by Milly Taiden
“Is that the one you don’t sit on?”
Russel let out a loud guffaw. “Man, you got the memory of a sperm whale.”
Sperm whale? Devin wasn’t sure how to take that. Knowing the few things that seemed to overwhelmingly occupy Russel’s mind—sex and more sex—he wondered if the whole joke was on sperm. “Why a sperm whale and not an elephant?”
“The whale has the biggest brain at seventeen pounds. So, larger brain . . . larger capacity . . . can remember more. Get it?”
Devin wanted to laugh at the insane comparison, but he’d keep the funny to himself.
Russel slapped his back again as they walked out the department’s door, heading for the bar down the street. “I can see where you thought an elephant might work. The elephant has the biggest dick of any land animal. Six feet long. Can you imagine?” No. He didn’t want to imagine.
Russel raised a hand over his head. “That’s as tall as I am.”
Oh shit. His new friend walked right into this. “So if someone called you a total dick, they’d be right?”
Russel stopped and bent over laughing. “Shit, man. That was great.” He held his stomach from laughing so hard. “But if that ever gets out, I’m siccing my unmarried cousin on you. She’s cute, but has a vicious bite.”
Reaching the entrance, Russel held the door for Devin, and they both entered the dim area with loud music. They each took a stool at the bar and ordered brews. After a long swallow, Russel sat back. “Okay, man. What’s got your brain in a noodle? Spell out the clues and let ol’ Russ here show you the light.”
Going back and forth, the two listed possible connections, brainstormed reasons the woman would be naked—according to Russel, she probably belonged to the nudist colony that went to the beach every summer. Not that he was part of the group. He was banned after he somehow got a fish to bite the head honcho’s dick in the lake. It required stitches. The nurses laughed for days after treating the guy.
“Let’s find a quieter table,” Devin said. Russel ordered two more beers and guided them to an empty table in the back corner.
“Whatcha thinking?” Russel asked.
“I remember in the manager’s office at the jewelry store, she had blankets on the floor that looked like a small animal slept on them. And you joked that you smelled cat.”
Russel held up a finger. “If I remember correctly, I said pussy.”
“Yeah, but you meant cat.” Devin paused and thought about it. “You didn’t mean cat, did you?” Russel slapped the table and laughed. Even Devin couldn’t deny the humor.
“Actually, I did mean cat.” His face turned serious. “Most of you cats smell pretty much the same. But there are subtleties among you that make each feline have his own smell. And when I think back to both locations and the smells, the cat in each is the same cat.”
Devin slapped his forehead and leaned back. “You know what that means?”
Russel thought a moment, then said, “There’s a cat with really bad luck walking around?”
Before Devin could answer, his phone rang. “Sonder here.” Milkan’s voice came on, loudly telling him Charli was in the hospital from a wreck. “We’ll check on her. Leaving now.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
A stabbing pain woke Charli. Her eyelids were too heavy to open and since it hurt her head to breathe, she wasn’t keen on seeing anything. Rhythmic beeps kept time with the pulse in her throat. It sounded like she was in her clinic’s minor operating room. But she didn’t remember taking in any injuries. The pregnant cow was the last patient she remembered seeing.
The wreck flashed through her mind. Oh shit. An image of fighting bears and the concussion of gunshots floated in her head. Were they part of a dream or real?
Where was Barry? Where was she, for that matter? Forcing one eye open, she worried the light in the room would make her head ache worse. But the dimness was soft enough for her to open her other lid.
Barry sat twisted in an upholstered chair scooted against the hospital bed, his hand holding hers, asleep. He would have a neck cramp certainly. He looked adorable in light-blue scrubs, his hair sticking up in different directions. His scruffy chin made him even hotter.
His nose twitched and his eyes popped open. They were dark, saturated with desire. His grin was quick. “Someone is having naughty thoughts in this room, and it’s not just me.”
