Here Kitty, Kitty! (6 page)

Angie took the skirt from the clerk, putting her bag down in one of the chairs.  She held it up against her body as she stared at herself in the mirror. 
Cute
.  And an Armani original.

“Does Nik Vorislav have an account here?”

“His family does, yes.”

“Great.  Charge this to that…and anything else I find to amuse me.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She giggled as she wondered the best way to make sure Vorislav saw the price tag.  She loved the look he got on his face when she did that.

“Enjoying Vorislav’s money, are we?”

Angie glanced over her shoulder, quickly realizing they had her surrounded.  Six of them.  All gold and gorgeous.

She turned slowly, her eyes straying to the bag she’d brought into the store with her.  Nope.  She’d never make it before they ripped her apart.  And, yet…she got the feeling they didn’t want to hurt her.

“As a matter of fact, yes I am.”

One of the females laughed, “Good.”

Another one, holding a phone, looked Angie up and down.  “Are you Angelina Santiago?”

No point in lying now. 
But Angie couldn’t help but return the once over before answering, “Yeah.”

She handed Angie the phone, “Here.”

Completely confused, Angie took it.  “Hello?”

“Is this Angelina Santiago?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, hi there!  This is Victoria Löwe.”

“Who?”

“Long story short, I’m a lioness looking for a truce.”

“With who?”

“With the Magnus Pack.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“Well, I’ve tried to communicate with Sara Morrighan, but she refuses to talk to me or any of us.”

The other females stepped away to look at the clothes while Angie used the phone.  “You think that could be because you killed her mother?”  One of them picked up a hideous dress and Angie frowned.  The woman caught her expression.  She held it up and Angie shook her head.  “No way,” she mouthed at her.

She didn’t know these people and they were the mortal enemies of her best friend, but dammit, bad fashion was bad fashion.  And she couldn’t let someone go through life thinking that dress was okay.

“I didn’t do anything, Ms. Santiago.  In fact, I wasn’t even born yet.  But all that aside, the Withell Pride is dead and gone.  I’d like us to move past this.  The entire cat nation would like that as well.”

Cat nation?  There’s a cat nation?

Angie took the horrid dress from the woman’s hands and put it back on the rack.  She grabbed a sexy little gold number and held it up against the woman’s body.  “So what do you want from me?”

“Talk to her.  Get her to speak to me.”

The dress would look great on the woman, so Angie gave her a strong nod of approval.  “I don’t get into Sara’s business and she doesn’t get into mine.  It’s helped us have a very long, healthy relationship.”

A tug on her arm turned Angie around to face a cute outfit on the wrong female.  She grimaced.  “No.  No.”  She took the outfit and tossed it on top of the racks.

“No, no, what?”

“Not you.”  Angie dragged the female over to another rack across the floor.  She found an elegant suit with the woman’s name—whatever name that may be—written on it.  The female blinked in surprise, then smiled.  “Look.  I can talk to Sara, but talk don’t mean shit to her.  If you want a truce with Sara Morrighan, you better be prepared to show her how far you’ll go.”

“And how far is that?”

“I have no idea.”  Hell, with Sara, it could be Mars.

“Look.  All I want is to talk.  And wouldn’t you like that too?”

“Personally, I could care less.”  Another tug, she turned and gave an immediate nod of approval.  At least one of them had some taste.

“What about your friend?  The one about to breed?  You’d like her to be safe, wouldn’t you?”

Angie froze, “Are you threatening me?”  If she had to, she’d kill every cat in the Continental United States if it kept Miki and her future niece or nephew safe.

“No.  But we want our kids safe too.  See what I’m saying?  This could be a benefit for all of us.”

Angie pried a dress several sizes too small out of another female’s hands.  “Don’t be ashamed.  There’s nothing wrong with the ‘X’ in front of that ‘L’.”  She gave the woman something more her size.

“I’ll try and talk to her.  But I’m not promising anything.”

“Fair enough.”

Angie waved away a bad pair of sandals as she closed the phone, handing it back to one of the females.

“Should I be concerned that you people found me here?”

The one holding the phone shook her head.  “No.  We weren’t looking for you.  We just happened to see you walking around town.  Everyone knows Victoria is trying to get a truce going.  We thought we might be able to help.”

“And how did you know who I was?”

“Are you kidding,” she laughed.  “Everybody in town knows the Vorislav boys took you.  Those tigers.  They’re crazy.”

“Besides,” another added.  “You don’t smell like you’re from around here.”

Angie let that freaky and disturbing statement pass as Nik stormed into the store.  “Where the hell did you go?”

The lionesses all smiled.  “Hey, Nik,” they all said as one.

Nik’s face dissolved into a delicious grin.  “Well, hey, ladies.  How y’all doin’?”

Angie rolled her eyes in disgust. 
Christ, is there any woman in this town the man hasn’t stuck his cock into?

Angie grabbed her bag from the sports store and the clerk handed her a bag holding her new skirt.  She walked up to Nik, but he seemed much more interested in the lion females.

But she knew exactly how to get a man’s attention. 
Any
man’s attention.

“Look at what I got, Hillbilly.”  She took off the watch she’d purchased when he’d gone to the bathroom nearly an hour before.  She held it up in front of his face.  “A Tag Heuer.  The lovely gentlemen at the jewelry store said he’d be happy to put it on your account.”  Angie backed up, dangling the shiny new watch.  “Isn’t it pretty and shiny, little kitty?  And expensive?”

Laughing at the expression on his face, she walked out of the store and knew, without looking, Nik would be right behind her.

