“You notice things.” He studied the sharp angles of Malik’s face, certain he was right. Since meeting the cheetah, Indy had learned a thing or two about his mate. Small things, like how Malik could go so still when concentrating that he practically vanished into the background. Indy envied that talent. “You seem to notice a lot of things, pussycat.”
Malik met his gaze, and the words that followed made the deck tilt, the sincerity palpable. “I noticed you.”
The words shot straight to Indy’s cock and his entire thought process derailed for a full three seconds. Possibly ten. He couldn’t understand how three simple words could occupy entirely too much space when the right person said them.
Even better when the person was your mate.
The perfect reply popped into Indy’s head, but a prickling sensation made him loudly hiss. Fortunately, a well-timed cacophony of crickets drowned out the sound.
It started at the back of his head and spread outward, the distinct animal awareness that he was being watched. His fox stood rigid, instincts focusing attention on the property line like a compass needle finding north.
Indy quietly glanced around, his gaze sliding toward the oak trees at the far end of the yard. Then his eyes drifted casually across the fence line. Nothing moved. No shapes. No faces. The yard was exactly as empty as it had been five minutes ago.
Malik was focused on the grill, but the house kept drawing his attention. Through the kitchen window Indy could see the shapes of his mate’s friends moving casually around.
No one but Indy seemed to notice something was off.
Which made him wonder if an active threat really was staring them down or paranoia was taking root.
Maybe his Spidey senses were reacting to a nosy neighbor watching from a window or someone walking their pet who’d paused long enough to sound Indy’s bells.
There was even a possibility that absolutely nothing was wrong and his fox was still spooked, making him see storms where only rainbows existed.
Hours later, he still couldn’t shake that oily feeling he’d had in the flower shop when those two figures had stood on the sidewalk across the street. The wrongness of them. The way every hair on his body had tried to stand up and his fox had screamed to escape in a frequency Indy still felt in his back teeth.
This wasn’t that. This was softer. Less certain.
But he was sure his Spidey senses were tingling for a reason.
Uncrossing his legs, he set his feet on the deck, a small adjustment but one that put him in a better position to move if he needed to. His gaze slid toward the oak trees. The evening light glowed amber, shadows creeping along the thick branches until he couldn’t see past the line of trunks into whatever was beyond them.
It could be a neighbor or a cat on a fence post. It could be the strange way his brain had decided to process the stress by inventing surveillance where there was none.
Maybe it wasn’t any of those things and he was just cracking under stress.
After picking up his glass of water, he took a sip, keeping his expression easy.
Malik’s low voice interrupted the tense stretch of silence. “You just went somewhere.”
The cheetah wasn’t looking at the trees. He was staring at Indy, his expression attentive like he’d been watching for a while.
“Went somewhere?” Indy was not a convincing liar.
“You got tense.” Malik’s gaze swept over him, eyes filled with concern.
Did he also think Indy was having a nervous breakdown? A huff morphed into a laugh, suggesting Indy was fine and everything was fine and he definitely wasn’t fine.
“I think I’m still running on adrenaline from earlier,” he said. “My nervous system hasn’t figured out that the emergency portion of the day is over. It’s very committed.” He waved a hand in the direction of the trees, so done with today. “Thought I felt something, but it’s nothing. I’m just frazzled.”
“And your feet.”
Indy glanced at his own feet. He’d been tapping one of them unconsciously against the deck step in a rapid, irregular rhythm. He stilled it. “I’m just cold. They do that when I’m chilly.”
His mate was entirely too observant for Indy’s comfort. “It’s seventy degrees.”
“I run cold.” He met Malik’s gaze and kept his voice perfectly level. “Fox thing. Small mammal. You know, heat regulation is a pain in the ass.” He smiled, easy and light…and definitely strained.
“That doesn’t explain why you’re so quiet.”
