Page 49 of A Cock and Bull Story

“I'm not going to do anything that would put my family at risk. You're stuck with me.” I iterate. “So, what's the plan? We need to figure out why these guys are trying to break into my apartment and why they killed that woman.” Jude frowns.

“We know why they broke into your flat—because they know you're human.”

“Ok, then, we need to figure out why they killed that human woman.”

Theo raises a brow.

“Did you ever think it's because she found out about shifters?” he queries dryly,

I cringe—I hadn't thought about that.

“Good point. But how random would that be?” I wonder.

“Shifters are pretty secretive,” Jack says. “The likelihood of a human finding out about us is pretty well unlikely.”

“Exactly,” I say. “There's a reason why she got killed. I'm telling you—it'snotbecause she knew about shifters. It's something else.”

And I plan on figuring it out.

“Ihave an idea,” I announce brightly before anyone can keep arguing about why I should not be here. “Let’s wake the seven-legged asshole and ask him questions. We don't need a sleuth anywhere. I think we have our answers right here.”

The others look at me like I'm insaner.

“That's a terrible idea,” Arthur disagrees. “If we wake him he can shift.”

Arguably, that's a good point because I sure as shit don't ever want him to turn back into that tarantula again.

“Well, I'm not worried about it,” I respond airily.

Jack raises his eyebrows.

“Really? Why not?”

“Because I brought my kitchen knives with me just in case,” I elucidate.

Jude’s eyes widened at my declaration.

Like I'm a homicidal maniac or something.

Perhaps, but I'd rather be that and be prepared than die by tarantula venom.

“If he shifts, we cut off the rest of his legs. If he stays human and tries to run away—we'll cut off his legs,” I say cheerfully.

Theo inches his chair back away from me a bit.

I give him a wink to let him know that I'm kind of—not really—teasing.

When nobody moves to make a decision, I walk over to the sleeping shifter and kick him hard in the side. He groans—as do the four men behind me.

“Wake up, asshole. We have questions.”

I quickly go over to my backpack that I brought full of knives and other things. Unfortunately, it’s not the flamethrower—but I'm getting one of those after this. I take out two knives and pass the backpack to Jude.

“Everyone take a knife,” I command.

All the guys do as I’ve directed, and we wait while Spidey fully comes awake.

“See here, asshole, you shift and I’m cutting off the other seven of your legs. You try to pull anything, and I'll just cut off your human legs. It'll just take me longer.”