When he didn't answer right away, she continued, "You've been living out here your whole life. While you were giving me the tour, I saw several homes that looked like permanent residences with kids playing in the front yard."
"It's not my place to tell which families are shifter-kind or not. That's forbidden actually."
"Forbidden by who?"
"The Pack."
"Do you know a lot about the Packs that live around here?"
"Pack," he corrected. "As in one wolf pack."
"So that means this one wolf pack that lives out here either consists of natural wolves or shifters," she concluded. "Right?"
Luke chuckled under his breath. "Neil used to tell me that you had your dad's personality and his talent for digging for the right answers. He was absolutely right."
"He said I had talent? That's a first." Cassie smiled. "Once I started doing research about these murders, I realized that I wanted to do more research on the shifters themselves. Their history. How they thrived before they were ever discovered. I think it's so fascinating."
At that moment, Luke's cell phone rang. He fished it out of his back pocket and appeared to contemplate about answering the phone.
"Excuse me for a moment. I've gotta take this one."
Cassie nodded, fully understanding that he'd spent a good chunk of the morning with her when he could have easily left her in the office cabin by herself thumbing through the instruction log his niece left.
Luke's voice drifted off as he moved away from the truck, inch by inch. She had a couple weeks to get to know Luke, but his retreating back told her that he had more important things to do than taking her on tours of the property or listen to her ramblings about shifters. What she did know about him was that he liked drawing structures and repairing things. Maybe if she switched the conversation up a bit and away from shifters in general, she'd learn a whole lot more about him.
When he turned around and came back toward the truck, Cassie anticipated what he would say by the worried look on his face. The look was almost the same as the one he sported yesterday when the wolves howled out into the night in warning.
"I hate to do this…but something happened at one of my cabins and I need to get out there stat."
Cassie frowned. "Well, what happened? Is there anything I can do?"
She slid off the truck and landed on her feet, dusting off the back of her shorts with her palms.
He shook his head. "A garbage disposal unit malfunctioned. My guests say it's been like that for two days. I should fix the problem now before they try and shove any more food down inside. It shouldn't take but a few hours. And maybe we can do an early dinner instead of lunch."
"Okay." She grinned. "I'll make the grilled cheese and you grill the fish."
He smiled, nodding as he held the door open for her.
Once Luke was seated and backing the truck out onto the dirt road, Cassie glanced down at her watch. It wasn't even noon yet, but it felt like she'd spent an eternity with Luke.
"I have a few more hours on the clock. I'll work on some office stuff in the meantime," she mentioned on the way to the cabin.
"Don't work too hard. We got a lot accomplished today with you learning about how I operate things," he said.
When they reached the cabin, Luke made sure that she was inside. He almost looked hesitant about leaving her, casting an unresolved and longing look in her direction when he set down the small cooler near the foyer. Nonetheless, he left her and drove off to take care of his business, leaving her to ponder why she had a burning need to remain at his side.
Chapter 13
Cassie had dedicated a few more hours to the Lombardi lodging business after Luke dropped her off. With a little music playing in the background and her mind drifting off to memories of a shirtless and toned Luke, the time had passed quickly.
By the time she got done with the project she was working on, Luke still hadn't called or indicated that their dinner plans were still on. She hoped it was true what they said: no news meant good news. He could've been so caught up in his work that he hadn't even realized that dusk was settling in. Or maybe he'd forgotten about what they had planned. Her belly wouldn't and couldn't wait on any man, so Cassie had managed to get in a quick, light lunch right after a half hour of yoga. But after yoga, there was still no word from Luke, so she had treated herself to a much needed hot shower.
Even now, she nibbled on her bottom lip as she dried her hair wondering if she should be worried about him not showing. Looking out through the back window at his front yard, she could confirm that he wasn't home yet. Or at least it looked that way.
Get a grip! Stop feigning for this man.
You're clearly too young to get his attention like that. He only thinks of you as his friend's innocent kid sister.
He doesn't have time for you…he has a business to run.
The little voices in Cassie's head persisted, creating more doubt than promise.
Sighing, Cassie grabbed a wide-tooth comb, plopped down on the sofa and began untangling her damp, curly hair. Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed that her cell phone's message indicator was flashing. Sure enough, when she checking the voicemail, there was a message waiting for her from Luke.
"Hey, it's Luke. I'm out on the porch. With the food. I know it's kind of late. I don't blame you for not answering. Um…I'll come by tomorrow before I head out to do my morning property checks."
"Ugh," Cassie grumbled. When had he come by? She didn't hear anyone knock or anything. She replayed the message and this time she checked the time. Coincidentally, she'd been in the shower the same time he'd been standing on her porch with the food.
She didn't want him to think that she hadn't answered the door on purpose, so she ignored the time and called him back. Surprisingly, she didn't have to leave a message. He answered on the first ring.
"Cassie," he greeted.
"Hi. I missed your call and the knock at the door."
