His Purrfect Mate (4 page)

* * *

Upstate New York

The fundraising ball was being held in a 19
th
century Queen Anne style mansion, the same spot it was held every year.  It was a massive building which stood on a hilltop, sprawled out over manicured grounds, with gabled roofs and rounded towers visible from miles away.

The strains of
Fur Elise
drifted through the air, and Chloe tugged nervously at the bust line of her dress. With an eye towards her nonexistent clothing budget, Henry had borrowed a red evening gown from his sister, slapped red lipstick on Chloe, done something with an eyeliner pen, and piled her hair up in a neat, shiny chignon at the back of her head.

She was pretty sure that she wasn’t fooling anyone.

She was clutching a Cosmopolitan in her sweaty hand, tottering around in high heeled silver pumps and praying she didn’t break an ankle.  The room was full of academics and wealthy men and women in tuxes who flashed big Chiclet-teeth smiles for the cameras of the local media. People kept trying to make small talk with her, and she kept stammering out the same polite answers and watching their eyes glaze over as they drifted away.  She wanted to find a closet to hide in.

“Henry, the agreement was, you would pretend to be my date until Kenneth leaves,” Chloe
muttered, elbowing Henry in the ribs.

“I
am
pretending to be your date! I’m standing right next to you! Ooh, canapés. Try one!” Henry grabbed one from a tray and winked at the waiter, who winked back.

“You’re flirting with other men,” she pointed out.
“Openly.”

“Well, I am gay.”

“Yes, but Kenneth doesn’t know that! So act straight for one more hour, for the love of God.”

“Fine, fine,” Henry let out a long, exasperated sigh. “I am going to go get us some of those miniature tarts.  I
’ll be back shortly.”

“Don’t go far! Honey,” she added loudly, in case Kenneth was anywhere nearby.

She scanned the room anxiously.  When would that jerk show up? It was five minutes to nine, and she just wanted to get this over with.

A very handsome man in a tuxedo
standing across the room met her gaze and smiled.  He was broad-shouldered, with close-cropped hair and a military bearing. She glanced behind her shoulder, puzzled, then back at the man, who was still smiling at her.

Annoyed, she looked away. Obviously he was looking
at somebody behind her. That had happened to her three times already tonight. Somebody waved and smiled at her, she smiled and waved back, wanting to be polite, only to realize that the person was waving at somebody else. Well, she wasn’t going to make a fool of herself yet again. How much mortification did one person have to endure for an evening?

“Looking for someone?”
Kenneth said from right behind her, making her jump and spill half her drink down the front of her dress.  He was wearing a shiny black tuxedo with a perfectly knotted blue silk bowtie, and clinging to his arm was a slender platinum blonde with huge blue eyes. She had a tiny button nose and a mouth shaped like a glossy pink heart. She wore a dress that looked as if it were made of black liquid silk, fitting her as if it had been poured over her slim body, rippling and flowing like a river.

Looking at her clinging to Kenneth gave Chloe an odd, sickly feeling in her stomach which she had never experienced before.

Chloe glanced down at her dress. It was loose in the bust, and tight in the hips, and now there was a stain on the front that was shaped like a chicken, and she was regretting her decision to carry her sweater slung over her arm.  She should have handed it in at the coat check.

High society and Chloe didn’t mix.

“I’m looking for my boyfriend,” she said desperately. “We’re practically engaged, actually.”  Where the hell was Henry?

“Is that a sweater?” the blonde asked her incredulously, eyes widening.

“What does your boyfriend look like?” Kenneth asked politely, but she could sense the skepticism in his smile. “Let me help you find him.”

“He’s
got bleached blond hair, he’s wearing a plaid jacket…”

“
That man over there?” He inclined his head at Henry, who was standing in a corner making out with the waiter. The waiter was still holding the tray in his left hand, and people were walking by, grabbing canapés off of it.

Tarts.
  Riiight. He’d gone to seek out tarts. She mentally added a new item to her to-do list for tomorrow: stab Henry through the heart with a fountain pen.

