‘That service gate, the one for machinery,’ Dog said. ‘We complained about not bein’ able to get in last night, and the guy who hired us said he’d get us in. He called and told us where to go.’
Lance knew the gate in question. It was rarely used, but they’d opened it this morning for the backhoe to get through. He would swear Alan had locked it back up afterwards, though. But Dog seemed to be implying that whoever hired them had made sure the gate would be unlocked. Who had access? Who would hire them? Alan? José? Gabe?
‘Who is this guy?’ he asked.
‘Like we’re going to tell you,’ Just said. ‘Are you in or out?’
‘He’s in,’ Dog said. ‘Why else would he be here?’
‘Yeah, why else?’ Lance felt both relieved and guilty that Dog put such faith in him. Now he didn’t have to answer the question. ‘So, what’s it gonna be? Tagging? Breaking stuff?’
A pair of cat eyes glittered as the pale moonlight caught them, giving Lance the sense that they were being watched, not just by those eyes, but by many, many more that they couldn’t see.
‘I dunno,’ Just said thoughtfully, looking around. ‘I’m bored. I’m thinkin’ maybe we’ll do something more fun.’
* * *
Pure bliss. Sensory overload. Like the finest chocolate in the world melting on her tongue while silk caressed her naked body and the sweetest symphony serenaded her ears.
She wanted more. Wanted – and needed. Felicia’s breasts peaked, begging to be touched, squeezed, suckled. As if in response to her silent plea, Gabe skimmed his hands along her waist up her ribcage, to rest tantalisingly beneath her breasts. Slowly, maddeningly, he slid up and brushed his thumbs across her nipples. Even through a layer of shirt and another of bra, the sensation flashed through her, from nipples to groin. She gasped and instinctively pressed harder against him, and the movement of her hips ignited him.
The exquisite kisses, the sharp probe of his tongue, made her crave the feel of his mouth elsewhere, everywhere. Brushing across bare skin. Nibbling at her breasts. Licking insistently between her legs, where she was already wet and aching. Spreading her lower lips and flicking across her swollen clit.
She cupped her hands around his firm ass and pulled him even closer. He pulled back, then ducked his head to put his mouth where his fingers had been. Through her clothes, she felt the warm pull, the scrape of teeth, and then an aching chill as the moisture that wet the cloth hit the cool night air.
He tugged the hem of her shirt out of her trousers. Yes! Warm, strong hands on bare flesh, finally. She didn’t care where they were. She only knew that she needed him. She reached for his belt buckle.
And froze.
‘What was that?’ she asked.
‘What was what?’ His voice sounded thick, distant.
She thought she’d heard something through the throbbing in her ears. Reluctantly, she swam up through the drugging layers of lust. As she neared the surface, a thought struck her so hard that she sobered, suddenly and immediately.
‘Stop it,’ she said, stepping back. Even though she knew it was for the best, her body felt bereft as his hands left her.
‘I thought you wanted –’
‘Are you just trying to distract me?’ she asked, tugging her shirt down.
‘What are you talking about?’
She found her flashlight, picked it up (aware all the time that he watched her bend over) and pointed it at him. ‘You’re not supposed to be on site,’ she said. ‘Are you distracting me while someone else tears things up? Or just trying to make me forget you shouldn’t be here?’
‘I could ask you the same thing,’ he said. ‘I saw you plotting with José and Mel.’
Felicia sputtered. ‘What the hell would we be doing? We love this place! That’s why we’re here.’
He didn’t have time to answer her. Shouts punctuated the night air, one sounding panicked.
They both took off at a run.
* * *
Lance tried to talk Just out of it, to no avail. Just swore he wasn’t going to hurt the cheetah, just mess up the cage a little. For the high. To show that he couldn’t just get in the facility, but he could also get into one of the cages.
Dog, being taller, gave Just a leg up. Just grabbed the chain link wall and hauled himself up further.
This was bad. Very bad. Lance didn’t stop to think. He jumped and started to climb the wall himself, with the half-formed intent of pulling Just back down. The chain link rattled, and Caramel snarled.
