“You okay?” asked Avery.
Cutter was leaning against his car, yawning so wide he looked like he was about to pounce and devour her whole.
“Tired. Spent the night watching Murphy. Boring.”
“You took that shift?”
Cutter stretched and rolled his shoulders. “Yeah, Wayne asked me to cover – he had some tip or something. Maybe a date. I wasn’t listening.”
“What about Lucie?”
“She suggested it.”
“Huh.”
“Said I should keep busy. Waiting for the baby to come is fucking torture – do not tell Lucie I swore.” He gave her a warning glare.
Avery smiled. Lucie didn’t approve of swearing, and Cutter didn’t approve of upsetting Lucie. So every f-word became fudging, and the b-word became horse pucky and so on and so forth.
“How is she doing? We’ve texted, but I haven’t had the chance to see her.”
His face softened. “You know Lucie; she’s the most patient and optimistic person on the planet.”
“Yeah.” She’d have to be to put up with Cutter thought her beast.
“She can’t wait for the pup to arrive but she says she’s enjoying being pregnant.”
Avery smiled thinking of his hedgehog shifter mate. Then her thoughts turned to the elephant. “You see Alfie last night?”
“No,” he growled.
“Hmmm, perhaps we should be watching him rather than Murphy,” she murmured thoughtfully.
“Gerry tried to send someone to follow him last night, and he lost them.”
Avery patted her cheek self-consciously. “Yeah, he’s good at that.”
They both watched as Wayne staggered towards the building, looking extremely worse for wear. He looked like he’d been swimming in sewage and yep, he smelled like it too.
“Good night?” smirked Cutter.
“No,” hissed Wayne.
“Aw, Wayne, you smell like sewage,” said Avery wishing she had a peg for her nose. “What on earth have you been doing?”
“Bad date?” taunted Cutter. “Or have you just been for a swim in the swamp?”
Wayne scowled. “No. I got a tip that there was a new shifter fight club going on.”
They both stood up a little straighter – this was interesting. Mocking Wayne would have to wait. They’d just circle back to it later.
“Really? What do you know? What have you heard? What’s going on?”
“Settle down,” groused Wayne. He put his hand in his pocket and grimaced as he clearly found something gross in there.
“Well?” demanded Cutter impatiently.
“All I got from my informant was that he overheard some people talking about a new fight club, and he gave me an address. My tip led me to sewerage plant, and the only fight was between me and all the rats who just wanted to eat my boots.”
A while ago there had been a big network of underground shifter fight clubs – where the fighters were kidnapped shifters, who had to fight it out in the ring until they died. It was brutal and awful and their uber boss Juliet was the one who broke it apart. Sadly not everyone involved was punished – there were rumors that Murphy had been involved, but they could never make anything stick.
“You think this is Murphy again? Think this is what he’s up to?”
They had been waiting to see what he would do for over a year, but so far he had been surprisingly quiet.
Wayne glowered. “All I know is that I need a shower.”
They watched Wayne trudge into the building.
“So what are we doing?” said Cutter
“Don’t you want to go home and get some sleep?”
“I’ll sleep when the baby comes.”
Avery chuckled. “It’s adorable that you think that.”
His face hardened. “What couldn’t wait until Monday?”
“I want to talk to Alfie – I have it on good authority that he’s been kidnapping homeless people, and honestly, I didn’t fancy facing him alone.”
Cutter cracked his knuckles. “Sure.”
*
Winston scowled at Howie. Did the guy really have nowhere better to be than his store all day long?
“This is yours,” growled Winston and tossed Howie’s tasteless gift back to him.
Though, he still wasn’t sure how tasteless it was. Avery had absolutely forbade him from looking in the box. He had a good idea though. His mom had once hosted an adult toy party thinking they were going to be selling things like Monopoly. Boy was she surprised.
Howie looked at the box and frowned.
“By the way, Avery wants to kill you,” added Winston.
She wasn’t the only one. His wolf wanted to take a nice big chunk out of the jackass for trying to steal his female away from him.
“How did you get this?” asked Howie.
“How do you think?” he asked pointedly while waggling his eyebrows.
By spending the night having sex with her over and over is what his wolf wanted to say, but Winston was far too much of a gentleman so he was trying to communicate it through eyebrow movements. It didn’t seem to be working.
Howie considered the matter before realization finally dawned. “She came by the store looking for me and had to give it to you instead.”
