“You guys should stay here. The old lady peeking out the window looks kind of spooked, and you three together might give her a heart attack before I even get to ask any questions.” She smiled. “Isn’t that why you said I should be talking to the women in the first place?”
Elizabeth chuckled and slammed the door. A whistle slid from her lips while she walked up the sidewalk to the door. She didn’t even have to knock before it was jerked open and she came up close and personal with the barrel end of a shotgun pointed at her chest.
“Not another step,” Granny growled.
“Shifter Investigation Division. I need to speak with Sadie.”
Elizabeth heard the SUV doors open, and she glanced behind her narrowing her eyes, challenging them to make another move. Giving a little shake of her head, she turned back around, greeting the old woman with a smile on her lips.
“What’s this about?” she asked and lowered the gun.
“I just have a few questions for her about one of her friends.”
“Granny.” A five-year-old child stepped into view, holding a baseball and a glove. “I’m going to practice catching.”
He glanced up at Elizabeth with big brown eyes and smiled. “Who are you?”
Elizabeth leaned down and smiled. “My name is Lizzie. I’m just a friend of your Granny and stopped by to talk to her for a few minutes.” Elizabeth glanced behind her toward the truck, and she grinned. “I bet my three partners would love to play catch with you. Why don’t you go ask?”
The little boy’s eyes widened, and he glanced up at his grandmother. “Can I go play with the bears?”
“Wait. How did you know what they are?”
The boy placed his palm on her shoulder. “I can see them both ways. My daddy said it was a special gift from him to me.”
“What do you see when you look at me?” she asked, tilting her head, ignoring the old lady and focusing her attention on the child.
“A whole bunch of animals, like at the zoo.” He took her hand and closed his eyes. “Your daddy gave you a gift.”
“Sorry, boo, but my daddy wasn’t a shifter. Are you sure it wasn’t bad men you see?” she asked, thinking maybe the kid had seen what they did to her with the DNA.
“Your daddy was special, like king of the jungle.”
King, huh? She hadn’t turned into a lion yet, but she guessed anything was possible.
He grinned. “Your momma was, too.” He studied her and lifted a finger to cover her lips. “Shh, it’s a secret.”
“What is? I’m good at keeping secrets. You can tell me,” Elizabeth said, not sure what to think of the kid’s abilities. Her parents weren’t special. They’d been human. She hadn’t been changed until she’d been abducted. This kid had to be seeing the bad men and was mistaken when he mentioned a woman. From what she’d recently learned, women couldn’t pass down the DNA, and she’d not seen any during her captor’s experiments.
He leaned toward her and whispered into her ear. “She could disappear. I bet she was hard to play hide and seek with.”
Okay…this kid definitely had an active imagination.
Elizabeth pretended to lock her lips and throw away the key.
She winked at him and ruffled his hair. “Why don’t you go play with the bears? They’re big, but I promise they don’t bite.”
Elizabeth glanced up at the old woman. “Is that okay, Granny? They’ll stay in the yard where you can see him.”
“Sure,” she answered, and they both watched the child run toward the SUV.
Rhys rolled down his window and listened to the kid talk a mile a minute about how she said it was okay if they all got out of the car to play catch with him. Rhys held her gaze as he slid out of the SUV. He gave her a saucy grin, promising retribution, but they all played along. He and his brothers spread out in the yard and started tossing the ball.
“Can we take this inside?”
“Sure.” The woman stepped back inside and moved to stand in front of the window, opening the curtains. “I’m Sadie’s mother, Betty.”
“What’s the boy’s name?”
