Bearly Hanging On (The Jamesburg Shifters #6)(53)

She grabbed Ash's arm, pulling him away from everyone else. "What kind of scene? Did he hurt anyone?"

"Who? Prince Twinkle-eyes?" Ash asked. "Hell no, he didn't. The second I showed up, they all just stuck their hands out, waiting to be cuffed. I've seen some crazy shit in my time, but people who were that willing to be arrested? And for something this stupid? I dunno, Jamie, something doesn't seem right."

She snorted a laugh. "Yeah," she said. "Get to know him a little and you'll be saying the same thing. So, nothing happened? They were just sitting around? Seems a little strange for Todd to call you guys about that, especially considering the whack-jobs that hang around his place all the time."

"They're movie aficionados," Todd, the lion-shifter owner of the video store said. "They come in and enjoy films. That's all, there's no reason to try and degrade them."

Ash put a hand on Todd's shoulder. "Okay, fine. So, since you're here, I can just ask you. What were they doing that got you all upset?" He was really starting to struggle with the tiny-to-him notepad.

Todd was an old lion, gray around the temples, salt-and-pepper on his tail when shifted. He was crotchety, territorial, and given to dramatics. Especially when it came to people he didn't know.

"Upsetting my customers," he said, looking back and forth from Ash to Jamie. "Making a scene."

"Ah," Ash patted the old lion on the shoulder. "You sure they weren't just getting water? That's what it's there for, you know? For people who need water to get?"

"The young one," Todd jabbed a finger in Ryan's direction. "He was talkin' to my customers, telling them all kinds of things about how there's hungry old shifters and what-not, and—"

"That doesn't sound illegal to me," Jamie cut in. "Pretty sure you can still talk to people who happen to be outside at the same time you are."

Ash nodded his head. "This is a pretty big operation you called out for a handful of folks who weren't doing anything wrong. There something you're not telling us?"

Todd narrowed his eyes, frowning deeply. "They been here all week. Talkin'."

"To who?" Jamie asked. Her poor grammar struck her brain right after she said it, but she chose not to correct herself.

"Anybody that'll listen! That young 'un there, he just talks and talks. My customers say they don't want him to keep on hassling them."

"Oh, okay, disturbing the peace," Ash said with a note of disbelief in his voice. "You know you're supposed to call the regular station line for that, right, Todd? That you only call 911 in the case of an actual emergency, such as someone with a gun, someone having a heart attack – I trust you’re aware of necessitates a 911 call. Generally, someone irritating your customers by talking to them isn't really an emergency."

The crotchety lion was obviously trying to figure out something to say when Ryan finally pushed himself off his ass and strolled over beside them. "If there's a problem, we can go somewhere else," he said. "I didn't bother anyone who told me to go away."

"Maybe not the best time?" Jamie pushed him backwards, out of earshot. "What did you do?"

Ryan shrugged. "Really," he said. "I don’t know. I don't have much problem taking the blame for things I actually do, you know me well enough to know that, right?"

Jamie nodded. "So what did you do to piss off old Todd so badly that he called the cops on you? If it's legitimacy you're going for, getting arrested isn't really the way to do it."

"Worked for quite a few folks throughout history," he said. "But listen - Jamie - I'm being serious. We've been coming here every night for the last month or so, less three days when I was knocked unconscious by someone," he gave her a grin that made her feel both a little tingly and a little angry. "We have thirty families and twelve individuals, living on the compound. You saw some of them, right? The panda, the turtle, all of them?"

She clenched her jaws. “I know. I met some of them.”

"Yeah, well,” Ryan said, “they need water. A lot of it. The wells we have work, but they can't produce enough. So we come every night, get what we can, and go on our way. If anyone talks to me, I talk back. I didn't know I was supposed to pretend none of this was happening."

"You're not," Jamie said, looking back over her shoulder. Ash had managed to calm the lion down somewhat, as a three hundred pound bear who used to be a cage fighter will frequently do, and the two of them seemed to be engaged in something resembling calm conversation.

She turned her head to the truck that was sitting with the doors ajar, which she surmised must be Ryan's. In the back bed of it were no less than ten fifty-gallon drums.

"Uh, Ryan?" she asked. "Is that yours?"

"Yeah, of course. We take the drums back and empty them into a reservoir on the grounds. What's wrong with that?"

"Did you ever read the signs? The ones all over the drink stand? That say how much you can take?"

Jamie’s soul sank. She was going to have to sit here and watch the man who her heart had decided was her mate, along with four of the shifters under his care, get carted off to jail.

"Well, no," he admitted.