“No, no…ah…another
blond guy in a plaid jacket.” Right. Because the room was crawling with them. She edged away, holding her sweater in front of the stain, blinking hard and trying not to hyperventilate. She gave the bust of her dress another tug, holding it in place.  “He’s here somewhere.”

Kenneth turned to the blonde. “Tiffany, or whatever your name is, do you see that man over there?
Silver haired man standing by the bar? Richard Bogdanovich.  Loves younger women. Just got divorced from his fourth wife and he’s looking for a fifth. And he’s never learned to hold out for a pre-nup.”

Chloe watched in amazement as Tiffany practically left scorch marks in her rush across the room
.

“
She’s fast for a human.  How did you know all that about him?” Chloe asked.

“I didn’t. I have no idea who he is.   Let’s get out of here quickly before she finds out I was
lying.  The sculpture garden is supposed to be lovely.” He inclined his head towards the back door.

Chloe took a deep breath, and quickly downed what was left of her drink. 
A walk in the dark with the devil himself? Sure, what could possibly go wrong?

I bet that’s what my grandmother thought the first time she laid eyes on Kenneth’s grandfather
, Chloe thought warily. 
Right before she went crazy.

“
Fine. Let’s get this over with,” she said.

Playa Linda

The
supposed princess glanced up from her iPad, looking alarmed.

“
‘She’s too smart for us?’ ” Bobbi repeated scornfully. “Does that sound like something Jax would say?”

“Crap,” Pixie said.
“Hell no. He always thinks he’s the smartest one in the room. You’re right.”

“He set this whole thing up to throw us off.
That bastard. That brilliant bastard,” Bobbi said, caught between homicidal fury and admiration.  “I am going to…I don’t even know what I’m going to do to him, that’s how pissed off I am.”

“He double-crossed us.
That son of a whore.” Pixie shook her head.

“Worse. He double-double crossed us. He pretended he didn’t want us to follow him here just to throw us off his scent.”

“So he four-crossed us! I hate being four-crossed.”

“It’s all I can do not to shift and rip someone’s throat out right now, I swear to God,” Bobbi hissed.

“Hey, don’t look at me! It was your boyfriend and your brother. And you totally fell for it.”

Bobbi leaned across the bed and grabbed the girl’s laptop.  She held it up to show Pixie.  The princess who supposedly couldn’t speak English had been updating her Facebook page. In English.

“Motherfucker,” Pixie said.

The girl quickly pulled her earphones out of her ears and stood up. “So I can go home now?” she said. “Jax said as soon as you figured it out I could go home.”

“How much did
Jax pay you for this little charade?”

“Five hundred bucks.”

Pixie and Bobbi raced into the living room.  Jax and Heath, of course, were gone. Sitting on the sofa was a large manila envelope.

Bobbi grabbed it and ripped it open.  Inside was a briefing on Bobbi’s
real assignment.  When she saw it, Bobbi let out a stream of curses, as the “princess” sauntered past them, purse slung over her shoulder, and left the apartment.

“Let’s go,” Bobbi sai
d, gritting her teeth. .

“What’s our assignment?” Pixie said, following her out the door.

“Okay, you know how a lot of our bodyguard assignments are basically babysitting jobs?”

“Yeah…”

“This is literally a babysitting job.  Prince Reginald the Third, an eight year old cheetah shifter, is in town because he wanted to go to Disney Land. We are supposed to accompany him to Disney Land. His parents, who are the monarchs of some tiny Asian country I’m not going to bother to try to pronounce, are away attending important matters of state for the next two weeks..  He’s at a hotel with his nanny, and the two shifter bodyguards that Jax left at the hotel have been ordered to leave at 8 p.m. whether we show up or not. We’ve got about 20 minutes to get there.”

“Wait. Whoa. We are really going to do this?”
Pixie protested, as they rushed to Bobbi’s car.

“We can’t leave an
eight-year-old unprotected.  We’ll go there and wait until we can get a team from Shifters, Inc. to show up and relieve us.  Then we’re going wolf and bear hunting.”

“And then?”

“When I find Jax, I am seriously going to throw down.  There will be blood on the streets.”

“Goodie!” Pixie rubbed her hands together gleefully.
“Just promise me we won’t be stuck with the kid for too long. Brats and me…we don’t mix.”

