Page 30 of Whiskers on Kittens

“I always reserve enough money for at least ten years of the property taxes, school taxes, and basic living expenses.”

According to the Devil’s expression, I disgusted him.

“Good luck, Easton.” The Devil vanished in a flash of golden light, leaving a faint hint of brimstone in his wake.

I raised a brow and turned my stare to the big, bad wolf. “Your turn, Mr. Goody-Goody.”

“You’re going to drive me crazy,” he predicted, but he retrieved his phone and glared at it.

Accepting his actions as the first step towards doing what I wanted, I went back to work, determined to make a game plan for clearing the crooks out of everything they owned, getting leads on the missing kittens, and giving as many people as possible around me the happy holidays they deserved.

TEN

“The CPD hasn’t fired you yet?”

It took Easton three hours to work up the nerve to call his parents, which tipped me off there was far more to the family dispute than I understood. He put the phone on speaker, set it on the table in front of him, and eyed it like it might rise up and bite him.

“It’s unlike you to call us, Asher,” a man answered.

The big, bad wolf grimaced as though he’d been slapped. “I’m sorry about that. Things have been busy at work.”

“The CPD hasn’t fired you yet?”

My virus snapped to attention, and she began a low, deep growl in my head. Rather than steal Easton’s thunder, I waited, although I abandoned the documents I searched through, leaned back in my chair, and crossed my arms.

“No. I’ve been badged with the FBI for a joint case, and there’s a possibility the position might become permanent.”

According to the startled laugh on the other end of the line, Easton’s father had gotten sideswiped with the announcement. “Well, I’ll be damned. You don’t call unless you need something, so spit it out.”

“We’ve been invited to attend Christmas dinner.”

Silence.

My virus’s growling graduated to snarls punctuated with infuriated yowls.

“We?”

“You, Mom, and my brothers. A friend will reach out to my brothers. Uhm, housing and travel will be covered. The host has a guest house, and you’re welcome to use it. She—”

“She?” My virus hit the brakes on her fury, and while she rolled head over heels in confusion over the man’s change in tone, Easton’s father added, “What sort of she are we talking about here? The kind you bring home to your momma?”

“More like the kind where I bring you to her home to meet. Her place is bigger than yours, and she offered to host. By offer, she danced around the hotel room.”

“Hotel room?”

Was Easton trying to make the call as awkward as possible or did he really have no idea how to handle life with a woman? While my virus did the equivalent of run confused circles in my head, I relaxed enough to crack a grin, wondering how deep a hole the big, bad wolf would dig for himself before the call ended.

“We’re working a job together. She’s some fancy negotiator type for corporations, and the case needs a negotiator, so the FBI issued her a badge. She needs a babysitter with experience. As she’s a lycanthrope, and they don’t partner lycanthropes in situations like this with the uninfected generally, I was nominated to keep her out of trouble and watch over her while she handles the negotiations. I’m mostly around to advise and protect her. She’s even smaller than I am.”

“I’d say it’s not my fault you’re a runt, but I suspect it is my fault you’re a runt. I’m just grateful your brothers have six inches on you and didn’t inherit the short gene. From your great-grandfather on my mother’s side. We checked, because how else could two perfectly sized people produce a runt?”

“Thanks, Dad,” Easton said in a wry tone.

“Is there actually a woman or are you trying to lure us to a secondary location?”

The question caught me so off guard I leaned back too far in my seat and toppled backwards, cracking my knees into the edge of the table along with smacking my head onto the floor. A guffaw escaped at the thought of Mr. Goody-Goody luring anyone to a secondary location, which made my virus pout.

She wanted to find out what the big, bad wolf might do to a divine feline in a secondary location.