Accidentally Catty (17 page)

However, Katie changed that notion. She could hear Delray, too. He’d known it the second she’d asked him what he’d eaten. She’d done a fine job of hiding it. He had to admire her for not running out of her office screaming, but instead, remaining the die-hard professional she clearly wanted everyone to know she was.

There had been a moment or two when Nina’s accusation that he was indeed a girl had quite literally become a reality. The first thing he’d wanted to do was run the hell out of Katie’s office and clap his hands over his ears to stop Delray’s incessant jabber.

But he wasn’t going to let some woman have one over on him. No matter how sexy she smelled, no matter how extraordinary she looked.

If she could take it, so could he.

And he had.

He’d also heard Delray’s parting shot to Katie. Whatever was going on at the animal park had to do with him, and as an end result, Katie.

Which meant, when the coast was clear, some investigation was in order.

For now, he’d just fancy her pear-shaped backside from his position at the window.

Or maybe see if Yancey or Dozer or one of the other dogs in the house was up for a debate on the economic situation. Which wasn’t good, if what he’d read on the Internet this morning with Ingrid was true.

Beck ran a hand over his chin, littered with dark stubble, in wonder.

He could hear dogs talk.

Jesus Christ.

 

 

“TINKERBELL,
I have one more question.” Katie held the small, fawn-colored Chi in her lap while she rocked the dog in a chair she’d handpicked for the boardinghouse play area. Toys suited for Tinkerbell’s size were scattered at her feet on the throw rugs she’d flung casually to allow the dogs some warmth on the tile floor.

Knowledge was power, right? So instead of letting this latest round of surprises freak her out, Katie decided to use it to her advantage.

If she was the literal version of the Dog Whisperer, then so be it. If Delray could hear grumblings at the animal park from way over the hill into the outer lying country roads that surrounded Piney Creek, maybe an animal that lived in town could offer more information.

Unfortunately, her first test on Yancey and Dozer was unsuccessful. They’d merely mumbled incoherent strings of words that made no sense in her head, and she hadn’t wanted to disturb the mob who’d slept peacefully beside Teeny. But Tinkerbell, Mrs. Krupkowski’s Chi, was a wealth of words and pampered pet demands.

She scratched Tinkerbell under her chin, her soft fur a comfort beneath her fingers. “So that question . . .”

“Well, like technically, it’s only been two. But I can see how you’d lose count,” Katie said, getting the hang of this Dr. Doolittle syndrome.

Tinkerbell sighed, leaning against her as Katie scratched her ears.
Fine, but if I answer a question, you have to totally promise you’ll tell the old lady I hate, hate, hate the pink skirt she got from Prettypooches .com. It’s soooo not a good color on me. And all that tulle is scratchy on my delicate skin. I’m much more a nice cantaloupe or even a honeydew. Everyone makes fun of me when I wear the pink tutu. I just don’t think I can stand it one more day if that stupid papillon Lisette makes fun of me when we go to the park. Like it’s all a crime to wear a tutu.

“I promise to pass the message on. Cantaloupe tutus. Now the question. How did you know you could talk to me and I’d hear you?”

Tinkerbell tipped her tiny nose in the air
. Duh. I, like, smelled you.

Katie held the dog up, letting her legs dangle while she captured Tinkerbell’s gaze. “Smelled me?”

“I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Katie remembered Delray’s words, ringing in her head before he’d left her office, and it prompted her to prod further. “Can you hear the other animals down the road, too? You know, the exotic animals in the park?”

Tinkerbell stretched her front paws out on Katie’s lap, nuzzling her nose between them.
Oh, totally. I mean, like, who can’t hear them like moaning all the time?

Katie’s pulse raced. “What do they moan about, Tink?”

Katie’s heart constricted. She’d known all along those animals were suffering—now she had proof. Okay, so maybe it was the kind of proof only a psychiatric patient confessed at therapy, but it was proof. “Have they made any mention of a cougar named Spanky?”

A warning signal slinked up her spine. “I don’t know if he’s new or old. I just know he exists.”

He hasn’t been there very long. Like, maybe just a few weeks. I remember hearing something about him and something about some experiment or something . . .
Tinkerbell’s bulbous, round eyes began to drift closed.

Shit, shit, shit. They were using the animals to experiment on them? Those bastards. She’d always known it. A slow spiral of angry heat wove its way into her belly and burrowed there. “An experiment? What kind of experiment, Tinkerbell?”

Katie rose, her heart chugging with fear. “Can I ask you one more favor, Tink?”

Katie placed the dog in one of the cages on her fluffy pink princess bed with the marabou trim. She leaned her elbows on the top of the cage to gaze upon a very tired Tinkerbell. “I am the key to your next treat, young lady. Helping me will only behoove you.”

Be-what?
Tinkerbell asked, groggy with sleep.

“Never mind. I mean, it’s in your best interest to help me.”

“Keep an ear out for me, would you? If you hear anything else from the animal park, use those ears for the greater good and listen to what they’re saying, okay? It’s really important.”

Tinkerbell moaned.
Ooookay.

Katie rubbed the dog’s jaw with a finger, and smiled at her. “Thanks, Tink.” She closed the cage door, secured it and turned to leave.

“I knew it.”

