Chapter 20
20
G eena exited the bathroom wearing her pajamas and fuzzy socks just as Cody emerged from his closet. He carried a spare pillow in one hand and a lightweight fleece blanket covered with dancing pandas in the other.
He smiled when he saw her and pointed at the llamas on her pants. “Good to see those again.”
Geena nodded at the blanket draped over his arm. “Don’t judge.”
“No judgment,” he said. “I genuinely think they’re great.”
Geena believed him, and her self-conscious thoughts faded into the background. There were many more things to worry about than what Cody thought of her pajamas.
“I really am fine with sleeping on the couch,” she said. “I don’t feel comfortable taking your bed.”
“Absolutely not. You’re taking the bed, and that’s the end of that.”
Geena could tell she wouldn’t win this battle. Part of her bristled at the chivalrous nature of the order, but her gut was telling her that this wasn’t about chivalry or chauvinistic demands. Ricky had been chivalrous, at least in the beginning. But chivalry masked the rotting stink of his personality. It was nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Cody, though, seemed to genuinely want her to be comfortable.
She wasn’t sure if that terrified her more or less than chivalry.
“Thanks,” she said. “For everything. I would have been fine at home, but I appreciate this.”
“You and I both know you would not have been fine there.” Cody gave her a hesitant grin. “Thanks for letting me take care of you.”
A warm sensation traveled up Geena’s spine and settled in her chest. She couldn’t remember anyone ever going to such lengths to care about her. And Cody had been doing exactly that almost since the moment they met.
She’d misjudged him in the beginning, and his quick exit from their date was also him trying to take care of her. Or at least not hurt her. Once he realized they weren’t compatible, he’d stepped back and let things end.
But Gary changed that plan.
Gary.
That pit in her stomach opened up again and filled with shame.
She couldn’t think of a single thing she could have done to prevent his capture, except maybe have been home when the thief took him. But what could she have done besides put herself in danger?
She could have at least tried to stop them.
Geena would never forgive herself if they didn’t find Gary. He wasn’t just her responsibility. She’d grown to enjoy his company and cared for him. Genuinely. She already missed his little noises. And his big profane noises, too.
“I miss him already.” She wiped at a tear forming in the corner of her eye. “It’s not just guilt. I really miss that bird.”
Cody put the pillow and blanket down on the edge of the bed and wrapped her in his arms. He pulled her head onto his shoulder and rubbed her back.
“I know,” he said. “We’ll find him. I promise.”
She sniffled against his shoulder and relaxed into his arms. “You can’t promise that.”
She appreciated the assurance, but it didn’t change the fact that Gary was missing and they had absolutely no idea who might have taken him.
No one knew he’d been living at her place. Especially no one she could imagine doing such a thing.
But there was one person who had no moral compass and valued money over anything. Someone who’d heard the bird in the background and recognized its vocabulary from calls with his client.
Cody was right about one thing, even if he couldn’t promise they’d find Gary. He was right that there was nothing they could do about any of this tonight.
Tomorrow, however, was a different matter.
Cody rubbed her back and kissed the side of her head. Both were such small gestures of care and comfort, and Geena didn’t realize how deprived she’d been of such kindness.
“We’ll do our best,” Cody said. “We’ll do everything we can to find him. How about that?”
Geena pulled away just far enough to look him in the eye and nod. “I like that. Thank you.”
Cody brought up both hands and cradled her face in his palms, rubbing a thumb along her cheek. That now familiar heat rose inside Geena again, this time making its way to her face.
But she wasn’t worried about him seeing that flush. Part of her wanted him to see it.
When he kissed her, she relaxed against him, feeling safe and desired. Both feelings she hadn’t experienced in a very long time.
Their kiss became more heated, so she reached up to grab his hands and pulled her face back just a few inches.
“I’d better get some sleep,” she said. “Work in the morning, and I’m already exhausted. Tired eyes aren’t good for number-crunching.”
Or an interrogation.
He gave her one more quick, gentle kiss, then grinned like a cat on the verge of at last swallowing a canary.
“Yes. Sleep,” he said. “I’ll take a rain check on the rest of that kiss.”
C ody stood near a crowd of visitors who had gathered for the giraffe feeding session. He handed out dry feed for people to give to the mama giraffe and pet her over the railing, while Cody gave a presentation providing information on giraffe behavior, needs, and growth. There was a larger than normal group that Monday morning, all eager to see the new baby, Jelly Bean, that had been born on Easter just a couple of months ago.
Even though he wasn’t hungry, Cody was eager to relax a moment in the meal prep room. He had a brief break between that presentation and his check of the reptile exhibits before his snake encounter presentation scheduled in a couple of hours.
The meal prep room was a welcome blast of cool air after the heat and humidity that hung heavy over Cody and the visitors. The room was also quiet now since the Amazon parrot, whose vocabulary he’d rehabbed, was back in the aviary.
