Chapter 23
Kelsey crouched behind the potted lemon tree near Jorja’s front door. A giggle escaped her lips when Chaos’s ears went like an alien’s spikes as the puppy skidded around the corner with Ember and Jules hot on its tail.
“Gotcha,” Ember shrieked, launching herself on top of her.
Chaos yelped and dodged when a little orange kitten dashed out from under the tree, hissing and spitting, all puffed up like the fish Kelsey had seen at the zoo. The puppy dipped into a bow and barked at the kitten.
“Shhh, bad puppy.” Kelsey pressed her finger to her lips. “Leave the kitty alone.”
Jorja’s voice floated from the room with all the computers and TVs. “Kelsey, keep the kittens away from the fountain if you can. Don’t let the puppy chase them up it. If they fall into it and we have to tell Gunnar about them so we can rescue them, he’ll lose his mind.”
She didn’t know why Gunnar didn’t know about the kitties, but she supposed it was another adult thing she wasn’t supposed to understand. Jorja should just tell Gunnar, ‘We have kitties, and we’re keeping them, so there.’
“I’ll try, Auntie Jorja, but they’re very fast.”
Chaos barked again, this time spinning in circles as the kittens batted at her paws. The tiny but brave tabby leaped onto the puppy’s back. Chaos yelped and bolted, sending Ember tumbling into the tree.
“Ember.” Jules scrambled to help her friend.
“Don’t cry, Jules.” Kelsey pointed to Ember. “Look, she’s okay. She’s laughing.”
Sure enough, Ember popped back up, with leaves in her hair, giggling as if she’d just won a prize. “That’s fun.”
The orange kitten caught Kelsey’s shoelaces and flipped over on its back, playing with the loops.
She scooped it up, cradling it against her chest. “You’ll make me fall,” she tried her best to sound like her mommy when she was cross, but it didn’t work, as the kitten purred like a tiny engine in response.
Jules tugged her sleeve. “Are you keeping that one?”
Maybe if she begged Mommy, she’d let her have one. But how did they bring it home?
“I don’t think kitties are allowed on planes.”
Did they live here now? Maybe they did; she’d have to ask Mommy, because then she could ask if she could keep the sunset kitty.
The kitten jumped free of her arms when Chaos barked again, her tail wagging furiously as she herded the kittens into a patch of sunlight.
The black one pounced on the orange one, and the chase was on.
Chaos pounced and the kitties scattered. Kelsey’s heart jumped when the little orange one darted toward the archway leading out of the courtyard with the puppy right on its heels, and panic bubbled in her chest.
What if it gets lost?
“I’ll get it.” She didn’t want the kitty to climb a tree.
Then Gunnar might see it and make Jorja give them all away.
Her feet pounded on the cobblestones as she chased after the furry fugitive.
“Chaos, stop. Bad puppy.” The courtyard’s familiar sunlight was quickly replaced by the cooler shade of the path leading to the gates the cars drove in and out of.
Woof. Woof.
Chaos yipped and barked, and the kitten squeezed through the bars on the gate to escape. “Nooo, come back, kitty.” Kelsey pointed at Chaos. “Bad puppy. Naughty. I’m telling my mommy.”
She remembered a command that Petra and Talon gave the puppy when it needed a time-out. “Cage. Go cage.” She pointed back up the drive toward the parking lot.
Chaos whimpered and tucked her tail between her legs, but did as she was told.
Kelsey waited just long enough to make sure she wouldn’t come back before she turned back to the gate. She lowered onto her knees next to it and stuck her arm through the bars, rubbing her fingers together.
“Psp, psp, psp. Here kitty. Psp. Psp. Psp.” But the kitten huddled at the base of a tree and ignored her.
She’d just have to go get it. But she wasn’t supposed to be down here. Mommy would be so cross when she found out.
“Psp. Psp. PSP, Kitty, I don’t want to sit in the naughty chair for the rest of the day. You have to come back. Psp. Psp. Psp.”
Could she open the gate? When Tyrone took them to the zoo, he’d pressed a button on the wall, and the gates had opened like magic. Would the magic button work if she pressed it?
“I just got to get the kitty.”
She scrambled to her feet and hurried to the panel on the stone wall. She had to stand on her tippy toes to see the buttons. For a couple of seconds, she blinked in confusion at all the options until one with a little green circle caught her eye.
