“Yeah sure,” Cody muttered. “Proud papa. But what the hell do we do now? This is going to end in a fight. You know it.”
“I don’t know about that,” Connor said. “Some of those elders seemed potentially agreeable.”
“As if the sleuth really brought them to mediate?” Cody shook his head. “C’mon, man. That’s all for show. That’s just in case we want to go to war and then the sleuth can say we broke the orders of the elders. Then they could enlist other sleuths to fight us.”
“If anyone even follows those traditions anymore.” Connor seemed to consider that and stroked his beard. “That might be their intention but they could also be wrong to think anyone would even care. Maybe it’s in good faith-”
“Jessie told me how they treated those kids,” Cody snapped. “Nothing they do is in good faith.”
“You’ve admitted to being an accomplice now, you know,” Connor said. “For all we know, they could lock you up. If they decide Jessie is guilty of kidnapping, they’ll definitely lock her up somewhere-”
“Over my dead body.” Cody meant it too. He’d die first. “They will not take my mate, Connor. And they won’t take those cubs. I will die first. I’m not kidding.”
“You should have told me.” Connor fixed him with his most alpha-like stare and stood up straight.
Cody did not back down. He straightened up too. Connor only had an inch and some bulk on him. It was enough but he wasn’t about to apologize for protecting Jessie or the cubs.
“Well, I’m telling you now.”
Connor nodded and blew air through his lips. He slapped Cody’s back so hard he stepped forward a little and rolled his eyes. “I’m proud of you,” Connor said. “I can pretend to be pissed but I would’ve done the same thing. I don’t know what happens next but I got your back. We all do, you know that. That includes Jessie and the kids.”
“Thanks, Connie.”
It was Connor’s childhood nickname and it always either made him a little sappy or annoyed. This time it just made him smirk. “Okay okay. I’m gonna send Nathan to go find Jessie. We should find somewhere to keep her safe before the meeting reconvenes. I don’t trust this sleuth as far as I can throw them. Go to the lounge, get a drink. Get the tension out. You get wound up any tighter, there’s going to be a fight.”
Cody didn’t much feel like getting a drink. He wanted to be the one to go find Jessie. But on the other hand, he had fully expected Connor to be pissed as hell. He supposed he could make a concession on this one small thing and go clear his head over a drink.
But he wasn’t going to be happy about it.
After a couple fingers of a very good whiskey, Cody was feeling a little better about things, or at least a little less edgy. He wondered if he was putting too much faith in the elders to manage the peace and make sure things didn’t get out of hand. The cubs were up at the cabin and Jessie somewhere in the lodge, probably cleaning and having no idea that one of her worst fears had been realized.
Cody was sitting at a booth in the lounge, slow jazz playing softly on the speakers. He took another sip of whiskey and it dulled the sharp edges of his paranoia. He had Connor and he had Nathan and Eric. He had to faith that his brothers would have his back, even if things went completely sideways.
The lounge was mostly empty, although it was getting on toward evening. There was just one other patron in the booth next to Cody’s. He was an older bear shifter and he had the look of a grizzled type who had seen more than brawl in his life. He had graying hair that touched his shoulders and though he was clean-shaven it did nothing to dull the rough edges of him like the scent of danger that somehow lingered and punched through the designer cologne he was wearing. He was wearing a nice suit too that Cody recognized from one of the shops on the promenade. But it didn’t hide his scarred hands and only seemed to make his cold but sharp eyes stand out as his gaze flicked around the lounge only to settle on Cody again and again as if he could not stop watching him.
Cody did not at all like the look of the guy. Everything about him said danger. But he attempted to ignore him, staring into his drink. He was probably being paranoid, considering everything that was going on. He was still too tense and on the verge of a fight if pushed just an inch. Except that it was the sleuth he wanted to fight; those bastards who had the nerve to abuse and neglect their children and then show up with elders to demand them back.
Cody grimaced, licking his teeth, and rained his highball glass.
