Page 80 of Meant for Two
“Agreed. That implies there is a possibility he’ll come out to investigate why we’re there. We’ll need a good cover story.”
“I’ll say my dad has been scoping out land near Midvale to build a new development,” Jeff said. “It’s weak, but we can’t exactly tell him the truth.”
“No, we can’t.”
Not wanting to attract Daryl’s attention too soon—assuming he was home—they skirted his property.
“Well, what do you know. There’s a carport with a lovely blue truck parked under it. How convenient,” Jeff said.
“Let's approach from behind,” Zane suggested. “Maybe we should shift until we reach the vehicle.”
Jeff looked around. “That works. We’re far enough from the road so as not to be spotted.” Jeff shifted and so did Zane.
He hoped it was a get-in-and-get-out-without-being-seen type of operation. Otherwise, it could put people they knew in more danger—assuming Daryl was guilty.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
Jeff and Zanemade it to Daryl’s truck without attracting attention—or so Jeff believed.
Not wanting their voices to carry, they decided to only use telepathy. As soon as they stepped under the carport, they hurried over to the passenger side.“I don’t see any signs of a dent,”Jeff telepathed and then quickly snapped a photo of the front panel."Not only that, if they were driving this truck when they crashed through the gate, the bumper would be damaged."
Zane checked out the front."It looks good."
Jeff was about to say they should leave when a ray of light caught the surface, indicating the side panel had a slightly different color from the rest of the vehicle. The blue truck was old, but someone had replaced the front side panel with a very good color match."Check this out."
Zane ran his hand over the panel.“It’s smooth. That fucker.”
“The question is who did the repair work? I can’t imagine him using my brother’s garage. Ethan would be obligated to report the damage.”
“To be thorough, we should check the barn in case one of the men did the repair work back there,”Zane telepathed."They might have replaced the front grill too."
Being careful to keep out of sight of the house, they reached the barn without incident. When they pulled open the large door, however, it creaked loudly, alerting anyone in the house—especially a werewolf—that there was an intruder.Damn.
“We need to do this quick,”Zane told him.
“I was thinking the same thing.”The inside was dark and smelled of mold and something else that wasn’t pleasant. The place seemed to be a collection of junk, farm equipment, and tools. But among those tools was a paint sprayer.
“Hello. Let’s see what color is inside. Zane, see if you can find the old side panel or a bent front fender.”Out of habit, Jeff remained telepathing.
“Sure.”
Zane took off in one direction, while Jeff picked up the sprayer. And yes, it was filled with blue paint. Not being a thief, he wouldn’t take it. It was possible Daryl used this to paint something else, but Jeff doubted it. Instead, he took a photo of it.“Find anything?”he asked Zane.
When Jeff looked up, Zane was grinning and holding up the very bent panel.“There’s even black paint on it.”
“Take a picture. Maybe Uncle Adam can get a search warrant with it,”Jeff told him."Did you see the damaged grill?"
"Not yet, but I'll keep looking."
Zane had just taken the photo when every one of Jeff’s instincts shot to high alert. Wolves. And he bet not friendly ones.
Zane pocketed his phone and set down the panel.“Guess we are about to have company,”he telepathed.
If there had been time to plan a strategy, they would have, but three werewolves came in—one being good old Daryl Dragman.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Daryl asked.
Jeff had to assume the other two men were his backup. It wouldn’t have surprised him if Daryl had been aware they were on his property the moment they stepped foot on it. He wouldn’t have wanted to approach them until his friends arrived.