Page 31 of Destined Predator
Casey burned white-hot with rage. Someone knew about them and was threatening to expose them? The thought that someone was spying on them had his coywolf pacing inside him, wanting to deal with whoever had been there the other night, spying on them, hostile to them. Another shifter? Or had these photos been taken from a distance, with a long lens, as if the Akers were celebrities, being papped? Casey had no idea and being in the dark made him angry. He charged back inside.
“What thefuckis going on? Yeah, I’m cussin’.” Casey threw the envelope and its contents onto the desk in the office for his brothers to see. “No, I don’t know any more than you do. But…you said Rhett’s ex is back?”
“Olivia.” Ben nodded. “Jack liked her. He said all the hands liked her, that she was okay. But that’s not all. I heard she was atthe bar last night…and asking a lot of questions about Rhett, and you.”
“She wants him back and she’s trying to split you two up!” Emil exclaimed.
Casey had been thinking it, but hearing it said out loud made it seem ludicrous.
“Yeah, bro? Ya gotta stop watching the soaps,” Robin said, looking pained.
What was Rhett doing? Casey tried toseehim, and an image hit him, like a wave strong enough to knock him off his feet. Rhett was at the ranch, but not lying in bed, resting, feeling bad because he was away from his destined mate. No, he was out and about with Jack and with two other guys.Strangers, was all the impression Casey got. That and more unease. He wasn’t picking that up from Rhett, but rather reading the vibesforhim, in a way a non-shifter couldn’t, Casey guessed.
“Something’s going down.”
The expressions on his brothers’ faces made him understand he’d spoken out loud. “We have to get out to the Double T.”
“We?” Ben looked at their two younger brothers.
“Yeah. All of us.” He didn’t want them here at the autoshop, sitting coywolves, without him. “What’s going on concerns us.” Which reminded him to send a quick text to his sisters, warning them to be extra cautious, to stay around other people as much as they could, to not get caught alone and to come home together, or wait for one of their brothers if they felt uneasy. Anne sent a message back right away, but he ignored it.No time.“Come on, guys.”
He helped Ben lock up, and they traveled together, in Ben’s car, not speaking much on the journey. Casey kept a sharp look out, without, he hoped alarming the others. Should he shift, check out the terrain that way? It would be a lot easier to defend his family in coywolf form. No—that could be exactly whatwhoever they were wanted him to do. All he knew was he had to get to Rhett.
In front of the ranch house, Ben nudged him and jerked his chin at the big expensive SUV parked there.
“You can tell me I watch too much TV,” Emil said.
“You watch too much TV,” Robin muttered.
“But that looks official.”
It felt official too, when Casey jumped out of the car and took a look at it. Too clean for cow country. Windows like sunglasses. Government plain trying to look just plain.
Ben exclaimed, drawing Casey’s attention. “Oh, yeah. Jack mentioned something about friends of his from New York, who work for magazines or something, coming here. They’re photographers or features writers.”
Casey scoffed, jerking his thumb at the spotless, featureless Tahoe. “That feel like photographers or writers to you, kid?”
“Or they were researchers, I think?” Ben tried.
“Vehicle that big, seems they’re planning on staying in the area.” At least, that was the feeling Casey got, and he was planning to find out. “Ben, reckon you could get this door unlocked?” he asked his brother.
“I might be able to, if…”
Casey looked up at Ben’s nudge and where he was pointing.
“If there weren’t a couple of ranch hands converging on us,” Ben finished.
“Good point.” Casey waited for Ben to greet them. Of course—with spending time here, he must know them, at least to say hi to. “Okay if we call in?” Casey asked the two men. Not waiting for an answer, he strode for the house. Inside, he followed Ben into the living room, where Rhett and Jack were sitting with two other men.
“Casey?” Rhett sprang up from his chair, and Casey met him halfway across the room.
He immediately felt better for being close to Rhett, and hoped Rhett felt the same, now he was here. Rhett looked a little pale. “You okay?”
Rhett shrugged, his eyes asking questions about what had happened between them. They had so much to discuss about that, what it proved, and what Rhett had to admit, but not right now. Casey turned to see who the visitors were.
Both guys, in their early thirties, maybe, one blue-eyed blond and one brown-eyed Latino. They were in good shape, fit and strong, yet unremarkable-seeming with bland, tidy haircuts. Their expressions were guarded, not giving much away, yet their posture told of their alert readiness.
“I thought photographers would be all arty-looking,” Casey said. “At the very least, wear black polo necks.”And have cameras.Ben had said they could be writers, and, sure enough, one had a small black notebook and the other a digital recorder. Again, it struck Casey as more official than creative.
