It was late the next morning when I unlocked the door to Tank's apartment and slowly pushed it open. "Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked Casey.
"You said the cats need to be fed, right?" she challenged.
There was a bit more of that feisty personality showing through and damn if I didn't love it. "I did say that, but I didn't mean right this minute. The little shits could easily wait until Cal comes back."
Casey gave me an eyeroll worthy of Stephanie's praise. "You said this Calvin person and Woodrow were called out to a break-in, correct?"
"Yes," I replied while desperately trying to fight the grin that wanted to slide across my face.
"You also said they could be gone for hours and Pierre's instructions state that the cats are on a strict feeding schedule, right?"
I couldn't do it. I barely managed to suppress the snicker wanting to escape at her need to call the men by their given names. So, I let the smile show instead. "Right." Woody would be horrified to hear that she's still referring to him as Woodrow. Even after he tried to convince her that Woody was his given name.
"But trust me when I say that they won't starve."
"Lester." The disapproving tone that accompanied my name felt very much as if I'd just been scolded. Damn if I wasn't falling a little harder for her every day.
"Fine," I sighed, knowing I was about to let her win yet another debate. It was a good thing none of the guys were around to witness our discussion or they'd be demanding I turn in my man card. "But watch your back. Applepuff is a vicious little beast."
Her brows went up as she stepped across the threshold. "Aren't you being a bit dramatic?"
"Not even a little," I replied while I followed her in with one hand on my weapon.
She stopped inside the door, turned back, and frowned as her gaze landed on my hand. "Lester, you are not going to shoot Pierre's cats."
"I don't want to shoot all of them. Just one." I'm not sure what in the hell I'd tell Tank if I did, but if the evil little beast goes after Casey I will. Consequences be damned.
She shook her head then turned and walked toward the kitchen. "I can't believe the big bad mercenary is afraid of a ten-pound cat."
"Former mercenary," I corrected. Over the last couple of weeks, we'd held some great conversations, and I'd told her what I could about my past life in the military. It hadn't been easy, since my fear of her rejecting me because of my past actions weighed heavy. Much to my relief, she simply said that if I could forgive her for the sins she'd been forced to commit, then she could do the same for the sins the Government demanded I undertake. Have I mentioned lately how amazing she is?
"And he's more like twenty-five pounds," I said as I scanned the room.
She stopped in the kitchen and paused to read the instructions Tank printed and left hanging on the front of the refrigerator before he left with Ranger. "It says here that their dry food is in a locked bin in the bottom cabinet. Wet food is in the top cabinet nearest the refrigerator."
She'd just stepped toward the cabinet containing the wet food when a white head popped up from on top of the fridge and two blue eyes peered over at her. The smile that broke on Casey's face was one I hadn't seen before, and one I hoped to see many times in the future. "Well, hello there," she said to the inquisitive face staring down at her. "And who might you be?"
"That's Snowball," I said. "She's sweet but really fluffy. Be careful or she'll get her fur all over you."
Snowball jumped down from the top of the refrigerator onto the counter, and then sat, causing me to cringe. All I could think about was how unsanitary it was to have a cat's butt on the countertops.
Snowball looked up at Casey and began to meow.
"Oh, aren't you pretty?" Casey cooed and reached out to pet the feline. "And so fluffy." She glanced over her shoulder at me. "What kind of cat is she?"
I shrugged. "Some type of Angora. Turkish I think, but I don't remember for sure."
With the way the big man talks about his cats constantly, I really should know for sure by now. You'd think they were his children by the way he acts. If that was the case, then I was pretty sure Applepuff would be the bad child who got detention all the time and liked to run with the bad kids in the neighborhood. Snowball would be the homecoming queen and Miss Kitty would be the straight-A student.
I'd no sooner finished my sentence when a clanging noise had us both turning to look down. There, next to the fridge was a large mass of blue-grey fur with yellow eyes staring up at us. "That's Miss Kitty," I said as I knelt and stuck out my hand. She sniffed it, then deciding I was worthy, she bumped her head against me.
"She's beautiful," Casey said as she knelt next to me.
