by Milly Taiden
“There you go, sir,” the cleaning lady said. “Back to where you were.”
He stepped away. “Thank you, ladies, for your assistance. I need to catch up with the others. Have a good day.” He hurried away before he made more of a fool of himself.
The other two men stepped out of the small break room. Smelled like someone had heated up spaghetti in the microwave. Good thing they’d eaten lunch already, or he might search out that container.
Russel sniffed loudly and turned to face him. “Devin, my man, where have you been? I smell pussy all over you. And I’m not talking the juicy kind that’s good to eat.”
Immediately Devin’s thoughts turned to the pretty office manager and how he’d embarrassed himself by falling into her office. He tried to keep his emotions neutral so the other shifter wouldn’t smell his shame.
“Sinatra, we need to get you your woman so she can stick something in your mouth to keep you quiet.”
Russel laughed and slapped him on the arm. “Now you’re talking!”
Devin glimpsed a door next to the break room. An alarm keypad was attached to the wall beside the door frame. “Did you go through there?”
Russel shook his head as Devin opened the door. Cool fresh air zipped past him from outside. Several cars sat in a small asphalted area between the back of this building and the next. A dumpster sat next to a small access lane. Normal employee parking lot.
Milkan looked back at them from the other end of the hall. “Y’all done playing around?” He glanced down at his watch. “It’s time to leave. Isn’t anything here.”
The group entered the showroom and waved to the saleswoman on their way out the door. As they stepped onto the front sidewalk, police cruisers raced down Main, sirens blaring, headed out of town.
Russel licked his lips. “Speaking of pussy, I wonder if the delicious Detective Gibbons is available.”
Milkan laughed. “Sinatra, that woman will put you on your ass before you get close enough to hit on her.”
Russel smiled. “That’s what I’m hoping for.”
Devin shook his head and smiled.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Charli woke from her nap aching for her and Barry to go the extra step. As it was, her body was pissed as hell she had to spend time with her vibrator while Barry had gone out for a quick walk to take the edge off. Still, she’d woken up happier than she’d ever been. Could Barry really be her mate? When she was told about shifters after joining the fellowship, she had a million questions that were never really answered. She needed Shifters 101 as badly as Barry did.
She reached her hand out to the other side of the bed, wanting to feel hot, taut skin, but found only cold sheet. “Barry?” She sat up and looked around the room. Hearing no reply, she donned a robe and headed to the kitchen. Maybe he was raiding her fridge. She’d yet to meet a shifter who didn’t seem to be constantly hungry.
No one in the kitchen or living room. Maybe he was in the barn? After quickly throwing on clothes, Charli hurried to the clinic. The lights were off and the door was locked as usual. She went around the side of the building to the stalls. Still no sign of him. “Barry!”
A hundred horrible thoughts ran through her mind. Had his memory come back and he left? She’d never see him again. Had his mind snapped and he turned into his animal and ran off as a new wildlife addition to the forest?
She wandered to the horse corral behind the barn, pain tearing at her heart. What the fuck was she thinking falling for a complete stranger? But the animal called her mate. Could shifter animals lie? Why the fuck not? Everyone else sure did. Men had lied to her so much in the past that she never knew what to believe. It was a wonder she trusted anyone at all, but she knew not everyone was the same. That didn’t mean she couldn’t be lied to again. But why?
On the worn dirt path leading into the horse enclosure, bear prints tracked around the side toward the trees. The paw impressions had to be his. She followed the trail to the woods, where she lost sight of his direction. Fortunately, this side of the mountain led to the main road into town and the turn-off where Fred and Jed had found Barry.
That was all the evidence she needed to head back to the hillside next to the creek and rockslide. Her panicked mind knew of nothing else to grab on to.
Hauling ass along the twisting, turning highway, she came around a curve and slammed on her brakes. The roadside was lined with police cars and flashing lights and men in uniform milling around, looking over the side of the road.
