The next morning, the commotion at the front door alerted Gabe, but Alex slept on.
"I'm not giving you the key," Cale's light baritone called out from the front stoop.
"I'm taking it then," Rile's deeper baritone answered. "You haven't been able to pin me since my thirteenth dry season."
There was a sharp thud on the door and the sounds of scuffling.
"Ha! Still don't have it."
"You can't hold out for long, Cale. Give it up," Rile warned.
More sounds of scuffling and a sharp knock on the door startled Alex awake. Gabe cringed as she shot off the couch.
"Give me that key!" Rile roared.
Alex yanked open the door and blasted Rile. Gabe and Cale blinked at her and stayed very, very still.
"You think that he would tire of being blasted every morning," Alex said, tone grumpy. "I'm taking a shower."
"Okay," Cale said in a small voice.
"Fine with me," Gabe said.
Alex slammed and locked the bedroom door behind her. When she came out, she was steaming, literally and figuratively.
"Morning," she said. "Note the lack of 'good' before it. Please help yourself to breakfast. I bought y'all boudin, pancake mix in a carton, and Pop-Tarts, but not green slime." She shuddered and slung her bait purse over her shoulder. "I'm off to work."
"I'm your shadow today," Gabe said.
"Try to be inconspicuous." Rile rubbed his head. "Don't spook Morgan. We're trying to catch him, not scare him off."
"Shut up," Gabe said.
"Time to go," Alex said. "Sheesh, some Guardian team. Always arguing." She stalked out the door.
At the bottom of the steps, an orange tabby cat finished the last of the cat food in the small bowl Alex kept filled. It regarded her with green eyes before meowing.
"Still hungry?" Alex asked. She flipped open the latch of the metal food container and scooped out another cup of dry food.
"Tell me again why you do this?" Gabe asked.
"I feed the feral cats until they trust the bowl, then set it closer and closer to the humane trap. Once they are used to the trap, I set the bowl inside. Then it safely catches the cat and I take it to the vet for vaccines, neutering, and then release it. Called TNR for trap, neuter, release. Keeps the cat population more stable than if you merely killed them."
"You do this to maintain these cats? Why? They don't allow you to touch them. They don't appear to have any purpose."
"I like cats even if I can't pet them," Alex said. "They keep the rodent population down. So what if they don't like me? I don't like me."
"That's terrible." Gabe scowled. "Why—"
Alex held up a hand and started off at a brisk pace. "No talking about me. Please tell me more about you and your family. Do Rile and Cale wrestle often? What's a dry season? How old are y'all? How does a dry season compare to a year? How long do Agama live?"
"I don't know what to answer first," Gabe said, confused.
Alex smiled at him. "Whichever you like. Then tell me stories of you and your brothers when you were younger. Your favorite ones."
*****
Gabe returned in a fury from escorting Alex. He squared off against his younger, if larger, brother. "Why did you say that about Morgan? And in front of Alex? What is your problem now?"
"Truth hurts," Rile retorted. "You can't disguise half as well as I can. It would be just like you to avoid a fight and frighten off this Morgan instead of killing him like he deserves."
"We don't know that he deserves killing," Gabe said. "Do we, Cale?"
"That's right," Cale said with reluctance. "We don't have evidence that he's a murderer."
"We know he assaulted Alex," Rile said. "Good enough for me."
Cale cast an entreating look at Gabe, who shook his head.
"We all care for Alex, but that's not enough to justify executing Morgan. We'll follow Alex and confront Morgan," Gabe said.
"If he fights back, we can kill him in self defense," Cale told Rile.
"Works for me," Rile said.
*****
A/N:
The brothers argue on about Alex. Who do you think is right?
Dedicated to
IceRequiem
Thanks for the amazing OST that is perfect for my story! Great novelist, too, of "hard" science fiction in Project Yggdrasil, Phase One of the Genomic Trilogy. [which I misspelled, sorry]
Once I have a YouTuber friend make a video, I can link it to this story.