“How should I know?I broke it off with Timothy months ago, but nothing I said worked.He wouldn’t take no for an answer.I left Orlando to get away from him.He followed me to New Orleans, then here.”Lacy folded her arms.“I keep getting restraining orders to keep him away from me, but he ignores them.So who are you exactly?”
“Canton Wrangler.Timothy called me and said he followed you here, that some guy was making the moves on you.”
Great.So this guy knew they had been there for sure.
“That would be me,” Rory said, moving next to Lacy and taking her hand and squeezing it.“We’re marrying soon.”
If human customers hadn’t been there enjoying a bite of food, Florence figured Rory would have said he was mated to Lacy.
“So where are my brothers?”Canton asked.
“How would I know?”Lacy asked.“They never came to the coffee shop.This is where I’m working now.I’m staying at a horse ranch.They never went there either.”
Florence was glad that they hadn’t come here, or Canton would be able to smell that the brothers, or at least one of them, had been there.
“You can file a missing persons’ report at the office.I’ll lead you there,” Dan said to Canton.
“I want to talk further with her.”Canton jerked a thumb at Lacy.
“She said she hasn’t seen them.”Dan’s voice was much sterner now.
The other customers took that as a cue to finish their meals and leave the shop.
“I think she has seen them.”
“Did they tell you that?”Dan asked.
“No.I lost contact with them, maybe because of the blizzard.Timothy only told me he had found her in Yuma Town, Colorado.”
“A lot of people were stranded due to the storm,” Dan agreed.
Though Dan had never said that anyone had been, so Florence thought he was making that up.The cougars living in Yuma Town and beyond had had fair warning and had probably stayed put when the storm hit, unless they were strictly humans and had been caught up in the blizzard.
15
Rarely did humans or cougars have identical triplets.Lacy couldn’t believe there was another brother who was the spitting image of Timothy and Manning.Canton wasn’t listed as one of the PIs at the agency Timothy and Manning had been at.She wondered what he worked at.
Canton didn’t seem to buy Dan’s story.Maybe because he realized most of the people that he was meeting in Yuma Town were all cougars, and they could be protecting her.
She couldn’t help that her heart was pounding like crazy, and she felt sick to her stomach.She had thought this business with Timothy and Manning was over.But she loved that Rory was standing by her side, comforting her and offering his support.
Dan said, “Your brothers were stalking Lacy.She came here trying to get away from them.We’ll be glad to look for your missing brothers, but don't bother Lacy about this.She has already told you she hasn’t seen them.”
“All right.”Canton gave Lacy a dirty look, as if she were the one responsible for all this.
Then he followed Dan out of the shop, and Lacy breathed a sigh of relief.Rory hugged and kissed her.“If he tries to harass you at the ranch or anywhere, he’ll meet the same end as his brothers.”
She hugged him back, glad that he was her mate.
Lacy and Florence continued to make food for the customers while Rory and Frank delivered meals to the tables.They seemed to be all right with working at the coffee shop.She was surprised they were so busy, but suspected it was because everyone had been stuck at home for so long.
They had lunch there, and then when they were done at the end of the day, they headed to Florence’s house to drop off Frank and Florence.They left off the snowblower.They didn’t have any bags at Florence’s house, just their Christmas presents, so they grabbed them and hugged and thanked them for a delightful Christmas.Then they drove to the ranch so Rory could get back to work.
“He’s not going to bother you, Lacy.We’ll all see to it,” Rory said.
“What if Canton is as much of a bulldog as his brothers?”Lacy asked.
“He can look for them all he wants.No one will tell him what happened to them, and he won’t find any clues.If he did go to Florence’s house, he might be able to smell his brothers’ scents on the outside, but he won’t be allowed inside, and that will be the end of that,” Dan said.
