Eat Your Heart Out: A Romance Charity Anthology

by Skye MacKinnon

  So, now, here she was. A tiny house in the North Bay with a large back yard that opened into the Marin Headlands. Her biggest complaint was chasing off rabbits, although those weren’t the only wildlife she had to worry about; it wasn’t unheard of for mountain lions to be spotted around here.

  No, the wildlife wasn’t her biggest complaint. Her biggest complaint was that she was lonely. She loved her garden, loved her plants. But what she’d love even more was the ability to share her days with someone else.

  Preferably someone who loved a good vegetable pun.

  “I want to-mate-oh man who loves veggies,” she said, then snorted with laughter.

  As she calmed down and tended her tomato seedlings, though, the back of her neck prickled. It had happened more than once, of late, the feeling of being watched. But every time she looked around, she saw nothing.

  The sense of unease grew stronger until she couldn’t help but straighten and look behind her. Nothing but rolling green and brown hills. Beyond them, out of her sight, was the ocean.

  Nobody was out here. She was entirely alone. Usually that thought left her feeling content despite her loneliness, but at the moment she couldn’t shake the strange notion of foreboding. The shadows of her plum tree flickered this way and that, and even her heirloom celery plants rustled a warning in the breeze.

  Something was wrong. But what?

  Travis flattened his belly to the ground, concealing himself in the shade of long grasses. The subject wouldn’t see him here, not with his tawny coat matching the landscape so well.

  Subject. Hell, that was just his detective mind trying to distance himself from the woman with the fine ass who constantly tested his resolve by bending over the plants in her garden. She was gorgeous, with lush curves and a sweet scent that reminded him of ripe fruit. Her hair was the brown of fertile earth, and her eyes the blue of a clear summer sky.

  Her name was Cadence Miller, the job description had read, and she was a thief.

  The only thing she was stealing at the moment was Travis’s sanity.

  She stood abruptly and looked around. It wasn’t the first time she’d sensed something, but she would never see Travis because he was that good. He had a feline’s patience, and the ability to go completely still.

  After a long moment during which she stared just past him, a concerned frown pulling down her plump lips, she turned back to her task. A few minutes later, she stood once more, dusted the dirt from her hands, and walked into the five-hundred-square-foot building she seemed to call home.

  “She’s no thief,” Travis said into the phone. Dressed and in his human form once more, he sat in his car in the beach parking lot. Surfers were coming in from the ocean, changing out of wetsuits behind the open doors of their Subarus, shaking saltwater out of their hair. Travis ignored them and listened to the man complaining on the other end of the line.

  “She’s a thief if I say she’s a thief,” Drewson said. “Do your damn job.”

  “I’ve followed her for a week,” Travis said. “There’s no evidence.”

  “Plant the goddamned evidence if you have to. Your ad said Travis Marks gets his mark. So get your mark. I want her taken down, however it has to happen. She’s an upstart gardener and she’s cutting into my profits. What the hell do I pay you for, anyway?”

  Travis bit back the words fuck off because an internal alarm was blaring in his mind. “What do you think she stole, anyway?”

  “What does it matter? Either do the job I hired you for, or get out of the way so I can hire someone else.”

  “I’m still on the case,” Travis growled, then pressed his lips closed before he could add any words he might regret.

  “No, you’re not. You’re fired.” Drewson ended the call.

  Travis swore. There was something fishy about that asshole, and Travis’s allegiance had switched to Cadence.

  He shut his phone completely off, then drove to a remote area up the road where he could park overnight. He locked up his car and jogged into the hills. There, he undressed and folded his jeans into a tight roll. Then he hid his shirt and car keys, and shifted into his mountain lion form. He picked up his jeans with his teeth and started forward.

  Tonight, he’d be stalking Cadence Miller again. Only this time, he was doing it for her—and not for Drew Drewson.

  Cadence double-checked the locks on her doors and windows. A thunderstorm had rolled in from the bay, and the wind’s chill was leaking through the walls of her home. She turned up the space heater, which was all she had in this little house, then poured herself a glass of red wine and snuggled into her favorite spot on the sofa with a book.