She choked out a laugh, causing her skull and ribs to burn. “Shit, Barry. Don’t make me laugh. I’ll kick your ass, I hurt so much.”
He stood from his chair, then leaned over and gently took her lips with his. That didn’t help to douse the heat in her or slow the blood pumping through her head. Only one thing pumping in her would relieve the hot desire.
“Whatever you’re thinking,” Barry began between kisses, “you’d better stop or we’re about to start playing doctor right here in front of all the nurses. Fuck, you smell incredible.”
A woman in green scrubs and a light cotton jacket with cute mice all over it walked in. “Yup, what we thought, missy. Your heart rate was up quite a bit, so we figured this fine specimen of man in here was attacking you. Let me take your vitals, then the attack can resume.” The nurse winked at her and she felt her cheeks flood hot.
Barry stepped back, a grin from ear to ear making his eyes sparkle. After the attendant left, he grabbed up Charli’s hand and kissed each knuckle. “I can’t tell you how close to panicked I was. You wouldn’t open your eyes and barely breathed. I thought I was going to lose you.”
“Aw, Barry. You say the sweetest things. I’m damn hard to get rid of. Especially when you have me wrapped around your finger.”
“Right,” Barry grunted. “It’s me around your finger”—he kissed her wrist—“and your body”—he sucked on the inside of her elbow, releasing it with a pop—“and in your body. Coming hard enough to make your legs tremble for hours.”
A chill ran through her whole body. That sounded so heavenly. “But first, my love, you have to heal enough for us to go home.”
Shit. He was right. “What about the shooter, though?”
He plopped back into his chair next to the bed. “I think I know how the killer was keeping tabs on us. After the truck crashed, I found a tracking device attached to the undercarriage.”
Her eyes opened wide. “Tracking device?”
He nodded with a mean-looking frown. “Seems our friend wants to be more than a mere acquaintance.”
“Dammit, now what?” She bit her lip and wondered what they could do next.
“Hey, no worrying. I’m in charge here and will take care of it all. You just need to tell me what to do.” He smiled and met her gaze. “Let’s figure it out together.”
The scene of the accident played in her mind. Then she remembered the bears. “Barry, you shifted, didn’t you? How’d you manage that?”
He turned contemplative, his finger rubbing over his chin. He was so cute when serious. “I don’t know. I told myself it was time to shift when the bear was coming for me, but it didn’t work. I shifted when I saw the other bear at your driver’s window, busting it open to go after you. Then it happened so quickly, I didn’t even know until I saw my hands were paws.”
“Ah,” Charli said. “I remember something about my shifter training saying mates will fight to the death for the other. That usually happens in the animal form because it’s usually the stronger one. When you saw I was in danger, your bear came out without asking or telling.”
His grin started with love in his eyes and ended with a wicked slyness. “Does that mean what I think it means? Mate?”
Mate? She should deny it, but that wasn’t going to be true, and he’d know she was lying. Plus, she wasn’t going to start lying now. Barry had opened up doors in her heart she’d long thought closed. She’d fallen quickly for his openness and his protectiveness. People didn’t protect her. She was on her own. But now there was Barry, and maybe she didn’t have to be alone anymore. Should she tell him that? Probably not.
She rolled her eyes and coughed out a giggle. “First, tell me what happened after I shot the bear. It was a shifter, not a real bear, right? Where did he come from?”
“It was a shifter.” Barry rubbed her hand in circles, thinking. She glanced at the way he continued to go back and forth with his thumb over her palm, the motion soothing and erotic at the same time. “It was the guy trying to run us off the road. And if I’m correct, he wore the same zombie face you said I wore when I was unloading the money bags, which are still missing.”
Charli met his eyes. “Something’s going on here. Something bigger than just you and me. Go on. Did Milkan get there? I called him.”
“Yeah. He said he would take care of everything at the scene. I needed to take care of you. He got there not long after you saved my tail.” He twisted to look down his backside. “Bears have tails, don’t they?”
