AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She pushed out a weary sigh. “Of course you’re coming in with me.”
All the way to the front door, he kept maneuvering in front of her or behind her. At one point, her neighbor walked out of the building and Jace practically shoved her against a wall. As if her retired neighbor was any threat to anything but the deep-dish pizza he had delivered every Friday night as a treat.
She threw her neighbor an apologetic smile at Jace’s behavior and then hurried to enter her passcode into the door lock.
After they were inside, Jace swung left and right, his hand inches from his spine where that deadly weapon rested. The blanket she carried flapped around her calves all the way to her condo door.
She paused with her hand hovering over the numerical lock pad. “I have to warn you….”
He cocked a brow. “Don’t tell me you’ve got a husband or boyfriend just waiting to beat me up.”
“No. It’s worse.” She stabbed the code and opened the door. “It’s my cat.”
ChapterFour
Jace had heard of attack dogs, but he’d never encountered an attack cat before.
When the white-and-gray ball of fluff lunged at his face, his reflexes kicked in and he caught it midair.
Thankfully before it could claw his eyes out.
Bronte let out a gasp. “Don’t hurt him!”
“I’m not hurting him. The thing launched itself at me.” He held the furry creature in front of his face and met a pair of wide green eyes. Its face was smashed flat and the long white-and-gray fur was already coming off on his shirt.
Bronte threw off the blanket she had wrapped around her shoulders and reached for the cat. “Give him to me. He hates strangers.”
He twisted out of her reach. “Is that why he’s purring?”
Outrage showed plain in her eyes. “Hemingwayneverpurrs for strangers.”
“Listen for yourself.” He held out the vibrating cat as Bronte inched closer, head bent toward her pet.
Suddenly, she wrenched the animal out of his hand and twisted out ofhisreach, cradling the fluffball against her chest. “He’s just caught off guard. I don’t have many visitors.”
“Sure, that’s it.” Now that he wasn’t in danger of losing an eye, he focused on securing the door and lowering his laptop bag to the floor.
Bronte spoke to the cat in a soft crooning voice and stroked his back. The puffy tail waved like a flag in the air.
“How did you know he was going to leap at me?” Jace asked, looking around for other entrances he needed to lock or windows someone could climb through. A hotel couldn’t be locked down as easily as an apartment or house, which was why he’d insisted they come here.
She waved at a tall table beside the door. “He likes to sit there and jump into my arms as soon as I walk through the door.”
“Oh, so he wasn’t going for my jugular.”
She rolled her eyes. “Do you doanythingwithout drama?”
He smirked. “Growing up with four brothers, I had to get some of the attention somehow.”
She groaned.
She lowered the cat to the floor, and he shot around a corner. When Jace started moving around her place, checking window locks, Bronte tagged along behind.
“Everything’s secure here. You can leave now,” she announced.
He swept his gaze over some photos in matching gold frames lined up on a side table. He picked up one of an older couple. The woman had a mop of short curly brown hair and wore a paint-streaked smock, while the man at her side grinned through a trim beard.
Jace stroked his own beard in thought. “Your parents?”
