Here Kitty, Kitty! (28 page)

Shit. 
Why couldn’t she be selfish about her love life like other women?  Friends were supposed to take a backseat. 
Damn, damn, damn.

“Later.  Nik!”  She caught his hand as it started to unclasp the front of her bra.  “Sara’s waiting for me.”

“She’ll wait.  You’ll find her sittin’ by the door, just waitin’… your slippers in her mouth.”

Angie, fighting a laugh, slapped his hand.  “That’s not funny.  And get your hands out of my shorts.”

“Come on, Sugar.  Just a little somethin’.”

Knowing that if she didn’t get out now, Sara and Miki wouldn’t see her for another hour…or two…Angie dragged herself out of Nik’s arms.

She dropped to the floor.  “Bad kitty!”  She picked herself up.  “Honestly!  A girl isn’t safe with you hillbillies.”

Nik snuggled stomach down into the bed, his arms wrapped around one of the pillows.  His muscles bulging as he flashed her a sleepy smile.  “You like us hillbillies, Sugar.  Admit it.”

If she said yes to anything, she’d say yes to everything.

“I gotta go.”  She backed up to the door.  She couldn’t stop looking at him.  Stretched out on the bed, his naked ass calling her name.  She picked up a T-shirt from off the floor, knowing she had to get the hell out of Dodge before all her best intentions went out the window.

She gritted her teeth.  Honestly, the crap she did for her friends.

Slamming into the door, she grabbed the door handle, wrenched it open, and quickly left.

***

Angie found Miki and Sara in the kitchen.  Whoever Sara had on the phone, they were doing all the talking, because Sara only grunted and nodded.  Grunted and nodded.

Angie sat down next to Miki at the table.

“You ready to go shopping?”

“No.  I have no money.”  Miki flipped the page of the catalog in front of her, barely glancing at her friend.  “Nice T-shirt by the way.”

Angie looked down at what she wore and rolled her eyes.  “If you can’t play with the big dogs, get off the porch” emblazoned across the blue Tee in white letters.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding.”

“In a rush this morning were we?”

“Don’t start, Kendrick.  And what do you mean you’re not going?”  If she didn’t go, then why did she leave a randy hillbilly all by his lonesome upstairs?

Miki slammed the catalog down on the table.  “I can’t afford any of this shit.”

Angie looked at the cover of the catalog.  A baby furniture catalog.  “And why is that?”

“Because being a professor doesn’t exactly pay for the high life.”

“I thought you didn’t want to teach.”

“I don’t, but I need the money.”

Sara hung up the phone and walked over to the table as Miki continued.  “Conridge got me something.”

Angie picked up an apple.  “Who?”  Miki and Sara stared at her.  “What?”

“Do you not listen to me at all?”

“I listen.  When I find it interesting.  Why?  Who the hell is he?”

“My professor.  Big fight with the hyenas. 
She
watched me shoot a man in the knees.”

Angie shrugged.  “Still nothin’.”

Sara flopped into one of the chairs.  “She’s married to Van Holtz of the Van Holtz Restaurant chain.  Filthy rich.”

“Oh! 
That
Conridge.”

Miki rolled her eyes.  “You’re amazing.”

“Thank you.”

Sara brought her knee up, bracing it against the table and used her other leg to rock her chair back and forth.  Seemed some people never learned.  Sara did that in junior high, fell back and busted her head open.

Angie shook off the image of a blood-covered Sara.  “Miki, are you not staying with Conall?  Did you decide to leave him?”

“I’m staying… ya know… for now.”  Angie barely stopped herself from laughing in the girl’s face.  Miki wasn’t going anywhere.  She loved the big bear too much.  It leaked from her every pore.  “But I can’t take money from a man with no money.”

Sara and Angie frowned at each other.

Sara shook her head, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m not living off the Pack, Sara.  It’s that simple.”

“That’s great and all, but Conall has his own money.”

“I’m not going to spend the man’s life savings.”

“You couldn’t spend Conall’s life savings if you bought Scotland.”

Miki, her frown so deep it changed the contours of her face, looked up at Sara.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“The Víga-Feilans.  They’re rolling in money.  In fact, his father bought this house for the Pack.  As a thank you for letting them in.”

Miki gripped the table with her fingers, but didn’t speak.

“And Conall’s money is separate from his dad’s.  But he’ll inherit what they have, and since he’s an only child, he’ll quadruple what he has now.  So, I really wouldn’t worry about…”

Miki stood, “Conall!”  Her screech startled Sara, who pushed a bit too hard and sure enough ended up hitting the floor.

Angie stared up at her friend, “What the fuck is wrong with you?”  If this was how she was during the beginning of her pregnancy…the next nine months would be absolute hell.

Miki seethed.  Her hands clenched at her side.  Her teeth gritted together.  “If he has all the money, he has all the power.”

Sara dragged herself off the floor, one hand rubbing the back of her head.  “You sure you passed those sanity tests?”

Conall strolled into the kitchen.  “You bellowed?”

“You’re rich!  Filthy, stinking, disgusting rich!”

“I guess technically…”  Conall stopped when Miki’s fist hit his solar plexus.

“Ow!”  Miki shook her hand out.

Conall didn’t even flinch, “Why do you insist on doing that?”

***

Angie held the black credit card in her hand.  “I want you to realize the enormity of this situation.”

“Oh, good God.”

“He handed you his black credit card and said ‘buy what you want, Miki-baby.’  First off the man
has
a black credit card.  Second, he didn’t flinch when he gave it to you.”

Miki snatched the card back.  “This is a stupid conversation.  It’s a fucking credit card.”