The metal guardrail was torn away, and she noted rappelling ropes were fastened around thick trees. Looked like a vehicle had run off the road and rolled down the steep incline to the creek. She didn’t rubberneck since she was on a mission to find Barry.
After another mile, Charli slowed for the turn onto the gravel road heading up the mountain. She took a deep breath and told herself everything was going to be fine. She needed to keep a positive attitude, stop thinking only the worst. Fuck, all she could think was every possible scenario that ended up with Barry being in a morgue. She needed to dial the drama back in her mind and just focus on what she could do.
Carefully, yet quickly, she drove the narrow lane, watching for clues of Barry’s passing—human or animal. Through the thick tree trunks lining the ground between the road and creek, Charli thought she saw a boat on the water. The creek was high this time of year from the autumn rain showers. Powering a johnboat would be easy, and several locals fished about every day.
She slowed the SUV, waiting for the boat to pass an opening in the tree line. Holy shit. She couldn’t see the man’s face, but he was as naked as naked could get. Seeing that’s how she met Barry, she’d bet the farm and wiener dog that was him.
Honking the horn, she tried to get his attention. Either he didn’t hear it or he just didn’t acknowledge it. One eye on the road and one on the creek, she approached the turn just before the rockslide. Again Charli slowed, hoping the boat would stop, but it puttered past. Damn.
The next turn took her farther from the creek than she wanted. Driving faster than she should, Charli dodged potholes and small boulders. She maneuvered a hairpin curve, then descended the hill to flat terrain. Off in the distance, a white fence wrapped around a grassy field with a copse of mangled-looking trees in the center. Being in the middle of nowhere, she couldn’t imagine anyone living out here.
With a lot more patience than she felt she had, she brought the SUV to a stop before an old bridge crossing the creek. She waited, hoping Barry hadn’t passed by or stopped somewhere upstream. Too nervous to sit in the truck, Charli hopped out and shuffled closer to the water. Her hands felt like icicles from how tensed she’d been while driving. Relaxing her body and mind, she listened for the sound of a motor in the quiet of nature.
Instead of the whine of an engine, she heard grunts and scuffles coming from . . . below the bridge. Edging by the concrete alongside the road, she made her way down the bankside enough to peer underneath the bridge.
Oh fuck. It was Barry. Naked and taking huge, stuffed orange bags from the boat and shoving them onto a concrete shelf under the iron girder.
“Barry! What are you doing?” Charli slid down the remaining bankside and approached a zombielike Barry. She pulled on his arm, trying to get his attention. “Barry?” Again she yanked on him when he turned toward the boat sitting on the side. “What are—”
To her surprise, he whipped around and wrapped his hands around her throat. His squeeze was so tight she couldn’t even gasp in a breath. Charli looked into his eyes; his focus was off in the distance.
Barry?
Nothing. Her pulse kicked up at the base of her throat. Barry! The empty look remained, and his mechanical movements didn’t help the situation.
Barry, answer me. I need you. Silence. She couldn’t connect with the animal inside him. This wasn’t her Barry. Fuck!
Feeling her windpipe move, she realized the lights were on, but no one was home, not even the bear. In this state, it w
as clear he had no idea what he was doing. She had to take immediate action or risk him killing her. Her knee smashed into his groin. As he bent in half, his hold loosened, but didn’t release. Charli slammed her fists onto his elbows, ripping his fingers from her. Then she smashed his temple with the back of her elbow. With Barry off balance, she shoved him into the frigid water.
Popping up through the water, head thrown back, Barry sputtered and stumbled on the creek-bed rocks.
“What the fuck?” He looked around, confusion on his face. “Charli, where are we? Why am I naked in this freezing water?” He muscled his way to shore. She rubbed a hand over her throat and watched him cautiously. This was the Barry she knew.
Charli took off her coat and wrapped it around his shoulders; it didn’t cover the huge man much, but it was all she could do. “Barry,” she took his face in her hands, focusing his attention on her. “What were you doing?”
