Cut and Run 09 Crash & Burn (51 page)

People were also drawn in by the spectacle Ty had set up in the window: Two tiny long-haired kittens who liked to sleep in a lined crate with “TNT” stenciled on the side. One was orange with a fluffy white crest, the other gray with nebulous white stripes. Both had blue eyes that were slowly but surely turning a mystery color between yellow and green.

Zane turned the page of his book, and Cricket the gray kitty patted at the screen as the page swished by. His app exited and left him with the menu screen.

“Ty!” he called, his voice echoing through the rabbit warren of heavy wooden shelving and thick tomes. He glared at the kitten, who was no more than six weeks old if she was a day. The kittens had been so malnourished when Ty had coaxed them out from between two busted-down levels of a dock on the water, the vet couldn’t accurately guess their age yet.

Zane leaned closer to Cricket. “Can you go away?”

Cricket blinked innocently and tapped him on the nose. With her claws.

“Tyler!”

Ty poked his head out from an aisle, a load of books in his arms. Zane didn’t know if he was stocking them, stealing them, or hiding them so he could read them later without them being bought out from under him like the mystery he never got to finish last week.

Zane had also discovered that Ty was seeding the store, especially the adventure and mystery sections, with spy gadgets. Surprise finds within the pages of books and among the shelves had delighted a few customers already. Zane was terrified to know what Ty was doing in the horror section.

Jiminy the orange kitten was sitting on Ty’s shoulder. Jiminy the orange kitten
always
sat on Ty’s shoulder, which was how he’d gotten his name.

“What’s up?”

“Will you come get your fluffy thing please?”

Ty’s expression immediately softened as he came closer. That look right there was why Zane had acquiesced. Ty had been on his way to the rescue facility when he’d seen Jiminy and Cricket at the dock. Convincing Zane to assist him in the operation to extract them hadn’t been hard after convincing Zane to let him have a cat—two cats—in the first place. Zane could watch Ty with these kittens all day long. As long as he was an observer and not a participant after the three hours it had taken them to lure the little assholes out.

“Hey there, sweet girl,” Ty murmured as he approached Zane’s counter.

Cricket meowed and began a little tap dance as she tried to work up the courage to take the leap toward Ty. They loved him like nothing Zane had ever seen. Ty plucked her off the counter, depositing her on his other shoulder. He gave Zane a jaunty grin as Jiminy and Cricket mewed happily and settled onto his broad shoulders.

“What are you reading?” Zane asked, leaning both elbows on the table.

Ty looked down at the stack of books in his hands, then slid them onto the counter. “Nothing,” he claimed, grinning in a way that made Zane’s heart flutter.

“Uh huh?”

Ty flipped open the cover of a leather copy of the
Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe
, revealing a cutout with a .38 Special nestled inside.

“Ty!”

“What? It’s a display copy, goes behind glass. Customers no touchy.”

Zane put his face in his hands, massaging his temples. “Ty.”

Ty chuckled evilly, retreating into the rows of books as he began to hum the tune to “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again.”

Zane shrugged, going back to his book with a grin. Whatever kept Ty happy between the occasional buzz from the back door that signaled a delivery from the Company.

Whatever kept them both happy.