Katie whirled around at the sound of Beck’s gruff accent.

Beck approached her with feet that clomped over the tile floor. He stopped but an inch in front of her, all with his too-short flannel shirt and sex-on-a-stick scent.

Katie’s eyes narrowed. “Knew what?”

He pointed a finger under her nose as he gazed down at her. “I knew you heard Delray in that examining room, and you can hear Miss Fancy Pants here, too.” Beck thumbed his finger at Tinkerbell’s cage.

Beck’s eyes narrowed right back at her, blue, deep, and glittering. “You heard that,” he accused Katie, who had to slap her good hand over her mouth to keep from laughing in snort-like fashion.

“So?”

“So I heard it, too.”

“That’s all kinds of awesome, Beck You know what this means, don’t you?”

He jammed his face in hers and gave a low growl her body responded to by unintentionally leaning into him. “More revelations? I’m gobsmacked.”

“Quiet, young lady!” he seethed at Tinkerbell, shooting a glare in her direction. “What the hell is going on here, Katie?”

“Like I’d have the answer to that? You’re the one with the answers. I have no idea why I can communicate with dogs, and neither do you because of that amnesia you keep waving under my nose.”

Beck’s flare of irritation went as quickly as it had come and was replaced with a mixture of awe and vividly apparent confusion. “This is absolutely barmey.”

“I’m taking a stab here, but I’m guessing you mean crazy?”

“I do.”

“Yeaahhhh,” she said, fighting the irony of that statement. “You don’t need to tell me about the crazy. What we need to do is get your memory back and find out what happened to you at the animal park. Remember anything about any experiments? Does that notion ring a bell?”

Beck frowned, the wrinkles on his forehead leaving a troubled frown in their wake. “Experiments? No. Nothing. I don’t remember anything associated with the park but the name Daniel Green. Not at this point, anyway. I’m hoping that will change.”

Katie tucked her arm behind her back. “Tink here says she hears the animals moaning. She thinks they’re depressed, and she also mentioned experiments.”

“Well, if Tink, a dog, says so, it must be true. Aren’t Chihuahuas a breed well known for their ability to diagnose depression?” His look was disgusted.

Heeeeyyyy,
Tinkerbell muttered a sleepy protest.

She heard his sarcasm and cocked her head in its direction. “You’re disputing the validity of what I say? You wanna give that more thought? I’ll wait.”

He shook his dark head, his hair swinging down to fall over his stubble-riddled chin, giving him that sexy biker look. “Forget I said that. Okay, you’re right. That I doubted even for a moment should have me drawn and quartered. So what next?”

“We go to the animal park and see if we can
hear
those animals, too. If we can, the mystery of you is potentially solved, and we go from there.”

A shadow fell over his eyes, leaving a shroud of his hesitance visible. “You’re under a restraining order. You can’t go to the animal park without the possibility of arrest—most especially in light of Wanda and Nina’s predicament.”

Did he not want her to go because he was really concerned, or was he just stating a fact? Maybe what he didn’t want was for her to find something. “We don’t have a choice. If they were experimenting on the animals there, and those experiments had to do with you, we need to know about it. Tink says you only arrived there a few weeks ago, which is strange. Normally, when a new exotic arrives, they post flyers all over town so they can rake in more cash at the expense of some poor animal that’s supposed to roam free. Why do you suppose you were there, and did Daniel Green know you were half human?”

“All this and more answered on the next episode of
Escape from Paranormal Island
,” he muttered, mocking a narrator’s voice.

“Joke all you like, but I’m finding a way into that animal park tonight.”

“Not without me, you aren’t.”

A shot of pleasure zinged through her veins at the possessive tone of his statement. Her . . . Beck . . . the deep velvety cover of night, the . . .
the gay part of that equation, Katie
.

Her pleasure fizzled like cold water had doused her sunbathed skin. “Okay. So we wait until the staff’s gone home and break in in the hopes we can find something—anything—that will give us a clue about what happened to you. We need to find out what’s going on with you so you can, I don’t know . . . get back to your life.”

Beck assessed her from beneath hooded eyes, his next words devoid of any emotion other than empty and colorless. “My life.”

“Yes.
Your life
. You must have had one before this. It will also mean I can get back to mine.” Her big, fat life. Big. Full. Fabulous.

“Because it was so full,” he remarked, giving Tinkerbell a scratch on the head before making his way to the door.

“Hey!” she yelped, pushing her way through the door he held open for her. “I was well on my way to making it full until you showed up. I just want to get back to normal. You know, the days where I do nothing but sit around and hope for patients? Those days held a certain kind of comfort in their quiet anonymity.”

“And they all consisted of running away from something. That’s why you take the piss when people in town treat you like their roadside rubbish.”

“I do not.” Though, admittedly, it was hard to be affronted. He wasn’t far from the truth.

He took hold of her arm when they crossed the lawn, turning her to face him. “Of course you do, Katie. I’m not sure
why
you do, but you do.”

Anger at his accuracy made the tips of her ears burn. She hadn’t always been so willing to let life and the people in it trample her, but her shame was bigger than her will to fight back these days. Everyone in town knew the sordid events of her arrival. After leaving New York with the kind of shattered reputation she’d had, how could she expect the people of Piney Creek to see her in any other light but a tainted one?