Scraggy, craggy, and definitely sporting crazy eyes, this pipsqueak of a wild feline was more lion than most lions.
“I’m warning you right now, kitty cat. If you used my bag as a toilet, I’ll be stuffing your ass back inside and throwing you out the door.”
Butt parked on the bed like he owned the place, the cat scrunched its face, swiped a clawed paw through the air, and meowed the equivalent of a loud—I’d like to see you try it warning—showing off a set of canines sharp enough to back up its threat.
Cody snorted and cautiously fished through the contents of his bag. Plastic deodorant container in one hand and wrinkled T-shirt in the other, he executed a sniff test on both while the stowaway eyeballed him with a look of utter disdain.
Both articles passing pee detection, he huffed and pointed the stick of antiperspirant at the freeloader. “You’re lucky, asshole.” Nose twitching, the cat meowed again, maybe a fraction friendlier this time, his pink tongue flicking through the air. “Alright. Alright. I get it. You’re hungry. Me too. Give me a sec to get dressed, and we’ll go find some grub, but after that, you’re on your own.”
Under a watchful green-eyed stare, Cody went about his business, and by the time he had his gun strapped on, the cat had gone into full lounge mode, his entire body taking up the equivalent of about eight square inches of space on the king-sized mattress.
“You better not have any fleas.” He picked up the intruder one-handed and held it aloft. Eye-to-eye, they assessed each other with cautious interest. Man, the little guy weighed next to nothing. But his white and gray fur felt soft and clean, and his tiny black, heart-shaped nose was cute as a button. An observation he’d deny making if anyone ever asked. “You’re a whole four pounds of trouble, aren’t you?”
As if to prove his point, the dickhead tried to cuff Cody on the chin, throwing a lazy right hook that was easy to dodge. “Watch it,” he grumbled, tucking the pint-sized pugilist against his chest. “My paw’s bigger than yours.”
Aware he was having a mostly one-sided conversation with a cat, he left his room in search of sustenance. On a mission to get to the kitchen, he didn’t encounter a single person as he made his way to the end of the hallway and down the back stairs.
A little unusual for the lodge to be so quiet at this time of night, but not surprising given the number of wounded down in the medical clinic. Not to mention the bone-deep post-combat crash that always required a solid twelve hours of sleep to recover from.
By now, Chase and Zander were probably tucked in. Hopefully, Jamie was too. He’d go down and check in a bit, but first things first…tuna. He hit the ground floor landing, and passing by Adam’s empty office, he entered the dimly lit kitchen.
He offloaded his passenger onto the floor next to the massive island and pointed a stern finger. “Don’t move.” With the promise of a meal the reward for good behavior, the furball plunked his ass end down on the floor and swished his tail over the hardwood. “Good kitty.”
So not a cat lover, but apparently a sucker for this one, he grabbed a can of fish from the pantry and a couple of saucers from the cupboard. After surviving the long journey from Big Diomede to the Flathead National Forest of Montana, the little shit probably needed a bit of milk too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Don’t move. Don’t move. Her mantra for the past couple of hours, Becca had grown tired of pretending to sleep. The effort to keep her breathing consistent, her body relaxed, and her eyes closed, despite being on high alert, took an exorbitant amount of mental focus and an extreme level of physical control.
Every sound in the room tested her resolve, and the longer she faked it, the harder it became to suppress her natural reactions to her normal bodily functions. Her nose itched, but she couldn’t twitch. Her scalp tingled, but she couldn’t scratch. Her mouth watered, but she couldn’t swallow.
Oh, man. She regretted taking a peek at the sandwich on the little table beside her bed. Fresh sliced bread. Crisp lettuce. Bright red tomato. A thick layer of assorted deli meats. Add in what appeared to be sliced cheddar cheese—the real stuff—not the kind wrapped in individual plastic squares, and she was foaming at the mouth for a bite.
Mustard or mayo? Maybe both? Damn it! Didn’t matter. All of it layered together…
Yum.
Her stomach twisted in hunger. Yeah, the sandwich looked delicious, and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten one. Hell, she couldn’t remember the last time someone had made her one.
She ate whatever she found. Quick, easy, and convenient meals consisting of popcorn, cereal, and frozen pasta warmed in the microwave until it tasted like the waxy cardboard it came in.
A homemade anything worth savoring…not something she’d had access to in the last two years. Unfortunately, Sam Black had plunked his ass down at the desk with a laptop, and he hadn’t moved since.
Bastard.
Her brain whirring with questions she had no answers to, she wanted him gone for multiple reasons. She needed to find Jay. Make sure he was okay. Then she needed to figure out where the hell she was and with whom.
The why didn’t matter. Nothing had changed except her location.
She still needed to stop Dominion and take down the Imperium Council.
Alexsandr Volkov or Jonas Johnson. Russia or the United States. She couldn’t let either have the key to control the computer virus. Their intentions weren’t good. Nobody’s intentions on the Imperium Council were good.
She didn’t care if Jay had sided with Johnson or not. The man had to be stopped. Her sister too. So far, there’d been no signs of Maya. If she were close, she would’ve come to gloat by now—wouldn’t she? She’d want Becca to know she’d won.
Shit, her heart squeezed tight, the internal ache making her lungs seize. She couldn’t believe it—Jay and Maya working together—it made no sense. Not after what she did to him, but the promise of power changed people. Maybe it had changed him too?
Maybe their shared past had twisted him so completely he’d abandoned everything he stood for? Everything he believed in?