“Green for go.” She pressed the button, and for a second nothing happened, so she pressed it again, harder this time. A loud click sounded and the gates slowly opened outward toward the kitty.
The kitten bolted toward the road.
Kelsey’s sandals smacked the hardtop as she dashed after it. Just as it made it to the road, a truck whizzed past, sending the kitten back toward her, and Kelsey scooped it up.
“Bad kitty.”
The kitten dug its claws into her T-shirt, hanging on for dear life.
“Ow, you hurting me. Bad, bad kitty.”
She was almost to the gate when a man stepped out over the vineyard wall.
Kelsey stumbled but managed to keep her hold on the kitten.
Her heart stuttered as her instincts screamed in fear.
She opened her mouth to scream, but her cries were swallowed by his glove as he slammed his hand over her mouth.
“Shhh,” he hissed in her ear. “Be quiet, little one, and you won’t get hurt.”
Her feet dangled as he lifted her effortlessly from the ground, and the kitten’s claws dug deeper into her skin in fright.
She kicked and screamed for all she was worth, but no sound emerged from behind his hand, and before she knew it she was tossed into the trunk of a car.
Her vision blurred with tears, but she held onto the kitten for dear life.
Its wiry body was a small solace in her unfolding nightmare.
Her heart pounded loud as thunder. The bad men had come for her again. She didn’t want to go with the bad men. She wanted to stay with her mommy and with Uncle Zorro. “Mooooooommmmmy! Uncle Zoooooooorooooooo!” She screamed and screamed, but nobody came for her or the kitty.
***
The sugar cookie dough stuck to Glenna’s fingers as she rolled another ball between her fingers.
The little girls’ laughter spilling through the open kitchen window was good for the soul.
How long had her heart missed that sound?
How many times had she woken in the night from hearing it in her dreams?
Too many—way too many. She almost couldn’t believe that she had a second chance.
Now I just have to figure out how to keep her with me.
I need a job, and a home, and?—
You’re overthinking it.” Chari nudged her with an elbow. “Just drop and press. They’re cookies, not brain surgery.”
Confused for a second as to how Chari could see into her brain, Glenna blinked at her, then realized she was talking about the cookies and not the billion and one moving pieces she had to pull together to ensure Kelsey wasn’t taken into foster care the second they touched down in the United States.
“Sorry. I’m just—just used to doing everything by myself.”
“Not anymore, sister.” Serena slid a tray into the oven. “We have learned that our guys may have a brotherhood, but we wives, partners, and spouses have a sisterhood of the people we chose for ourselves.”
“Agreed,” Petra chimed in. “They’re the ones who’ll answer the phone in the middle of the night and show up with coffee, wine, or a shovel, depending on what the situation calls for.”
“You are one of us now,” Serena assured her. “That means if you’re having a shit day, we’ve got you. Need a good book, and we’re rolling in with Riley, Kris, Olivia, Caitlyn, or Cristin in our totes. Your man pisses you off; we’re salting his coffee and baking psyllium husk into his brownies.”
What did she bring to the sisterhood table, though? “I’m not any of those things anymore.”
“You’re a Gold Star,” Serena said seriously. “You lost your Operator. If whatever you are building with Rone doesn’t work out, you’ve already paid your dues more than most.” She gave her a one-armed hug. “You’re kinda stuck with us.”
“I don’t even know what to say?—”
A screech from the courtyard cut off what she was about to say, and maybe that was a good thing, or she’d get all weepy and soppy. She wasn’t entirely sure the others were quite ready for that emotional mess.
She wiped her hands on her apron and leaned out the window. Jules and Ember crouched near the fountain, playing with the kittens who tumbled all over each other while Chaos lay panting under Colt’s hammock.
Where’s Kelsey?
“Kels?”
Jules looked up. “She went that way.” She pointed toward the arch leading to the parking lot. “One of the kitties ran because the bad puppy chased it, and Kelsey ran to catch it.”
“But Chaos is there?”
“She came back.”
Her pulse hammered under her skin. “When?”
“Aggggessss.”
“What’s wrong?” Chari asked.
