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I woke up in Chance's arms and realized I was starting to hate the idea of crawling into my own bed alone. This was bad, very bad. It was all too much, too soon, but I had no idea how to change it.
The next time I woke up, Chance was walking into the bedroom with a coffee cup in one hand, holding his phone to his ear with the other. "That sounds great. We'll see you then. Thanks, man."
He put his phone in his pocket and handed me the coffee. "A girl could get used to this," I said.
"I'm counting on it. I thought I'd let you make breakfast today, while I get in a little work. We've got things to do today."
I threw back the covers, picked up my coffee, and walked around him just out of his reach. "Your wish is my command."
"Now you tell me. Can I change my wish?"
Chance was in his office when I walked past after my shower. "I'll start breakfast."
"Call me when it's ready."
While I was cooking, I heard Chance talking to someone. I couldn't hear what was said. Part of me hoped it wasn't anything to do with the investigation into Tom's shooting. It was probably business.
After we ate, we took another look at the whiteboard. "I think we can cross out some of the less likely options," he said, picking up a read marker and lining through ALIENS, CREATING THEM, and a few others. Everything we were left with had one core thing in common—the government was capturing cryptids and keeping them at a lab in the woods. We didn't know why yet, but it made sense as far as our theory went.
"That's the BITES tie-in," I said.
"Huh?"
"BITES—the Biological Investigation and Threat Eradication Service. The people paying hush money to Uncle Harry and your dad. Their website was pretty vague, but it hinted that they hunted and captured cryptids."
"If that's true, then they hunt them, capture them, and bring them to the lab for something," Chance said. "Could be safe-keeping, or any of the other things on the whiteboard like mind-alteration, in depth study, or behavior modification."
"The pieces are starting to come together. What if the BFFam was part of an experiment. Maybe they were trying to tone down aggression in the bigfoot or make them bullet proof. If they escaped, like Helen said, the lab could have legitimate reasons for wanting them back. They could be more dangerous than a normal bigfoot." Normal bigfoot, now there's an oxymoron.
"Dad and Harry observed them a lot. They were both experienced hunters. They didn't mention anything that seemed out of character for bigfoot, but then their observations are probably the only in-depth study of bigfoot behavior there's ever been."
"Chance, if we're right maybe we can get our lives back."
"Whatcha thinkin', City Girl?"
"I'm thinkin' that we have something they want—the location of the BFFam. We can negotiate."
"And we happen to know a lawyer who makes his living negotiating."
"We got this," I said, giving Chance a high five. "What should we tackle next?"
"Let's head over to Hairy's and get to work on the files. If we still think we're onto something with the BITES thing, we can set up another meeting with Jim and Tom."
XXX
Now that we had a system, the work was going quicker. There was still a daunting amount of stuff to go through, but we could see progress. We were finishing our lunch in the cafe, when Chance said, "I've got an appointment this afternoon. Can I trust you to lock the doors if you’re working in the lab?"
"Will do. I'll be fine." I was waiting for my tea to-go when Chance stood up. "I'll be right back."
I was a little surprised, that I didn't get a kiss or even a half hug. "What the fudge?"
"Where's he running off too?" Sally asked when she brought my tea.
"I have no idea."
I walked out the door only to find Chance headed back in. He was carrying a box.
"What's going on?"
"I boxed up some of the files, so you can work in your office here. That way you aren't by yourself. I'll worry less."
"OK," I said, holding the door open and following him to my office in Hairy's kitchen. He set the box on the desk, I'll be back in a couple of hours. Do not go to the Quonset or your apartment alone. If you can't fight the urge to disobey, make someone go with you and wait until you’re locked in."
"Wait. I'm still stuck on the disobey part. What do you mean disob..."
Chance smothered my mouth with his. The brain freeze hit, and he lowered me into my chair. By the time I could think straight, he was gone, and Sally was standing in the door staring at me.
"You OK, Everly?"
I looked around, getting my bearings. The box of cryptid files was on my desk. "Think so," I said. "Did you need something?"
"Just never saw Chance Munroe takin' care of any woman but his Mom. You are one lucky lady."
"I guess so," I said. "I'll be working in here for a while if you need anything."