***

He thought for sure she’d make him take her to one of the many expensive restaurants in town, to really solidify the afternoon of overindulgence, but instead she grabbed a cheeseburger, fries, and a cola from the local diner.  She took her food and headed into the park.  He followed, with a separate bag just for her ketchup.  Seemed she couldn’t tolerate her fries without loads of ketchup.

Now, as they sat across from each other at a picnic table, Nik couldn’t help but wonder if she were always like this or if she’d simply gone off her meds.

She silently ate her burger and fries, staring out at the park.  For a human, she really was mighty feline.  She liked watching other people, her shrewd eyes taking in everything.  And she loved to flirt.  Not with him, but with everyone else.  On their way to the diner, they passed a small group of Pride breeding males.  In typical lion fashion, the males checked her out like prime rib at a steak house.  But she didn’t return their appraisal with any shy glances or beguiling smiles.  Instead, she watched them walk past her, turning and walking backward on those four-inch heels like she was born with them on her feet.  And then, she nailed them with a killer grin that stopped them all in their big lion tracks.  He knew that smile.  He’d used it himself.  It was the smile that said “I’ll fuck you and no one will ever be good enough for you again.”

Unfortunately, she didn’t smile at him like that.  She mostly glared, smirked, or mocked.  And she seemed to be a real big fan of pissing him off.

“So there’s a cat nation?”

“Of course there is.  The dogs breed like rabbits.  They kind of outnumber us.  But being the biggest cats, my kind don’t worry too much.”

She grinned around her burger, “And a humble breed, I see.”

“What can I say?  Not a lot of breeds are like us.  Last I weighed in I was damn-near seven hundred pounds.”

“Too many carbs?”

“Funny.”

“I am…and I look fabulous in my new shoes.”

Again with those damn shoes
, “Do you goad everybody this much?”

“Me?  Goad?  Of course not.  I bring joy and life to all.  I’m sweet, charming, have a great sense of style…and if you wanna keep that hand, you’ll get it away from my fries.”

Busted.  “Come on.  Little gal like you can’t pack all this away by yourself.”

She stared at him for several long moments.  Then, with a shrug, she slapped his hand away when he came in for a second pass at her fries.

“Aren’t you a little worried about staying here under my protection?  You don’t know me from Adam.”

She chewed on her food thoughtfully, “No.  I’m not worried.”

“That seems a little strange to me.  I think I’d be worried.”

She took a sip of her coke.  “I slammed you with my head, hit you with a toilet, and shot a hole through your door.  You, however, threw me in a closet.”  She shrugged.  “So, no.  I’m not worried.”

He unwrapped his fourth burger, “I guess ya got a point.”

“I figure if you were gonna kill me, you would have done it by now.”

“I could always sell ya to the lions.”

“Well, if they look anything like that group we passed outside the diner…sell, sell, sell away!”

He debated about whether to hit her with the burger in his hand, but his hunger overrode his impulse.

“So you’re not married, are you?”

Nik choked on his burger.  He hit his chest several times to dislodge the beef while she watched him quietly.

“Why do you ask,” he wheezed out.

“Just a question.”

“My kind don’t get married.  We don’t settle down.  We live alone.  Happily.”

“So you’re not like the wolves?”

He shuddered, “No.  We are
not
like the wolves.”

“Interesting.”

“Really?”

“No.  Not really.  I’m just looking for shit to say.”

Angie’s phone rang.  He’d gotten her a new phone but with her old number so that she could keep in touch with her friends.

She pulled the gold-plated phone out of her Dolce & Gabbana handbag.  Nik guessed it would be those dog friends of hers.  He expected tears, soothing words about how she was doing fine.

What he didn’t expect…

***

“Don’t you dare yell at me, Sara Kylie Morrighan!”

“We’re coming for you.  Tonight!”

“Like hell you are!”  Angie stood up.  “I swear to god, you push me on this and I’ll make that scar on your face look like a fuckin’ scratch!”

“Here!”  Sara barked away from the phone.  “I can’t talk to her!”

Angie began pacing around the table.  “
She
can’t talk to
me
?  She’s being an irrational psychopath and she can’t talk to me?”

Nik worked on another burger—
how many was that now?  Forty?
—and watched her, but didn’t say anything.  She suddenly wanted to punch him in that handsome face, but that was cause she felt a little tense.  She stopped taking out her anger on others a long time ago.  Or at least she worked really, really hard not to.

“Hello?”

“And when the hell where you going to tell me you were pregnant?”

“I just found out!  I didn’t even have tests yet!”

“What do you mean you haven’t had any tests?  Then how the hell do you know?”

“Because they can smell it on me!  Like that’s not fuckin’ freakin’ me out! 
And why are you yelling at me
?”

“
I don’t know!” 
With a sigh, Angelina sat back down at the table, right beside Nik.

“Miki, you need to get control of Sara.  Now.”

“I don’t think she’s wrong.  I think we should come get your ass this damn second.”

“Miki Kendrick, I swear to God…”

“Angie, we don’t know these people you’re staying with.”

“They’re tigers…”

“Siberian,” he offered.

She glared at him over her shoulder, but barked into the phone, “Siberian, apparently.”

“Oh, really.  Well, according to Page six-hundred-and-ninety-five of the
Encyclopedia of Mammals
, male tigers are one of the most vicious and deadly predators known to man.  They’ll kill cubs just so they can get the female back into heat so that they can get her pregnant with their own.”

Angie used her free hand to rub her forehead.  “That’s fascinating, Kendrick.  But I really don’t think I have anything to worry about here.  You do.  So why don’t you focus on yourself for awhile?  You are the one about to breed.”

“I wish everybody would stop fucking saying that!”

“Oh, I’m sorry.  How about you’re the one about to experience the wonders of childbirth.”