by Lola Kidd
“Don’t bet on it,” Tally muttered. “Plus, that’s not why I’m doing this. I just want to keep people safe. Humans and shifter alike.”
“Shifters too? Because they’re the problem. If they weren’t keeping secrets, none of this would be such a problem,” Bettina scoffed. “What you’re doing is for humans, and if some shifters get helped it will be a hand into the jail.”
Tally frowned. She looked into the diner behind her and saw her server setting down food at her table. “I gotta go. My food is up. Keep me posted if you find out anything about our traffic spike.”
“Will do. Stay safe.”
She hung up and went back into the diner. Her food was steaming waiting for her at the table. She lapped up half her coffee before spreading the melting butter on top of her pancakes.
Her server came back to top off her coffee cup. “Need anything else?”
“I’m gonna want a BLT to go also.”
The server nodded and took her menu. “I’ll put that in so it can be ready when you’re done.”
“Thanks. Oh. Do you know what the best hotel in town is?”
The server thought for a moment. “If you’re going to be here for only a night, stick with the Route 66. If you’re going to be here for more than two days, I’d recommend the B&B. They aren’t that expensive, but I’ve heard the service is heads and tails better than the motel.”
“Thanks.” Tally made a mental note to leave a big tip. She checked the B&B website on her phone and it did look nice. They also had great reviews. Just her luck, it was the slow season and they had rooms available on short notice. She made a booking for the next four days. She didn’t think she’d be in town that much longer, but there was no way this would take less than a night.
Now that she knew people were listening, she felt pressure to do a little more thorough check. She knew what she was doing might not make her popular with shifters, but people had a right to know. If the stories were true, there were shifters that were going mad and attacking humans. That wasn’t a small thing. It had never made the mainstream news but then, why would it? Dangerous shifters were the last thing the government wanted people knowing about. It would only cause a panic since there was no way to know where it would happen ahead of time.
The only way a human could stay safe was to avoid being around shifters altogether. That might be where her story led if she could find proof. Not best case scenario, but if it happened she wouldn’t be sad. Better safe than sorry.
Chapter Three
Zach couldn’t believe his eyes. Standing in front of the diner was a girl with silvery lavender hair. She was short and she for sure had a body that wouldn’t quit. This had to be their human.
There was no way anyone could miss a human with that color hair. It was so...unusual? That felt like the right word, but his animal disagreed. It liked the human’s crazy-colored hair. In fact, it wanted to get a closer look. It wasn’t every day that a woman like that came to Lake Magnolia.
He pulled into the diner parking lot and waited with his window down. She was outside talking on her phone and he could just make out some of the things she was saying. He didn’t know what she was talking about, but he for sure heard her say that “Abbott was a bust.” She was looking for something or trying to do something. Why else would she describe it as a bust?
Of course, the something could be a shifter for the night. With Speed Mating being so popular, maybe she was doing a little shifter sex bingo around the area. He’d never met anyone in real life who did it, but he’d seen women bragging about it on social media.
His animal definitely liked that line of thinking. Gorgeous woman looking for a night of fun with an unusual shifter? He fit that bill to a T. It really was too bad she was on his radar for work. Oh the fun he could have with a woman like her.
When she finished her call and went back into the diner, he followed a few moments later. He checked for the flier he had put up the week before and saw that it was gone. He looked for his favorite waitress but saw she wasn’t working.
“Hey, my flier for Keeper recruits is gone,” he told the host.
“Yup. Sheridan took it down last week.”
“Was she pissed? I asked before putting it up.”
The host shrugged. “I didn’t ask.”
“Did she look pissed? How did she pull it down? With a thoughtful look or did she rip it?”
The host sighed. “Seriously, man? I don’t know. I wasn’t paying attention too much. It was a busy night.”
Zach nodded. “Thanks. Guess I’ll talk to her about it myself.”
“Booth or table?”
“I’ll take a booth. The one in the back there.” Zach pointed to the table behind the mystery woman. The host seated him and he smiled at the purple-haired beauty as he passed. She nodded but didn’t really look up.
That was a little humbling. Women always looked at him twice. He was a good-looking guy. Even in a shifter town, he never had a problem finding company for the night. He didn’t even have to do that Speed Mating thing that all the kids were into.
For a woman, and a human woman at that, to barely give him a cursory glance was a little embarrassing. Was he losing his touch?
Maybe she wasn’t into shifters. That made much more sense. There was no way he was losing it. If anything, he was getting better. He’d just had a great promotion and things were going his way. That confidence had to be visible to everyone, and woman loved confident guys. But if she wasn’t into shifters, it wouldn’t even matter. Totally explained why she didn’t give him a second look.
His waitress came over and he ordered lunch before texting the station and letting Rhett know that he’d spotted the human. No issues and she looked pretty harmless. She had a laptop out and she seemed to be working on something. He tried to read over her shoulder, but there wasn’t much to see. He strained a little and then he managed to see the site she was on. It looked pretty low-budget.
