“She left in your car,” he pointed out. “You gave her the keys.”
“She needed them.”
“But you’re surprised that she left?”
Kinley squirmed in her seat. “She didn’t say why she needed the keys.”
Kell sent an angry glare to Dominic, who crossed his arms over his chest and speared her with a dark glare. “That’s ten more, love. We’re up to twenty. Want to make it thirty? I can arrange that.”
“Come on, Kinley.” Riley sent her a glance that suggested she be reasonable.
Law watched the entire event unfold, a smile playing at his lips, as if his wife’s little defiance amused him.
“You gave her the keys to your car without asking where she was going?” Kell raised a brow.
“She’s my friend. I trust her because she’s got a lovely heart. She’ll return the car to me when she no longer needs it. I just wonder about that male she was with. She called him Sir.” Kinley shook her head as if the situation was so, so sad. “Guess you guys lost out. Sorry.”
“What?” He bit the word out violently. Belle had found another fucking Dom in a few short hours? That was incomprehensible. Impossible. Although given who Dominic’s friends were, it was possible an unattached Dom might have been around the hotel last night after the wedding. At this point, what surprised Kell more was that the guy hadn’t come with two or three friends.
Or maybe that’s who Belle was driving to meet. The thought stopped Kell cold. On the other hand, Oliver and his brothers hadn’t mentioned Belle being with another man. He scowled. Something was fishy here…
“She wouldn’t leave with a man she’d just met and she certainly wouldn’t be calling him Sir,” Eric said, shaking his head. “I’m going to call her again.”
“You snooze, you lose,” Kinley said in a little sing-song voice.
“For your disrespect, that’s yet another ten.” Dominic’s foot tapped against the floor as he glared at her. “Your ass is going to be red after thirty.”
Kinley ignored him, then her purse began ringing. She put a hand over her mouth, blinking as if she was utterly surprised. “Oh, my gosh. Belle’s phone must have fallen into my bag.”
So Belle had gone somewhere in Kinley’s car in the middle of the night without a phone. And possibly with another man. Kellan’s palm itched fiercely.
“Kinley, you had to have seen which direction Belle drove off,” Riley prompted. “Help the guys a little. They seem genuinely eager to have her back.”
“I only saw that my friend was crying and heartbroken because the men she’s longed for turned out to be complete douchebags who refused to touch or collar her. They made her feel inferior simply because she hadn’t slept with a man yet.”
“That isn’t what happened,” Kellan insisted, trying to gather his patience. “And if she was crying and heartbroken over us, why would she be with another man?”
“Well, of course he was going to console her,” Kinley shot back.
Kell was amazed Dominic didn’t take his wife over his knee now. But since he didn’t seem inclined to, it was time to point certain truths out to Kinley and watch her carefully. Every witness had tells. As cool as Kinley was behaving, she would still react to his questions. “You allowed her to drive off without her phone. What if her flight gets canceled?”
Nothing. Not a drop of emotion crossed those pretty features. “She’ll be fine. She has my car.”
“I’ll go to the airport right now and find her,” Tate offered.
“Sit down, Tate.” Eric understood that Tate sometimes needed a handler. Or maybe a leash…
So, based on Kinley’s reply, Kell guessed that Belle hadn’t gone to the airport. He changed tactics. “Do you know how dangerous the highway could be in the middle of the night? If she’s driving any distance, she could break down. Without a phone, she’d have no way to contact you or roadside assistance.”
A flicker of worry crossed Kinley’s delicate face, underscored by the way she shifted in her seat before she shook her head. “The car is in perfect condition.”
“But tires go flat, don’t they? Belle doesn’t know how to change one.”
“She doesn’t,” Tate put in with a nod. “She called me a few months ago when her beater got a flat.”
“It’s a new car, so the tires are new, too,” Kinley defended.
“That doesn’t help if she accidentally runs over glass or nails. She could be all alone, stranded on a highway right now, and you’d never know.”
Kinley fidgeted, looking to a corner of the room, not meeting anyone’s gaze.
“And there are a lot of drunks on the road at three in the morning. What if something happened to her? How long would it take for us to know?”
Kinley bit her lip, then sighed. “She’s fine, okay. She’s already where she needs to be, so you can stop worrying. We bought her another phone and I’ve already talked to her. Don’t expect me to give you the number. She doesn’t want to talk to you. And she wasn’t alone because she had Sir.”
Kellan had his doubts about Sir. “Tell me about this guy. Where did she meet him?”