Lauren sat at the large table with a peanut butter sandwich. “What’s eating at you? Did you get another hit on your applications?”
There was an email waiting for him since the night before, but he hadn’t spared much thought about that. He certainly hadn’t opened it yet.
“Yes. But no, that’s not it.” Cody had been avoiding Lauren all morning, and he couldn’t put off this conversation any longer. “I don’t know how to not say this like an asshole.”
Lauren frowned at him. “Just spit it out, and let’s get on with whatever this is.”
He’d only slept a few short hours on his couch, as he struggled not to think about Geena in his bed.
And the other thing occupying his thoughts.
“I need you to tell me if you know anything about Gary getting taken last night.”
Lauren flinched. “Wait, someone took Gary?” She blinked hard at him, then her eyes flashed with recognition. “And you think I had something to do with it?”
The words were weighted with shock and hurt.
“I’m not judging,” he rushed to add. “I know you wouldn’t take him to sell or anything like that. But maybe you arranged to get him back with his owner? I can understand if he promised you something. We all know this job pays for shit.”
Lauren was still blinking at him, completely in shock. “You think… I… took Gary.”
“I don’t know. Maybe you arranged for someone else to take him. I just need to know.”
“I can’t believe this.” Lauren shook her head. “I thought we were friends. Or whatever passes for friends with you.”
That stung a little. But his friend-retention failings weren’t the issue right now.
“You’re the only one who knew where I brought Gary. And I told you about our date, so you knew Geena wouldn’t be home at that time.”
“Cody, this is insane.” Her lip curled into a snarl. “And pretty freaking offensive.”
“Plus, you were with me when I bought that security camera. You would know exactly how to tamper with it.”
Her stare was hard and icy. “And you think I’m the one who did all of that?”
“I just need to know if you are. I can’t fix it if I don’t know what happened.”
“No, Cody.” She blew out a short burst of air, and her voice lowered even more until it almost sounded like a growl. “I didn’t steal Gary.”
Cody’s shoulders relaxed. She was right. They were friends. At least close enough that he believed she wasn’t lying right now.
“I’m sorry.” He shook his head. “I didn’t want to think you did it, but with all the circumstances lined up, I had to ask.”
“Did you?” Lauren scoffed and looked away from Cody, clearly disgusted with him. When she looked back, she asked, “Is Geena okay?”
“Okay as she can be,” Cody said. “After the police left, I brought her home to stay at my place.”
He’d felt so terrible about the whole thing. Knowing there was no way for him to ease her sense of guilt was killing him. Hearing that she’d grown to really care for Gary just made the whole thing worse.
But that kiss.
That kiss had been the one good thing about last night. He couldn’t wait to cash in that rain check for more.
Lauren narrowed her eyes. “I’m too angry with you to address your romantic situation right now.”
“I get it.” He raised his hands in defense. “It was a shit thing to assume. I’m sorry.”
“I know you just want to find Gary.” She took a deep breath, and her next few words came out ragged. “I just thought we were closer than this.”
“We are,” he insisted. “If I didn’t consider you a friend, I wouldn’t have asked you outright. I would have thrown your name to the cops or gotten more evidence behind your back. I respect you enough to come to you directly.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Her tone was back to normal, and her words seemed lighter. “I’m still mad, though.”
“Fair enough.”
“So, who else could have taken him? And why?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “A payday, maybe?”
“That’s a lot of work to sell a bird. And a loud one at that.”
Cody agreed. It didn’t make sense. Sure, Gary was worth something, but enough to go through all of that trouble?
“His previous owner?”
Lauren shrugged. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Even if it doesn’t completely make sense.”
Anthony Montesano was the name Cody kept coming back to. But once again, he was left with the question of why.
“Sentimental reasons?” Cody stared at the empty cage that had once held Gary in this very room. “But as far as I know, he never even contacted the zoo to get Gary released to a relative or business partner or anyone.”
There was a chance he had made a call to the zoo’s curator that Cody never heard about. But the police interviewed him after the zoo break-in, and if there had been a call, the curator would have mentioned it then.
Lauren cringed slightly. “Maybe no one he knew wanted to take care of Gary?”
“That’s why Gary came here in the first place,” Cody said. “But maybe that changed? Maybe he found someone to take care of the bird after all?”
Lauren nodded, then scrunched her face. “But then he would have at least tried to get Gary back through normal channels. You’re right. He would have at least called and tried to get him back easily before staging two bird heists.”
Bird heists. Cody couldn’t believe “bird heist” was a normal part of their conversational vocabulary now.
“There’s only one way to really find out,” he said.
Lauren eyed him suspiciously. “I don’t like the sound of that. I’m still mad at you, but that doesn’t mean I want you running off to get yourself killed.”
“No one’s getting killed.”
The more he thought about this impromptu plan, however, the more he questioned the truth of that statement.