  Halfway down the page she was reading, she realized her bra was still on.

  “Fuck this devil contraption,” she muttered, reaching beneath her shirt at the back to unsnap it. Then she pulled it through one of her long sleeves—no easy feat—and tossed it to the floor.

  Much better. She sipped, and read. “I’m alone,” she said, “but I don’t carrot all.”

  It was a lie. She carroted a lot.

  The next thing she knew, she was opening her eyes to a dark house. Had she fallen asleep? She must have. She wondered how much time had passed.

  But she definitely hadn’t turned off the lights. Reaching over, she flicked the switch on the table lamp next to the couch. Nothing happened.

  Crap. The storm must have knocked out her power.

  Getting up, she peered down the street. The nearest house to hers was a mile away, and she could see the lights on there, faint in the driving rain, but present. Shivering in the cold that had already started to fill the room, she tried flicking the overhead light switch up and down.

  Nothing.

  If her neighbors had power, though, she probably did, too.

  She’d have to go outside in the wind and rain to flip the breaker switch. Dammit. Maybe she could leave it alone. After all, it was late enough she could just go to sleep. Wake up in the morning to a crisp, clear day, and deal with the power issue then.

  But she’d wake up cold. And it wouldn’t be clear—it would be foggy in the morning like it always was. She’d be miserable.

  Cursing under her breath, she pulled on her windbreaker and unlocked the back door to go outside. At the last second, she remembered her flashlight and she pulled it from the kitchen drawer. When was the last time she’d used this thing? Did the batteries even work? Thankfully, when she jabbed the button, bright light filled the kitchen. She swung the flashlight outside.

  Bright, yellow-green eyes reflected the light, peering at her from behind the celery stalks in her garden. Those eyes were in the unmistakable face of a mountain lion.

  Cadence screamed and dropped her flashlight.

  Everything went dark.

  She tripped and fell back on her ass on the patio. No—being smaller was the wrong way to go. She needed to make herself look bigger. The patio was slippery, and she slid sideways instead of standing.

  Lightning flashed, revealing an empty garden.

  Her heart pounded. Had she imagined the cougar? Or was the beast stalking closer to her, somewhere she couldn’t see it? Her heart hammered in her chest. Rain plastered her jeans to her legs and her hair to her face and neck. Her ass ached from the fall.

  “Hello?” a low voice called.

  Relieved to not be alone, Cadence held onto the door frame and scrambled to her feet. She called back, “Hello?”

  “I found your flashlight on the ground,” the man said. “But I have to warn you before you try to turn it on—I’m not wearing any clothes.”

  “You’re not what?” she asked. She must’ve misheard him because of the loud wind.

  “No clothes,” he said.

  “Your eggplant’s just…swinging free?”

  “Like all good veggies, it enjoys fresh air and sunlight,” he said.

  This was insane. Cadence said, “Why on earth aren’t you wearing clothes?”

  “Long story. Actually, wait.
I found my jeans.”

  A man was in her garden. Naked.

  But this wasn’t safe. She’d just seen a mountain lion.

  Could she leave a person out in the storm with a predator?

  No, no, she could not—he could get kaled out there. But she also couldn’t let him into her home, because there was still the matter of naked in her garden.

  “There’s a cougar out here,” she said. “And I’m sorry, but I’m not letting any naked or half-naked stranger into my house. But you’re welcome to hunker down in the shed, okay? The combination is seven-seven-three-four.”

  Lightning flashed again, and she caught a glimpse of a tall man with model-worthy abs. He had on jeans, as promised. But no shoes, and no shirt.

  “That’s kind of you,” he said, “but I won’t need it. Your flashlight is there, on the patio next to your feet.”

  She looked down and sure enough, there it was. She kept her gaze up while she bent to retrieve the flashlight.

  “I’ll point the light at the shed while you unlock it,” she said. Thankfully, the light worked when she flicked it on.

