Page 20 of Taming the Beasts (Crooked Point #3)

Friday

Zoey

“I’m confused,” Callum said. “You want us to believe Kebe when it comes to the coin being the cure? But you also want us to not trust her because you think she’s evil?”

“Exactly,” I said. “I know how weird that sounds, but I think the coin is the cure because of King . Not Kebe. Yeah, Kebe happened to agree with him. Whatever. But Kebe is bad news.”

“Maybe King is bad news too,” Titan said.

“Don’t be jealous,” I said.

He shook his head. “I’m not jealous, doll.”

We were getting so off topic here. “This is the cure for you guys,” I said and lifted the coin in the air. “We just need to figure out how to use it. I thought you’d be more excited.”

All the guys just looked at each other.

They didn’t seem excited at all.

“Even if it is the cure for werecats, it’s not the cure for me,” Callum said. “My curse has nothing to do with ancient Egypt.”

“And our cure won’t have to do with Anubis,” Bennett said. “That’s the god of the dead. Our curse would have to do with cats. So…Baset or Sekhmet. ”

“Then why do you even have this if you don’t think it could help?”

“We found that years ago, before we knew what we were looking for.”

“Wait.” I stared at him. “Years ago?”

Bennett nodded. “Right?” He turned to look at the other guys.

“Yeah, it was one of the first things we stole,” Otto said.

I shook my head. “No, it couldn’t have been years ago. Kebe said it was only just stolen from a museum recently. Her father is friends with the curator from the museum you stole it from.”

Titan frowned. “And we definitely didn’t steal that from a museum.”

“Where did you steal it from?”

“Some guy’s house.”

“More like a mansion,” Huxley said. “It was a nice place. I remember it pretty well. Actually, a little of the bank design was inspired from that mansion.”

I opened my mouth and closed it again. “Well, Kebe is definitely full of shit then. I’m pretty sure she only came to town because of this coin.

And she used Emma and I to get access to it.

We were ready to call the heist off last night because I’d just come clean to you guys about camming and Emma had just gotten engaged… ”

“You’re engaged?” Bennett asked and looked over at her.

I couldn’t read the expression on his face. Was he upset about that? They had dated. Maybe he’d thought more about their future than I realized.

“Oh. Um. Yes,” she said.

Callum put his arm around her .

I cleared my throat. “But despite all that, Kebe convinced us it was a good idea to go through with the plan. And as soon as she got the coin, she tried to skip town with it.”

“Kebe isn’t a common thief,” Callum said. It was a sick burn on my boyfriends. And also completely untrue when it came to Kebe.

Emma looked up at him. “She refused to give the coin back, packed her suitcase, and left while I was sleeping. Luckily she came back.”

Otto scratched the side of his head. “So she wanted the coin so badly she was willing to break into our bank to get it? And then she just decided to give it back to you?”

Emma shrugged. “Like I said, we were lucky.” But she pressed her lips together, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. That luck probably had nothing to do with it. Kebe was up to something.

“How much does Kebe know about us?” Bennett asked. “She must have had questions about everything we had in that vault.”

Emma and I looked at each other.

I cleared my throat. “She knows everything.”

“Everything as in…” his voice trailed off.

“She knows you’re stealing Egyptian artifacts from all over the world because you’re werecats and you’re searching for a way to reverse your curse.”

It was so quiet in the bank. I swear I could hear my own heart beating.

“Why would you tell her our secret?” Bennett asked calmly .

“We didn’t tell her. She was eavesdropping on a private discussion Emma and I were having. Kebe’s like a freaking ninja spy.”

“Zoey…”

“We don’t even know her. I never would have told her your secret directly. She was spying on us and finagled her way into the heist.”

Bennett sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “This is a problem that we’ll need to handle.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“We don’t do loose ends, Zoey.”

I swallowed hard. “What do you mean by that?” I asked again.

“Kebe can’t leave Crooked Point knowing our secret. Do you know where she is right now?”

Having internet sex with Grudge, probably. But I didn’t want to say that out loud. Because they’d ask too many questions about what that meant. And they’d probably want to know who Grudge was. It seemed better to tell them about my kind of boyfriend/client/tech expert when things weren’t so tense.

