by Rae Foxx
"One of them," she began, stepping forward as we stepped back. “They keep stopping by, peering in the fucking windows, ogling the place like Kent might come back to life at any second and give them what they want. Look—looking like this is some kind of side show. One of them did this, and they just kept laughing."
She talked faster and faster, her eyes growing redder as her cheeks did, and she quickly worked her way into hysterics. I decided to hitch a ride on her meltdown. I couldn't see any green goo, but maybe I could get some other clues.
And maybe I could convince her to take me into the back. Although going into the back with a bear was possibly a worse choice than following a wolf with an eye patch.
“Who is stopping by?" I asked tentatively, stepping closer to her even as the twins tried to pull me back. "Maybe they all loved Kent. Maybe they want to tell you they’re sorry for your loss.”
“HA!” She said at the top of her lungs, the insanity of her laugh bouncing off the white-tile walls and slapping us in warning. “You’ve hit that nail right on the head. They all loved Kent and he loved them all—too much. Way too fucking much. He was so busy loving everyone that he forgot he had a mate and children. Came in at all hours of the night smelling like them, their musk on his clothes and branded into his skin. Did he think I didn’t know?”
"He was cheating on you." It wasn't a question, I had been bracing for some harrowing story of friends and enemies, but instead I had wandered into an adulterer’s nest of lies and deception.
The sneer I got from this furious woman was enough to set hell on fire. “Cheating is such a mild word for what that motherfucker did to me. He left me on our mating night to fuck the waitress from our reception in the next hotel room. Swore he’d never do it again. That’s what landed us here in the middle of bum-fucking nowhere, banished for cheating on his mate. Everyone knew—everyone in the whole fucking pack knew. But I stood by him, believed that bastard when he promised me he wouldn’t do it again. After only three fucking days of us being in Cummings, I found out I was pregnant and he’d taken his second mistress.”
"A second?" I asked, careful to tip-toe around the subject like a bomb I was carefully diffusing. Sure enough the bear inside of her roared, her eyes rolling in her head as we all jumped. "Were there a lot of them?"
Again, the twins tried to pull me back, but I shook them off. I was in full-on reporter mode now; where was Phoquin's notebook when I needed it?
"He was a hyena. My mother warned me, and I should have listened..." A Cheshire smile grew on her face, and I took a step back as a growl rumbled in her chest. Bearded bitch was losing her shit one turd at a time right in front of me. If I wasn’t careful, she’d maul me like a fucking circus tiger on meth.
"Instead, I'm surrounded by his whores!” She enunciated each word before picking up what looked like a black leather journal from behind the counter and waving it in the air. At one point, I thought she might hit me with it. She looked like one of those charismatic preachers on crack, but her bible was apparently Kent’s little black book.
"I don't know which of them did it, but he deserved it!" She let out a humorless laugh and looked down her nose at me.
“Oh, God,” I whispered as a thousand new scenarios came to life in my head. Which was ironic considering the thoughts were about Kent’s murderer. If he had as many mistresses as Becky claimed he did, the list of suspects could be a mile long. I needed my hands on that book, but this bitch was scaring the fuck out of me.
Truth be told, the beard wasn’t helping the fear factor.
“Oh, God," she repeated in a high-pitched moan, clearly losing it now. "That’s what he said when he was coming. Always the same thing. I bet he said that to all of them as he fucked them.”
She whirled her anger on the window, waving the book again as someone poked their head in. “That’s right. Come check out the murder scene! Go ahead, say you’re sorry, because I’m not! I’m not sorry he’s dead. I’m glad to have that man-whore off my back and out of my life. I’m glad someone killed him! I’m happy, you hear that? I’m fucking ecstatic!”
This woman had lost her shit.
Even the twins’ eyes had turned to saucers. Both took steps back from the waving of the book and the wailing.
