by Milly Taiden
Where the creek crossed the road, Charli pulled to the side and got out of her truck. When peeking down from the upper bank, she didn’t see the camo-green johnboat. Both relief and dread filled her. If the money was gone, then there was no evidence against Barry. On the other hand, if the money was gone, her boss might think she was a big looney toon and never trust her again.
“What do you see, Avers?”
“Nothing—literally.” Together they descended the slope. Milkan looked around while she remained quiet.
“I see a partial footprint that’s smeared. We won’t get a useable impression from it. On the shelf, dirt and pebbles show evidence of something being dragged off recently. So I’d wager something was there.”
He blew out a breath and ran his hand through his stubbly hair. “Okay, Avers. Go on home for the weekend. I’ll call you later. You said Barry was locked in at your clinic?”
“Yeah, he didn’t want anything to happen to him or anyone else. I have a pregnant cow coming to the clinic in half an hour, so I’ll keep him busy with me.”
“Keep a close eye on him, Charli. Don’t let him hurt you. If he’s innocent as you say, he has nothing to worry about.”
That wasn’t quite the truth. Barry still didn’t have his memory. And he did have something to do with the armored truck robbery. But he had been locked in a cage all night, or with her. So the now-missing money bags were taken by someone else. She’d known for sure Barry wasn’t guilty, but now the question was: Who was?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Before she did anything else, Charli went to the stall to let Barry out. She wouldn’t have been able to talk to Mr. Harvey, one of her regular clients, without worrying about Barry. Now that she was home, he didn’t need to be locked up.
“She looks good, Mr. Harvey.” Charli stepped from the cattle stall where a cow with a loaded underside stood eating hay. “She’s healthy, and the baby’s growing well. I doubt she’ll miscarry this time.”
“Good. Pert near killed her last time,” the old man said. “Let’s get her in the trailer. I ain’t had lunch yet and it’s done past noon.” Charli’s stomach growled in response. He chuckled. “Soundin’ like you hadn’t either, young lady.”
She sighed. “It’s been a long day already for me.”
“Yap, one a those. Have me some of ’em sometimes, too.” He closed the trailer’s gate and headed for the truck cab.
“Tell Maureen thanks for the pie. Blackberry is my favorite.”
“Yap, that’s why she made it. Knew I was comin’ over. Call ya when she goes into labor.” She was sure he meant the cow and not Maureen going into labor. She waved as he drove away. She cleaned up, eager to get to the house.
She opened the kitchen door to the aroma of red meat and spices. “Yum. Something smells good.”
A deep growly voice greeted her. “It looks even better than it smells.” He swept her into his arms, apron wrapped around his waist. “And you smell good enough to eat. Again.”
Her face became burning hot. Barry laughed at her embarrassment. “You’re so cute when you’re mortified.”
She slapped him on the arm and pulled away. “Is this for lunch? Steaks? I’m starving.”
He picked up the platter with the meat and made a deep bow. “Your lunch will be ready momentarily, milady. How long are you home? Do you have to go back to the office today?”
She sighed, thinking back to Milkan granting her “vacation” time. “Actually, I’m off for a while. Well, until this situation with you and all the robberies is resolved.”
She should be worried about being placed on leave, but the reality was she wanted more time with Barry, to get to know him. Helping him and seeing where things went with them wouldn’t be a bad use of her time.
His brows lowered. “Wait. Are you suspended? Because of me?” He slammed the steaks on the center island, his face flooding red. “Those fucking bastards. They know you aren’t doing anything wrong. Is it because of me?” Anger, sorrow, and pain mixed in his eyes. He dropped his chin to his chest.
For a second, she stood rooted to the spot. Barry, her Barry, was angry for her. People never worried about Charli. They never cared if she was dealing with too much or the problems that came with her job. Not even her past boyfriends had bothered to ask about her animals. She loved that he cared about her, but she didn’t like that he felt it was his fault.
