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I pried the tabby off his leg and set it on the floor. “Are you flirting with me?”
“I don’t flirt,” Ranger said. “I make promises that I’m very good at keeping.”
So, here’s what Morelli was talking about when he said this would be his worst nightmare. Ranger is walking and talking sex. He’s totally ripped. He’s Cuban-American with some Spanish ancestry. He’s perfectly put together and is skilled in combat and foreplay. He’s also smart, and I like him. I might even love him. Trouble is Ialso love Morelli, and at the moment, I’m supposed to be committed to him. Since I don’t want to be labeled a slut, I’m going to try to honor that commitment. Ranger doesn’t make it easy.
We moved through the house to the kitchen. Ranger found a bag of cat kibble and poured some on the floor, and the cats abandoned us for the kibble. We finished searching the lower level and moved upstairs to Andy’s room. It was easy to find. It was the room with the photographs of clowns, mimes, and women who were mostly naked. The sign on his door saidSTAY OUT! DISASTER ZONE!!
The bed was a rumpled mess. Clothes were scattered across the floor. There were two empty bags of chips and two empty beer cans on his nightstand. There was a small wooden desk under the one window in the room. There was a large monitor and a Nintendo Switch with controllers on the desk but no computer or tablet.
Ranger went through the desk drawers, and I went through the dresser drawers. There was a small bathroom en suite. We both looked in at it. Bath towel on the floor. Toothpaste globs in the sink. The necessities of civilized life were all in place. Deodorant, razor, toothbrush, and floss.
“How old is this guy?” Ranger asked.
“He’s my age. We graduated from high school at the same time.”
“It’s like he’s frozen at fourteen.”
“He was always unique. Did your room look like this when you were fourteen?” I asked him.
“No. I had pictures of soccer players on my walls, and I had to hide the pictures of naked women. If I’d left my clothes on the floor my mother would have given them away to the church and I would have had nothing to wear.”
“It looks to me like Andy left in a hurry. He took his computer but left everything else. I don’t see anything missing in the bathroom. Did you find anything in his desk?”
“A USB flash drive and a lot of candy wrappers. He likes Snickers bars.”
“The flash drive could be good.”
“Did you find anything in the dresser?” Ranger asked.
“Nothing I would ever want to remember.”
We left Andy’s room and went downstairs. The cats were everywhere. Sitting on end tables, perched on chair backs, climbing up the fake tree in the foyer, sprawled out on the foyer rug.
“Looks like the cats ran out of kibble,” I said. “Be careful when you open the door. If any of them escape, we have to retrieve them. They aren’t outside cats.”
“Do you have any ideas on cat containment?”
“I’ll sneak out while you keep the cats away and then you can get out while I keep watch.”
I slipped out and there was a lot of cat screeching and growling. Ranger came out and closed the door.
“Pepper spray?” I asked him.
“Water from the vase on the foyer table.”
“They rushed you, right? It was self-defense?”
Ranger grabbed the front of my sweatshirt and pulled me flat against him. “If you breathe a word of this to anyone, I’ll round those cats up and dump them in your apartment.”
I looked up at him. “That would be really rotten.”
Ranger loosened his grip on my sweatshirt, stared into my eyes for a beat, and kissed me.
“My lips are sealed,” I said.
“I noticed,” Ranger said.
“It’s Morelli.”