He didn’t have the boost Just had had, and Just’s climbing motion made the cage wall shake, forcing Lance to hold on tighter and consider his moves carefully. So Just made it to the top first and swung a leg over.
Either Just’s plans were less formed than Lance’s, or Just simply hadn’t realised that the covering at the top of the cage was just an open-weave mesh stretched loosely across. The cats couldn’t climb or jump that high, so there was no need for a solid top, just something to keep the birds and debris out. The Sanctuary’s peacocks enjoyed perching up there and taunting the cats into a frenzy.
Just, of course, ripped the mesh away from the wall. His leg plunged through the opening, and he shouted in shock and fear. Dog yelled something incomprehensible, either a useless suggestion or belated warning.
Lance redoubled his efforts, catching Just’s ankle before his friend toppled into the cage. Cheetahs might be some of the most human accepting of the big cats, relatively speaking, but that didn’t mean Caramel wouldn’t lash out in fear and anger if Just landed in her private space.
Just’s foot was tangled in the mesh and, now that Lance had caught and steadied him, Lance hauled himself the rest of the way up and fumbled around until Just’s Doc Marten was freed.
Shouts, and the bobbing beams of flashlights. From all directions. It looked like the cavalry had arrived.
Just dropped to the ground ungracefully, but managed not to fall over. He and Dog took off towards the back of the facility, where the service gate was. They didn’t give Lance a second glance – leaving Lance, his hoodie snagged on an exposed piece of metal, literally hoisted by his own petard. At least, he thought that was what that phrase meant.
* * *
Gabe was taller, but Felicia had the benefit of frequent gym visits, and she kept pace with him. She saw José approaching from a different direction. Behind them, she heard still more pounding footsteps. Felicia swung her flashlight in an arc, trying to find the source.
‘North wall!’ It was Alan, shouting and pointing. He’d been running, too, and was half-doubled over, gasping for air.
Gabe took off in the direction Alan indicated.
The cheetah enclosure rattled. Felicia swung around, pointing her flashlight. To her shock and dismay, Lance dropped to the ground from near the top of the wall.
* * *
Gabe ran into the night after one of the vandals. There was more than one of them – he could hear at least two other sets of running feet in the darkness near by, all headed in the same direction. He didn’t take the time to look around, though. He was focused on the guy ahead of him.
The kid he was chasing had to be six three, six four, and most of that was leg. But that kid had been trying to hurt one of the cheetahs. Anger surged through Gabe, giving him a boost of added speed. Gradually, inexorably, he closed the gap.
Then the kid was stupid enough to look behind him. It slowed him, just barely, but just enough. Gabe gathered his strength and leapt. He caught the tall kid around the waist, and they both went down, hard.
Gabe pulled on the waistband of the boy’s jeans, trying to haul himself farther up the body. Unfortunately, the kid favoured the truly unpleasant fashion of low-rider jeans. Instead of giving Gabe the traction he needed, they slipped further down. A strip of white underwear flashed in the pale moonlight. Thank goodness he was wearing underwear, or it would have been a very different kind of moon.
The kid used the motion to his advantage, scrabb
ling in the dirt, squirming to evade Gabe’s grasp. He twisted, and his knee caught Gabe squarely under the chin.
Stars replaced the moon as Gabe’s head snapped back. He tasted the coppery scrape of blood and felt the flash of pain in his tongue. Dazed, he lost what little grip he had. The kid scrambled to his feet, hitched up his jeans and pelted away.
Gabe managed to get his hands beneath him and hauled himself up into a kneeling position, then upright on his knees. To his left, a flash of movement: the second boy, tailed by someone slight but lightning quick. The pursuer grabbed the boy’s jacket. He stumbled and turned. The pursuer got the boy’s arm twisted behind his back, but was too small to get an arm fully around his throat.
A moment later, the result was the same: a boy pounding away into the night and his pursuer bent at the waist, breathing heavily. And he heard a string of expletives in what sounded like…Chinese?
‘I got his hat, at least.’ Waving the black knit cap, Mel straightened and flashed a wry pixie-grin.
* * *
‘Are you two OK?’ Felicia asked as Gabe and Mel approached out of the shadows.
