Bunny the Bounty Hunter: A Shifter Novella

By Cassandra Johnson

Things in Tiffany Bradwell's life are going pretty great. She has a wonderful boyfriend who she doesn't have to hide her true nature from.

She is expecting her first child and professionally, Tiffany has a job that she loves.

Except she is hiding her pregnancy from her employers.

She is certain there is a rogue shifter bear in the next town who is responsible for one man's grisly death.

Plus, she has a bounty on the loose.

Three things that are stacking up on her worry list and keeping her from enjoying her burrowing time in preparation for her child's birth.

What's a Bunny to do?

Solve the case, of course.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cassandra Johnson
• Release date: Jan 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393900863

Cassandra Johnson

Growing up in the deep south I was taught some precious life lessons; you should always answer with Ma'am or Sir, tea that isn't sweet and iced is blasphemy, and that you catch a lot more flies with sugar than you do with vinegar. I was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas but I was raised in the small town of Marion, Arkansas a short fifteen-minute drive from Memphis, the birthplace of rock and roll. While it may not seem like an accomplishment to some, I am proud to say that I was a published author before the age of thirty and I have many more books left in my head to share with the world. My first novel, LRR Hood is a twist on the classic Little Red Riding Hood fable, and I currently have two more books lined up for a trilogy series of the main character, Elle Marshal's dramatic encounter with werewolves, one of my favorite mythical creatures. My writing continued to evolve from the time I was a teenager, getting involved in text-based roleplay games where my friends and I would create storyboards where we each contributed to the story through the eyes of the character's we chose to write for. I also love fan-fiction and was an avid reader and still am to this day. I decided to throw my hat in the ring and write some of my own fanfictions until eventually, I wanted to work with characters that were my own. From those days I continued to write short stories that never reached the public until I was introduced to Kindle Direct Publishing because while I wanted to be a writer and I wanted to publish my work, I never truly believed that anyone would publish my writing and I now have a work in progress list as long as my arm, and it continues to grow every day, LRR Hood won't be the last you hear from me.

Book preview

1.

Rolling over in her sleep, Tiffany brushed against the warm body lying in the bed beside her. Even wrapped in the sweet warmth of cotton candy half wakefulness, Tiffany cuddled closer to Zeke’s body and nuzzled her face against his arm, exhaling a sigh of happiness.

In the first month of her pregnancy, Tiffany and Zeke’s lives had taken a dramatic change.

Not only was she expecting a child, but she was now a bail bondsman and a part time bounty hunter when the need called for it. But it wasn’t only that, their living situations had changed as well in accordance with their budding new relationship and making room for a baby on the way too.

After a month of taking turns spending nights at Zeke’s cabin and listening to him complain about how tiny the kitchen of her apartment was, Tiffany finally had to lay down the law. They needed a permanent residence for the both of them – one that held enough room for them to grow and for the baby that would be arriving in another eight months.

The cabin was the most logical choice considering that there was no rent to pay and Tiffany felt awful when she thought about asking Zeke to choose between her apartment in town, and the cabin that he had built with his own two hands. Nevertheless, their living arrangements needed to be sorted.

Now, a little over four weeks into her pregnancy, they were living in her apartment full time while Zeke made all the appropriate changes to the cabin to fit Tiffany, Brody and the baby.

For a bachelor, the cabin was perfect – but for a growing family, a one room cabin with a kitchen and a bathroom just wasn’t going to make the cut. Tiffany wanted two bedrooms, a living room, and another bathroom added onto the cabin. Carpeting in the bedrooms and living room would have been nice, but she wouldn’t push her luck that far. Zeke assured her that he could make all these things a reality.

Tiffany’s eyes had barely opened when she felt Zeke shift in the bed beside her, moving his arm around her body to pull her closer.

Brody lying curled up in a small ball against Zeke’s shoulder and his pillow, and further past her sleepy little Chug, Brody was part Pug, part Chihuahua, was the angry red glow of the clock that belonged to Zeke sitting on his side of the bedrooms nightstand.