  “No, it’s all right,” he said. “I’m going to stay outside tonight.”

  “In this storm? Why?” She kept the light trained on the ground near his feet in a way that she could see him without blinding him as they talked.

  He ran a hand through his wet hair. She couldn’t tell the shade of it exactly. Maybe a sandy brown? His face was handsome—strong jaw, and fierce dark eyes.

  “You’re not going to believe me,” he said.

  She wanted to laugh. This was easily the strangest night of her life. “Try me.”

  “Okay,” he said slowly. “Okay, that’s probably the best thing to do. I’m a private detective. My name is Travis Marks. I was hired to do surveillance on you by a Mr. Drew Drewson. But he fired me this afternoon because I wasn’t willing to plant incriminating evidence after not finding any signs that you’d stolen anything.”

  “I…” She wasn’t sure what to say.

  “I think he knocked your power out, and that he’s going to try to hurt you,” the man said.

  A spike of fear pierced through Cadence, and she held her heart. “Hurt me?”

  “My instincts are rarely wrong, so yes,” he said. “I’m sorry to scare you, but I believe he won’t stop until you’re not a problem to him anymore. I’m going to toss my wallet to you. It has my ID.”

  “And then what am I supposed to do with it?” she asked.

  “You can call the San Rafael Police Department. Ask for Detective Shawna Arms. She knows me; she can vouch for me.”

  Something landed with a wet slap on the patio at her feet, and she swung the beam over to illuminate a wallet. Picking it up, she said, “But what about the cougar?”

  “It’s nothing to worry about.”

  “It’s a dangerous predator, so I think it is something to worry about.”

  “If you’re worried, then maybe you should hurry up and call Shawna.”

  Frowning in his direction, she stepped back into the house and locked the door after her. Never before had she noticed all the big windows in this place—or rather, she had noticed them, but only insofar as they provided plenty of sunlight for her plants. Now she saw them in a new way. All that glass was easily breakable. An intruder could get in here, hurt her, and get out before the police could ever make it out this far into the hills to save her.

  She’d never thought of that before, because she’d never felt she had any enemies.

  But Drew Drewson, apparently, was an enemy.

  He’d hired an investigator to watch her? Plant evidence? What a creepy asshole. All this time, Cadence had thought her farm stand business was healthy competition for him. But maybe that “misunderstanding” at the fair about the celery seeds had more behind it. Maybe he was trying to sabotage her.

  With shaking hands, she picked up her phone and searched for the number of the San Rafael PD.

  “Hello,” she said to the receptionist. “I need to speak with Shawna Arms, please.”

  A moment later, a brusque, melodious voice was on the line. “This is Arms.”

  “Hi,” Cadence said. “I’m calling because a man named Travis Marks thinks you can vouch for him.”

  “What, is he trying to pick you up at a bar?” Arms asked. “Tell him to fuck off—I’m not here to help him get laid.”

  Cadence stared at her phone. “No, he says I’m in danger from Drew Drewson.”

  “What kind of danger?”

  “He says he thinks Drewson is going to try to hurt me. I know it sounds alarmist, but I should probably let Travis inside. He’s not worried about the mountain lion I think I saw, but I am. And he doesn’t want me to be afraid of him—”

  “Lady, if Travis Marks says you’re in danger, you better listen to everything he says. And I’m on my way, in an unofficial capacity, because this isn’t actually a case yet. But I know Travis and he wouldn’t be talking to you about this if it wasn’t important. What’s your address?”

  Cadence recited her address. She couldn’t quite believe the way this night was unfolding. She was in danger. And a naked man—well, now a half-naked man—was in her yard. Maybe she was dreaming.

  Arms said, “You’ll be safe with Travis. He’s the best guy I’ve ever met, excluding my husband, of course.”

  “Okay,” Cadence said. “Thank you.”

  She ended the call and tucked Travis’s license back into his wallet. Then she unlocked the door and found him still standing outside in the rain and wind.

  “You can come in,” she said, shining the light over the stretch of lawn between them.

