Page 49 of Talk Birdie to Me

Now she felt terrible. She’d been so proud of herself for figuring out the sheet over the cage to quiet him down, but could that have made him ill somehow?

“No, no. Everything you’re doing is great.” Cody stared at Gary, who was preening his feathers. “I’m the one who messed up. I shouldn’t have brought him here.”

“I mean, I have to admit, I was pretty put out by you showing up with him. But it’s fine now. He’s not nearly as much trouble as I thought he’d be.”

In fact, Geena had grown to like having Gary around. He was a better roommate than her soon-to-be ex-husband was.

She was still working on forgiving herself for getting together with the jerk in the first place. Having Gary to care for gave her a nice distraction from beating herself up about making such a horrible life choice.

“It’s not that.” Cody brought his attention back to her. “I’m worried about bringing more than Gary to your doorstep. I’m afraid I might have put you at risk, too.”

Geena’s heart rate kicked up several notches at the mention of danger. “I thought you said there was no paper trail? That there was no way anyone would know he was here?”

“I was talking about what happened with a coworker,” he said. “We both realized that someone had to know Gary was in that room. That it wasn’t someone stumbling on him in there.”

“I was wondering about that, too,” Geena said. “Like, why steal a bird if they were looking for animals to sell? Wouldn’t they want something easier to steal? Like a much quieter spider?”

“Right. And if Gary was the target, they knew exactly where to find him. Which means?—”

“They had inside information.”

Cody let out a small laugh. “When you say it like that, it sounds like a prison break.”

“Kind of.” Geena assessed all the information they knew so far. It did sound an awful lot like someone wanted him specifically. “And you’re sure it wasn’t his previous owner?”

“We’re not sure of anything,” Cody said. “The owner is in jail, but he could have sent someone to reclaim Gary. I don’t know why, though. It would be a long time before they’d be reunited. Why not steal him back later, after the guy got out of prison?”

“It doesn’t make any sense.” Geena’s brain wrapped around the one thing that did make sense. “So you think someone at the zoo tipped off another person about where to find Gary?”

“That’s the idea.”

“And it didn’t occur to you that someone could have followed you here tonight?”

Cody rubbed his hands over his face. “Shit.”

“Shit stain!”

Geena frowned. “What Gary said.”

She stacked their plates and carried them in a huff to the kitchen. She had completely bought his convincing act on Friday night that she and Gary were safe. Now, that turned out not to be the case.

But what could she do? She couldn’t make him take Gary back to the zoo. He was definitely in danger there. Here, at least, she could protect him. Sort of.

Cody joined her in the kitchen with the endless supply of leftovers from all the food he’d brought and placed them on the counter beside the sink.

“Okay. I screwed up,” he said. “So I need to make it right.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

“I’m staying here tonight.”

Geena couldn’t hide her shock. She reined it in just enough to stammer, “No way. Uh-uh. That is not a solution.”

“Sure it is,” he said. “It’s not ideal, and you don’t have to like it, but it is a solution. The only one at the moment.”

Of all the ridiculous things that had happened over the last several days, this suggestion fell at the top of the list.

“No.” She shook her head and grabbed the containers to shove them in the fridge. “Absolutely not.”

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