She put her arms around his waist. “It’s not because of you. Well, it is and it isn’t. It’s no big deal.” Charli licked her lips, debating whether to say what she was thinking. “Besides, it means you and I will be here together all day and night for a while.”
His head popped up, eyes twinkling. “I thought of that just as you said it. I love that you’re so horny, my love.” He cupped her ass cheek and pulled her against his growing hardness. “And I love that it’s all because of me.” Barry growled and set in on her neck with playful bites. She laughed and pushed away from his hold.
“Give me a break. I haven’t had sex in a long, long time. I have a lot of time to make up for.”
His grin widened. “I like the sound of that.”
“All right, Mr. Hound Dog.” She punched him in the arm. “I’m starving, so food comes first.” She handed the steaks to him.
“But I’m having my way with you right after.” He gave her a kiss and growled. “For an indeterminate amount of time.” She followed him to the back porch where the grill was already heating. Off to the side sat her square card-playing table with two folding chairs fitted with throw pillows from the living room sofa. On the table, a basket of bread sat covered, and a handful of beautiful wildflowers stood in a glass jar filled with pea gravel and water.
“Barry, this is wonderful. The flowers are great. How did you know to decorate with colorful pebbles? Most men wouldn’t have gone that far.”
He shrugged and laughed. “Oh, I don’t know. Figured I was a fancy designer before hitting my head.”
She giggled and sat on one of the pillow-cushioned chairs. “I doubt that.”
He set the plate with the steaks on the grill’s little side table, then scooped her up from the chair and swung her in circles toward a huge tree.
Settling her on her feet under the far-reaching limbs, his hungry lips took hers. Desire heated her lower stomach. She felt her wetness slip out of her pussy onto her panties. A deep rumble vibrated her chest, coming from the gorgeous man beside her.
He pressed her against his rock-hard cock. “Fuck, baby. You smell so damn good. Screw the steaks. I’ll eat you, one bite at a time, one lick at a time, until you come so hard on my face, you’ll see stars.” A shiver rolled through her body. She so wanted what he described. Hell, she was ready to throw down here on the ground.
Something hard, but light, fell on her head. She jerked back from Barry and looked up. “Tom, you have horrible timing.” A squirrel perched on a branch overhead chattered noisily.
Barry frowned. “Who’s Tom, and who are you talking to?”
Charli laughed and sat on the ground. “Are you jealous of a little squirrel?”
“Squirrel? You’re talking to— Wait, more importantly, is he talking back?” Down the tree trunk two critters raced around and around until jumping to the ground and hopping to her sitting position.
“Yes, they talk back, in a way. They don’t use their mouths like in the movies.” She tore off small chunks of bread she held, which she’d grabbed from the table while she’d been sitting there. The little pieces were handed to the animals. They took them right from her hands.
“How do you talk to them?” He gave her a curious look, not the you’re fucking whacko look she was used to.
She loved that he was genuinely interested in what she did. “I have to be in physical contact with them. Don’t know why. That’s just how it works. Then I hear words in my head or sometimes just pick up on feelings if the emotions are running high. It helps a lot when diagnosing illness and injuries.”
; “I’d say so. Just like a doctor asking the patient where it hurts.” He went over and lifted the grill lid and placed the steaks on the searing metal grid. “I see why you’re such a great veterinarian. You have insider trading secrets.”
A few songbirds hopped along the ground next to her. She put out bread crumbs for them. “I guess you could call it that.”
Barry set the plate and tongs next to the lid. “There is something I don’t understand.” He shifted his weight to his other foot. “Why would they start a unit with shifters and an animal whisperer here?”
She sighed and glanced at Barry’s curious gaze. He was such a sweetheart. So ready to talk to her about anything. She knew her job was boring, but he appeared genuinely interested. She couldn’t tell him how much she appreciated his making an effort to learn about her. “I asked the same question. Seems this area has the second-highest concentration of shifters and animal varieties of anywhere in the world.”
“What’s the first?” he asked.
