Perfect Tales of the Were - Bianca D'Arc Page 0,16
a ride that he’d picked up and helped, like the injured animals he nursed back to health in the empty stalls of one of the big barns. His compassion for anything injured was the topic of a lot of jokes around the ranch, but he didn’t stop taking in any little thing that was hurt. He’d probably done the same for the battered woman, and had his reputation suffer for it.
By the third day of their stand-off, Cassandra’s temper had cooled enough for remorse to set in. She shouldn’t have doubted Cody. He was a good man. She knew that and trusted him to treat her well. Maybe he wasn’t the gentlest lover she’d ever had, but he was certainly the best.
The things he’d done to her that night they’d spent together had resulted in the greatest pleasure she’d ever known, and she hadn’t suffered any injuries. In fact, he’d been very careful to be sure she wouldn’t bruise from the scarf he tied around her wrists. He’d also asked more than once about her comfort. Those weren’t the acts of an abuser.
She’d panicked and accused him falsely, but what could she do about it now? He was avoiding her like the plague. When she went outside with trays of treats for testing, he was conspicuous by his absence. More than once, Rich’s eyebrows had risen as Cody went off in the other direction when she came outside.
She had to talk to him. She had to apologize. But getting him alone would be difficult, so she devised a plan to ambush him.
*
Shane had gotten back to Cody with the results of the background checks the day after their meeting, and they’d been able to eliminate the men on the carpentry crew from their suspect list. Three of the ranch hands remained active possibilities, but Cody personally thought Jones and Pepe were the likely pair who had set the scene on the back forty.
The duo were thick as thieves, as the saying went, and they’d been acting weird the past few days. Cody remembered seeing them whispering together more than once, and since he’d been watching them even more closely, he’d noted some other strange behavior.
Cody had come upon them in the barn that evening as the ranch was settling down for the night. They were loitering in one of the stalls, and Cody could hear—with his superior werewolf hearing—them mention the full moon and start to laugh. The laughter had a sort of evil flavor to it, as if they were plotting something. Though, that could just have been Cody’s imagination.
He really needed proof before he could act against the men. The last thing he wanted to do was get it wrong and send whoever was truly responsible into deeper cover.
But that full moon comment gave Cody a little breathing room. If they were planning to do something on the night of the full moon, that was still two days away. Cody would be ready.
The next morning, Cody knew he had the right duo. Cody could hear them talking from his room, listening through the door to the low-voiced conversation between Pepe and Jones. The way the bunkhouse had been designed, all the bedrooms and suites opened onto the great room in the center, which housed the kitchen, dining and living room areas.
It was very early, and the two hands were probably sitting in front of the big screen TV that was just to the left of Cody’s door. Cody knew they all liked to watch the weather report before they headed out, and for some reason, these two were up extra early today, before the others.
Normal people, without his enhanced senses, wouldn’t have been able to hear much of anything inside the insulated bedroom, but Cody was different. He could clearly hear almost everything that took place in the great room, even when people were trying to keep quiet out of respect for the others. Like, right now, he could hear everything Pepe and Jones were saying, even though they were trying to speak as quietly as possible. The full moon was mentioned again, but this time, Pepe said something about trapping and shifters, and Cody suddenly realized what the duo had in mind.
“We’ll go out and set the trap tonight so it’s ready for tomorrow night. Won’t have time during the day tomorrow,” Pepe had said, then chuckled evilly. “Them shifters won’t know what hit ‘em.”
“We bag us one of those, and that bounty money will set us