“Don’t worry.  We won’t be there a minute longer than we need
to. Now, call Tyler and find out what the hell’s really going on. And needless to say, we’ll never take our assignments from Jax again.”

Pixie grabbed her cell phone and dialed.

Jax and Heath, she found out, were taking a private courier plane to a small, war-torn country called Turak, in the Middle East, to talk to a family of antique dealers who might have knowledge about a series of art thefts at Kenneth’s homes.

They were to offer the family
safe passage out of Turak, in exchange for any information that they might be able to provide.

If Kenneth had been there, Bobbi knew, he would have discussed the assignment face to face with all of them, and they would have worked out who would be best suited for the job.

Tyler, however, was completely frazzled by being handed control of Shifters, Inc., even temporarily. He’d done his best, but he hadn’t followed through and verified with Bobbi and Pixie that they’d accepted their assignment.

If he had,
Jax would never have gotten away with his shenanigans.

“Now how are we going to find them? Are we going to have to wait until they get back?” Pixie wondered.

“Hells to the no,” Bobbi said.  “Leave it to me. I know people, in places. I will get us there, and steal the assignment out from under their sorry snouts.”

Kenneth was probably going to bite her head off when he got back from New York, but she didn’t care.  She wasn’t going to be sidelined with a babysitting job while her boyfriend and her brother ran head first into danger.

She picked up her phone and started making calls. She had worked for the National Shifter’s Council for years as an Enforcer; she’d developed many connections worldwide, ranging from legal to highly shady. Tonight, she was tapping in to the shady side.

They pulled up in front of the hotel minutes later, parked, and entered the lobby.    They spotted the prince immediately; he was standing in the middle of the spacious lobby, ne
xt to a middle aged woman and two human bodyguards. The bodyguards weren’t employees of Shifters, Inc. Bobbi realized that the prince probably travelled with his own security staff.

“There go Thom and Rafael,” Pixie said, pointing.

Bobbi spotted two big, bulky shifters in suits rushing out a side door.    She suspected that Jax wouldn’t really have told the bodyguards to leave no matter what; he’d have told them to watch out for her, and leave as soon as she was pulling up to the front door. That way, she’d be stuck with the safe babysitting job, while he and Heath rushed headlong into a war zone. Or so he thought.

Forcing a smile on her face, she walked up to the
woman, who was pleading with Prince Reginald to stop jumping on the leather sofa.  Businessmen and women at the check-in counter were glaring at him.

“Cut that out,” Bobbi snapped at Reginald. She turned to the nanny
, a middle-aged, copper-skinned woman with a round, creased face and hair pulled up in a bun.   She was a crocodile shifter, which actually made a strange sort of sense. Crocodiles, unlike many other reptiles, had strong maternal instincts and were fiercely protective of their young.  “I’m Bobbi Simpson, from Shifters, Incorporated.”

“I
am Gopika, nanny to Prince Reginald.” Her accent was that of an Indian woman educated in an English school.  “Thank you so much for coming. You are a coyote, yes? So you have sharp teeth and you are very cunning.  Reginald, dear, please do stop that!”

“Why should I?” Reginald folded
his arms across his chest and pouted. “Who’s going to make me?”

“I will,” Pixie snapped. “And show that woman some respect, or I’ll beat your ass.”

Everybody except Bobbi gasped.

Reginald’s eyes flew open with shock.  Then they filled with tears.  He took a deep breath as if he were about to let out a mighty bellow. Before he could say anything, Pixie pointed at a group of businessmen
who were standing by the check-in counter. “See that fat guy over there? Run over there, and kick him in the shins.”

Before Bobbi could protest, before anyone could say anything, the prince leaped off the sofa, ran over, and kicked the man in the shins, with Pixie in hot pursuit.

“I am SO sorry!” Pixie cried, grabbing Reginald up in her arms. “My little brother is out of control these days! We need to adjust his medication.  Reginald, say sorry.”

“Sorry,” he
smirked.

The fat man glared at him.  “He doesn’t need medication. He needs incarceration. Get that brat away from me before I press charges.”

