“Fernando.” He turns back around to face me. “What is your game here?” he asks me again.
“You’re the one that kidnapped me.”
“Yes but—”
“Did you hear that?” I slip off the bed. He snags me around the waist, pulling me into his body. His hand goes over my mouth. We stand there completely still. I tilt my head back to try and look up at him. His head is cocked to the side, and I think he’s listening for sound. My body relaxes into his. Something presses hard into my back. I’m guessing it’s his gun.
“Meow.”
“Hmm!” I try to speak from behind his hand. I start to struggle to get free of his hold. There is a cat! He can’t possibly expect me to be quiet when there is a furbaby in the vicinity.
“Don’t do that.” He drops his hand from my mouth. The one around my waist, however, stays wrapped around me.
“Do what?” He keeps saying that. “Breathing?”
“You’ll continue to breathe,” he orders.
I laugh but stop when I hear another meow.
“There’s a kitten.” I don’t know why I whisper it, but I do.
“Stay put.” He releases his hold on me, pulling a gun out from the back of his pants. I thought it had been in the front. Oh. Heat rushes my face when I realize what was poking into my back. Fernando leaves the bedroom.
I wait a few seconds before I lean out to see down the hallway. I watch as he slowly opens the door, revealing a tiny kitten standing in front of it.
“A kitten!” I squeal, rushing down the hallway.
“I told you to stay put.” Fernando leans down and scoops the kitten up into his hand. It appears even smaller in his giant mitt. It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I reach out to pet it. Fernando brings it into his chest as he kicks the door back closed.
“It’s so fluffy.” It is pure white with the bluest eyes. “Can we keep it?”
“Keep it?”
“We can’t leave it outside all alone. Who would do such a cruel thing?” He stares down at me, his brows pulled together. Suspicion is written all over his face. “Please,” I start to beg. “I’ll be like the best kidnapped person ever. I promise.”
“You already said you would.”
“Well, I can start being bad.” I raise my chin the same way I’ve seen Angelica do when she was ready to go toe to toe with anyone.
“You already are. I told you to stay in the bedroom.”
“How about I stay in the bedroom with the kitten?” I suggest. Before he can respond, another meow comes from the other side of the door. “Another!” I try to open it, but Fernando blocks me, handing over the kitten.
“Back,” he orders. I do as I’m told and take a step back. He opens the door again. There stands who I’m guessing is the Mama with two more kittens in tow.
I grin. “This is the best day ever.”
3
BUTCHER
Bianca is on her knees petting the kittens as they crawl over each other to get to her. Her light brown hair falls into her face, and one of them takes a swipe at it.
She giggles and scoops it up. “You’re sassy. You remind me of my sister.” She kisses it on the nose, then hands it over to the mother cat. Then she looks up at me with her doe eyes. “We can keep them, right?”
We? I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. It becomes more painfully apparent with each second I spend in her presence. I never should’ve stolen her. What was I thinking? I guess that’s the thing–I wasn’t.
“Right?” she asks again.
“I …” I wave a hand at her.
She takes that as a yes, because she squeals in excitement and snuggles one of the kittens.
They must’ve come from the old barn on the property. I don’t use it much, only when I need an especially secluded spot to do my dirty work. But these days, I do all that at Antonio’s place or at our warehouse. I haven’t been back to the barn in over a year. I look around at the house, an old farmhouse that I revamped into a modern home with all the technology to keep it secure.
“They’ll need food and litter and toys.” She smiles up at me. “Lots of toys.”
It’s not as if I can magic those things out of thin air. I’ll have to drive somewhere closer to the city and find a pet supply store, but that would mean leaving Bianca here by herself. Just thinking it makes something twist in my chest.
“What is it?” she asks.
“What?”
“You have a funny look on your face.”
“Nothing.”
She puts the kitten down next to its mother and gets to her feet. “Let’s go to a pet store. We can get all the things we need.”