They watched all night, but nothing happened, and reluctantly, when the sun rose, they left.
It was frustrating – Avery felt like she was grasping at something but not quite there yet, and didn’t nearly have enough evidence to make any arrests. It seemed like all they were doing was watching people and not getting anywhere.
Cutter agreed he would take over the surveillance. He must have been really restless – Lucie was now nearly three weeks overdue.
Avery returned home and on switching her phone back on found she had twenty-three missed calls, eighteen voice messages, and sixty-two text messages – all from her mother and all about Aimee.
She found her younger sister curled up on the couch, the alley cat was next to her and still wrapped in Cutter’s sweater – that had taken a lot of effort to obtain from the surly wolf shifter, but Avery certainly didn’t regret it. There was no sign of Wayne.
She smiled down at her little sister, gave the small cat a scratch, and then shook her sister’s shoulder.
“Hey, dummy, wake up.”
Aimee shielded her face, probably expecting one of their other sisters. She was relieved to see Avery. The sisters had made Avery their primary target – seeing her as the biggest threat to their prize, but Aimee had suffered a lot over the years. Being smaller and weaker and excessively clumsy, Aimee was a natural target for mean-hearted lionesses.
“Hey, I take it Mom has seen your note.”
Aimee rubbed her eyes. “Ah, yeah, she called your phone, but I let it go to the machine.”
“She didn’t turn up here, did she?”
“No, but I didn’t tell her I was staying with you, and I also got a new cell – she used to track the old one.”
Avery’s lioness scowled. “Of course, she did.”
“What has she said?”
Avery scrolled through the messages. “Uh, basically she blames me for you leaving, and I’m ungrateful – I’m paraphrasing and taking out the more colorful language here.”
Aimee sighed. “Yeah, thought so.”
Avery bit her lip. She wished she had realized how much Aimee was like her – well, minus the confidence – and done more for her over the years. Aimee had always been a little surly, and Avery had taken that to mean she was like Andrea. But she had blossomed into someone who deserved a hell of a lot more than she was given in life.
“You okay?”
“Umm hmmm. I put in my application to the SEA.”
“Good.”
Aimee looked at her uncertainly. “You don’t mind I used you as a reference?”
“Of course not – I’m sure I could get Isis to give you one, too. She has no problem lying about anything – we could write it for her, and she’d sign it.”
She snickered. “It’s okay; I also used Wayne.”
“Where is Wayne? Didn’t he come home last night?”
Avery sniffed and peered around the apartment. The laidback gator came and went as he pleased, but usually, he was around more.
“Don’t know,” she muttered. “Where’ve you been all night?”
“Working.”
Aimee nodded and petted the cat who looked mighty comfortable in his new home. Apparently, she had acquired two new roommates, and both had huge pleading eyes that she could not say not to.
“Want me to make breakfast?” offered Aimee.
“Sure, I like…”
“Blueberry pancakes – I know.”
“Hold the poison,” quipped Avery.
“Ha ha.”
“Did we have any sisterly visits last night?”
“Yes, but Isis got rid of them pretty quickly.”
Fearing for Aimee, and because she couldn’t get hold of Wayne, Avery asked Isis to stay with Aimee all night. She did, and told Avery she owed her a massive favor, then told her she would be bringing Raf and they would naturally have sex in Avery’s bed. Avery said fine. It was a small price to pay and could have been a lot worse. Although, she wasn’t looking forward to finding out what Isis wanted her to do. Following another favor Isis did for her, the last time the tigress went on vacation, she had Avery cat-sit her five unruly cats. Four of them ran away, and Avery spent two weeks trawling the city to find them because she knew Isis would be unbearable if she lost them. They were damn contrary beasts – just like their owner.
“Who turned up?”
“Andrea and Adelle. Isis was talking about shooting them, but her mate talked her down to just blasting them with a fire extinguisher.”
“Good. You better make Isis and Raf breakfast too. Isis will want meat, and undoubtedly she will make a disgusting joke about it – so try not to blush too hard when she does.”
“I think they’ll need a big breakfast,” said Aimee ruefully. “They spent half the night,” Aimee colored, “you know.”
Yes, sadly she did because Isis was not someone who was shy about her sex life.
“Great. Hey, maybe look up a new bed for me online – I’m not sure I want to keep mine anymore.”
“I’m not sure the springs will work on yours anymore,” murmured Aimee. “We had complaints from your downstairs neighbor.”
Oh, poor Miss Stubbs, she had trouble sleeping as it was. Avery imagined a night having to listen to Isis would be quite eye-opening.
“Our sisters will see you eventually, and then they’ll tell Mom where you are – you need to be ready for that.”
Aimee hugged her arms. “I know.”
Avery frowned as she read a message from Wes.
“Umm, this came for you last night.”
Aimee passed her a neon pink box.
“Ugh.”
She knew who sent her this. What has the little toad sent us now groused her lioness.
Avery opened up the box with a due sense of dread.
“What is it?” asked Aimee scrunching her nose. She pointed at one of the items. “What is that?”
Avery snapped the box shut. “Something you don’t need to know about and something I wish I didn’t recognize, and it’s going back to the sender.”
Aimee tried to peek in the box, and Avery firmly kept the lid down.
“It’s not for delicate eyes. Anyway, I need a shower, breakfast and then I’m out again.”
She took out her phone and fired off a message to Jessie. Perhaps she could grab a catnap in the shower.
*
When Winston got home, he found his mother at the kitchen table. It was too early for her to be up. Jeez, she’d probably been up all night waiting for him.
“Oh, you’re alive then,” she said in an injured voice.
“Mom, I told you I’d be really late.”
She sniffed. “That was just what your father said the day he was killed.”
“Mom, he was mugged at 11.30 on a Monday morning, and I told you I was out with my lady friend.”
“Humph.”
She snorted exaggeratedly, and his wolf puffed indignantly.
“You don’t believe I have a girlfriend, do you?”
“I’m sure I’ve no idea,” she sniffed.
Was it really that unbelievable even to his mom?!
He shook his head, thinking it really wasn’t worth the argument. “You’ve canceled the wedding venue, right?”
She grunted.
“Mom, I don’t want to marry Tara.”
He tried to make his tone as firm as possible.
His mother scowled at him before she blossomed into a smile. “It’s your life, of course.” She shook her head and laughed. “I’m sorry, I just thought… I thought I was helping you, but you are right, it’s your life.”
Winston waited for it, but it never came. Usually, it was followed by, ‘which I gave you.’ She was of the opinion that he owed her for giving birth to him – which entitled her to control every aspect of his life.
He cleared his throat. “Well, ah, I’m going to grab a nap and then go open up the store for a few hours.”
“Of course, dear.”
She smiled disarmingly and then he really started to worry.