‘Nothing a hot soak with Epsom salts won’t cure,’ Mel answered.
‘I told you to stay inside,’ José said, a scowl creasing his handsome face.
‘You did,’ Mel agreed. ‘But I saw what was happening, and came out to help. Don’t worry, I locked the door, and Noelle is fine.’
‘She was a firecracker!’ Gabe said admiringly. ‘She almost took him down – my money was on her.’
Felicia felt a tiny wave of jealousy. She comforted herself with the knowledge that she’d already had the opportunity to have sex with Mel, so there.
‘You didn’t tell me you knew self-defence,’ José accused.
She shrugged. ‘I did ROTC to pay for college,’ she said. ‘It was on my résumé. Don’t tell me you hired me just for my looks?’
‘It obviously didn’t teach you to take orders,’ José said.
Mel bristled but, before she could show José just what she thought of his orders, Felicia intervened. ‘We have more important things to worry about,’ she said. ‘One of the cats could have been seriously hurt tonight – or one of the trespassers.’
‘How did they get in?’ Mel asked.
‘The gate on the back fence, the one for service vehicles,’ Alan said, returning to the group. He’d followed Gabe at a slower pace, and explained that he’d secured the gate after the boys had got away. ‘I know I locked it after the city guy drove the backhoe in.’
‘Someone else opened it again for them,’ Lance said. He leant on the fence, rubbing his shoulder. He sounded resigned.
‘You?’ José asked. ‘You opened it for them?’
Lance shook his head. ‘It wasn’t me, man. I didn’t know how they planned to get in.’
‘But you knew they were coming.’ Felicia pounced on his wording.
Lance sighed. In the flashlights’ glow, he looked younger and yet somehow older, too, a world-weariness weighing on him.
‘They came by earlier today and asked me if I wanted in on a job that paid really well,’ he said. ‘It was the stupid shit we used to pull – just busting things up, trashing stuff.’
‘Someone was paying them?’ Alan said. ‘Who?’
‘They wouldn’t spill. I told them…I said I’d think about it. It was stupid, and I didn’t want to, but, fuck, man, the money! I coulda really used that much cash.’
Felicia let his bad language slide – there were more important things to worry about. ‘What did you need the money for?’
He ducked his head, but not fast enough for her to miss the fact that his eyes slid towards Mel. ‘Just…stuff.’
‘Drugs?’ Gabe asked.
‘No way! I don’t do that shit any more.’
‘I believe you,’ Mel said, obviously having seen his shy look, too. ‘Just start from the beginning and tell us what happened.’
He relayed the conversation he’d had with his friends earlier that day, and then tonight, explaining that, before they’d even arrived, he knew he needed to stop them, talk them out of it somehow, or at least try to minimise the damage they did. When they’d gone for the cheetah enclosure, his decision had been solidified.
‘Just is an idiot,’ he said. ‘I should’ve let Caramel chew on him.’
Gabe rubbed his aching chin. ‘I’m with you on that one,’ he said.
‘Are you OK?’ Felicia asked.
‘Insofar as the kid’s knee and my chin have been intimate.’
She directed her flashlight beam at his face, and saw the spreading bruise. ‘I’ll get you something for that.’
‘We’ll meet you in the clinic,’ José said. ‘No sense standing out here in the cold.’
There was a First Aid kit in the main building, and ice packs in the fridge, but the café was closer. Felicia unlocked it and stepped inside, intending to grab a steak from the walk-in fridge. But, as she opened the door, she remembered the ice maker.
The fridge didn’t seem as cold as usual, but she chalked it up to the desert night air that held a hint of chill even now at the height of summer. Wrapping some ice in a dish towel, she hurried back across to the clinic, pausing briefly at Caramel’s cage, where the cheetah was sulking on top of her plywood ‘cave’. Most of the cats had fallen silent, apart from the occasional grumble. The immediate danger was over.
She handed the ice to Gabe and hopped up on the examining table next to Mel. Someone had turned on the small coffee maker, and the smell itself warmed her.
‘Why didn’t you tell anyone what your friends were planning?’ Alan was asking Lance.
Lance shrugged. ‘I dunno. I guess I didn’t want them to get into trouble. We go way back, you know? I thought maybe I could talk them out of being too stupid.’