It was six-fifteen in the morning.

Life was good at throwing you a curveball and even though Tiffany hadn’t known Zeke for very long and she was already pregnant with his child, she was excited to see what came next even if she was afraid of all the pregnancy books that she was ordering off Amazon. Tiffany couldn’t take the chance of buying them at the local bookstore or going to the library, otherwise the tiny town of Salem, Virginia would be abuzz with rumors about her pregnancy.

That was the only problem living in a small town. Every one knew everyone’s business.

Tiffany had told Zeke that she was pregnant and that was it.

Alongside being afraid of learning more about how her body was changing and the potential risks to her unborn child, Tiffany was afraid to tell Margaret and Gene that she was going to have a baby.

Tiffany was nineteen years old, older than her mother was when she had Tiffany, but Margaret and Gene had gone from being more than just her friends. They were also now her employers and Tiffany didn’t know how they would react if they found out that she couldn’t perform her job in a few months because her belly was getting too big.

You’re going to have to tell them sooner or later, Tiff. Zeke’s hoarse, grizzly voice sounded from just above her head.

How did you know what I was thinking about? Tiffany raised her head up from his shoulder to look him in the eyes.

Because your spine started to get tense, I noticed that you do that whenever you are thinking about something that makes you stressed have been stressing about lately. Unless this is something you haven’t told me. Zeke finished.

Releasing a small exasperated sigh, Tiffany laid her cheek down against Zeke’s chest again and frowned. I know that I need to tell them, but I can’t help being afraid of how they might react. Firing Nathan, then hiring me immediately. I don’t want them to think that I can’t do my job. Tiffany replied softly.

Baby, they can’t fire you because you’re pregnant. That’s illegal and I should know because I own a business that runs on how attractive the women are, you can’t fire a woman because she is expecting a child. Zeke said, sitting up in bed and earning himself a disgruntled snort from Brody, who then hopped down from the bed and shook off his sleep causing the tags on his collar to rattle.

Ezekiel Chambers, are you telling me you’ve considered letting a woman go just because she was pregnant? Tiffany asked, sitting up with him.

Of course not. Zeke replied, scrubbing a hand over his cheek. I just mean that it’s illegal. The most they can do, is put you on light work duty –you behind a desk pushing paperwork until you give birth. Which, I personally believe that you should already be on.

Tiffany felt the tension in her spine tightening further.

Zeke, I don’t need to go on light work duty, I am only a few months pregnant. I’m not even showing yet. Tiffany said, tossing the covers back as she rolled over to get out of bed before she felt his body shift, one arm quickly wrapping around her waist and hauling her back down into the mattress beside him, effectively stopping her from leaving the bed in a huff.

I’m sorry.

Zeke had learned early on to just save himself some trouble and say he was sorry, whether he believed that he was necessarily wrong or not because it saved them from having an argument – lately they had mainly been centered all around Tiffany informing her employers of her pregnancy. Something so minor didn’t feel like it needed to be the thing that started the day off on the wrong foot.

Maybe you don’t need to go on desk duty right away, but baby you have to start preparing yourself for it. The Birdie’s can’t fire you for being pregnant, but you do need to tell them that you are. Zeke said softly against her ear, his lips moving to trail warm kisses down her neck to her shoulder as he held her.

The main reason that Tiffany found the topic as upsetting as she did was because she knew that Zeke was right, it felt nearly impossible to face her fears of telling the Birdie’s about the baby every time she walked into the office, but as each day passed, her body changed – soon the physical evidence would reveal itself. Whether Tiffany said anything to them or not and then she was scared that maybe the Birdie’s might feel betrayed that she hadn’t told them or would they think she thought that they were just stupid because she was walking around six months pregnant acting like nothing was going on.

I don’t know where to start, every time I look at their faces, I clam up inside and I can’t seem to get the words to come out of my mouth.

It will come to you, baby. When the moment is right, it will be right – but I would recommend telling them before your tummy starts to look like a cute little cinnamon roll. Zeke said, teasing her gently by tracing the tips of his fingers along her flat stomach.