"That's okay. It was later than I realized."
"I did some yoga earlier so I must have been in the shower. You could've just come right in. You have a key, right?" she asked.
There was a pause. "I didn't want to invade your privacy or your space. After all, that is your temporary residence. I would never just use a key to barge in without your permission."
Cassie smiled into the phone, admiring his thoughtfulness. "Well, you have my permission. My brother trusts you. I trust you. It goes both ways. You and I…we're cool, right?"
"Yeah."
"Plus if you ever have extra food, I wouldn't want to miss out," she added. "By all means, do barge in with food."
Luke chuckled. "Don't worry. Won't happen again."
"Um…I was expecting to finish our chat and stuff. Can you still come by?" Cassie blushed. Heat raced up and down her arms. Her request that he come back by surprised the heck out of her. When had she ever been this straightforward with a man?
"With the food, you mean?" he asked.
"Doesn't have to be with food." She bit her bottom lip and then added, "Just yourself is fine."
Next came a long pause and shallow breathing on the other end.
Cassie thought he'd decline until she heard the sound of keys jangling on the other end of the line.
"I'm walking over now."
Chapter 14
"I didn’t see your truck out back earlier," Cassie said.
They were both seated on the couch, each with a beer in hand, and winding down for the night.
"Sometimes I run home," Luke said, appearing to be in a daze and focused on her hair.
She had French-braided her hair quickly after Luke had accepted her offer to come over, so it must have looked a mess.
"I know my hair is one curly mess," she said. "But my stylist is miles away from this place, so bear with me."
He grinned. "I wasn't thinking that your hair was a curly mess. I was thinking that you have the most beautiful hair I've ever seen. And it's been l
ike that since I first saw you."
"I didn't always love my hair. It used to take my mom over an hour to wash, detangle, and blow dry it back then. Thank God I was paying attention when she did it. I've been wanting to cut this thick mane into a short bob for years now."
"Don't," he said almost too quickly. "I mean, I like your hair this way."
"Thank you. I didn't know you were a runner," she said.
"Well, I'm not officially a runner. I prefer getting around on my own feet rather than the truck. Sometimes it faster. But when I need my tools, I take my truck."
"Did you get the garbage disposal fixed?"
"Sure did. It took less than thirty minutes. Luckily, I was able to free the bottle caps stuck inside and get it running again."
"Bottle caps? Wow, that's certainly not a food item."
"Tell me about it." Luke shrugged. "It happens though. I don't think they did it intentionally. They're a bunch of college seniors just having a good time is all."
"Ohhh." Cassie rolled her eyes. "I hope you fished out their brains too because clearly, they left those behind at the college campus if they were throwing bottle caps down the drain."
Luke laughed. "I think they left their brains on the campus intentionally."
"Must be nice. I'm glad those days are behind me now. You must be exhausted," she said. "You know, if there's anything else you need me to do around here besides filing paperwork let me know. I'm handy with tools too. I have my dad to thank for that. And plus my brother and I couldn't always afford a repairman when things broke down in the house so I binged on YouTube a lot."
Luke grinned. "The best way to learn is by doing. I do this all the time. It's just the routine…not exhausting. I ran into my neighbor Mrs. Lee on the way back which is why I was late. She had a list of stuff for me to fix. I didn't want to leave her out in the dark with a broken porch lamp, so I went ahead and took care of it for her along with the other things she insisted was urgent. I was praying that you wouldn't get mad or anything."
"Of course I wouldn't get mad. Not at all. That's so sweet of you to make sure she's not in the dark."
"She's a widow who's been living out here for the past decade or so. She used to help me take care of Nessa and Henry when I had to leave out of town on business. Plus I get most of my vegetables straight from her garden. It's a win-win."
"You have a really closely knit community here. I'm beginning to see why it's so safe out here."
Luke nodded. "I keep telling myself that once my niece and nephew are old enough to make a decision about what to do with this business, I'd hand everything over to them and head out west. But I don't think I could do it. I'd be leaving too much behind."
"I'm sure everyone you know would miss you."
"Maybe." Luke sighed and leaned back, resting his arm on the back of the sofa. "I've been meaning to ask you more about the research you did on the murders."
She curled her feet up under her and gave Luke her full attention.
"I don't want to press the issue too much so if you'd prefer not to talk, I would understand," he said.
"No, it's fine. I want to talk. It's just that no one seems to want me involved in any of it, is all. I was kind of used to keeping it all to myself."
"And I agree with that one hundred percent. You need to stay uninvolved with this. Your safety is important. Remember when you questioned me about shifters and about if they lived here?"
"I do."
"You were right. There aren't any natural wolves here. Only shifters. I…uh…" He cleared his throat. "I've known the Alpha of the Aspen Valley Pack for years. As you'd guess, he wants to nail the killer just as much as anyone else."
"Killers," Cassie corrected.
Luke looked at her questioningly.