“And you...just because you found his body doesn’t give you the right to come poking in here where you don’t belong." I flinched. I had been operating on the assumption that she had no idea who I was. We had walked into more of a minefield than I had anticipated. "This is my butcher shop now. My business. Mine. So get the fuck out of here and don’t come back! You hear me? Don’t you ever fucking come back!”
We didn't need to be told twice.
“Let’s go, Scarlet,” Owen said as she dodged behind the counter, looking for something. “That bitch is liable to be looking for a machete and god knows there are enough of them in a butcher shop. Move your ass, mate.”
We rushed outside, darting into the brightly lit alley to catch our breath and decompress. Well, they did. My heart rate picked up knowing where I was, and what had happened the last time I was here. I clamped my legs together.
“That was fucking insane. She’s lost her damned mind.”
I shrugged, kind of feeling sorry for the woman. “I would go nuts if you guys cheated on me too, I think. Can’t blame her. You know what they say about a woman scorned.”
"What do they say?" Evan asked, genuinely curious.
"Hell and highwater," I answered and rolled my eyes. "I need that book. That book is basically a phone book for suspects. If we can't get the slime, we need that."
"Scooby-doo continues." Evan rubbed his hands together, he and Owen laughing like mad men in their own right. "I'm in."
Owen was already looking around. I could practically see the wheels spinning in his head. “I know what to do.”
“Does it involve an explosion and a diversion?” I asked, leaning forward.
"Of course," he huffed out a laugh and ran his hand through his blond hair. “It's time to do what we sand cats do best. We'll create a distraction. She comes out. You grab the book. Done and done.”
My twins were the best at distractions. In real life, and in the bedroom especially.
“You both are the best. Always got my back," I bounced on my toes to plant a kiss on each of their cheeks. "That’s what I love about you.”
Owen and Evan beamed as I realized with heated cheeks that it was the first time I'd said the word 'love' to them. Good thing they didn't make a big deal out of it or I might lose it.
“We would do stupid things for you, Scar. That’s a fact. Now, get ready on the other side of the door to go in once she comes out. I’m about to light this entire alley on fucking fire.”
21
"I would clear out if I were you," Owen said, fisting the front of my shirt as he pulled me in for a kiss. It was just a quick peck, but it made my knees weak.
"Clear out? Do I want to know what you have planned?” I asked, and Evan chuckled, giving me his own kiss. Although he chose that moment to cup and squeeze my ass. I squealed and jumped a bit.
"Explosions. Fire. Like I said. We've got a dumpster and you've got the Scooby-Doo twins."
"There aren't twins in Scooby-Doo," I began, but he was already darting into the alley, clothes falling lifelessly to the ground as he shifted into his sand cat.
"There are now," Owen winked and took off after his brother, his own clothes falling in the exact same spot.
"Just don't blow yourself up," I mumbled, my voice carrying down the alley as two sets of gleaming yellow eyes turned back to look at me. The cats mewed and both of them dived into the dumpster.
Okay, no going back now.
I walked to the end of the alley, leaning on the corner and waiting for the explosion that would pull Becky the bear out of the butcher shop and into the alley. Hopefully it would give me enough time to dart in, grab the book, and get the fuck out of dodge.
Digging my toes into the loo
se gravel, I realized too late that we had a problem. I was standing on the corner, and if she decided to come out the front door, then she would see not only me, but the piles of the boys’ clothes.
They might be good at committing crimes, but they were not good at hiding the fact that they were the ones who committed them.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I gathered up their clothes and turned, trying to find a new place to hide when a plume of dark grey smoke began to billow from the dumpster, a few loud pops right behind. The sand cats jumped out of the dumpster, streaking down the alley and away from the dumpster seconds before it exploded. Fire licked against the brick wall, coating it with dark ash and then, in a second and much louder explosion - garbage.
Trash exploded into the air, popping and crackling as it burned. The funk that filled the air was enough to gag a maggot while pieces of trash and papers crop-dusted the vicinity in ash and fluttering embers.
Then the screams came. Shouts of shock and expletives surrounded me as people began to stream into the alley.
It was now or never.
