Page 32 of A Cougar's Kiss
“Don’t ever do that again!”
“Do what? Help the situation by coming up with a clever ruse to throw the cops off the fact that we knew exactly what was going on a few feet from our house?”
“No!” he said lowering his face to hers. “Don’t ever tempt another man while you’re in front of me.”
Now that wasn’t what she’d expected to hear, especially since everything she’d done and said had been exactly what she’d just told him, a ruse. Yet, Keller was clearly seething with rage and a little something more that she’d never scented before.
“I was playing the part,” she said.
“You played it too well,” he replied, pressing his body against hers.
“And you were going to get us caught,” she countered before pushing him away from her. “His questions weren’t off the mark. It is insane that something happened right outside of this place and we didn’t hear anything. How could that be Keller?”
She walked across the empty space of the room because she needed to be away from him, to think straight for a moment. This night, these past few nights had been filled with so much up and down of emotions and thoughts that Shya wasn’t sure she could hold on much longer. A part of her was beginning to feel like maybe she’d bitten off more than she could chew. One minute she wanted to do something more, to know things that others didn’t want to tell her and to record those things on the off chance that they might mean something at some point. The next, she was on the conference room table all but begging Keller to take her virginity and now she was here, above ground seeing dead bodies, feeling the tension from four angry shifters and being treated to nice, caring Keller one minute and brooding, angry as hell Keller the next. She was bound to get whiplash from all the quick twists and turns going on in her life now.
“Because those people weren’t killed out front. Their throats weren’t yanked out here and just for the record, people don’t usually make a lot of noise when they no longer have a throat!”
She spun around because she didn’t like his sarcastic tone.
“No, they don’t but that only begs the question, why here? Why now? And who the hell would do something like this?”
The minute the question was out they both stopped.
“The Desert Cat,” she whispered.
“Cats don’t have red eyes,” he said. “I distinctly saw red eyes across the street. I chased it and saw red eyes again. I know I’m not mistaking that.”
“But Cole said it was killing indiscriminately. Why did he tell you that? What else do you know?”
She watched him pull back. A muscle in his jaw twitched and he clenched his fists before turning away and going to stand by a window.
“I’m going to go down and help them with the bodies. The police are pulling out now but they’ll be back and I’m certain Blandings is going to leave someone here to keep an eye on us.” He cursed. “So now that we’re gonna have an audience we have to be extra careful. I’m gonna have to call for another vehicle to be brought around to the back of the house.”
“And that’s it?” she asked folding her arms over her chest. “You get to keep all your secrets, but I’m supposed to spill my guts whenever you ask me a question. Is that how this works?”
“I don’t even know what “this” is!” he roared back in response before dragging his fingers through his hair.
Shya hadn’t physically jumped at the sound, but inside she’d startled. He was angry there was no doubt, but there was also pain, the eerie sour smell wafting through the air around him as he moved. The cinnamon scent she normally associated with Keller was now awash with these new scents, these different emotions that were now plaguing him and it both confused and intrigued her to the point she didn’t know what to do or say in response.
“Well, I don’t have any more answers for you either, Keller. You go and do what you need to do, and I’ll stay out of your way.” Of course, that was easier said than done especially since she was no longer in the place she’d called home and there was no one here on her side, no one who would understand what she was going through, especially not after all she’d done.
But no matter how confused and disenchanted she felt at this very moment, Shya was not a quitter, nor was she inclined to beg to be let into Keller’s life any more so than she’d already infiltrated it. She walked away first, heading directly to the elevators and praying that he didn’t follow her. Once she was upstairs in the room she prayed again, this time that what she was about to do was the right decision for her and for all the shifters it would impact. Without waiting for an answer to that prayer, or any other divine guidance, Shya pulled out her board and prepared to send a message. Before she could do that, she paused, because the moment she switched it on, there was a purple light blinking on her board signaling she had a message.
There should have been no messages to her because nobody knew she had this board. She’d made sure to take an unassigned board and she’d even gone into the system to erase the product number from their inventory. Her fingers shook as she positioned them over the keys and pressed the appropriate ones to open the message. There was a burning sensation in her chest.
Where the hell are you? Your father is going crazy!