"She's a Russian Blue and is probably the smartest and the sweetest of the three cats," I replied.
Casey's grin returned. "You only say that because she likes you."
She wasn't wrong.
"I guess her banging on her bowl is her way of saying she's hungry," Casey said.
"I told you she was smart."
Casey's grin widened. "So, where's the third cat?"
I glanced around the room looking for my nemesis. "You mean the asshole?"
"There you go being dramatic again," she replied.
Intent on finding the little bastard before he found me, I stood, then turned and walked back into the living room. My head moved back and forth as I scanned the perches high on the wall that Tank added for them. All were empty. Where in the hell was he?
I'd just turned back to face Casey when a hissing ball of chocolate-colored fur propelled itself at me from inside the cat tunnel toy on the floor. For a split second, I wondered how he even fit in the tunnel. That thought shattered the moment his nearly twenty-five-pound body plowed into my leg.
Even being on alert, I wasn't fast enough to dodge the attack, and before I knew it the Maine Coon menace had attached himself to my leg. His claws pierced the fabric of my cargos and dug into my skin. "Fu…dge," Knowing how much Casey hated me cursing, I barely managed to catch myself, even as I swung my leg out trying to dislodge him. "Let go you little shit."
Okay, so no cursing at all was beyond my abilities, but considering I wanted to say so much worse, shit probably wasn't a terrible option. Especially since I didn't figure Casey would appreciate me calling the cat a motherfucker.
The asshole gave a low pissed-off growl, reaffirming his dislike for me. Yeah, well, I don't like you either, fucker. Reaching down, I managed to snare him by the back of the neck before he could bite me. For a moment he tried to fight me. I tightened my grip until he went limp, but the low growl morphed into a loud warning screech as I pulled him off my leg and held him against the floor.
"Oh my," Casey said as she stared wide-eyed down at me.
"Casey, this is Applepuff."
"She's huge," Casey said.
"He's a Maine Coon," I corrected.
"I thought Maine Coon's were supposed to have sweet and docile temperaments."
"Me too," I replied, as I continued to hold the cat in place. "Apparently, this one missed that memo. Even after Tank had him fixed, he's still a mean little shit."
"Is it just you he doesn't like?" Casey asked as she eased onto her knees in front of us and slowly held out a hand for him to sniff.
I shook my head. "He pretty much hates everyone in the building except Ella, Stephanie, Tank, and Cal."
Casey's gaze flicked up to look at me, then back down to watch the cat sniff her. "Even Carlos?"
"He won't attack Ranger like he did me," I replied. "But he will sit in the corner of the room and growl and hiss at him. Tank usually has to lock him in the bedroom when he has anyone over."
"Well," she sighed. "Maybe he'll like me." She nodded. "Let go of him."
I shook my head. What in the hell was she thinking? "Sweetheart, I'm not being dramatic when I say that he's a terror."
"To you yes," she replied. "But I have a way with animals."
"If he doesn't like you, he could end up causing some serious damage," I warned. "I don't want you getting hurt."
"I'll take my chances," she replied. "Now let go of him, Lester."
Even though I still thought it was a bad idea, I slowly let go of the little scourge. He turned to look at me, arched his back, and took a swipe at me with his paw as he hissed and spit. For the second time since walking through the door, I was tempted to pull my gun.
"Easy Applepuff," Casey said in a calm and soothing voice as she again held her hand out to him. He continued to growl, as he sniffed her. Then, to my complete shock, his ears went straight up, and he bumped her hand. Within seconds she was sitting cross leg on the floor with a twenty-five-pound cat in her lap.
"You have got to be kidding me," I said even as Snowball made her way over to me. At least she liked me.
"Growing up on a farm, I spent a lot of time working with animals," Casey said. "Sometimes, you just have to know how to talk to them on their level."
I picked Snowball up and held her while I stared down at them. While Casey still hadn't officially met everyone in the building, since her arrival, she had slowly managed to win over some of the crustiest and roughest men on our payroll. So far, everyone who had met her loved her. I guess it only made sense that all of Tank's cats would love her too.
