Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Hale’s blood ran cold.
A dead cat.
Last weekend, they went to a shelter. Elsa loved animals, always wanted a pet. Her mom wasn’t an animal person, so she’d never had one, and Elsa’s life wasn’t conducive to her taking care of one after she left home.
Until now.
She’d picked two, a ginger kitten and the white, deaf male cat with one blue eye and one gold who had adopted the lone kitten when it was brought to the shelter. The staff said they couldn’t separate them now, so Elsa said she’d take both.
So her.
When she was in, she was all in.
A kitten and a deaf cat?
They were waiting for her application to be approved, but since that wouldn’t be an issue, they were set to pick them up the next day.
He sounded strangled when he said, “Tell me about the cat.”
“Police say it was killed by a car, but some creeper picked it up, boxed it up and had it delivered to Elsa.”
“What color was it?”
“It was a tiger cat. Looked young. Fucked up and sad.”
“You still have the cat?”
“Nope, cops took that for sure.”
Hale said to Heath, “Get Kateri down there.”
Heath nodded to Hale, turned and pointed to Rocco.
Rocco left the room.
“What?” Chuck asked through this.
“Nothing. Does Elsa know about the cat?”
“Yeah, since the cops are taking this seriously now. They spoke to her.”
“When was this?”
Silence from Chuck.
“When was this, Chuck?” Hale demanded.
“This morning. Around nine o’clock.”
There was a buzzing in his head.
Fucking hell.
It was nearly four in the afternoon.
“Thanks, Chuck,” he said through his teeth. “You might wanna take off. Take Zoey and the rest with you. I’m going to be there in fifteen minutes.”
“I bet,” Chuck mumbled, then more distinctly. “Gotcha and later.”
Heath picked up his phone and disconnected.
Hale got out his phone, asking Heath, “You on this?”
“Yup, but thought you’d want to know.”
Hale nodded and shared, “She adopted two cats this weekend.”
“I know,” Heath, still not looking at all happy, replied.
Hale engaged his phone, and getting up from behind his desk, he called Paul.
“I’m headed down now,” he told Paul when he answered.
“I’ll be at the front.”
When he finished his call, Heath said, “I get you want to get to her. But Chuck told us something else you need to know.”
Terrific.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“The email Elsa’s getting intimidating comms from is the same one we flagged. Your number one stan.”
God fucking dammit.
Hale scowled at him, then, keeping a firm hold on his need to lose his shit, he skirted his desk, and walked out of his office.
Kayla called, “Hale, I’ve got—”
“Sorry, Kayla. Not now. I’m out for the rest of the day.”
He hit the elevator, met Rocco in the lobby, then they hit the car, and since both his and Elsa’s offices were in midtown, he was there in ten minutes.
He was pleased there were only a couple paps snapping shots of him outside Elsa’s office. But even though they’d been back from Cali for a week and a half, his place was still covered in them.
He went in and up.
Hudson was standing outside Elsa’s office door. He gave Hale the universal male, “Dude, brace” look.
Rocco stayed outside with Hudson.
Hale went inside.
Chuck, Zoey, Melissa, Trevor, Elsa’s booker, and Elsa’s new assistant, Amy, were gone, so there was no one in her suite except Elsa, wearing a pale blue dress that skimmed her figure from shoulders to below her knees, patent nude pumps, and a glare.
She looked ludicrously fuckable, which for once didn’t help Hale’s mood.
She was leaning a shoulder against the doorjamb of her office, her arms crossed on her midriff.
He waited until the door closed behind him before he said in a soft warning tone, “Do not be pissed at me.”
“I can handle my own shit,” she returned.
“According to Chuck, you’ve been blowing it off.”
“It comes with the territory. I didn’t think she’d send a dead animal by courier.”
Hale pulled in a sharp breath through his nose.
“I cannot believe Chuck told you,” she griped.
Hale counted to three, but that was as far as he got before he thundered, “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”
“Calm down, Hale,” she demanded.
“Fuck that, Elsa. The bitch sent you a dead cat.”
“I was going to tell you when I got home.”
“You got a dead cat couriered to you, baby,” he said caustically. “Your man considers that appropriate news to interrupt his day and share, oh, I don’t know, the minute you found out someone sent you a dead cat.”
She opened her mouth.
But oh no.
He wasn’t done.
“It’s been fucking hours, the police have come and gone, and you’ve been blowing off a credible threat to the point your staff, in order to protect you, have had to act behind your back. I mean, for fuck’s sake, babe. You’re smarter than that.”
“Well, if I’d known I was getting death threats, I probably would have reported it or figured out what you’re supposed to do with something like this. I’ll have words with Zoey and Chuck about their overprotectiveness later. But thanks for giving my staff the heads up you were coming over here so they’d leave the job I’m paying them for so they wouldn’t witness”—she tossed a hand his way—“this.”