“Aw, fuck it,” I yelled as I turned and ripped my way into the building, worst case I would tell her to get out or pretend I was concerned for her safety.
Yeah, totally believable, especially when you are holding a massive wad of your mates’ clothes.
The silver bell clanged as I rushed in, eyes already scanning for the book. Instead I was face to face with a snarling Becky, her eyes nearly all brown as her bear growled at the sight of me.
“You again!" she shrieked, palms flat on the counter as she smacked it. "I told you to get out and not come back. What part of that didn’t you understand?”
"There's ummm... an explosion..." I didn't think anyone could squeak a warning as I had done.
"An explosion?" She laughed heartlessly, still leaning over the counter as she snarled at me.
I proceeded with caution, my eyes flicking to that black book on the counter as I took a step. Maybe I could get her out and then grab it. It was small enough I could fit it in my pocket.
"Did you really think I would fall for that?" She howled, pulling my focus from the book that I had clearly been staring at for too long. She grabbed the book off the counter, holding it in her meaty hand as she waved it through the air. "I knew it. You are just his type. Young and beautiful and I bet he’s never had a redhead before... Or that's what he told you, and you want to check to see if he was telling the truth. I can tell you he wasn't. You're not his first, but you were his last, weren't you? Weren't you!"
Okay, gross. I knew this lady was mad, but her anger was pointed in the wrong direction.
“God, no! Lady, look—” I tried to interject, but she was having none of it.
“No, you look. I don’t care if he was fucking you or not. He was never yours and you can't just show up here thinking that he was. You can't have any of it!"
Her scream cracked the tiles on the wall, the cracks spreading as the dumpster exploded again.
"Any of what?" I began to back up toward the door. Seeing as I wasn't getting the book I would make sure I left without a scratch. The way she was clawing and digging at the counter made me think she wanted to do more than just scratch.
“It’s my money. Mine. You can’t have any of it. What do you want with it anyway? Boobs? Yeah, I’d want new ones too if I was you.” She glanced down at my breasts and I just quirked a brow at her. “Naw, I bet you think they’re just fine, although with hips like that..." she clicked her tongue and my fox chittered angrily in my chest. "Oh, I know, liposuction? Is that it?”
Oh, no, this bitch did not just...
"I don't want your money and I sure as hell didn't want your jack-ass of a mate, that mess is all yours."
"You started it, you pay for it," her voice roared. It rumbled with a sound that was less than human. It growled, and roared, and chipped at my skull. Her bear was emerging.
Didn't this bitch hear that I didn't want her jackal bastard of a mate? No, no she didn't. One more roar and there she was. Bear. Right in fucking front of me, rearing up on two legs. Her mouth was open wide, revealing those enormous canines. Spittle being spread everywhere as she roared.
"Shit!" I squeaked and dropped the boys’ clothes so I could shift into my fox and run. I wasn't able to do either before a mass of fur, teeth, and snarling fury collided with my chest, shoving me back and right through the plate glass of the butcher’s door.
Glass shattered everywhere. The crowd that had gathered to watch the dumpster burn turning as a snarling bear and a newly-emerged fox wrestled into existence. Her claws pawed at me as my fox’s' claws dug into fur and flesh and skittered around her like she was a tree. Reaching the top, I sunk my teeth into the back of her neck, warm blood flooding my mouth as she roared and shook in an effort to get me off.
“Scarlet!” The twins screamed from the middle of the crowds, shifting back into their cats with a pop. They rushed to either side of the bear, jumping on her back and biting and nipping at her fur. It was enough of a distraction that I could bite down again, the taste of her blood driving me feral as I snarled and clawed.
She just roared more, although this time she got her wits about her and shook. She shook so hard that I went flying, teeth and claws of both me and my cats unable to hold on. I hit the asphalt hard, the crowd gasping as I whimpered and my tail twitched once. They gasped again, hands to chests while they whispered. God, they thought I was dead.
They all thought I was dead.
Okay, sure, I was dead.