He took out his phone and went to the same website. What he saw made his blood run cold.
At first glance, it was harmless. One of those silly conspiracy theory sites. They always were going on about something insane. The second most popular article on the page was about shifters being aliens from outer space. Insane. But the most popular story on the site was from that very week. It was about out-of-control shifters.
How the hell had she found out about that? This was impossible. He read the article twice. It was pretty short. Vague info about the possibility of shifters not being able to control their animals. He checked the comment section and it was active. There were more than two hundred comments and there were more coming in as he was reading. People were having arguments. Some were very vocal that this was impossible. Others were convinced that it could be true and it was being covered up. So far, it looked like most people didn’t buy it, but it wasn’t completely out of the question. They wanted more information.
That was why she was here. She was looking for proof. Not that she’d find any. The author of the article was listed as Verdad. That was either her or she was the investigator sending info to the writer. Judging from the quality of the site, he wasn’t sure they could afford investigators.
He started digging into the site when his food came. He didn’t break to eat. Doing this on his phone was very annoying. He wanted to be screenshotting all these pages for reference. What if she took it down? What if one of these crazies believed her and started hurting shifters? His mind was racing.
The site ownership was private. He couldn’t see who was paying for it and the About section was sparse. They just said they were a website dedicated to the truth and that they would do their best to root out the real goings-on, help their readers stay ahead of the game and safe from all the dangers the mainstream media was hiding.
Zach had to stop from laughing out loud. His town and his own cousin were in danger because of a website that unironically posted about shifters being aliens and how to set up a silver barrier to k
eep shifters out of your home. It was so absurd it was downright hysterical. He snorted once and the woman in front of him almost looked back. He saw her look up but she didn’t turn.
She did, however, close her laptop and focus on eating her food. She was nearly done so he started shoveling his food in his mouth. He knew it was going to look suspicious, but he was going to leave at the same time as her.
He had to see where she was going. Maybe he could intimidate her a little once he knew more about her. Not the way he usually worked, but this was a special case and he was going to do whatever it took to keep his town and family safe.
After another ten minutes, she was finished with her food and was checking her emails again. Zach asked for his check and left the restaurant. He sat in his car and waited. When she didn’t exit after fifteen minutes, he pulled out of his parking space and went down the block. He didn’t want to be too obvious. If he sat in the parking lot for too long she’d be onto him. It took another ten minutes for her to finally leave the restaurant. He waited until she passed and then got on the road behind her. She was heading for the town outskirts. He had a feeling she was going to the B&B.
It was the nicest place in town. A little romantic for a single person but whatever.
He checked his speedometer and almost whooped. She was speeding. By a lot. Like thirty over the limit. He flipped on his lights and pulled her over. He radioed to the station that he was pulling over a human but didn’t ask for backup. He didn’t have a bad feeling about this. She didn’t feel crazy, and he was confident that if it did go sideways he could handle her. His animal was ferocious after all. Even if the ferocious feeling it had for her was still lust, it was usable energy.
Zach took his sweet time walking to her car from his. He wanted her to sweat it out a little. Her hands were firmly on the wheel when he got to her, but her knuckles weren’t tense. She wasn’t tense. Cool as a cucumber, as his mom would have said. This woman wasn’t even a little bit fazed even though she would be getting a very pricey ticket.
He knocked on her window and she rolled it down.
“License and registration,” he commanded.
She took her other hand off the wheel and took out the papers.
“Do you know why I pulled you over, ma’am?” he asked, checking her papers. Tallulah Nelson. He raised his eyebrows at the issuing state. She was very far from home.
“I don’t know, Officer.”
“You were speeding. Do you know what the limit is here?”
“I don’t know. I think 55.”
“Correct. You were going almost 90. I’m going to have to give you a ticket.”
“Okay.”
Wow. She didn’t even try to fight it or argue. That was strange. It didn’t seem like she was in a hurry either. He looked at her for a beat before starting to write the ticket. Who was this woman and what was her deal?
“You’re pretty far from home. What are you doing in Lake Magnolia?”
“I’m doing a little sightseeing and this is my next stop.”
“What are you here to see?”
“Nothing. Just passing through. I just got back from Celebration and I’m headed to Nevada. This is the most obvious and cheapest stop.”
He nodded. “Um. So I guess you’ll be leaving in the morning then?”
He gave her a pointed look and hoped she could see all the animosity in his eyes.
She took her ticket. “Well, not anymore. I have to pay this ticket and it’s the weekend. So I guess I’ll be here until Monday now.”
“Tuesday actually,” he said, mentally kicking himself. “It’s a bank holiday so everything is closed Monday.”
“Oh yeah. So Tuesday then. Guess I’ll have to find a way to keep myself busy until then. Thanks for the ticket. Have a great day.”
She rolled her window up and waited for him to step away from her car before pulling away.
Shit. He had just given her a reason to stay. He’d just made his and his Keeper’s life a little more difficult.