Howie nodded triumphantly – this was clearly the only option that made sense. Obviously there was no chance that Avery could have wanted to spend time with Winston – oh no!
“Stop sending her things – seriously,” Winston told him in his sternest voice.
“Why not? I’m wooing her.”
Howie looked so pleased with himself. Winston could feel the fur starting to push through his skin, could sense his beast desperate to get out and maul him.
“You are not wooing her, you are creeping her out. She is not interested.”
He smirked. “She will be.”
“She won’t be, because…”
Winston was dismayed when Tara bustled through the door.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, heart sinking.
Tara gave him the frightened bunny look. “Your mother said I should come.”
“Well, we don’t need your help.”
Again, he used his stern voice. Again, it did not work.
Tara ignored him and started taking her coat off.
“Tara!” he snarled.
“Actually,” piped up Seymour, “we could do with some help arranging the new stock.”
Tara smiled shyly. “That’s settled then.”
She started making her way to the stockroom.
“Tara, no, don’t go back there!”
Jeez Louise! Was it just him or was he surrounded by looneys?!
*
They found Alfie and Murphy at a bar – they weren’t hard to find, they went there every Saturday, and they confirmed where Alfie was with a short call to Moose who was on surveillance duty again.
It was the one business Murphy still owned – legitimately at least. They had no idea what other pies he may have his hooves in.
Murphy snorted when he saw them. “Tired of watching me from afar.”
Yeah, it perhaps wasn’t a surprise he knew they were watching him.
Alfie lumbered to his feet and sneered at Cutter.
Murphy took a long drag on his cigar, a sip of his whiskey – clearly, he was starting early – and leaned back in his seat. “Well, go ahead - ask me anything.”
Cutter squared off against Alfie and inhaled the smoke scent of the bar.
“Not here for you, Murphy,” grumbled Cutter.
“Alfie, where were you two nights ago?” asked Avery.
The elephant was silent in surprise. Though honestly, it took him time to ever come up with a response when asked a direct question.
Tom flickered for a moment. “He was out running an errand for me.”
Avery arched an eyebrow. “Really? What were you doing?”
Alfie shrugged.
“He was picking up my prescription,” replied Murphy. He thumped his huge chest. “Dicky ticker, you know.”
“Any witnesses?”
“I’m sure some can be found,” rumbled Tom. “Why? You got a witness that says otherwise?”
Avery gave him a charming smile. None she was willing to admit to a guy who had allegedly killed about thirty witnesses to keep himself out of trouble over the years.
“Which pharmacy?”
“Can’t remember,” rumbled Alfie finally picking up on what was happening.
Murphy gave Cutter a calculating look. “How’s that little hedgehog shifter you’re mated to? Little curvy thing. Nice rack. Big round behind.”
Avery and her lioness sighed as Cutter howled. Guess they were done with the questions.
She watched as Cutter did what he always did – blow up over nothing. But while she tried to break up the inevitable fight, something familiar tingled in the back of her mind. But what was it?
*
Aimee sifted through the SEA application form. Jeez, it was damn long. It was a wonder they weren’t asking shoe size or even bra size!
She put it down and considered maybe a nice, relaxing bath was what she needed. She and her lioness were tense from worrying about her mother. Ordinary mothers would be pleased with their daughter wanting to join the SEA, but not hers. No, hers was a total psycho.
Aimee wandered into the bathroom and froze at the six-foot-five mountain of naked muscle that met her eyes.
“Aimee!” growled Wayne.
“I’m sorry, I…”
She wanted to look away but she just couldn’t. Of course, she’d seen naked men before – the males of her old pride had no shame, but seeing Wayne naked was altogether quite different.
Wayne scrabbled for a towel and hastily wrapped it around himself. It happened to be a hand towel and didn’t really cover all that much.
His face twisted in a fury. “Aimee, for fucks sake! You shouldn’t come in here while I’m in here. You should knock first.”
Aimee shrank a little from the rebuke, and then her lioness grumbled. “Well, you should lock the door. I’m not a mindreader – I thought you were still in bed.”
Wayne scowled. “Fine, okay, I’m sorry.”
“I don’t suppose now is a good time to ask…”
“Aimee!”
“Okay, okay!”
He slammed the door behind her and Aimee let out a quavering breath. She fanned her heated face. Goodness, that was an image that was going to keep her warm at night!