Pixie rushed back to Bobbi.  “Up to the room, now,” Bobbi snapped.

They all trooped over to the elevator. 

“All right, what did you do?” Bobbi said with resignation as the doors closed.

Pixie pulled a wallet, a Rolex watch, and
a box of Tic-Tacs out of her pocket. She opened the Tic-Tacs and popped two in her mouth.

“What?” she said to Bobbi. “The box hadn’t been opened!”

Then she handed the Rolex to the prince. “Here, since you helped me, you get half,” she said. “I’m keeping the wallet.”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Bobbi growled in disgust.

Reginald began dancing up and down in the elevator with excitement. “Show me how you did that! Show me! Show me!”

“Only if you behave.
Settle down, already, you’re giving me a headache,” Pixie instructed him as they reached their floor, and he instantly stopped dancing around and followed her, worshipfully, down the hallway into the luxury penthouse suite.

“These men who are with you, they’re the prince’s personal bodyguards?” Bobbi asked
Gopika.

“Yes, he always travels with them. However, his parents like to have
local security watching over him, as well, since they will be more familiar with the area and any threats he might face.”

Bobbi
nodded. “Thank you. There has been a little bit of a mixup with the assignments tonight, but I am about to get you two excellent bodyguards who will provide the prince with top-notch, dedicated protection during his visit here.”

She walked over to the window so she could speak in private
,  and dialed Tyler’s cell phone number as she watched Pixie askance.  Pixie was letting Reginald practice picking her pocket while Gopika pretended not to notice.

Anything to keep the kid quiet, she thought with exasperation. I just have to get Pixie out of here before she turns the kid into a professional felon.

“Tyler, you will have two bodyguards come to the hotel, immediately.  As you know, Jax and Heath tricked me into taking this assignment.  It’s not happening. Why? Well, for one thing, Pixie’s teaching the prince how to pickpocket. Yes, you heard me.  You want his parents to come back and find out that he’s now, literally, a cat burglar? I thought not.  I have arranged for a plane to fly us to Turak. The plane is leaving in six hours. It will drop us off outside of Turak, and then we’ll fly back with Jax and Heath.   Never mind how I found a plane. Just start getting our paperwork ready.”

It took about half an hour before the bodyguard
s showed up. While they waited, Pixie taught Reginald how to cheat at cards, and Bobbi sat and planned various gruesome revenge scenarios involving her double-dealing boyfriend.

When the two new bodyguards walked in,
Reginald pouted and stamped his feet. He pointed at Pixie.  “I want her to stay!” he told Gopika, eyes filled with tears. “She can be my new nanny when you leave next month.” Then, suddenly, he grabbed his nanny’s hand. “You can both be my nanny. I’ll have two nannies.”

“
We have to go now, or we’ll be in trouble with our boss,” Bobbi told him. “We’ll be back in one week, and you’ll still be here.  If you behave, we’ll go to Disneyland with you when we get back.”

“You promise?” he asked doubtfully.

“Yes, and think of all the pockets we can – ow! I mean, all the rides we can ride on,” Pixie said, rubbing her arm where Bobbi had punched her.

Despite Reggie’s tearful protests, they headed out quickly.

“I don’t have a passport, by the way,” Pixie said, as they pulled away from the hotel.

“Good, because you’re not coming.
Shut up!” Bobbi said, before Pixie said anything. “Take you with me into a war torn country, when I need to concentrate on the mission and can’t get distracted by trying to keep you alive? You, with all your piercings and rainbow hair, in a Muslim country, standing out like a glowing beacon and drawing attention to us?”

“
I can dye my hair black in like no time.  I’ll take out my piercings and wear a veil and dress up like a modest Muslim girl,” Pixie said. “It’ll be like fun. Like it’s Halloween and I’m wearing a costume.  Come on, of the two of us, I can break into buildings much faster, and nobody’s wallet is safe from me. Nobody’s.  You need my skills. We can get Tyler to make us whatever fake paperwork  we need real quick before the plane takes off.”

“This is a terrible idea.” Bobbi already knew she’d lost.

“As are all your ideas. All right, then it’s settled.  Road trip!” Pixie rubbed her hands together gleefully.