“There are others who have done this,” Jill said, adding to the conversation for the first time. “Griffin and I are waiting for some calls back from colleagues.”
Zander liked all of this. This was absolutely the right group of people for this. He really wanted Caroline to see that.
He was equally pleased when Caroline picked up a spoon and took a bite of the grits. Just like he’d enjoyed clothing her, he liked feeding her. Okay, Paige had clothed her and Ellie was feeding her, but he was arranging for those things to happen and that still gave him more pleasure than made sense.
It was a little caveman, he knew. He’d love to ask his brothers if this was how they felt about Jordan and Jill. But even as he thought it, he knew it was. He’d seen how his brothers looked at their wives. There was a possessive-affectionate heat in their eyes that he’d never seen in them before those women had come into their lives. He’d seen it in his cousins, Josh, Owen, and Sawyer too. The guys had all dated and had their share of flings and fun, but when the women who had settled them down and made them into husbands had shown up, the guys had become more open and more protective at the same time.
Not that Caroline was going to make him into a husband. That wasn’t in his plans. It couldn’t be. But she was showing him exactly what he was protecting for his brothers and cousins. Life with these women that made them better men and made them happier than they had ever been.
“Why do I have the FBI asking about stolen animals being kept at the animal park?”
Zander looked up to find that Knox had joined them. The city manager was perpetually annoyed by the animal park’s existence.
Zander was right there with him. He’d written more parking tickets and been called to more fender benders in the past year since the petting zoo had added the sloths and lemurs—and had kept growing—than he had in the two years prior put together. People in Autre loved and hated having more strangers coming to town and wandering around. The visitors brought more business and money with them, but they also brought more congestion and noise.
Zander hated dealing with stupid stuff like people parking where they shouldn’t and getting into arguments over who should have yielded to who at the four-way stop. But more, he hated that with so many strangers coming in and out of town, it was easier for troublemakers to get lost in the crowd. He didn’t know who was here to see the alpacas and who was here checking out weaknesses in the security around town. And there was plenty of that. Autre was a sleepy little bayou town where everyone trusted one another. They didn’t lock their back doors and they didn’t look at one another with suspicion. And Zander didn’t want that to change.
So he just had to be more vigilant and couldn’t get distracted. He cast a glance at Caroline.
But Knox wasn’t looking at Zander for an explanation about the FBI inquiry anyway. He was focused solely on Fiona.
“Hey, Zander called Spencer,” Fiona told Knox, her hands up in surrender.
Knox narrowed his eyes. “You know Spencer?”
“Just met him today,” Fiona said with a nod. “But we’re best friends now.” She batted her eyes at Knox. “I’m going to introduce him to some of my other contacts that could be helpful to him in investigating illegal animal buying and selling.”
Knox crossed his arms and looked at her. “Is that right?”
He was a big guy, with longish hair, tattoos, and a bad attitude. At least when it came to things that made his life more difficult. Zander didn’t really need to accompany the Viking lookalike when he needed to confront someone about…well, just about anything—property line disputes, someone who wasn’t cleaning up their yard, or paying their water bill—but he often tagged along. The two of them could be damn imposing.
It didn’t seem any of the women involved with the Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild thought so though. And Fiona Grady definitely didn’t.
“Yep.” Fiona grinned. “You know how passionate I get about guys who want to do right by animals.”
Fiona poked Knox. All the time. It was very clearly one of her favorite things about visiting Autre. And the fact that Knox could be poked was also surprising. And amusing. He was easily annoyed, but Fiona didn’t annoy him. She…got him worked up.
Zander cast a glance at Caroline. He knew exactly what Knox was feeling for Fiona.
“Spencer is here now?” Caroline asked, now leaning to look past Zander to Fiona.
“He’s just back in the kitchen chatting with Cora,” Fiona said, gesturing toward the swinging door behind the bar that led into the kitchen. “He’s been waiting for you two.”
Knox focused on Caroline. “You’re the one who brought the lion cub.”
He’d been in the bar Friday, but Zander understood why he hadn’t immediately noticed she was the same woman. She looked very different today.
Caroline nodded. “Yes. With the hopes that someone would look into the whole situation.”
Knox frowned. “There’s a whole situation?”
“There are more animals where that cub came from,” Caroline said with a nod. “I wanted him to be safe of course, which is why I chose Autre and Donovan.” She shot the other man a smile. “But I’d hoped someone would be willing to take on the criminals behind it too.”
“There are criminals?” Knox looked at Zander. His expression was one of concern tinged with exhaustion.
“Of course there are.”
“It’s under control.”
Caroline and Zander spoke at the same time. He gave her shoulder a squeeze as he addressed Knox, giving his friend a look that said, I’ve got this. “Spencer is here and is taking it over. It’s nothing for Autre to be worried about.”
Knox gave him a nod. “Good to know.”
“Well, Autre should be concerned that there are animals being illegally possessed by people who are using them as trophies and don’t really care about them and aren’t taking good care of them,” Caroline protested.
“Of course,” Zander said. “But Spencer is the best one to be taking this on.”
“Wait, so you know something more about all of this?” Fiona asked. “I thought you just grabbed the lion and ran.”
“My ex-fiancé gave me the cub. He’s been transporting the animals from seller to buyer,” Caroline said.
“Just lions?” Fiona asked.
“Oh no.”
“You know the seller?” Naomi asked.
“Not for sure,” Caroline told her. “I was trying to get that information, but I hadn’t gotten that far when they suddenly sprang the wedding on me.”
“They sprang the wedding on you?” Jill asked, now leaning in as well.
Knox and Zander sighed at the same time.
The last thing they needed was all the girls getting worked up.
Zander was going to take care of this. Or he was going to help Spencer take care of it. But he did not need the Autre women—the women who were willing to do anything and everything to save every puppy, squirrel, and injured sparrow they ran across—involved in trying to save exotic animals from being sold to private owners.
Of course that needed to be shut down.
But these women didn’t need to be the ones doing it.