Chapter 20
Cat
“You’re crazy!” I angrily accused, my body going numb from his freaky revelation.
“Am I?” He posed rhetorically. “Have you had more energy lately? Been hungrier? Hornier?” His voice dropped several decibels on that last example.
“Maybe animals are suddenly afraid of you and keep their distance when they were usually friendly. I know at least some of this has happened to you, Cat. You can’t lie to me. ”
My heart began to beat so hard I could hear it drumming in my ears. How did he know all that? Was he watching me? That must be it. He couldn’t know about Butter Bean’s reaction to me otherwise.
“Kane, get some help. You’re a sick man,” I told him with as much compassion as I could muster.
I heard a deep, rumbling noise over the line, and I realized the bastard was laughing at me! “Ask him,” he said, when his humor had subsided. “Ask Ace. Then tell me I’m crazy.”
I didn’t even get the satisfaction of hanging up on the bastard; the asshole hung up on me first.
Phone still clutched in my hand, I told myself the man was insane. Certifiable, even. But I couldn’t ignore that niggling voice in the back of my head. The one that told me he was being honest.
When the feeling came back to my fingers, I hit send on Ace’s number. He answered on the second ring.
“Hey babe, you on your way?” He asked, like he was dividing his attention between me and another task.
“Yeah, almost,” I replied, my voice wavering a bit at the end. “Before I go though, I need to tell you about something that just happened.”
That caught his attention. I could tell whatever he’d been doing prior to this conversation no longer took priority. “Okay. Let’s hear it.”
I calmly explained about Kane’s phone call and about what he’d said. That I was a ware shifter. You could have heard a pin drop when I was done talking. The silence stretched on like a dreaded Monday morning and my nerves began to burn over the weight and strain of all the built-up stress.
I broke first. “Well? What the hell is he talking about Ace? Why does this man think I’m a freaking animal?”
“Babe, have Sliver bring you to the club house. We can talk about this in person,” Ace said, skirting my question altogether.
“Answer me!” I pressed, desperate to hear his denial, but knowing it wasn’t coming. “What the hell is Kane talking about?”
I heard Ace take a deep breath on the other line. “It’s not what it sounds like,” he began, and my heart went from beating fast to freezing in place. “If you just come to the club house, we can—”
I did what I should have done when I first realized Kane had called me. I hung up, silencing Ace midsentence. When he tried to call me right back, I blocked his number and tossed my phone onto the bed so I could process everything that had just happened.
“You want a drink for the road, Cat?” Sliver called out from the living room.
Thinking fast, I walked out of my bedroom, plastering a fake smile onto my lips. “I think I forgot my purse in the car. Can you go check for me?”
The sweet young man, who I’m sure had nothing to do with this whole, fucked up situation, answered cheerfully, “Sure.”
Tucking his phone into his back pocket, Sliver headed out to the car to look for a purse that was currently in my bedroom. As soon as he was gone, I locked the door behind him. If he tried to get back in, I hated to do it, but I was going to call the cops to keep myself safe.