  He stopped on her patio, two feet away, and held out his right hand. “I feel like we should do this properly,” he said. “I’m Travis Marks.”

  “Cadence Miller. Now get inside before a mountain lion eats us.”

  Travis stepped over Cadence’s threshold and into heaven. Her little house smelled like a fresh summer harvest, all sweet and growing. Potted plants rested in every window sill and they hung from the ceiling, as well.

  “You take your gardening very seriously, don’t you?” he said.

  “I can’t help it—it calls to me.”

  She looked shy and uncertain. This was not the way he’d wanted to meet her. He’d been hoping to bump into her in town sometime, then offer to take her out for dinner or coffee. Instead, he was prowling through her house, checking the windows and peering through them to the driving rain in the darkness outside. He couldn’t pick up Drewson’s scent, but that didn’t mean the man wasn’t here or wasn’t going to be returning at some point. Travis was ninety percent certain that Drewson had caused Cadence’s power to go out.

  The house was small. Just a kitchen area, a tiny living room with a couch and coffee table, a doorway which led to a bedroom. Cadence’s scent surrounded him. Sweet and fresh, lush.

  “You can rest, if you want,” Travis said. “I’ll stay up and wait for Shawna.”

  “Oh, kale no. Like I could sleep,” Cadence said, although the dark circles under her eyes spoke of her stress and fatigue.

  He wanted her to feel safe enough with him that she could fall asleep, get the rest she needed. He wanted to take care of her.

  Whoa. He usually didn’t care about someone so fast, so completely.

  “Wait, did you just make a vegetable pun?” Travis asked.

  “Maybe.”

  “Well, I don’t want to get jalapeño business, but that’s fuckin’ cute.”

  Cadence started to grin, but then her phone buzzed with a call, and the smile was lost. Travis could see the ID from where he stood in Cadence’s small kitchen. Shawna Arms.

  Cadence picked up. “Yes?”

  Shawna’s voice came through clearly to Travis through the tiny phone speaker. “It’s going to take me longer to get there than I thought. The highway’s blocked by a fallen tree. Can I talk to Travis?”

  “Sure.” Cadence handed him the
phone.

  “Hey, Shawna,” he said, trying to keep his voice casual, even though every fiber of his being was on high alert, tense with the need to protect Cadence.

  “Look, Travis,” she said, “I don’t know how you got into this mess, other than Drewson was your client, right? That’s what you said last week.”

  “That’s right.”

  “And he’s not your client anymore, I’m guessing.” She sighed. “Tell me you have a weapon.”

  “Nah, just the usual.” Shawna knew about his second form. She wasn’t a shifter, but she’d married one of his pride mates, which made her a part of the pride, too. Mountain lions were solitary animals, but humans were social, so cougar shifters lived in groups.

  “I’m stuck on the highway,” Shawna said, “but I had Kyle at the office do some digging into Drewson. He’s harassed women before, especially any woman he believes is a threat to his gardening business. What the fuck were you thinking, taking a job from that miscreant?”

  “I was thinking I needed a job,” Travis said. “I didn’t like the guy, but I didn’t think he’d ask me to do anything illegal.”

  “You thought wrong. And now you have to stay with Cadence Miller tonight, because I sure as hell can’t get there in this weather, with the roads blocked. Can you at least guard her and do something right?”

  “I was planning on it,” he said. Shawna might be annoyed and disappointed that Travis had taken the job with Drewson, but she knew Travis was a protector at heart. “There’s a chance he won’t try anything tonight, although I think he knocked out her power.”

  “You’re staying there until we can locate him and make sure this woman is safe.”

  “Maybe you should tell that to Cadence,” Travis said.

  Shawna sighed. “Hand her the phone.”

  Travis met Cadence’s eyes as he passed her phone back to her.

  Cadence gave him a wobbly smile and listened to Shawna’s brief explanation and instructions, then ended the call. Setting the phone down on the counter, she said, “Well, I guess I’ll get you a pillow and blanket. You can have the couch.”