It was all complete bullshit.
“Hey.” It was the guy in the other booth. He was staring at Cody and leering like he knew exactly who Cody was. “Hey hey. Cody Strauss.”
Cody immediately clenched his fist, his ears perking up. He immediately had the feeling that something bad was about to go down. He’d had the same feeling before fights before. If he’d been in his bear form, his fur would have been standing on end. Even now, he could feel it over his skin like a phantom limb.
“Do I know you?” Cody tried not to sound threatening. The guy was smiling in a way that was not promising peace. But Cody would give him the benefit of the doubt for as long as he could. He couldn’t afford to do otherwise with the sleuth and the elders breathing down his neck and his mate and the cubs to protect.
“You don’t know me,” the guy said smoothly. He was a few feet away, talking over the short wall between the booths. There was more than one empty glass on his table and Cody saw no sign of food. The guy was probably drunk and that was good. If something did happen, that would give Cody the edge. “But I know you. Didn’t sniff you out at first. Once I talked to Sheila and the rest of em’ then I was bored. Didn’t have much to do but wait for the go-ahead, wait for my fee.”
Cody gripped the edge of the table, as if to ground himself. He thought if he moved he might shift and climb over the booths to get the guy’s throat in his teeth. This was the tracker. It had to be. He took a deep breath through his nose. It would do no good to get into it with this guy. He had to keep his calm.
“You’re banging Jessie.” The tracker said it gleefully, as if it were the find of the century. “That meeting didn’t last long. Nobody looks happy. Saw y’all coming out. I s’pose that came up then. What’d you do? Spill the beans? Now that was stupid. All you Strausses stupid?”
“If you’re smart,” Cody said quietly, “then you will shut your mouth right now.”
Across the lounge, Cody saw a couple of the elders ordering wine.
Keep your cool, he thought. Keep your damn cool.
The bartender on shift, an older guy who Cody knew well, came over to check on him. “Cody, hey. You need anything?” He eyed Cody’s now empty glass and reared back a little as if suddenly sensing the discord. Cody and the tracker were pointedly glaring at each other and the bartender cleared his throat. Cody squirmed, attempting to break himself out of the moment. “You alright, Cody?”
“Yeah,” Cody muttered. “Just ah... I’ll have another one of these.”
It was an old malted whiskey. It was Connor’s favorite when he was in a bad mood. Cody hoped it had some kind of magic power because his buzz had all but disappeared and the tracker had not looked away.
“Sure thing.” The bartender gave the tracker the side-eye but he dutifully went over to take his order and clear his empty glasses, taking one last look at Cody with some amount of worry before he returned to the bar.
“I don’t get it.” The tracker leaned on his hand and glared at Cody with heavy-lidded eyes. “What is it, she’s some do-gooder and the kids were getting the shit kicked out of em’ or something? Or is she just crazy? Lot of crazy bitch bear shifters will do that, just grab a cub, I guess. I don’t know. I’ve heard of that-”
“Shut. Your. Mouth.” Cody fixed him with a stare that meant the tracker should immediately be quiet. He considered that warning enough.
His hands were shaking with anger and he hid them under the table.
“I hope I get to kill her myself,” the tracker w
hispered. “I’ve been fantasizing about it-”
The tracker didn’t get any other word out of his mouth.
Cody had already moved, climbing up on the table and diving over the little wall, shifting into his bear as he did so. The tracker yelled and it was chaos as Cody’s weight splintered the table and two of them went tumbling to the floor as the tracker shifted.
Cody lost all sense of what was going on around him. There was only the tracker’s sharp scent and his words ringing in Cody’s ears as he growled and clawed and fought for purchase. It was fur and blood fighting as two of them wrestled and snapped and scratched at each other. It was a stupid fight really and not Cody’s best but the alcohol had slowed him down a bit and he was dizzy with rage. Luckily, the tracker was much more affected, having had much to drink. Soon enough, Cody had him pinned and he felt a great sense of triumph seeing that expanse of the tracker’s bared throat. His mouth watered at the thought of that blood and sinew in his teeth and he was just about to strike just as another bear barreled into him, ripping him away from his would-be victim and sending him sprawling.