Glenna glanced over her shoulder. “I’ll be right back. Kelsey followed one of the kittens the puppy chased out of the courtyard.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Chaos is a menace.” Petra frowned. “Want me to go?”
“No, no, I got it.” She untied her apron and tossed it onto the counter. “She’s probably trying to figure out how to get it down from a tree, rather than come get one of us to help.”
“As long as she’s not climbing the tree herself.”
“With Kelsey, you never know. Keep an eye on the cookies.”
She left the kitchen and went under the arch into the parking lot.
“Kelsey?” She cocked her head to one side to listen for her daughter’s answer but got nothing.
Maybe the kitten ran down the drive.
Going around the corner of the building, she walked down the treelined drive toward the massive electric gates that secured the property.
Thank God she can’t open the freaking gates, but I hope the kitten didn’t run out onto the road.
Kelsey would be devastated if she saw one of the baby cats being run over.
I’m going to whoop her butt for scaring me.
She wouldn’t, but there would definitely be a stern talking-to in Kelsey’s near future about telling her when she was running off somewhere to chase a freaking cat.
When she rounded the last corner, the gates were slowly opening for Gunnar’s truck, which idled outside, but no sign of Kelsey.
She was almost to the gates when the truck moved through, and the gates closed behind it.
The passenger door swung open before the truck had fully stopped again, and Tyrone stepped out. “What are you doing all the way down here? Is everything okay?”
“Kelsey chased a kitten out of the courtyard, and I wanted to see if she came this way.”
Gunnar killed the engine. “What kitten?”
Tyrone’s jaw flexed as if he was gritting his teeth. “Grizzly, does it fucking matter?” His gaze locked onto hers. “She wasn’t at the gate when we got to it. Maybe she went toward the terrace or the garden.”
“The pool is locked,” Gunnar said. “At least it better be, or shit’s gonna fly.”
Oh god, the pool.
She hadn’t even thought of the pool. What kind of mother was she? That should have been the first place she checked. She turned and ran up the drive with Tyrone on her heels.
“Kelsey!” Tyrone’s voice boomed, “Baby girl, answer me!” His longer legs took him ahead of Glenna, and he reached the door to the pool first. He put his hand on the scanner, and it beeped, unlocking the door. They ran to the edge of the pool, frantically scanning the water, and came up empty.
Thank you, sweet baby Jesus.
Her knees knocked together with relief. “Kelsey Harper, you get out here right now. You’re scaring me.”
“Is she…” Gunnar trailed off when Tyrone shook his head. He pulled out his phone and turned back toward the house. “Enough. I have cameras up the wazoo; Remi will find her.”
“Oh god, what if she was kidnapped again?”
“She couldn’t leave. The gates were closed, and they would have alerted the war-room if someone came in from the outside,” Tyrone reassured her as they followed Gunnar.
This cannot be happening.
She has to be here.
The war-room door stood open. Remi sat at the controls with Jorja beside him, and their fingers flew over their keyboards. But the second she saw their faces, she knew. She just knew, and her fingers dug into Tyrone’s arm.
Jorja’s eyes were wide, and Remi didn’t look up, but the tension in his shoulders said everything.
“Hit it,” Gunnar ordered.
Grainy footage of the entrance gates filled the display.
They watched a cat being chased by a puppy and Kelsey’s small figure running after them.
Kelsey crouched at the gate for long moments with her arm through the bars, calling to the kitten.
When Kelsey stood and went to the control panel, Glenna’s heart dropped.
No. No. No. Don’t do it.
But Kelsey did it and slipped out through the opening in the gate. She caught the cat, then walked back to the gate. Just as she reached it, a man stepped out of the shadows, snatched her, and she was gone.
“Noooooooooo!” Glenna’s wail filled the war-room. “You said she couldn’t get out. You said the gates would pin?—”
“Only incoming,” Gunnar spoke over her. “That changes today.”
“Who was that?” Tyrone scooped her into his arms. “Find me that fucker, Zipper, STAT.”
“No, no, my baby.” Glenna buried her face into Tyrone’s neck. Breathing was hard. Everything hurt. How could this be happening again?
“I’ll find her, Glens, I swear it,” Tyrone whispered against her hair. “I swear to fuck, I will put that asshole in the ground, and I’ll get our girl back. On my honor, I promise you that.”