He looked at the boat and bridge. “I don’t know. Last thing I remember was lying in bed with you. How did I get here? Where is here?”
Her heart tripped in her chest. He looked so lost, almost like he was afraid to figure things out. “We’re not far from the rockslide where Fred and Jed found you. You don’t remember anything? What’s in the bags?”
He looked over his shoulder at the orange sacks. “I don’t know.” He made his way under the bridge. Scratches marred his arms and legs as if he’d walked through a brush pile. The cool ground probably soothed the cuts on his feet. She needed to remember to lather on the disinfectant when they got back.
He opened the large bag and pulled out one of many sacks the size of a bowling ball. Taking off the tie, the top revealed stacks of twenty-dollar bills. Shit just got real. “Oh my god. Do all the bags have money?” Barry searched the other bags and nodded. “How many of the orange bags are there?”
What the hell was going on? Was Barry a millionaire trying to hide his money? How did he not remember any of that? He moved the sacks on the concrete shelf. “I think there are six, including the one in the boat. That could be a quarter million dollars.”
“Where did it come from?” Charli asked. Her gut twisted in knots. Instinct told her there was something not right going on.
Barry shivered when a crisp breeze blew under the bridge. “I don’t know. And I don’t know why I have it. What should we do?”
Charli sighed. For all she knew, it could be his money. Then again, it really could belong to someone else. With so many small business owners in Shedford shoving money in the unlikeliest of places, she really wasn’t surprised they found that there.
One time, she’d found a box filled with hundreds of dollars at a farm she’d gone to, to handle a horse giving birth. Another time, she’d been helping a cow lying under a tree in a field when she was hit in the back of the head by a bag that had fallen from the tree. The bag had been stuffed with priceless coins and jewelry the owners thought would be safe in the tree branches.
This finding money? That wasn’t really new. And she knew if it didn’t belong to Barry, someone living nearby would probably know it was there. One thing folks did not do in Shedford was steal from each other or take something that was likely someone else’s.
She glanced at the sun lowering on the horizon. They were running out of time.
Barry broke through her thoughts. “It’s getting late. We’re going to start losing light quickly. Should we take the money with us?”
“I can’t think of a safer place than here, wherever here is. The only people who know it’s here are you and me. If it belongs to one of the locals, they’re probably going to check on their loot soon. If it belongs to you, well, you know where it’s at. Until we find out for sure, it would be very suspicious if someone found it in the SUV.”
Decision made, they climbed the creek side toward the truck. Charli noted the bullet wound on his sexy butt cheek was totally gone.
A set of red marks from her nails dragging over his ass would be a good addition. It was time to work on that. Anything to keep from thinking what this was all about. She didn’t have a good feeling. She had him back, and that was all that mattered at the moment.
Barry sucked in a deep breath. “I like whatever you’re thinking, baby.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Charli laughed at the loud huff coming from Barry.
“Ow, woman. What the hell are you thinking?” Barry yanked his foot away from Charli’s hold. He lay on the steel surgical table for the second time that day.
“For a big bad bear, you are the biggest baby.” She set the cotton ball on the table next to the antibacterial ointment. “At least you can heal with the gashes cleaned out.”
Barry swung his legs over the side of the examination table and sat up. “Oh yeah. I forgot that being a shifter heals me faster. Any other jewels of knowledge you’d like to share?”
“Yes. I’m hungry. Let’s go back to the house.”
Barry closed the white lab jacket he wore once again and pulled the door shut behind them. “You’ve got a great place here. Mountains, lakes, peace and quiet.” He gently took her hand in his.
“I love it here. I don’t think I can live anywhere else. Plus, I’m the only vet for the farmers and larger animals in a hundred miles.” She opened the door to the kitchen and felt Barry very close behind her.
Charli raised a brow. “Before you get any ideas, mister, I want food I can chew and swallow.”
A sly grin graced his face. “I got your swallow right here.”