‘It’s a good thing you were here,’ Mel said soothingly. ‘You prevented Caramel from getting hurt. But you should have told somebody.’
Felicia glanced around the room at the various men. José glowered, his male pride no doubt still bruised. Alan had his cop face on, assessing the situation without showing his thoughts or emotions. Gabe, the towel pressed to his jaw, looked thoughtful.
Felicia felt a wave of relief. Gabe hadn’t been involved with the vandalism. He wouldn’t have known to pay Lance’s friends; if he’d wanted to hire someone, he would’ve gone straight to Lance himself.
‘Well, I’m telling you now,’ Lance said defensively, a hint of his former bad-boy self sneaking through.
‘Why don’t you tell us your friends’ names?’ Alan asked. To Felicia, he added, ‘Maybe now is the time to go to the police.’
‘I’m still not convinced,’ Felicia said slowly. ‘If Lance agrees to be a witness and identify his friends, the best we’re going to do is get two vandals arrested. There’s no guarantee they’ll reveal who paid them – and that person is our real problem.’
‘It confirms that nothing that’s gone wrong recently has been random,’ Gabe said. ‘Now it’s a matter of figuring out just how much this person has been involved and, most importantly, who the hell it is.’
‘And why,’ Alan added.
‘Lance, do you think you can get your friends to tell you who paid them?’ Mel asked. ‘You could play the “I saved your life” card.’
‘I’ll try,’ Lance said.
Felicia stifled a giggle. If she wasn’t mistaken, his statement had an unspoken ‘for you’ following it. Their resident bad boy had a crush on Mel. Felicia didn’t blame him. She knew firsthand just how hot Mel was.
But José was shaking his head. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘How do we know Lance wasn’t involved? If we let him go, he’ll go running to his friends and they’ll all tell whoever’s at the heart of this – or maybe there isn’t anybody else, and that’s just their story to avoid getting into real trouble.’
Lance frowned, his expression darkening. He looked like he was going to get up and stalk out of the clinic.
Quickly, Felicia said, ‘It makes sense that someone else is involved. Too much weirdness has been going on and, like Gabe said, it’s not a surprise that it’s all related. And, quite frankly, if Lance was involved, why would he be sitting in here with us?’
‘How about this?’ Alan suggested. ‘You give me the names of your friends, and I’ll have them checked out. Quietly, of course,’ he added to Felicia. ‘No official police involvement.’
‘How many favours do you have left to call in?’ Felicia asked.
He grinned, the expression changing his face from homely to endearing. ‘Enough. I think I can find a couple of guys to swing by the boys’ homes once in a while. Seeing the black-and-whites a few times might make ’em think twice about wandering out here.’
‘Can’t hurt,’ Lance said. ‘They’ll do some stupid shit for money, but it won’t be worth prison to them.’
‘What about right now?’ Mel asked.
‘They won’t be back again tonight,’ Alan predicted. ‘They know we’ve seen them. They’ll lie low for a few days at least.’
‘Just in case, I can patrol around this end of the site,’ José said. ‘Noelle doesn’t need me here every second.’
‘I can handle the rest of the rounds as usual,’ Alan said.
‘Sounds like we’re in agreement, then,’ Felicia said, sliding off the table. ‘Now, how about a round of coffee before we head out?’
To her surprise, Lance followed her to the coffee maker and helped her prepare the drinks in a variety of mismatched mugs and a few Styrofoam cups.
‘Thank you,’ he said quietly.
‘The best way you can thank me is by staying clean,’ she said. ‘Don’t lie to any of us.’
He nodded, but his gaze was already across the room. Felicia bit back another smile. She wasn’t sure if she should say something about his obvious crush, not wanting to dash his hopes. But then Mel looked up and flashed him a big smile, and Felicia decided that it was between Mel and Lance, and none of her business.
The group fell mostly silent while they sipped their coffee, the adrenalin having drained away now that the worst of the danger was over. Felicia was aware of just how bone-weary she was. It had been a long day of physical exertion followed by a night of unwanted excitement.
Cat Scratch Fever Page 13