Tiffany had no idea how Zeke was always able to read her mind like that and he was right. She was already eight weeks into her pregnancy and while she might not be showing now, Tiffany could not know if by next month or even by next week her stomach might begin to peak out in a little mound that would give her away.

She needed to stop dragging her feet and get on this, like soon. At least once she told Gene and Margaret the good news Tiffany would no longer feel like the sword of Damocles was swaying over her head, it was just so damn hard to get the words out of her mouth.

2.

Now that she was a full-time employee, Tiffany had a key to the office so neither Gene nor Margaret had to stop what they were doing to come unlock the door for her. It was a rare occurrence that they weren’t already there when Tiffany arrived, and she always got there early.

Stepping into the office, Tiffany quickly let Brody off his leash before he shook off the chill and his nails clicked along the linoleum floor as he walked into the conference room to greet everyone for the day.

Taking a quick fifteen minutes to prepare herself for the day ahead of her made Tiffany feel more at ease with her task agenda. There was a small legal notepad on her desk, which formerly belonged to Nathan.

While Tiffany wrote out her to do list for the day, she usually enjoyed a cup of coffee and that oddly casual workplace conversation that came along with working in an office – at least Tiffany assumed anyway.

In the last two months since she was hired full time, Tiffany had completely turned around Nathan’s client list. All her accounts were kept up to date and she hadn’t had anyone jump bail on her – but Tiffany wasn’t foolish enough to believe that would last.

There was always one bad egg in the bunch and that bad egg's name was Ronald Brimley.

Yesterday, Ronald was supposed to check in before his court appearance today, Tiffany had called five times and twice she got his voice mail, on her last phone call attempt, Ron had finally answered the phone stating that he wasn’t able to come into the office today because he was having car troubles – but he promised that he would be in court today.

It wasn’t even eight o’clock in the morning yet when she picked up the telephone sitting on her desk and dialed Ronald’s number.

Frankly, she didn’t really give a damn if she woke him up – if he was going to make it into court, he needed to be awake and getting himself ready. Scanning through the notes on his case, he was one of the first ones being seen this morning, which meant he had to be inside the courthouse at nine o’clock on the dot.

Initially, the day before, all of Ronald’s reasons as to why he hadn’t made it into the office seemed logical, but Tiffany was learning not to think logically when it came to criminals. If you gave them an inch, they would take a mile.

Normally, they wouldn’t have bonded Ronald out because he lived the next down over, in Scottsville, but because he was arrested in Salem and he’d seen the judge here, the Birdie’s made an exception since he had no prior arrests on his record.

Ronald was what Gene called a savings bond – he laughingly called them because, people like Ronald weren’t prone to running and skipping bond. That kind of clientele was like money in the bank, but as Tiffany sat at her desk with her phone to her ear, she felt her jaw set with tension.

He didn’t answer.

Slamming the phone back down into the receiver, Tiffany looked at the clock. It was now just a little after seven in the morning. Sniffing somewhat, she got up and went into the conference room where Margaret and Gene were drinking their coffee and going over their case’s for the day.

Ronald Brimley didn’t check in yesterday, and now he isn’t answering his phone. Maybe it’s just me but if I had to appear in court today, I wouldn’t be sleeping very soundly. Tiffany told them as she went to the coffee pot and poured herself a big thermos full of coffee before adding cream and sugar to the mixture. Oh, I couldn’t come into the office because I’m having car trouble. Car trouble my eye. He lied to me. Tiffany said, taking a quick drink from her mug before she went to the filing closet – though it wasn’t a filing closet. Inside, there were holsters, bullet proof vests, cannisters of pepper spray and Taser guns, all of which she was suiting up with today.

Uh oh.

Mhm. Someone has gone and pissed Tiffany off.

She’s on the war path.

The Birdie’s joked between one another, though they weren’t that far off from the truth. All night after leaving the office, Tiffany hadn’t been able to relax because she was thinking about Ronald Brimley’s case. Something deep down in the pit of her stomach kept trying to