Charli smiled. He’d done the silliness purposely to make her smile. “Yes, they have cute little ones. Turn around and let me see yours.” He spun around and wiggled his tight ass for her. She itched to get her hands on it as he drilled into her. A surge of desire shot through her. Barry turned and part groaned, part growled.
“Woman, you will be my undoing.” He swooped down, running his lips down her neck, breathing deeply. His hand skimmed the side of her breast, thumb rubbing the hardening nubbin.
She ran her fingers through his hair. “When can I leave?” She paused. “Better yet, does the door lock?”
Barry chuckled and put his forehead against hers. “Doctor said you should be fine, and he’ll decide if you can go when he does his rounds in the morning. I am so relieved you’re safe. I was afraid of losing you. When we get out of here, I’m hiding you away for a year and never letting anyone touch you but me.”
“A year? What about my clinic?” she teased.
“You can talk to the animals on the phone, and we’ll hire an assistant to administer meds there.”
She almost laughed. “I can’t talk to them on the phone, silly. I need physical contact with them. You know that.”
“Well, they’d better learn ESP fast because your hands belong to me.” He scooped them into his and kissed the scratched skin.
She pouted as if in thought. “I’ll think about it. Even though you fight like a wuss.”
His face went from happy tears to a playful frown. “It was my first shift that I remember. We were figuring things out.”
She snorted. “Yeah, well, Tom can fight better than you right now.”
“The squirrel? I’ll take him on any day. Wait. Is he a shifter, too?”
Charli started a laugh and regretted it. Barry saw her pained expression and winced. “Sorry, sweetheart. Doc said you have bruised ribs, but nothing is broken. You have a bump on your head they want to watch. Could be a minor concussion. But hopefully not.” That explained her thumping head. She needed several hydrocodone before she was bouncing on her toes like Marika.
Charli wondered if the shooter knew about their trip to FAWS. She prayed he didn’t. Who would protect Marika?
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Devin pushed on the hospital door to room 610. Charli’s smile greeted him. The deadweight pressing on him lifted when he saw she was alive and looked fine. He hadn’t realized how quickly he’d taken his two coworkers into his heart as family. That’s what they were now. An invisible bond had snuck up on him and tied his ass to a multimorph and an animal whisperer. Well, there were worse things to be attached to.
He approached Charli on the opposite side of the hospital bed from where Barry sat. Devin brushed back the hair from her face and planted a kiss on her forehead. A low growl vibrated in the air from Barry. “Chill, bear. This is my little sister now. And I will treat her as such.”
Charli raised her brows. “You might want to talk to my siblings before you volunteer for that position. I was known to play some pretty nasty tricks on them growing up.”
“So was I.” He winked at her. “How are you feeling?”
“As good as can be expected when someone runs you off the road and down a cliff.”
“Tell us what happened, Charli,” Russel said as he entered the room and leaned against the wall.
She looked at Barry, then to them. “So much has happened in almost two days. And not all of it good. But we need to compare notes since Barry and I have information that might help you with the robberies.”
Devin was a bit taken aback. How could she have something that tied to his cases? Had she been holding out evidence? He felt suspicion creep into his mind.
Charli rolled her eyes and smiled. “No, Devin. I haven’t withheld any evidence that would be helpful at any point to you.”
His eyes popped wide. “I thought you could only read animals’ minds. How did you—”
“Relax,” Charli said with a grin. “I’m not reading your mind. You’re a male, and an investigator at that. I knew what you were thinking by looking at you.”
A flash of terror passed over Russel’s face. “Can all women do that? I am so fucked.” Laughter released the tension that had grown since the men walked in.
“Russel, you are so much more than fucked from what I’ve seen of Detective Gibbons,” Charli said.
Russel crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah, that’s what Milkan keeps sayin’. Y’all just wait and see. You haven’t seen me in action yet.”
“Thank god for small miracles,” Devin added. “Now what about this evidence you’re withholding?” He grinned and winked again.
