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This definitely got her attention. Lola straightened up, her whole demeanor changing from jovial to all business in a flash. “My leap? What could you be involved in that would come back to them? Are any of my girls in trouble?” I couldn’t tell if she was worried or mad; her voice was simply tight and strained. She was like a parent ready to protect or to punish depending on whatever I said next.
“Cassandra is one of yours, right?” I already knew the answer, but it seemed like the polite thing to do was to get confirmation.
Lola nodded. “Is she okay?”
“Right now, yes.”
“What does that mean?” Her voice was slow and quiet, a barely restrained menace at the back of her words. We’d gone from friends to me being the messenger she might want to kill, all in the blink of an eye.
I sometimes forgot how volatile the big cat shifters could be since I so rarely interacted with them. Imagine rubbing a cat’s belly. They loved it for three seconds and then at second four they’d be biting your hand and clawing your skin off. Cat shifters had a very similar tolerance level and would go from calm to enraged in a heartbeat.
This might be in my best interest to not make any more vague statements about Cassandra’s wellbeing.
“There’s something unnatural inside her sorority house. The chapter president has asked for my help, but in the meantime, while I ask for Cain’s advice on that situation, I might suggest you find an alternative living arrangement for the kitten.”
Lola blanched. I could tell she had roughly ten thousand follow-up questions for me, but her instincts were those of a leader, and I’d just told her one of her leap might be in serious trouble. She whipped out her phone again and jerked her chin towards the steps as she began to dial a number.
“I hope you’re prepared to offer him a lot, Genie. He’s not in the mood for free favors tonight.”
Therein was the p
roblem with help from Cain.
As far as he was concerned, there was no such thing as a free favor.
Chapter Thirteen
I spotted Cain as soon as I was up the stairs, his shock of white hair visible from across the room, and his linebacker’s frame imposing even at a distance.
He had his back to me, which was unusual for a man who never turned away from an empty room.
“Miss McQueen,” he drawled without turning around. “I was wondering when I’d be seeing you again.”
I’d intentionally avoided crossing paths with Cain every time I’d come to The Dungeon in recent months. Delphine, knowing I was gun-shy about being around him, would meet me downstairs, since we both knew Cain rarely mingled with his human patrons.
Now, here I was with my proverbial tail between my legs, and I knew how pointless it had been to try escaping him.
“Hi, Beau.”
I caught his reflection in the mirrored panels behind the bar, his cool gray eyes watching me with unblinking interest. He lifted a glass of whisky to his lips and took a long pull, then set it back on the counter and turned around on the stool so he was facing me at last.
Cain was in his late forties and had the kind of face where you knew his most attractive years were still ahead of him, like age was making him better somehow. Right now his eyes were shadowed under the dim overhead lights, but I could make out the purple circles beneath them. It looked as if Cain hadn’t had a good night of rest in a month.
What could be so bad it would keep a man like Beau Cain up at night?
I’d spoken to Delphine only two days earlier, so I knew their relationship was as tight as ever. Not bad luck in love, then.
The idea something huge and scary could be causing the look on his face sent a chill down my spine. If things were going down that could spook Cain, we were probably all fucked.
I decided I didn’t want to know. At least not yet.
“How’s your uncle?” he asked formally.
“He’s well.”
“And your brother?”
I fidgeted, knowing there was no sense in lying to him. “An insufferable douche, currently.”
