“Irritable, dear?” Rick asked. Then he grabbed his cell phone and called someone, presumably at the police station.
She managed to hold her reaction at bay. Crowe couldn’t help but be proud of her.
“Yeah, we’ve got a good lead,” Rick was saying. “Get a K-9 unit down to the Golden Oak Hotel right away. A woman will meet you outside with the items you’ll need for scent.”
They arrived at Rick’s room as he ended the call. He opened the door with his key card and said, “After you, my darling.”
“What’s this dear, darling, and hon, stuff? Or is that just how you keep from calling your ‘babes’ by the wrong name?”
He clasped her arms and held her gaze with an intensity he’d never shown before. He said, “I’m not interested in other babes. I think we both know where this is going, Joell. If only we had more time, I’d ravage you right here and now.”
“Yeah, I lust you too, but don’t pretend it’s leading to more.”
“Who’s pretending?” Rick crushed her to his lips in a bruising kiss. Crowe thought he heard her give a little squeal of pain. Maybe it was just surprise, but if Rick hadn’t let her go right that minute, he’d have swiped him with his claws to get him to back off.
“Look, why don’t you leave your cat in my room while I do my thing downstairs and you do yours across town? Here, I’ll give you my empty saddlebags. Then you’ll have more room to carry the personal belongings with the model’s scents on them, and you can stop lugging around a mucky purse. I promise I won’t hurt your precious cat. I know what he means to you.”
She hesitated as if thinking about it.
“You’d better hurry. I don’t want the perps to pack up and leave before you and the dogs get to the hotel. Here.” He handed her the saddlebags and keys. “I’ll even trust you with my Harley.”
Crowe meowed.Please, no. Don’t leave me!
He meowed again.I need you. You need me.
This time he really yowled!What we don’t need is this asshat telling us what to do.
“Okay, fine. But if you touch a hair on his head…”
What? All that communication, and she didn’t understand a word?
“I won’t, I promise. He’ll be perfectly safe. I won’t even be here most of the time. I’ll stop at the desk and ask them to give you an extra key to my room, then you can get in as soon as you get back.”
Her shoulders slumped, and she gazed at Crowe one last time. Then she pulled a packet of moist cat food from the other section of her bag, opened it, and spilled it onto his dresser.
Oh, thank Goddess. I’m famished.
He didn’t say a word, probably because it wasn’t his furniture in the long run.
“Be good while I’m gone, Crowe. I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can.” She blew a kiss instead of planting one on the top of his head.Gee, I wonder why.
24
Rick had been gone for quite a while when, out in the hall, Crowe heard female giggles and a man laughing. The door clicked and opened to reveal Rick with his arms around a couple of tipsy women.
“Here we are, ladies. It’s not the presidential suite, as you can see.”
“As long as the bed is sturdy,” one of them said as she tossed her ample self onto it and bounced. The other one, a middle-aged, mousy-looking woman, walked around to the other side, tumbled onto the mattress, and patted the empty spot in the middle. Then they both giggled again.
“Oh, look! A kitty. How sweet,” said the librarian look-alike.
The other one pointed to the Louis Vuitton bag beside Crowe. “Hey, who does that belong to?”
“Aw, just some rich bitch. A guy’s gotta eat, you know.”
They all laughed again.
“So, are you saying that you’re a gigolo?”
