Chapter 24
Jack
The “two old guys” were Mr. Henry and Mr. Albert, and I wondered why they were here.
“This day just gets better and better,” Susan said, squaring her shoulders. “Okay. Alejandro, come with me. Jack, you come, too, but hang back. I don’t want to add fuel to the Truckmans’ fire, but we may need backup. Lizzie, you stay here with Brenda.”
Lizzie stood a little straighter. “I’ll protect her with my life.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Susan said dryly.
When we got outside, a sizeable crowd of Truckmans stood in the parking lot yelling. Most of it was indecipherable, but a few phrases stood out, like:
“You Dead Enders kidnapped Ace and Probie so you could win the softball game!”
“Get Brenda out here, so we can make her tell us what she knows!”
And the one that destroyed my last ounce of patience:
“I bet this is Tess Callahan’s fault! She was rude to them at her shop!”
I didn’t wait to be asked. I just shifted. One moment, the Truckmans were yelling at a sheriff, a fed, and a private investigator. The next moment, they were facing two humans and a five-hundred-pound Bengal tiger.
And the tiger was angry.
I stalked across the sidewalk toward Mutt and his family, stopped right in front of Mutt, and then I bared my fangs and roared.
The Truckmans, never the bravest of people, all raced back to their trucks and drove off. A few of the boldest yelled insults out their windows.
I sat down and yawned.
“Nice one,” Susan said, slowly clapping. “Maybe next time, wait for me to handle the situation?”
I opened my mouth and let my tongue loll out, the tiger version of laughing.
Susan shook her head and grinned. “Fine, fine. It worked.”
She turned to Mr. Henry and Mr. Albert, who’d faded back to lean against the building when we came out. “What can I do for you, gentlemen?”
Mr. Henry (or Mr. Albert; I confess I had trouble telling them apart) spoke up. “We need to resolve this, so the game can go on.”
“What?” From behind me, Alejandro’s shocked voice rang out.
I shifted back to human—unlike some shifters, the magic of my shift pulled my clothes back with it, so I was fully dressed—and strode over to where he stood on the sidewalk clutching his phone.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s Rose. The babies.” He froze, and I grabbed his shoulders.
“Alejandro! What about the babies?”
“They’re coming. Now.”