The trio walked through the enormous department store.  A Pack of shapeshifting females behind them.  These women were clearly not in their element.  The only black leather Fallons offered had Chanel stamped on it.  No wonder Sara and her rough-and-tumble Pack knew nothing about this shifter-run place.

“It’s not a fucking credit card.  It’s a commitment.”

“You make me sad.”

Sara sputtered out a laugh, but it died in her throat as she stopped walking.  She grabbed a plaid business suit that would look perfect on her with a string of pearls.

“Explain to me again why we’re here?”

“Because we’re doing the girlfriend thing, and going shopping.”

“Can’t we go to Old Navy?”

“No!  We had the Old Navy discussion.  And no GAP.  And no Harley-Davidson store.  So get the fuck over it people.”

She smiled, making all the she-wolves take a step back.  “Okay, let’s go then!”

She started walking, “Now I was thinking we start off in the dresses, maybe hit the juniors section for Miki…”

“Hey!”

“And then get makeovers!”

Angie ignored the whining behind her. 
Like trying to put a muzzle on a dog. 
She turned a corner and watched a woman walk toward her.  For a moment, she thought her another she-wolf because of the big leather jacket.  But her worn high-top Keds had small holes, her jeans had definitely seen better days, and she’d swear the oversized Bob Marley T-shirt she wore might have been owned by the man himself.

“Can we go, please,” she barked at the gorgeous and much-taller blond women behind her.  “I’ve never been so bored before in my entire existence.”

“Could you at least
pretend
to be female,” one of the women tossed at her.

Miki came up beside Angie.  She grabbed onto the smaller woman by the scruff of her black T-shirt, holding her back, quickly noting the .45 she had holstered to the back of her jeans.

“What?  What’s wrong?”  Miki looked up, locking eyes with the small blond.  “I know you…you’re that bitch that was hittin’ on Conall.”

Startled, the woman still managed to grin.  “I was not hitting on him.”

Sara walked up on Angie’s side.  “I keep smelling cat…is that you?”

“No, it’s…”  Angie glared at her.  “That’s not funny!”

“Sara Morrighan?”

Sara looked over at what Angie now knew was Victoria Löwe.  She may be trying to take things slow but whatever powers ruled the universe clearly had other ideas.

Sara’s fangs burst from her gums, her lips drawn back in a snarl.

“Sara!”  Wolf eyes turned to her.  “Be nice.”

The female wolves moved up.  Angie could feel their aggression swirling around them.

They started to pass the three friends, but Sara held her hands up.  “Hold it.”  The wolves stopped as the lion females stood around Victoria.  They were so much taller than her, she almost disappeared.

Angie, taking a deep breath, stepped forward and in between the two groups of females.  “Victoria.”

She nodded.  “Angelina.”

“I’d like you to meet Sara.”  Angie turned and smiled at her friend.  “And Sara, this is Victoria Löwe.”

The two women eyed each other cautiously as their females waited for someone to make the first move.

Angie should have seen it coming.  Should have been ready for it.  But, for some unknown reason, she wasn’t.

“You’re awfully tiny to be a lion,” Miki crossed her arms in front of her chest and smiled.  “Sure your mother wasn’t doing a mountain lion?”

Angie closed her eyes and growled.

***

Nik walked down the stairs, his hands running through his wet hair.  He paused at the bottom step, a smile breaking across his face.

He walked into the enormous living room and found his brothers stretched out on two of the five couches, watching TV and playing with what had to be the ugliest dog he’d ever seen in his life.

“What are y’all doin’ here?”

“We thought about leavin’…,” Ban began.

“Especially after that tiny little midget girl tried to shoot us last night.”

“But we’re havin’ so much fun here…”

“And that big blond guy said we could stay awhile,” Alek finished.

Nik raised an eyebrow at his baby brother,  “You’re hopin’ that dog’s sister shows up.”

“It’s good for a man to have dreams.”

“Pathetic.”  Nik yawned then nodded toward the kitchen in the back of the house.  “Did ya leave any food?”

“Not really.”

“And did those wolves get cranky about it?”

“You could say that,” Ban made room on the couch for the dog to jump up next to him.  “A few of ‘em went out to get more.”

“But they were not happy about it.”

Nik climbed over the back of the couch and sat down next to Alek, plopping his feet up on the coffee table.

“So did you two love kittens make up?”

Nik stretched feeling damn good about himself, “Somethin’ like that.”

“And let me guess,” Alek continued, “She’s really off limits now.”

More than ever
.

He’d made Angelina Santiago his.  Every time he fucked her last night—and he’d fucked her all night long—he’d made her his.

But he wasn’t in the mood to discuss that with his two idiot brothers.  Not yet.

He held his hand out, “Remote.”

Alek dropped it in his palm.

“All I gotta say is them Yankees need to hurry the hell up.  I’m starvin’…and even that dog is lookin’ mighty tasty.”

Ban, the protector of all things, hugged the dog to him.  “That’s not funny.”

“Yes it is.”

***

“You’re shopping,” Miki demanded.

“What do you expect me to do?  Just stand here?  Besides, these Manolo Blahniks are adorable.”

“Oh, for the love of all that’s holy.”

“You want a pair?”

“No!”

“No need to get tense.  You’re getting so moody.  Must be the Pack baby.”

“Stop calling her that!”

Miki sat down on one of the benches.

One of the lions walked up to Angie.  “What do you think?”

Angie looked at the shoe in her hand.  “Bad color for you, hon.  Try blue.”

“Thanks.”

Miki snorted in disgust.  “You have got to be fuckin’ kidding me.”

Angie finished fixing the straps on the shoes she decided to try on.  Standing up, she moved to the mirror.  The salesman stood next to her.  “Wow.  Those look amazing on you.”