"I wouldn’t expect him to take someone down should the need arise. His job would be to call one of us to help. He certainly can't shift in your center in front of other humans."
"No, definitely not."
“For now, Brett will have to do. It might be best to tell all three of your employees that your brother is still missing and is possibly dead. We don’t want one of them to inadvertently leak information,” Liam said.
“Of course,” she said. “We’ll need Zach’s agreement as well as my dad’s to have Zach remain in hiding.”
“That’s a given,” Liam said. “Now that the issue of your brother is more or less taken care of, Alex and I want to talk about protecting you.”
“You just did. We decided that Brett will watch over me.”
“Tawny, Liam and I mean at night.”
She held up a hand. “Oh, no. I am fine. My cousin put an alarm system in at my house.”
“Not to be a downer, but what’s to say these people won’t follow you home and shoot you on the way to your front door?”
She withdrew her hand from Liam’s. “Why are you trying to scare me?”
“We want to keep you safe,” Liam said. “We have a three-bedroom farm house that one of your cousin’s found for us. There is a great basement that we are in the process of converting into our training center.”
“Zach could stay down there,” Alex said.
Her shoulders relaxed. “You’re asking meandZach to stay with you?”
“Yes. You can have the downstairs bedroom, and we can fix up a place in the basement for Zach. It can be a bit chilly down there, but if he sleeps in his wolf form, he’ll be fine.”
Their food arrived just in time. From the way she was hesitating, she needed time to think things through. “I’ll ask Zach.”
“Thanks,” Alex said. “Tomorrow, we would like to meet with your dad. I imagine you have to work, but maybe you can slip out for a bit.”
She chuckled. “You two aren’t going to give up, are you?”
“No,” he and Liam said in unison.
“Okay. I’ll set up a time with my dad and call you. If my father didn’t go to bed so early, I’d suggest we speak with him tonight.”
“Would he even be home?” Liam asked. “I imagine he will want to keep vigil over your brother.”
“That’s true. He is with my mom, and she’ll want to stay. I’ll ask if we can talk to him tomorrow.” She pulled out her phone and sent a text. A response came quickly, and she smiled.
“What is it?”
“Zach is still weak, but he’s awake.”
“That’s great,” Alex said. “Remind him that Zach is still in danger.”
She smiled. “My father is the sheriff. I think he’s figured that out by now.”
* * *
When Tawny pulled in front of the center the next morning, she looked around to see if anyone was lurking nearby. She didn’t know what to expect, but she didn’t want to be caught off guard like her brother had been.
Before she went inside, she needed to put on a sad but hopeful face. She planned to say that Zach was still missing, but the deputy, along with the search and rescue team, were going out today to look for him.
Until she spoke with her dad, she wouldn’t mention anything about her being in possible danger to Brett.
When Tawny stepped inside, the sounds of dogs barking in the background and the familiar smells relaxed her.