"Killers…," she repeated. "As in more than one of them. The threatening note that was left in my apartment stated quote if you don't like how we protest, get out of town unquote.
"That only confirms the Pack's suspicions about a group being lead by one or two powerful individuals," Luke replied.
"What did you want to ask me about my research?"
"Didn't you mention that you were close to connecting the murders to someone or something?"
She nodded. "At first I didn't think the connection was legit, but after the threat, I'm almost certain there's some validity in what I found."
"That's interesting. We've been trying to connect the dots for months." His arm came down off the back of the sofa and he scooted to the edge of his seat. "What did you find?"
Cassie looked toward the door as if one of the investigators who told her to lay off the case would barge through at any moment to witness her reneging on the deal. She wasn't supposed to be speaking to anyone about this.
It could jeopardize the investigation…
You don't know who's in on it…
This isn't your job. We're trained professionals. Let us do our jobs…
She could hear them now as she tried to get it through their thick skulls that her research was legit. That she just wasn't some stupid girl trying to fill her dead father's boots.
But she trusted Luke like her own brother. And it meant the world to her that Neil and Luke were on very good terms with each other.
She exhaled, pushing aside all her reservations and then asked, "Have you ever heard of Midway Industries?"
"I have…"
"Several months ago, this company and a few others were behind the eminent domain agenda that was the talk of this town. Some were opposed to this idea because they didn't want big corporations setting up shop in Aspen Valley and putting all the little guys out of business. And others supported the agenda because they saw this as a chance to decrease the unemployment rate," she said. "I read into it a little further and realized that most of the lots that were marked for the eminent domain process were areas known to be populated by shifter families. Some of the areas were even deemed as deserted or uninhabited by humans, but the reports failed to mention the presence of shifters on the land."
"Yes, that's correct."
Luke seemed in awe of just how much information she possessed on the subject. She had to admit that she'd taken the research far but if she hadn't done so, she never would have made the break in the case.
"I was curious about why a public company like Midway Industries would choose a town like Aspen Valley to further expand their operations. Gaining a hundred or so acres of land here and there throughout the county and surrounding areas didn't seem like it was going to boost the company's bottom line any higher than it already was. I was stuck and dumbfounded. My colleagues were turning in their news articles left and right, but I was just stuck on this one story…spending so much time on it. To keep my job, I pushed it to the backburner for the longest until a guy in my department asked me to read something he had written for the newspaper. It was about how Teddy Ammo & Sons, one of the oldest privately owned companies in Aspen Valley, prematurely shut down all manufacturing activities. Mind you, this shutdown happened just under a month after Teddy Ammo miraculously pulled themselves out of bankruptcy. Why climb out of bankruptcy if you're going to shut down anyway? Something wasn't adding up." She shook her head. "According to my colleague's article, Teddy Ammo was literally on the brink of total destruction until a private investor swooped in and saved them. Then, after getting out of the bankruptcy and restructuring the company was able to temporarily save face by ensuring that no one would lose their jobs. Well, what he failed to mention in his article was that Teddy Ammo cried poor once again around the time the eminent domain proceedings were halted—and that's when they shut down."
"Teddy Ammo & Sons…," Luke exclaimed, quietly. "I vaguely remember them being a major player in every state and county election."
"With their industry being regulated so heavily, I'm willing to bet they would put money behind any candidate they wanted to win. But I believe these murders have more to do with gaining power and money than with politics," she offer
ed. "I found out who the last investigator was on the case involving the shifter murders. His sixty-year-old dad used to work for Teddy Ammo. It turned out that the investigator was working to get the case closed claiming that there was insufficient evidence to prove that any of the shifter deaths were connected. Luckily, he was fired for inappropriate conduct on government property before his last push to get the case closed. I can't really confirm since my research was cut short, but I'm willing to bet that someone—a lot of someones have been taking their anger out on shifters and retaliating against them."
"And the timing is right. The first set of murders started happening right around the time the County started pushing for eminent domain after land owners wouldn't sell."
"Right," Cassie agreed. "The way I see it, the killers had anticipated that they'd most likely have to eliminate some threats to reduce opposition…which goes back to the documents I found that proved that every lot held up in the eminent domain proceedings were deemed shifter territory. I think this is a case of premeditated systematic execution of the shifter population in Aspen Valley and surrounding areas simply because they were on the land and would not move."
"You're brilliant, you know that."
"Why thank you. No one has told me that since…well…my dad died."
"That's unfortunate. You should be reminded of this every day."
"I'm just glad that my research might help the new investigator. If it took some lunatic scaring the shit out of me for people to pay attention and to get more eyes on the case, I can truly say that I did my job. When I took the case, I expected validation from my boss once I cracked it, but as I got further into my research, I knew that this couldn't just be about validation. This was a serious matter. Innocent lives were being lost and shifters were gunned down for no reason."
"And someone is covering something up. You've stated all the facts clearly. If you were able to access this level of information as a journalist, why couldn't these investigators do the same?"
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