She went through the happenings of the past day and a half, from finding Barry to being run off the road. Then Devin and Russel shared their facts. When finished, Devin flipped through the pages of notes he’d taken.
“Okay, where does that leave us? What do we know about the female robber?”
“She has long hair, walks around naked, never enters or leaves by conventional means,” Charli said.
“She’s a missing person from DC, according to those other investigators,” Barry added.
“How did she get all the way across the country, and why open a cleaning business when she got here?” Charli asked. “If she was hiding, seems to me she’d go incognito instead of robbing places. And naked, of all things.”
“Why would she be naked?” Devin asked, quickly amending, “Disregarding being a nudist, Russel.”
They had to ponder that. “She likes to show off her junk. Air it out from time to time.” Russel was so tactful with his words.
“Try again.” Devin scowled. “And don’t worry about being politically correct or anything, Mayer.”
He looked out the window overlooking the parking lot. “Maybe she . . . didn’t want clothing constricting her any, or catching on something.”
“No,” Charli gasped. “She’s naked from just shifting. Like Barry always is.” Realizing what she had said and the audience, her face blossomed with red cheeks.
Russel laughed. “No problems there, Charli. Shifters are used to that kind of thing. Walking around naked is second nature to us.”
Barry and Devin turned to Russel.
“Not all of us,” they both said.
Russel snorted. “Y’all are prudes. Get over yourselves.” He spread his arms wide and shook his hips side to side. “Embrace the freedom. Let your junk live as nature intended.”
Charli threw a pillow at him. “Mayer, you so much as moon me and I’ll have your mate on your ass in no time.”
A big grin spread over Russel’s face. “I like that idea. Both of you come to my place tomorrow. The toilet will be cleaned first thing.” The couple looked at each other, then to Devin.
“Don’t ask.” Devin flipped to a new page. “All right. Our thief is a shifter. What kind? Does it matter?”
“Well, yeah,” Charli said. “If she’s small enough, she could crawl through holes and under doors, right? Not setting off the alarms.”
“Holy shit.” Barry sat back in his chair. “Are there roach shifters? Th
at’d be really weird.”
Devin thought about that idea. Maybe not an insect, since he’d never heard of any animals but mammals, for the most part. What about a mouse? They were small. The image of the cat walking down the bank hall in the security footage came to mind. Mice probably wouldn’t get far with a cat on duty. Then it clicked for him.
“She’s a cat.”
Russel snapped his head around. A grin formed on his face. “You are freakin’-A right, brother. Both places smelled of the same cat.”
“As did the cleaning lady’s place,” Devin said.
Russel popped away from the wall, approaching the bed. “Remember what the homeless guy said about the cleaning lady having snake eyes? Which resemble cat eyes, at times.”
Then their faces expressed halleluiah. “The cleaning lady is the thief!”
They remained quiet for a moment, letting the new info soak in. Devin leaned over and kissed Charli’s forehead again. “Okay, Charli. You two stay here and get better. Keep hidden so the shooter doesn’t know where you are. I promise we’ll get him, Charli.” He spun away and snagged Russel’s arm. “Sinatra and I have something to do.”
The two men walked out the door. Devin was on a mission, and he was finishing it tonight.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Russel sat in the passenger’s seat as Devin pushed through traffic. Well, what consisted of traffic in Shedford—a backup at the stoplight.
“I’m missing something,” Russel said. “You know something I don’t because the connection isn’t clear-cut to me.”
“That’s very possible. If I’m wrong, I’d rather you stop me before I make a total ass of myself.”
“Better that than a complete dick, my friend.”
Devin laughed and slapped the steering wheel. “You are so fucked up, Sinatra. You definitely keep me on my toes.”
“Ain’t nobody accused me of being sane. I have a reputation to uphold in the shifter community.”
“That’s good,” Devin said. “Now, strip.”
Russel sat back, hand over his chest. “Who told you I was a stripper? I’ll kill her for tattling.”