The elders and a few members of the sleuth had shifted and in seconds they had set themselves on Cody, pinning him down until he couldn’t move. Cody was strong and a good fighter, but he could take on nine bears by himself. They were all on him and he couldn’t breathe with the weight of it, the pungent scent of all that fur and sweat making him wince. Two of the elders became human again in the blink of an eye and they glared down at Cody, breathless.
“Shift back, this instant,” one of them said. Cody obeyed, not having much of a choice.
Cody reluctantly shifted back, hoping he wasn’t about to be crushed to death but the other bears did the same, the members of the sleuth and the tracker the last to become human again.
Half the lounge was in shambles. Cody stumbled to his feet and wiped a bit of blood from his chin, catching his breath. He heard shouts of alarm from the dining hall after all that excitement.
Shit, Cody thought.
The tracker was grinning and he pointed at Cody. His expensive suit was torn and he’d split his lip and had a cut in his head that dripped blood down his cheek. But none of that mattered. He had won. “He told you!” The tracker said. “Did he tell you? He’s an accomplice. With that Jessie bitch. He’s been keeping those kidnapped cubs. He was about to kill me!”
“The cubs are abused,” Cody said through gritted teeth. “That’s why Jessie rescued them-”
“We want this man arrested immediately.” It was the older female bear from the sleuth who spoke. Cody had a feeling that was the one called Sheila the tracker mentioned. “We wanted him held. There’s a place we know to hold shifters not far from here. We want him and this Jessie taken into custody this second.”
“I don’t think we have a choice,” one of the elders said, sighing. Though he at least didn’t look very happy about. “I have to agree. Let’s take him in.”
18
Jessie
Jessie didn’t even see it coming.
There was a low level of anxiety that had followed her around since the day she’d rescued the cubs. It was like a ghost that haunted her and whispered in her ear that all of this was temporary. Someday soon, the children would be taken away. And every day that she came to love and care for them more, the fear became strong. Cody had assuaged that fear somewhat. He made her feel as if he might be able to sweep in and save them all, or the cubs at least. She didn’t think of herself at all as a person who required saving. It was the cubs that mattered. Because some days, she forgot they were not her blood. They might as well have been for how she felt for them.
So she was in a good mood, for the most part, before the sleuth bears showed up. The ghost of worry was there, but it was muted. It was one of those workdays when Jessie mostly enjoyed her work. She was interested in the audiobook she listened to on her phone as she cleaned, a murder mystery, and she found a sense of satisfaction even in the scrubbing, dusting, and bed making. She even found herself smiling, thinking of heading down to the kitchen for dinner before Cody could come find her. She hoped he was making a pasta dish. She was in the mood for pasta...
She was vacuuming a suite when four men showed up. They were at least twice her size and she didn’t recognize them as guests. But when she saw the coldness in her eyes, she didn’t wonder who they were. Immediately, her heart started pounding. She felt as if the walls were moving around her and she blinked, taking a deep breath. They’d finally caught up with her and as they moved in, it all seemed utterly inevitable.
She didn’t ask who they were. There was no need to.
“Where are the cubs?” Her hands were shaking badly and her voice was worse. She felt like her heart was constricting in her chest. “Please don’t punish them.” Tears were already sliding down her face as they grabbed her roughly and another took a heavy pair of manacles from his jacket pocket. “Please-”
“The cubs are none of your concern.”
That was all they would say to her. They led her through the back of the lodge and Jessie prayed to the fates that they at least hadn’t found out about Cody. None of this was his fault.
Maybe he can save them.
The idea wasn’t so crazy. The Strauss brothers were influential. They were rich and powerful bear shifters. It was a sliver of hope that made her feel a little calmer as she was shoved into a black van and a bag was stuffed over her head, her wrists shackled behind her.