“Zoey, where is she?” Bennett asked again.

“You can’t just keep her here.” Honestly, I wanted her far far away from my boyfriends.

“We only told you and Emma our secret because we trust you. And you just told us we can’t trust this Kebe person.”

Which made her a loose end. And I was worried that I knew what that meant, without them actually saying it. They weren’t going to just keep her in town. They were going to kill her.

“She’s at Zoey’s house,” Emma said .

I turned to look at her. She shrugged. I felt like she’d probably come to the same conclusion as I had about “loose ends” but just didn’t give a shit.

Bennett nodded at Titan. Titan starting walking toward the door.

What was he about to do? Off her right in my house? Or drag her back here?

“Wait!” I yelled.

Titan stopped and turned around.

“Zoey is right, no one is hurting Kebe,” Callum said.

That wasn’t really what I’d said…

“Just let me talk to her and figure out what’s going on,” he said.

He wasn’t helping.

“We need her,” I said. I hated it, but it was true.

Kebe knew about the coin, and we didn’t.

“She told us that she knows how to activate the coin. And I know you guys don’t think it’s the cure.

But…what if it is? What if you don’t have to worry about losing control anymore?

We just need to work together to figure all this out.

And it’s at least a good idea to hear her out.

To see if we can get some truth out of her.

And then we can verify all the information with King. ”

No one responded.

But by the way Titan was staring at me, I knew I would not be talking to King alone any time soon. They were all being so ridiculous.

“As much as I wish we could just research it together, there’s no information about this coin online,” I said. “We already checked. So we can just talk in circles or we can figure this out with Kebe’s help. Your call.”

They looked at each other .

I really thought they’d be more excited about the cure. But they had a lot of relics in that vault. It was probably hard for them to believe one of them could actually help.

“Please,” Emma said and looked up at Callum.

I guess she’d come around from wanting to kill Kebe.

“We’re just trying to help,” I said. “I really thought you’d all be happy.”

Otto cleared his throat. “You guys, what if Zoey’s right? What if this is what we’ve been looking for this whole time? Right under our noses? I think we should talk to Kebe. Hear her out.” He smiled at me.

I could always trust him to be on my side. I’d done this for him and he knew it.

“It’ll be easy to get the truth out of her,” Titan said.

I didn’t love that wording. It seemed very torture-y. But we were kind of on the same page.

Bennett nodded. “Okay. Let’s go get her.”

“One tiny thing before you do,” I said.

He looked at me.

“Just so you’re prepared. She does not have a great opinion of werecats. So if she says something rude, just ignore her. That’s what Emma and I have been doing.”

“Not a fan of vampires either then?”

“Oh no, she loves vampires,” Emma said. “A little too much.”

Bennett lowered his eyebrows. “Weird.”

“Not that weird,” Callum said.

Emma swatted his arm. He laughed and then winced .

“We really need to patch you up better,” Emma said. “Maybe Callum and I can stay here while you go get Kebe?”

“As much as Callum doesn’t want it, I can help,” Bennett said. “You guys go get Kebe.”

“Actually, I only need Huxley to come with me,” I said. I didn’t want to spook Kebe, and I was pretty sure she’d follow Huxley anywhere he asked.

Huxley raised his eyebrow at me.

“Wait, and Ace. Two is always better than one.”

Ace laughed.

Having Huxley’s identical twin would only help. Kebe would just be overwhelmed by hotness. Besides, I needed Ace to check my thermostat. Emma was right, that thing was definitely busted.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Callum said.

Titan shook his head as I walked toward the door. I ignored him. I’d tried to apologize earlier, and all it had done was make him shift into a werecat and almost break the bank. I’d talk to him again later. One on one. Maybe he’d take my apology more sincerely then.

Huxley didn’t flip the sign back to open as we walked out of the bank. That was probably good thinking. Who knew what was about to happen when we brought Kebe back.

“So you really don’t know Kebe?” I asked and looked up at Huxley. Emma had already questioned him about this, but that was in front of a bunch of people. Maybe he’d open up to just me and Ace.

“I swear I’ve never seen her before the other night. Why does everyone think I know her?”

I shrugged. “She just had a lot of nice things to say about you. ”

“Really? I thought you said she hated werecats.”