Charli rolled her eyes and flipped on the small TV, then headed for the fridge to see what looked good. “How about leftover pot roast and potatoes?” She pulled out a plastic bowl covered with a snap-on lid.
“That’ll work. Any steaks?”
She set the bowl on the small island and opened the freezer. After digging around, two T-bones sat next to the bowl.
“Since they’re frozen, we’ll have to eat them tomorrow. Maybe you can grill. Weather’s supposed to be nice.” She glanced at the TV, seeing if the weather was on. Instead, “Breaking News” flashed on the screen. “Barry, turn up the volume, will you?”
The face of one of the local reporters filled the screen. “Police aren’t sure why the armored truck skidded across the lane, but the path it rolled to the ravine is very evident.” Cutaway shots of the upside-down vehicle and investigators walking the area next to the creek flashed by. “The truck was on its regular route to Shedford to drop off money and paychecks for tomorrow’s payday. Being Friday and the middle of the month, the truck was carrying twice the amount it normally carried.”
The anchor at the news station asked, “Any injuries reported?”
“The driver and front passenger were taken to the hospital and are expected to be fine. But the guard in the back of the truck was found deceased with a slash wound on his neck. The medical examiner will determine the cause of death after an autopsy.”
“Do the police have any idea what happened to the stolen orange money bags?” the anchor asked.
“They say the investigation is just starting and more information will be announced later.” The reporter signed off.
Barry turned down the volume. Charli stared at him. He wouldn’t meet her eyes. Did he think he was the one who killed the guard and took the money? She had to admit the evidence was quite damning. She knew, though, in her heart and without a doubt, that he couldn’t have committed those crimes. Her Barry wasn’t a bad guy.
Really? What about when he tried to choke you to death?
Okay, maybe there was something else wrong with him. It was like he’d been sleepwalking or zombified. Great. All she needed was to start thinking of Barry as a zombie. Those kinds of romances never ended well. Still, she was sure that in his conscious mind he wasn’t going to hurt her.
Without a word, Barry walked out the sliding glass door onto the back porch. Charli’s heart skipped. Was he leaving her? She hurried around the island toward the door. In the night air, he leaned against
the railing, head down.
“Barry, you don’t know if you were part of that robbery or not.” She tried to keep her voice nonaccusatory because she didn’t want to make him feel worse.
He didn’t move to look at her. “Come on, Charli. Even I can’t deny the connection. The boat, orange money bags, the timing. My god, Charli. I killed someone and can’t remember a damn thing about it.”
She wrapped her arms around him from behind, and he turned to hold her in his arms. He laid his cheek on her head and took a deep breath. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to put Barry in danger, but the risk of not looping in Director Milkan was greater than staying silent. Milkan would know what to do.
“Barry, we’ve got to go see Milkan again first thing in the morning.”
The only sign of his agreement was a nod of his head on her hair. She pulled away and whipped out her cell phone from her back pocket. “Better yet, we can call him right now.”
Barry laid his hand on the phone. “Charli, wait.” She met his eyes with a questioning look. “How well do you know your boss? Are you sure he won’t just throw me in jail? What if the police find out I’m a shifter? The government would take me and experiment and run tests until I have no blood left. What if they outright kill me? I’m not ready to die yet.”
Her breathing hitched. Him being gone from her life forever brought an ache to her heart. She was glad the night hid her emotions. It was too soon to have the feelings she did about this man. She stepped back into his arms. It was cold without him.
“Okay, Barry. But I’m calling first thing in the morning. Maybe sleeping on it is for the best—besides, it’s late and I’m tired.”
“And hungry, if I remember correctly, which I do, for once.”
Charli leaned back and smiled up at him. He lowered his lips to hers, taking his time tasting and relishing. Breathless, he released her sweetness. “Charli, I’m not ready to let you go yet. I can’t give you up after holding you for only a few hours. Please. Give us time to figure out this craziness.”
