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He slipped along the length of Lucy’s unit. The feline in question bellowed and scratched at the metal siding below Lucy’s window.
A branch snapped under the pad of William’s foot. The cat stopped howling and stared him down. If he was quick, William could grab him. Or maybe he should try calling the mini-beast—it might come.
He cleared his throat quietly, not quite believing he was doing this. “Here kitty, kitty,” he sang off-key. “Kitty, kitty, kitty. Here kitty.”
A violent hiss erupted from the cat’s mouth. William nearly laughed when the cat bared its fangs. Fang. The decrepit marmalade, long-haired cat was missing a tooth. Clumps of fur were gone, too, and the creature appeared as though it had been on the receiving end of a late-night bar brawl.
Sympathy stirred inside him. He’d definitely give an extra serving of late-night supper to the dude.
“Here kitty, kitty…” he sang again. Gravel crunched behind him.
He spun around.
Lucy wielded a baseball bat at him like a maniac. When she raised the bat higher, her nightgown crept up to her thighs.
When he should’ve been concerned about the possibility of a concussion, his body instead responded to that small bit of bare skin like a twenty-year-old kid at a strip club.
“What are you doing?” he whispered.
“Seeing who is outside my window.” Her hair was tousled and, damn, did he want to run his fingers through the mess of it.
She lowered the bat. “What are you doing?”
Checking out the pretty neighbor and making an ass out of myself.
Clearly, she had no idea what her presence did to him.
“Trying to help the cat.” That sounded much better than trying to figure out how to get her to agree to an impromptu roll on the AstroTurf.
“You scared me.” Her lip trembled, just a little.
He reached his hand out to comfort her, but she stepped away.
She nodded toward the ball of fur. “What’s the deal?”
The cat stopped bellowing.
“No idea,” he said. “Figure I’ll take him to the Humane Society so he can find his family.”
The cat stalked closer and hissed again. It turned to Lucy and…smiled.
She set the bat down and kneeled in the fake grass, wriggling her fingers toward the cat. “Aw, how sweet is he?”
The cat strutted to her opened fingers, tail held high, and sniffed. She massaged its chin and turned the tags on the collar over to read them.
She glanced at William. “Her name is Mitzy. It lists your apartment number.”
The dead former-occupant-lady had a pet?
Lucy let the mini-beast on her lap. Her nightgown rose higher on her thigh as she comforted her.
William stifled a groan. She killed him without even touching him. The nightgown wasn’t even that short or sexy. Except on her, it was both of those things. Cotton, not silk, with a picture of a panda bear eating a cupcake with the cherry right at her… No, he was not going to examine the cherry and the position it held right over her breast.
“Hey there.” She rubbed her hand over the tufts of fur. “It’s okay. I’m here.”
A deep purr vibrated through the dark night, and Lucy beamed. “She likes me. I like you, too, Mitzy.”
The distinctive click of the hammer being pulled back on a gun sounded through the darkness. Then a shot rang through the night.
