Lion And The Falcon (Furry United Coalition) (9 page)

“Is it the…” Agnes lowered her voice
. “Patients?”

“Yes
, I fear. Somehow, one of them found your home. We’re going to need you to lay low for a while.”

“Not a problem.
I’ll bunk with Patty at our summer cottage. No one knows where that is.”

“Excellent. We’ll have your daughter pack you a bag and someone will escort her home to ensure she’s not followed
so she can pack one for herself. The agent will then rendezvous with you and take you both to your cottage and remain until we can be sure of your safety. We want to take every precaution.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

Hanging up with Agnes after a few more words, he gave instructions to Patricia, who recovered quickly and simpered at him in a way that might leave lasting scars. Bulbous, lashless eyes should not blink so rapidly.

When
the wet behind the ears otter shadow from earlier arrived—his need to ride the bus delaying him despite Nolan’s orders he go home—Nolan sent him off with Patricia in her VW, holding in a grin. The poor lad. When Patricia latched on to the young man, he sent Nolan a terrified look over his shoulder. Nolan smiled and waved. The young fellow had wanted someone to guard. Being the magnanimous sort, Nolan gave him his wish.

Whistling, h
e returned to the kitchen to find Clarice handing off a Ziplock bag to Peter who already held a half dozen. “Find anything useful?”

“Some hair
that I think belongs to our perp.”

“Patient
,” Nolan corrected by rote.

A
humph
was her reply. “I’ve also got a hunk of meat with some teeth marks. The bottle of sauce with what appears to be a fingerprint. And a few other things for the lab to test.”

“
Fantastic. We can compare those items to what I have on file and hopefully figure out just who and what we’re dealing with.” Nolan already had a sneaky suspicion, but it never hurt to make certain. “Well, since you have things under control here, I think I’ll be heading off.”

“Off where?” Clarice asked
, raising her head and pinning him with a stare.

“To bed
, of course.”

“Alone?”

“Despite my mother’s wishes? Yes, alone. Unless you’re hinting for an invitation to sleep over?”

“In your dreams, doc.
” Clarice stood and peeled off her latex gloves.

“Hmm, now that opens up a whole world of possibilities. I always did have a very active imagination.
”

Peter stumbled as he headed out of
the kitchen with the evidence.

Pretending not
to notice Clarice’s dark glare, Nolan studied the crime scene and waited for her next repartee. To his chagrin, she didn’t rise to his bait.

“I think you should stay with a friend tonight.”

“Why Clarice, are you encouraging me to have sex? I thought you didn’t approve.”

“
I said stay with a friend, not screw them.”

“Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of a sleepover
?”

“Oh come on, don’t tell me you’ve never bunked on a buddy’s couch.”

Actually, he hadn’t. Home schooled and over protected, Nolan had very few friends to begin with, and of the male ones, none close enough for him to call out of the blue and ask such a large favor. Not that he’d admit it out loud. “I’d rather sleep in my own bed, thank you. It’s been a rather long day and I am tired not having had my regular naps.”

Hand sweeping out to encompass the messy kitchen, Clarice shook her head. “
Going home is not a good idea, or is this not evidence enough that your home is probably not safe?”

“My building has security. I highly doubt whoever did this would have the same ease infiltrating my condo. Not to mention, I am a lion.
I can defend myself.”

Clarice arched a brow.
“Yeah. I’ve seen how good you are at that.”

Point for the bird. “Th
ose tigers caught me by surprise.”

“
Exactly my point.”

“It won’t happen again. I’m more worried about my staff. People like Agnes who are not natural born predators. What’s being done to protect them?”

“I already thought of that. I contacted Kloe. She’s sent as many agents as she can to cover the houses of your staff, or at least those with some ability to defend themselves. Those most at risk have already been told to stay with friends or relatives until we can ascertain whether they are safe or not.”

“
Good. I’d hate anybody to get injured. Seems like you’ve got everything under control, so if that’s all…” He yawned, stretching his jaw wide.

“
You won’t give in, will you?”

“Nope.”

A long-suffering sigh escaped her. “I should let you go by yourself. It would serve you right if you got eaten.”

“But?”

“But, it would look bad on my service record. Thanks a lot for leaving me no choice. Let’s go, Sylvester.”

“I thought we’d gotten past the name calling.”

“Not when you act like that idiot cat on TV.”

“I resent that. I don’t lisp.”

“Keep talking like an idiot and you’ll sing soprano.”

“Testy. Testy. See what happens when you don’t take time for a nap
?”

“
The things I do for ASS,” she muttered.

“Is that what this is about? You can have my ass anytime, unless you mean literally. I’m not into that kind of kink.”

“I think fatigue is making you stupid. ASS as in… You know what, forget it. Just get your hairy carcass in the car so I can drive you home. I wouldn’t want you to fall asleep behind the wheel.”

“
Liar. You just want to drive my car again.”

A hint of a smile
curled her lips, and it struck Nolan how pretty she looked. “It is a sweet ride. But, no, this has more to do with making sure your stupid feline butt doesn’t get taken off guard by one of the psychos.”

“Patients.”

“Whatever. Let’s go.”

Leaving Peter to direct as the three
-shifter-strong cleaning crew arrived, Nolan followed the bossy bird out to his car. It occurred to him for a moment to argue that he should be the one driving his car. But, the lure of a nap appealed more. And besides, he quite enjoyed her rigid annoyance when he used her thigh as a pillow. He enjoyed even more the scent of her musk enveloping him as he breathed against her. Her body, willing or not, liked him, now he just needed to work on her mind.