Maybe he can save them.
It was all she could think on the long drive to wherever they were taking her as they would not tell her. It was a chant in her head, but it was all she had to hold onto as they dragged her outside and into a musty-smelling building. They finally took the bag off and she found herself in what looked like an old fashioned small-town jail, now abandoned.
“We need the shackles for the other one,” one of the shifters said. They unlocked her shackles so her hands were free and threw her into a cell and latched the iron-barred door. It was dusty and damp, but at least it wasn’t disgusting.
Jessie hissed as she hit the ground and she staggered to her feet and sat down on the stone bench against the wall. She was pretty sure this was some old sheriff's jail. There were a few old Western ghost towns outside of Black Bear Lake. They must have found where they could hole up. She dusted off her hands and frowned when a hot tear hit the back of her hand. She hadn’t realized she was still crying. She supposed she was a little out of it.
“We only have one pair of shackles?” One of the shifters said. “That is stupid.”
“Thought we’d only have one prisoner, I guess. We won’t need them for the cubs.”
Just that word made Jessie spring to her feet just as they shut the bars in her face. She gripped the bars so hard it hurt and sniffed, catching her breath. “Please. Please don’t hurt them-”
“Shut up.” The bigger shifter of the four had a giant belly but he also had huge muscles. His eyes weren’t exactly cold but they had a “don’t mess with me” look in them and when he looked at Jessie, she knew he wouldn’t be averse to hurting her. “You stay in there and you keep your mouth shut. Don’t bother shifting to try to escape. We tested these bars ourselves. Couldn’t bust out of this cell even as a bear. Night night!” He giggled, tossing her a little wave and the four men made their way out.
Left alone, Jessie was able to calm herself down.
Maybe he can save them.
If Cody managed it, Jessie wondered if she’d ever find out. Maybe the sleuth would tell her. They might think she had something to do with it. That was fine. She was scared, but she could take whatever they decided to do with her. As long as the cubs were okay. She took a deep breath and lay down on the stone bench in the cell, staring up at the cracked ceiling. She could hear murmurs at the end of the hall. That meant there were at least two guards here to watch over her. Two fewer members of that sleuth that Cody and his brothers would theoretically have to fight.
&n
bsp; That was something anyway.
Somehow, Jessie managed to fall asleep, even on the hard and unforgiving stone of the bench. It was uncomfortable. She wouldn’t have minded a dirt floor. She was used to that from napping in the woods as a bear when she had occasion to. A forest floor could be as cozy as memory foam if you found the right spot. But the stone bench made her neck sore. It also made her dream of the cubs back when she’d first found them in the cave. They’d had nothing but a stone floor to sleep on themselves.
Poor babies...
She dreamed they were still in that cave, except they were trapped and Jessie couldn’t get to them. She could hear them crying out for her and Molly screaming for help and somewhere she could hear Cody calling her name from far away. But she was helpless, trapped outside of the cave and unable to move a massive boulder in her way.
Voices woke Jessie and she jerked, groaning at the kink in her neck as she sat up and stretched. She rubbed the back of her neck and blinked in the darkness. There was one window at the end of the hall and there had been sunlight shining through it, but now it was much darker. They had taken Jessie’s phone and her purse was still locked up in the employee’s locker room, she supposed. She wondered how much time had passed.
The guards were bringing someone. Jessie rubbed her eyes, her ears perking up as she listened closely, trying to make out what they were saying.
“The other cell’s lock is broke,” one of the sleuth bears said.
“Goddammit... ”
“We’ll fix it later. Put him in the cell with the girl.”
“They should be separated-”
“Oh, who gives a shit? You’d rather he break out? We tested those bars. They wouldn’t bend against four of us, they’re not gonna break for these two.”
“Alright, alright.”
Cody (Strauss Bear Shifter Brothers 0f Colorado Book 3) Page 10