Read Online Cody by Kimberly Raye - Free Book Online Page A

building.
    Other than the neon blue Home of Skull Creek Choppers that hummed in the front window and the hi-tech security pad that sat next to the entrance, the place looked like Mayberry.
    The building was an old fifties service station complete with antique gas pumps and an orange and white Davey’s Fill-r-Up ball that rotated atop an iron pole. An ancient soda machine filled with glass bottles sat to the left of the front windows. Old-fashioned signsfor everything from Goo Goo Clusters to Husky Motor Oil hung here and there.
    His vision sharpened as he stared through the front windows. The inside had been turned into an office area complete with several large filing cabinets and an impressive computer system. Framed pictures of various custom-made choppers lined the wall along with a DBA certificate and a sales tax permit. Behind the computer system stood another wall of windows that overlooked the actual machine shop.
    Fluorescent lights blazed overhead, illuminating several stainless steel work tables and the bare bones frame of a current work in progress. An industrial strength welding unit sat nearby, along with a large grinder, several sprayers and an impressive assortment of tools that lined the walls. An array of saw blades covered one twelve-foot surface.
    It looked like an average machine shop, not the hideout of a vicious, murdering vampire. Doubt niggled at Cody and stirred the one question that still remained unanswered about that night.
    If Garret Sawyer had slaughtered the women and children and set the ranch on fire to cover his tracks after his feeding frenzy, then why hadn’t Sawyer done the same thing to the brothers? Why had he turned them instead?
    Because he’s a ruthless, unpredictable, bloodthirsty vampire, Cody told himself for the countless time. He was there. Covered in blood. With the murder weapon in his hand. He’s guilty, all right.
    Probably.
    Cody ignored the last thought and concentrated on the sounds drifting from inside.
    “If you don’t hurry up, they’re going to leave without us,” a soft, feminine voice said.
    “Maybe that’s not such a bad thing,” came the deep reply.
    A door creaked open somewhere and Cody felt a rush of tingling awareness. His muscles clenched and his gut tightened and he barely resisted the urge to put his fist through the glass and barrel in.
    But there was a woman inside.
    While Cody had every intention of ripping out Garret Sawyer’s black heart, he wasn’t losing control and taking out an innocent bystander.
    “You’ve got a one-track brain,” the woman declared.
    “You act like that’s a bad thing.”
    “Actually,” the woman purred, “it’s a very good thing. It’s just that I’ve been wanting to see this movie for over three months…”
    Cody blinked frantically against the red clouding his vision. A hundred years of regret had twisted and morphed into a living breathing monster even more vicious than the bloodlust.
    Garret Sawyer had robbed him of his mother. His memories. And for that he would pay.
    Cody hit the buzzer that sat next to the high-tech keypad and braced himself.
    Immediately he felt the tension that rushed through the vampire inside as he became aware of another presence. A hiss sizzled through the air.
    A split second later, a tall, muscular form appearedin the doorway that separated the office from the machine shop. He wore blue jeans, a button-down black shirt that clung to his broad torso and a worn pair of cowboy boots. He had shoulder-length brown hair that had been pulled back into a ponytail. Red rimmed his dark pupils. The tips of his fangs gleamed in the fading dusk.
    He was a vampire, all right.
    But he wasn’t the vampire that haunted Cody’s memories.
    “Yeah?” the vamp asked. “What can I do you for?”
    “I’m looking for Garret Sawyer.”
    “Why?”
    Cody tamped down on the anger swirling inside him. “I’m an old friend. I saw his picture in a recent magazine and I thought I’d stop by to