Watching from a few houses down, he couldn’t hear what they said, but he saw the doctor exit the house of that nurse. How disappointing to find no one at home.
But then again, he’d never enjoyed frog legs, even when cooked. The ribs helped with some of his hunger, but lacked a certain
liveliness
to them.

Ey
eing the doctor and his female friend, he’d bet they’d taste much yummier. Even better than popcorn, but not possible for the moment. Off they zoomed in a fancy car.
I used to have a nice car like that once upon a time. And a handsome face.

Until
Mastermind stole it all.

He didn’t know what irked more, the fact he hungered no matter how much or what he ate, or
discovering Mastermind was already dead, which meant he wouldn’t get the revenge he dreamed of.

Robbed! Robbed of a chance for vengeance.
What was he to do? Someone had to pay. Someone owed him for the travesty done to his life and once beautiful face. If he couldn’t kill the culprit then he needed to go after the source. Science. Science was to blame for what befell him. Science and doctors who thought nothing of playing God with people like him.

Kill all the doctors and there’d be no more victims. Stupid medical practitioners, thought they knew it all and flaunted their status every chance they got. Just look at Dr. Manners with his
fancy car and good-looking girlfriend. He was the one who let Mastermind get to him. He was the one who failed to cure. The one who still had it all while he was forced to scrounge for scraps and hide in shadows.

No more.

He’d found the nurse easily enough via the Internet from the phone he stole. He’d find the good doctor as well. Find him. Punish him. Eat him. And then take what he deserved.

Right after he found some more popcorn. Those darned ribs he ate dipped in HP sauce weren’t sitting well in his poor distended tummy.
Oops. Not in his tummy anymore. Someone would get a surprise when they got up in the morning.

Clarice couldn’t help but glance with irritation
—and bemusement—at the golden-haired male using her lap as a pillow.
This is definitely a first.
The guys she knew would never have dared such a liberty—except for a certain drunken dodo. Clarice’s demeanor didn’t invite snuggling. It didn’t stop the lion from plopping his head down and going to sleep. And snoring! Not loudly, but enough to give him his first physical flaw—other than his species—which served to make him more human. Even—
ack!
—likable. It didn’t mean she’d changed her mind about him. She wouldn’t date or have sex with him, and she still thought him an idiot, albeit a good-looking one. She blamed the fact she found him attractive for her involuntary reaction to his presence.

The man
drove her insane with his flirting, and despite knowing she shouldn’t take it seriously, her body—to her extreme annoyance—reacted each and every time. One smile and her nipples hardened. A rumble of his voice and her sex clenched. The warmth of his breath against her crotch as he snored softly in her lap and she creamed her panties.

The smart thing to do
? Shove him off her lap. Use her as a pillow indeed. Yet, for some reason, she did nothing, because to take offense would force her to admit he disturbed her. And she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Now, if he went for a grope, that would put a different spin on things. An actual sexual advance meant she could freely give him the black eye he deserved.
Or I could grope him back.
Treacherous mind, or should she say body. What was it about this doctor that made her want to break her own rules?

She fought to change
her train of thought and focused instead on the case, more specifically the danger Nolan kept denying. These
things
they hunted, by invading the home of a FUC staff member, showed a level of cunning. It disturbed her to realize they’d focused their rage on specific people and not just random strangers. But try getting an arrogant lion to recognize that. For a smart man, he could prove dense at times.

O
bviously, the idiot didn’t take his own safety seriously, and the more he claimed he could take care of himself, the more she wondered. Just look at how those tigers took him by surprise in the parking garage. Where did his king of the jungle instinct hide then? Deny it all he wanted, he’d not suspected a thing, yet, at the same time, even she had to admit, the tigers posed no real danger. If one ignored the concussion and the whole kidnap him for sex thing, the only real danger was to his virtue.
As if he had much of that to start with.

Why his slutty behavior with
the opposite sex made her grip the steering wheel tight enough to leave claw marks, she couldn’t have said. She forced herself to relax and breathe.
I am not jealous. Why should I care who he sleeps with?

And how had she digressed from her main topic of thought, mainly his ability to care for himself
? As he’d evidenced, when he ripped the bonds binding his hands, he possessed strength, and by his own words, escaped more than one sticky situation. However, evading the amorous advances of the ladies was a far cry from escaping the not so tender, psycho tendencies of mutant killers.
What would the doctor do if faced with a former patient out for blood?
Would he do what it took to protect himself, or get himself killed trying to save someone too far gone to help? Somehow, she feared the latter, which she could grudgingly admit was not a huge flaw, just a possible fatal one.
Which is why I’m driving him home and letting him use me as a pillow instead of dumping his ass on the curb and taking off for my hotel.

While his ability to defend himself remained unknown, Clarice already knew he wasn’t as dumb as she’d initially thought. Oh, h
e seemed to enjoy giving the impression he was a golden playboy lacking common sense, and yet, he had immediately spotted what she’d missed at the crime scene. It didn’t matter she would have quickly figured it out, and he, in a sense, cheated because of his refined sense of smell. Clarice jumped to the wrong conclusion and he proved her wrong. Again. An annoying habit of his she was quickly coming to hate. Now, if only she could hate the man instead of fighting an urge to brush a stray golden lock fallen across his cheek.

As she drove, fast
—just because she really did love his car—she reported in to Kloe, giving her the latest the developments on the case.