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“Fat Cat. ” She jerked the door open as an orange blur jumped from the ground into the truck.
He was wailing and meowing plaintively as he tried to burrow beneath Alex’s coat.
Janey slammed the door closed and relocked it, then wrapped her arms around the heavy cat and stroked his fur.
“Where have you been, bad cat?” she whispered as he meowed again, a sound of mingled anger and fear. “Are you okay?”
She ran her hands over him, but nothing seemed hurt. He huddled at her side beneath the coat, his head sticking out, his topaz eyes glaring up at her.
“I know, I’m late. I’m sorry. Bad mommy, huh?” She stroked his head, almost smiling mockingly at her own words. “It’s okay. I’ll give you extra hamburger tonight. How’s that?”
As though he sensed the little reward, he laid his head on her lap, but his heavy body still trembled. Fat Cat didn’t like strangers in his territory evidently.
As she stroked him, she watched Alex, the sheriff, and Natches move from the office and head up the stairs to the apartment. They spoke briefly to the two officers; Rowdy and Dawg were still in the restaurant for some reason.
She stared at Alex as he moved behind the sheriff but in front of Natches, to the small landing. The door opened, a thin wedge of light spilling from inside.
That was what she hadn’t seen earlier. There was a light on inside the apartment. And Janey had been careful not to leave any on when she left.
“Who was here, Fat Cat?” she asked the feline quietly, still stroking his fur as she fought the panic trying to rise inside her.
She was shaking as hard on the inside as the cat was on the outside. And she was horribly afraid that her insistence on staying here, in Somerset, was going to end up hurting someone other than herself. Natches or Alex would end up hurt. Or both. And she didn’t know if she could live with herself if that happened.
Alex shoved the Glock into the back of his jeans, propped his hands on his hips, and glared around the room after they’d finished checking the apartment. Natches and Zeke were reading that letter, again.
Alex didn’t need to read it again. He’d had enough of it when Zeke first unfolded it. The filth in it was enough to make a grown man sick.
More of the same bullshit with a little addition about corrupting good patriotic men. Give him a fucking break.
The officers with Zeke were finished dusting for prints, and Dawg and Rowdy were giving the restaurant a last check before collecting Janey and bringing her up.
Zeke pushed the note into a plastic bag, secured it, and dated and signed it before shaking his head and moving to the door.
Natches stayed. He turned, glared at Alex’s neck, and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Don’t start, Natches,” he warned him. “I’m not in a bullshit mood right now. ”
“That’s my sister you’re jacking around with,” Natches accused him.
“Yeah, and it’s my sister one of you was jacking around with last year,” he bit out.
“Not me,” Natches argued.
“Yeah, well, one of you is just as bad as the other. ” Alex sighed in irritation. “Get the fuck off my back.
Nothing you say is going to change a damned thing. ”
“She’s going to try to leave,” Natches told him warily then. “I know her. She thinks I don’t, because I let that bastard send her away. But I know her, Alex. She’s going to try to leave, thinking it will protect us. ”
“She’ll change her mind. ” Alex moved through the living room, pacing it off.
He could feel something teasing at him here. How the hell had someone gotten into the apartment without activating
the alarm? There were no hidden doors. There was no other way in. All the windows were secure. They’d checked the closets, checked the walls themselves. Nothing.
“And what makes you think she’ll change her mind?” Natches retorted. “That fucking hickey on your neck?”
Alex stopped and turned his head slowly. He stared back at Natches, feeling the itch under his skin, the