She put more bread crumbs on the ground for the little critters she loved. “Shenandoah Valley, outside DC.”
“Why there? That seems like a strange place.”
A stillness came over the air suddenly. She glanced around her yard, trying to figure out what the cause was. “Don’t know. That’s what they told me.”
Barry raised his nose into the air, sniffed, and a growl came from him. He lowered into a crouch and bared his teeth. Charli was on her feet instantly. “What is it, Barry? What do you smell?” She knew only a few things would put a bear on alert. And those things were all very bad.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Barry’s growl scared her. It was deep, loud, and ferocious. She’d never heard a bear make that kind of sound before. Charli hurried from beneath the tree onto the back porch and looked around, searching for anything out of the ordinary. Movement in the distance caught her eye.
From the woods on the other side of the yard, a coyote trotted out. Barry’s snarl deepened. “Barry, no. It’s okay. He’s a friend. I helped him when he had a broken leg a while back. We talk occasionally.” In fact, she had helped scores of wildlife in the area. Everything from setting broken bones to nursing baby birds left motherless. That was an educational experience. She learned she hated chopping up worms to feed to squawking open beaks.
She hurried toward the coyote before she had a pissed-off bear to deal with. She went to a knee and took his muzzle in her hands. She picked up on his fear right away. Not much frightened a coyote in this part of the woods. Just bears and humans. Charli focused on the animal’s eyes, listening carefully.
Man.
What is the man doing? After a few seconds, she received images of dead animals with bleeding gunshot wounds. Was the human hunting? She wasn’t sure why that would bother the coyote. They usually ran from hunters, and that was that.
Then she received images of her house and clinic from someplace in the woods. Like the coyote was at the edge, staring at her from a long distance.
Gun.
Everything snapped together quickly. She sprang to her feet and ran toward the porch. “Barry, get down!” He looked at her with a puzzled expression. “Get down, now!”
He lifted the grill lid and was about to ask why, when a bullet tinged off the grill’s metal handle. “Shit!” He dove to the ground, a bit stunned. That shot would’ve killed him. Charli crawled across the porch. Another bullet splintered the railing in front of him, leaving a burst spindle. “Holy fuck!”
“Get behind the cooler, Barry. Keep something in front of you.” He immediately sprang behind the long blue Igloo to the grill’s side. She joined him, panting from her spent energy burst.
“What’s going on?”
“The coyote saw a hunter in the woods, but he was setting up with my property in his sights.” She slid on her stomach, careful to keep the cooler in front of her, to a metal container against the house that would normally hold garden tools and lawn stuff. She worked the combo lock, lifted the top enough to get her arm in, then pulled out her scope and rifle.
The grill’s lid squeaked as if someone was lifting it. She whipped her head around to see a hand with a pair of tongs slide through the narrow opening to the meat.
She whispered loudly. “What the hell are you doing? You’re gonna get shot.”
He flipped both pieces of red meat. “These steaks are too good to let burn. And I’m starving.” Another bullet ricocheted off the grill. His hands quickly disappeared, leaving the tongs lodged between the lid and side. Before she could reply about men and their grills, his hand snapped up and snatched out the tongs. A bullet sank into the house’s siding by her head. She ducked lower and pulled out a Glock from the box.
He looked at her, licking his fingers. Not appearing overly concerned they were being shot at. “The animal just told you about this?”
She army-crawled to the cooler and handed him the Glock. “Sorta. He was too keyed up to talk, mostly. I got mainly images of what he saw.”
“Did he show you a scene of the shooter’s face?”
She scowled. “No. Didn’t get that.”
“Have you pissed off any of your neighbors lately? Or made a cow sick?” There was humor in his voice. Was he losing his mind, finding this whole thing funny?
“I don’t make cows sick,” she huffed.
He chuckled. “Sorry. You look cute trying to dodge bullets.”
“Shut up and tell me what you hear with your supersonic ears.”
“Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Being a shifter can be cool.” His eyes closed and he held his breath. Charli stopped breathing, too. She heard nothing but the ringing in her ears from the bullets being shot at them. No squirrels, dogs, or crickets. Not even a breeze.
A flock of birds flew overhead, heading in the direction of the shooter. Charli hoped the shooter didn’t get it in his head to shoot at the massive group. They disappeared into the trees. Seconds later, a noise came from the woods. She hit Barry on the arm and mouthed, “What do you hear?”
Barry grinned. “It sounds like all those birds are dropping bowel bombs on him. He’s pissed as hell.”
Bowel bombs? “You mean they are all pooping on him?”
He laughed and nodded. She was flabbergasted. How did they know to do that? Then a thought hit her. Could there be bird shifters? That seemed unlikely. Why would Mother Nature create something like that? A shot fired, but she didn’t think it was at her and Barry. The birds scattered into the sky.
Charli aimed in the general direction of the shooter and sent out her own deadly gift. She didn’t expect to hit him, but she could at least warn him to not come closer.
She had readied for another shot when the air suddenly filled with the howl of wolves and coyotes. The chilling sound started on one side of the woods and flowed to the other, like the wave during the seventh-inning stretch. Charli shivered in spite of having no fear of the animals.
Barry’s hand touched her shoulder. “Wait. I hear a bunch of noise. Like the guy’s shuffling through the leaves. He’s going away, straight back.” He moved so his head was above the cooler. “What’s on the other side of the ridge directly ahead?”
“There’s a highway in that direction. It’s a national forest preserve, so there could be campsites, parking lots, trails somewhere.” So the shooter could be anyone from anywhere. Like the other morning. She sucked in a sharp breath. “Barry, do you think he could be the same person who shot at us yesterday when we were checking on the plastic container?”
He thought for moment. “Could be, but I don’t see how or why. If it was a local protecting his property, why would he be here? He couldn’t have followed us. You’d think he took his stuff since you said the container was gone. He has no reason to be here.”
He made good points. That idea was shot down. Who else would it be? And were they shooting at Barry only? Who would want him dead? Of course! Someone who knew his secret and didn’t want him remembering.
The firs
t coyote padded up to her and she put a hand on his neck to rub the soft fur. She focused on his eyes and one word came to her mind. Safe. She wondered if this coyote had gathered the wolves and others they heard wailing in the forest. That idea scared her, but calmed her also. If the critters in the area had her back, then she was much safer than she had ever thought.
“I think we’re okay, Barry. The animals are saying he left.”
He jumped straight up, tongs in hand. “Just in time. The steaks are done.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Devin slumped on his desk, staring intently at his computer monitor. There had to be clues in the bank security footage of who the female robber was and how she got in and out of the building. There was a logical answer. He just had to find it.
Russel passed his desk area, stopped, and leaned back to peek at his screen. “Hey, dude. Is that the naked lady—I mean, the perp at the bank robbery?”
Devin sat back in his chair and stretched. “Yeah, been staring at it for thirty minutes and haven’t seen squat.”
Russel got a big grin on his face. “If you want, I’ll take a look at her—I mean, the footage again and see what I see.”
Devin stood from his chair, shaking his head. “The director was so right about you being a walking harassment case.” He slapped a hand onto Russel’s shoulder as the man slid into the chair in front of the computer. “But no worries, man. I’ll be there to bail you out and laugh my ass off when Milkan chews you a new one.”
“Thanks, man. Nice to know you got my back there.” Sarcasm flowed in his words.
Devin leaned against the desk, watching Russel click Play on the footage. “Anytime. We’re a team. Speaking of which, aren’t you supposed to go to the police station about your case?”
“Was. Milkan called a little bit ago and said my beautiful Detective Gibbons wouldn’t be in the office since she was with him and Avers. Guess it’ll have to wait until next week. It’s pretty late already today.”
“What’s up with you and Gibbons? Are you always a horn dog for a pretty woman, or is she special?”