“All but you apparently.”

He smiled.

“Stop it.” I elbowed him in the side. “You have a girlfriend, remember?”

“Oh, I’m very aware.” He put his arm around my shoulders.

I grabbed Ace’s hand so he wouldn’t feel left out.

He squeezed my hand. “If she has a thing for my brother she probably has a thing for me too.”

I glared at him.

He laughed. “I’m just kidding, Zoey. But I love how possessive you are.”

I was glad he saw that as a good characteristic. Because I hadn’t even known it about myself until the past couple of days.

Someone on the other side of the street tripped and almost fell on their face. They’d been so preoccupied staring at us instead of looking to see where they were going. They’d better get used to seeing me around town with more than one man.

Or…maybe not. We could be just a few hours away from my boyfriends being cured. And a few hours away from them all going their separate ways. I tried to shove Kebe’s words out of my head. But her words weren’t going anywhere.

I cleared my throat. “If the coin is the cure, what is the first thing you two want to do?”

“Hmm…” Ace said. “So many options.”

Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of.

He squeezed my hand again. “I think the first thing we’d do is…you.”

“Definitely,” Huxley said .

I couldn’t help the huge smile that spread across my face.

“What, were you worried we’d run off or something?” Ace asked.

“Honestly? Kind of. You guys have had to stay together for so long. I thought maybe you’d want to…I don’t know. Have some time apart.”

“We’ve always done everything together,” Huxley said.

Ace nodded.

“But what about the rest of the guys?” I asked.

“We’ve been pretty much inseparable since we were kids,” Ace said. “We grew up on the same street. Went to the same schools. Started this business together. Bennett, Otto, and Titan are just as much my brothers as Huxley is.”

I’d been so worried about what would change. I hadn’t really let myself think that everything might end up being exactly the same. “I was a little worried you’d all want your own girlfriends.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty happy just like this,” Huxley said.

I loved how warm his arm felt around me.

“And we don’t want to be with anyone else,” Ace said. “We all like you.”

It didn’t 100 percent mean Otto, Bennett, and Titan would feel the same. I already figured Ace and Huxley liked to share. But…maybe all the guys would agree. Maybe nothing had to change. I was smiling so hard it actually hurt.

The three of us turned off Main Street.

“Anything else we should know about Kebe?” Huxley asked .

“Not really. She’s a bit of a drifter. And I think she might be able to make cameras glitch somehow.”

“What do you mean?” Ace asked.

“When she fled last night I tried to find her on my security system.” Actually, Grudge had tried to find her on the security systems of the stores on Main Street. But again, that was a conversation for later. “And she kind of just disappeared from the feed.”

Ace and Huxley looked at each other over my head.

“What?” I asked.

“No one can just disappear,” Huxley said.

“Exactly. Which is why it was a glitch. But it happened twice. So it seems like maybe she was causing them somehow?”

“I meant that no human can just disappear,” Huxley said.

Emma and I had already talked about this. “But invisibility is just like a made up superhero thing, right?”

“Not necessarily,” Ace said. He stopped outside my white picket fence and stepped in front of me. He looked at Huxley. I’d never seen Ace look so concerned. “She may not have disappeared,” he said. “She could have just been really quick. So quick the cameras couldn’t pick it up.”

Like super speed? That was still a superhero thing…

“It would explain what we’ve all been feeling.” Huxley stared at my front door like he thought my house was possessed by the devil. “You said Kebe came to town three days ago?”

I nodded.

Ace shook his head like he was trying to ward off the evil. “I know this feeling,” he said and looked at Huxley .

Huxley kept staring at the door. And then he slowly nodded.

“What is it?” I asked. The two of them were freaking me out.

“It’s similar to how we felt when Callum moved to town,” Huxley said. “Just this…pit of unease in my stomach. And I feel really on edge.”

“On high alert,” Ace added. “We’ve felt it ever since Callum arrived. I think that’s why it’s been hard to distinguish something else here.”

Oh shit.

Huxley lowered his eyebrows. “But it’s different now. It’s…worse.”

“Way worse,” Ace said.

Shit, shit, shit!

“I think Kebe is a vampire,” Ace said. “A really powerful one.”