LITMIR.BIZ

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Tha-dump.

      Biting back his annoyance, Bodie pulled to the side of the narrow, two-lane road. The sun had dipped lower than the mountaintops. All he wanted to do was get home, take a hot shower and crash for the next eight to ten hours.

      Last night, he’d barely slept. Every time his eyes closed, visions of Ronni’s soft-looking lips beckoned him for a kiss while her eyes pooled with depths of emotion he wanted to explore.

      I should’ve kissed her. Long and deep and possessively. Instead, he’d gone with a brush of lips against her cheek to leave her wanting more rather than being presumptuous.

      As he walked to the back passenger side of the truck his boots thudded against the gravel. No other sound carried. Right smack-dab in the middle of nowhere was the last place he wanted to be with a flat and no spare.

      Correction. He had a spare, but it happened to be in use, as the front left tire.

      Severe cutbacks in government spending had every department tightening their budgets. Approval of his request for a set of new wheels was buried somewhere in the pipeline.

      Bodie knelt to examine the flat. Nothing protruded from the outer side. His hopes that a simple patch would suffice died when he leaned underneath the vehicle and saw the metal sticking out of the interior sidewall.

      Sitting on the ground, he leaned against the vehicle. A few minutes ago, he’d passed the turn to the Brasstown Bald Visitors Center, but it was nearly five o’clock. By the time he hiked back to the turnoff and up the road toward the summit, anyone who might give him a ride into Maico would likely be gone.

      Although he was in excellent physical shape, at the moment, he didn’t have the energy to walk several miles of deserted road to get home.

      He could shift and fly, but then he’d have to abandon the vehicle, his uniform and his gun. Gathering his strength, he stood, then walked to driver’s side of the truck.

      Bodie reached inside the vehicle and grabbed his phone. Due to the escalating tensions, a call to his mother wasn’t ideal, but it was the only viable option.

      “Dammit!” No signal.

      He walked nearly fifty feet before the call went through.

      “Hi, Daddy.” Willow answered the phone and her sweet voice melted his heart. “Are you on your way home?”

      “I have a flat. I need Enisi to come get me.”

      Bodie heard footsteps, then a door opened and closed.

      “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Willow said. “She’s crankier than usual.”

      Bodie knew why. His mother didn’t exactly approve of him allowing Willow to meet up with Lucas and Alex at last night’s football game. Layla’s parents had felt the same when she was a teenager. As a result, she’d never learned how to relate to boys, or men, which caused significant difficulties in their brief marriage.

      Bodie was determined to raise his daughter differently.

      “Alex works at Wyatt’s Automotive Service,” Willow said. “Want the number?”

      “Yeah, give it to me.” Bodie had seen the place between Mabel’s Diner and The Stitchery. “Maybe I can catch someone before the place closes.” Bodie scribbled the number she gave him on the dashboard pad. After they said goodbye, he called the automotive shop.

      Silence greeted him after the ringing stopped.

      “Hello? Is this Wyatt’s Automotive?”

      “Who else would it be?” No sarcasm tainted the deep, quiet voice.

      “This is Bodie Gryffon. I’m out on 180 with a flat and no spare.”

      “Whereabouts on 180?”

      “A couple of miles northeast of the turnoff to Brasstown Bald Visitors Center.”

      “On my way.”

      The call disconnected.

      Bodie returned to the driver’s seat, cracked the passenger window and locked the doors. Since he was given no ETA, Bodie settled back for a nap.

      Tap, tap, tap.

      “Gryffon?”

      Bodie opened his eyes and looked at a copper-headed man wearing work coveralls standing beside the truck. His name, Rafe, was embroidered on the patch sewn on the upper left chest. His vivid blue eyes were just like Ronni’s and Alex’s. Neither physically favored the man otherwise, except Alex carried himself in a similar manner. Bodie figured they must be related.

      “Are you all right?” Rafe spoke low and soft, yet Bodie had no trouble hearing him.

      “Yeah.” He opened the door and climbed out. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

      The wolfan’s eyes slitted just a little. “I heard you were out with Ronni.”

      Bodie wasn’t the type to gossip so he didn’t respond.

      “She and Alex are family.” There was an edge of expectancy in Rafe’s tone.

      “Ronni and I ran into each other at Mabel’s a few days ago,” Bodie replied, figuring Rafe was asking out of concern, not simply being nosy. “She was kind enough to let me sit with her at the football game and we took the kids out for pizza afterward. Alex has been a good friend to my daughter. She hasn’t been so lucky in the past.”

      “Ronni has gone through a rough patch, too. She could use a good—” Rafe gave him a look that made Bodie feel as if he were standing on a precarious slope with oil-slick feet “—friend, too. Otherwise, leave her be.”

      Bodie gave a slight nod and Rafe seemed satisfied.

      “I checked your tires while you were sleeping. The thread is worn on all of them. The back right one can’t be fixed.”

      “I’ve requisitioned replacements, still waiting for approval.”

      Rafe hoisted the vehicle onto the tow truck. “Are you seeing Ronni again?”

      Bodie wanted to say that his plans with Ronni were no one’s business, but wolves were pack-oriented. Since Rafe was a male relative, it was very likely that Ronni’s personal life was very much his business.

      “If she accepts my invitation,” Bodie answered honestly.

      If Rafe objected, he remained silent on the subject. He hopped into the tow truck and Bodie slid into the passenger seat.

      A mile or so down the road, Rafe spoke again. “Do you work up at the Bald?”

      “No, I was out at the WMA checking permits and fishing licenses.” And scoping out if any of the campers matched the poachers’ basic descriptions of three men in a truck. Yeah, that was searching for a needle in a haystack.

      “Work alone a lot?” Rafe asked.

      “Yep, unless I’m on a coordinated assignment.”

      “You might want to check in and out with someone local. Cell phones don’t always work in these parts,” Rafe said. “One day, you might need more than a tow.”

      Tristan had suggested the same when they’d met for lunch yesterday, but Bodie had been a game warden since before Willow was born. Working alone was part of the job. “I can handle myself.”

      “We all think that,” Rafe said. “Until the moment comes when we can’t.”

      More than capable of taking care of himself, Bodie worried less about working alone than he did about a summons from the Tribunal, which came without warning and usually things did not end well for the one summoned.

      If his plan with Ronni worked out, at least Bodie would have an entire wolf pack to guard his back, if and when that moment came.

      * * *

      “We

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