Chapter Four
Tally was shaking with rage as she pulled away. A three-hundred-dollar ticket!
The price didn’t bother her, but it was her fault this had happened. She was speeding. What the hell was she thinking? She hadn’t been paying attention as she drove. That was the problem. She wasn’t thinking at all. She’d been distracted by the stats on the site.
It was unbelievable how much people were into the story. She’d barely even said anything and she’d gotten people’s attention. The comment section was filled with discussion and debate too. Once she checked into her hotel, she was going to wade in herself and join the talks. It was sure to make people even more engaged. Debate was always great, and this was something she really cared about.
Obviously, other people did too. There was only one thing that was sticking in her craw. She wondered if people were only so into it because they were looking for a reason to hate shifters. Like the disgust and fear was already there, she had just given it a logical reason to exist.
That wouldn’t be as great to hear. She wanted her info to spark action but not to stoke hate. That was something else entirely. But she wasn’t sure if she was going to have any control over that. She would have to try though. She wanted to do good not help out the bad.
She’d been thinking as she drove about how to best word her series going forward. She wanted to be more balanced, to stress that it was only a few shifters and that the majority of shifters were good people and very safe. Even the ones who couldn’t control themselves weren’t bad people; something bad was happening to them. It was like cancer. You didn’t get mad at people for having cancer.
She’d been patting herself on the back for that brilliant metaphor when she’d seen the lights in her rearview. She’d been going way over the limit and now she had a ticket to take care of. Trying to find a silver lining, it was convenient in one sense at least. Now she had a good reason to be in town.
But she was sure she’d seen the Kop before. He’d been in the diner with her. She was positive because he was hard to miss. He was very, very handsome. Exactly her type. Tall, dark, and gorgeous. Even in his uniform, she could see what a great body he had. It was too bad he was in his line of work. He was just the kind of guy she loved spending a night with when she was traveling.
Those kinds of men never wanted to date her or be serious, and that was fine. It wasn’t like she’d be a great partner with her weird schedule. That’s what made Speed Mating so great. She could find hot companionship while she was traveling and never had to worry about trying to pick someone up at a bar or whatever. They came right to her and left as soon as she wanted. She was a hundred percent in control and it was great.
But that wasn’t going to happen this trip and never with that guy. He was the enemy. From the way the Keepers in Abbott had treated her, she had a feeling they’d warned the area Keepers to keep an eye out for her. It would be easy enough. Her hair and entire look didn’t fit in here.
Bettina had been right. She should have kept her appearance more conventional. She wasn’t used to being the lead point on this kind of thing. Usually she wasn’t doing in-depth investigating. She was more of a backseat and writing kind of woman. When she did have to do investigating, it was always in the major cities. There she would blend in. Out here, she stuck out like a sore thumb.
She looked at herself in her mirror before getting out at the B&B. Nah, she loved her hair too much to dye it a “normal” color. Even if she had mousy brown, they would have found her. The town was too small and they didn’t get many tourists this time of year. Celebration, a major shifter tourist town, was only a short drive away.
So she would have stuck out either way. At least now she felt like herself. Confidence was key here. She didn’t want the Kops to know how much they freaked her out.
Tally hated being a nuisance. She only did this because the truth had to get out. It didn’t matter what she needed or wanted. The truth was her highest
priority. Whatever it cost to find it, she would pay. People’s lives were on the line here.
Once she got checked into her room, she called Bettina again.
“We’ve got a tail.”
“Really? That’s great! You’re onto something. This is huge! You have to find out what they’re hiding.”
“Let’s not get carried away. Any luck on the forums?” she asked.
“People are talking now. There are threads up in a few places.”
“Great. I’m going to get into the comment sections tonight. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Stay safe, girl.”
“Always do.” She hung up and put her things away around the room. She liked to get herself set up and comfortable at the hotels. Even though she didn’t investigate like this often, she did travel often. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d stayed at home for a whole month. There was no reason for her travels. It wasn’t for pleasure really. She went boring places like Boise, Ohio or Madison, Wisconsin or Reno, Nevada.
She didn’t know why she had to move so much, but she did. When she was a little girl, her family hadn’t traveled much. Maybe that’s why she was always on the go now. Trying to make up for lost time.
Either way, she wasn’t planning on stopping anytime soon. In a perverse way, the more she investigated this shifter thing, the less she wanted to be in any one place. She was starting to get a little paranoid. There was a creeping feeling that she was being watched now.
At the diner, she’d felt it and been right. Now, the Kop knew her name and address. There was no way he’d keep that to himself, she thought with a sinking feeling. She could be in real danger anytime she was at home now. They were going to be watching her and the closer she got to the truth, the worse it would be. She could only imagine what was going to happen when she let their secret get out. They were going to want to end her.
It was so important she kept her info in an easy-to-reach place. Bettina would be able to get everything out if anything happened to her. She backed all her research notes up in an online storage space that Bettina had access to. Better safe than sorry.