The cement below my dead body shook as the bear made her way over, chuffing and snarling as she stalked her prey. The crowd stepped back as she moved closer, allowing her to inspect her kill in peace, as was the way among shifters. Becky the bear leaned down, hot breath rattling my fur as she inhaled, drool dripping onto my shoulder as she opened her maw, ready to take a bite.
Sharp teeth pressed against my shoulder blade, about to dig in—
I moved so fast that her jaw clamped down on air, the crowd gasping in shock and then cheering as I bit into her again. Although I did not go for the still-open wound on her neck. I went for her nose.
I bit the bear on the fucking nose. Hard. The soft skin gave way as my teeth sunk into the tender flesh and her roar somehow became even louder.
Apparently, bears were like sharks. Their noses were the sweet spot.
The giant folded on all fours, paws batting at her bleeding nose as she whimpered. Poor baby—
“What the fuck is going on here?” Phoquin's voice snapped over the battle, both Becky and I turning toward the irate police chief that was sprinting toward the crowd, the guy was so angry he might as well have been steaming.
He broke through the crowd, eyes sparking dangerously as he looked from a bleeding Becky, to the tiny fox with far too much blood around her muzzle.
"Scarlet?" He asked, his eyes widening as he looked from me to the two cats that were prowling behind me. Yes, because we needed to look more guilty.
"Of course," he sighed, his hand dropping to his waist and to the belt that held both his gun and his cuffs.
We were so busted.
22
"What the hell were you thinking?" Phoquin snarled as Becky finally skulked away. She had agreed to drop her assumed trespassing charge if I agreed to drop the assault charge against her.
I did agree, but only because I still had plans to break in later and get that little black book. I couldn't do that if I was in jail.
"I was thinking that I needed to find some green goo that you claim didn't exist," I said, finally answering a waiting Phoquin.
“So, you came in here and decided to take on a full-grown grizzly? A mama grizzly at that?” He pulled off his aviators and tucked them in between buttons on his shirt. Gods, that was sexy.
I didn’t answer immediately. I mean, the proof was in the pudding. And by pudding, I meant that brown lump of fur currently kind of passed out on the floor.
&nb
sp; “Um...yeah. Looks like it.” I shrugged one shoulder and picked a tuft of hair out of my teeth as if to prove my point.
"Why?" Was it just me or did he look nervous? He shuffled his feet, the motion catching the sun in his hair as he waved away the last of the rubberneckers who seemed to think I was going to attack the chief of police next.
I had barely made it through the fight with the bear, and for all I knew he turned into a dragon when he shifted. Even I wasn't that stupid.
“Look, we were getting evidence,” I said, pulling on a shirt and my shorts that I’d shucked earlier in order to shift. “That’s why we were here. I told you I would find evidence. And there are some leads!” I tried to sound excited, but it came out like I was on crack or something. “Kent’s wife said he’s a man-whore and he has like seventeen girlfriends. They were all after his money or his life insurance—something. For some reason, she thought I wanted fake boobs too, so that has to be something right? One of the women around here with fake boobs might be the killer. She might’ve wanted more money or something and Kent wouldn’t give it to her. That’s a fucking lead!” I was starting to get heated.
"Scarlet," he leaned in, his voice a purr as it swam through the air between us. "There are people whose job it is to find out these things. We have other leads that are pointing us in other directions. I need you safe, not wrestling bears."
My heart sunk, I had a feeling that some of the leads that were pointing them in different directions had, in fact, come from me.
"Then how am I supposed to prove to you that I'm not guilty, and neither is the wolf with the eye patch?" I wiggled back into my clothes as I talked, Evan and Owen still doling out shirts and shorts a few steps away.
"The wolf?" Phoquin stuttered, eyes narrowing at me. "The same eye-patched wolf that you claimed was responsible for the murder?"
"Yes," I have him one nod. "But he's innocent. I've spoken to him."
"You've spoken to the wolf with the eye patch?" Phoquin pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head.