When a Pack Dies by Gwen Campbell Read Free Book Online Page A

embarrassment when the police radio hanging from Cutler’s belt started squawking.
    “What?” Cutler barked harshly into the radio as he stepped out into the hallway.
    “Take one too many grumpy pills today, Sheriff?” Officer Suzanne Young’s annoyingly pert and saucy voice grated on Cutler...even more than usual.
    “I am down to one last nerve today, Young, and you’re on it,” he growled in warning. His dispatcher took the hint.
    “Report of an altercation at Townline Roadhouse. Otto called it in himself. Said if you didn’t haul ass down there and give him some value for his hard-earned tax dollars, he was going to break out the Woodinator and take care of it himself.”
    Otto was always too damn quick to pull out that monster baseball bat of his whenever the customers got rowdy. “Any report of weapons?” Cutler asked curtly. He crossed over to Fina, touched her cheek then left. Whatever his dispatcher’s response was, Cutler was gone before Fina heard it.
    “He’ll be fine. He’s good at his job. Real good,” Nath assured them. He grinned and for the first time, Fina noticed how much he looked like his brother.
    “So is it just Nath or does it stretch on after that?” she asked with a humor that felt a little awkward after two weeks of disuse. She grabbed a sheet and started making Ryan’s bed.
    “Nathaniel,” he answered with another grin. “You just gotta accept the fact that if you give a boy a name with three syllables, the world will be hell bent on shortening it down to one for the length of his days.”
    Fina laughed quietly and this time, it didn’t feel as awkward. Nath stood on the other side of the bed and helped her tuck the sheet in. He had dimples on either side of his perpetually happy mouth and his eyes were blue, not aqua. She remembered that Cutler didn’t have dimples. The two, really cute features balanced each other off, making both brothers equally, devastatingly handsome.
    “Do you work, Nath?”
    “I do indeed, pretty lady,” he said then tapped Ryan on the shoulder. He handed him a pillow and a pillowcase. “Pitch in here, big guy.” Ryan put his game down without argument. “I’m the President and CEO of Green Mountain Eco Tours.”
    “Eco tourism is very hot these days.”
    “Don’t I know it,” Nath agreed happily. “We operate mostly in the summer months. When kids are out of school,” he added with a nod in Ryan’s direction. “Actually, you’re lucky you caught me at home today. I just finished taking a group of Japanese businessmen on an overnight hike and don’t go back out until tomorrow morning.” He tucked in the top sheet then tossed a cotton blanket and a thin quilt on top. “Ready to see the sights?” he offered with expansive good humor and took the badly covered pillow out of Ryan’s hands. He dropped it onto the bed. “You know the best way to see them?” he asked Ryan with a fiendish twinkle in his eye. “Upside down.”
    “ Nooo ,” Ryan squealed and giggled as he tried to evade the Beta’s grasp. He spun away, grinned and swerved to the left.
    Ryan’s small body telescoped his moves. So did the direction of his laughing eyes.
    Nath let him dodge away, twice, making a mock grasp at empty air a second after Ryan moved. Then he scooped the six-year-old up, wrapped a meaty hand around Ryan’s skinny ankles and held him upside down. He ran off down the hall, bellowing like a banshee with Ryan screaming in delight.
    *     *     *
    Cutler was glad to see pieces of the steak on Fina’s plate actually making it into her mouth. Nath had barbecued—something even Cutler admitted his little brother did well—and they were sitting at the table on the back porch. Ryan was sitting on the local phone book so he could see over his plate and was shoveling forkfuls of baked potato, baby carrots, meat and salad into his mouth faster than Fina could cut them for him.
    “Slow down, buddy,” Cutler cautioned and handed him a napkin.