My mouth slackened as I stared at the veterinary assistant sitting beside the examination table. My lips were dry. “Agatha fired you?”

“Fired me? No. She didn’t even have the decency to that, she just made it impossible for me to work there,” Frankie snapped. He pursed his lips. “You know, she called herself a manager, but she literally didn’t have the first clue about running a business.” Frankie released Fluffy from his grasp and started to sort through the samples of pet food on the shelves that lined the back wall. “Do you know she had thirty-three vintage Chanel purses thrown inside an old trunk when I first started working there?” He smacked a tub of dog treats onto a shelf to emphasize his point. “Thirty-three.”

“She didn’t know how much they were worth?” I probed.

Frankie flicked his wrist. “She didn’t care. She wasn’t a businesswoman. I don’t know why she opened the store in the first place; she didn’t even want to sell any of her stuff. She just wanted to hoard the junk she liked.” His grimace softened as he rested his head against the wall. “She was happy to let me do whatever I liked with the other stuff, though—the purses and the clothes. I started dressing the windows and taking photos for my blog and things picked up with the store, and she asked me to move into the basement apartment so she wouldn’t be alone in the building at night… We were a sort of weird little family, the two of us, you know?”

“Sounds nice,” I said, truthfully. It did sound nice.

“It was. I haven’t always had a lot of luck with family. My step-father had a hard time accepting who I was, and my mom had a hard time standing up for me.” Frankie lifted his chin, daring me to challenge him. “But Aggy and me? We got along fine.” He frowned. “Until things kind of blew up with my blog. People started coming from all over the country to see the displays and the store started turning a profit for the first time since she’d opened the place. You’d think that’d make her happy, right?” Frankie glared at me and I nodded my head in agreement. His jaw tightened. “Wrong. She was furious. She ordered me to shut down my blog. Said if I dared post another photo of my displays that she’d kick me out on the street so fast my head would spin.”

I grimaced. “And you took another photo?”

Frankie exhaled and looked at me with tired eyes. “Hermes, Chloe, Burberry, and Dior in one single, divine outfit. I couldn’t keep that to myself. Art can’t be silenced.”

I bit my lip. He shared his art, and Agatha took away his job and his home. And the means for him to create his art. Harsh, even by the standard I’d come to expect from the old witch. Fluffy peered at me from the corner of the room, his blue eyes intense against the black of his fur. I stared back at him in silent agreement. That certainly gave Frankie a motive. I edged closer to the veterinary assistant. “So, you left on bad terms then?”

Frankie eyed me, his expression shifting like quicksilver. “Why do you care?” I opened my mouth to answer, but Frankie stood up and folded his arms. “You think we haven’t heard the rumors about Agatha’s death? Are you trying to accuse me of something?”

I shook my head, taking a step backward. “No, of course not. I just want to understand her better, seeing as I’m new to town and all.”

Frankie’s expression was stormy. “We may not have seen eye to eye, but that old lady was basically family to me. I would never hurt her—never.” Frankie’s lips thinned. “Besides, if anyone around here had anything to do with it, I’d bet on it being her sleazy, money-hungry cousin, Harlow. He came to Agatha a few months ago and told her he’d found a place where she could go to retire. Wanted her to sell the store to him and move to some dumpy little retirement village, but she told him where to shove his retirement property. And considering his real estate mafia has been snapping up every vacant lot and underpriced building in town lately, maybe you should go spit your poison at him if you’re looking for somebody to interrogate.”

My heart hammered in my chest as he spoke. “Look, I really didn’t mean to upset—”

“Well, you did. Agatha’s dying before we made up is bad enough, I don’t need someone coming in here and giving me the third degree as well.” Frankie brushed the fur off his pants before making his way toward the door without a second glance. “I think we’re done here. Tracy will be back to do the full exam. Excuse me.” He left and the door closed behind him with a rather loud thud.

I nervously ran my hands through my hair, shaking my head in disappointment as I sank onto the stool. I was so mad at myself. My questioning had a gone exactly the opposite way that I’d hoped it would. “Hey, doll, you did the best you could,” Pussy said as he prowled toward me. I sat back so he could jump up on my lap.

The second he made impact, a loud pop sounded in the room and a rather large, naked man was suddenly sitting on my lap. Sweet organic zucchinis. I shrieked and quickly covered my mouth with my hands, hoping Tracy hadn’t heard me from the other room. I looked down at the blond man’s body as his very naked ass pressed into my lap. I blushed furiously and turned away so wasn’t staring directly down at his distractingly impressive… equipment,

Footsteps sounded in the hall, and I frantically pushed him off my lap and jumped up, panic coursing through my veins. “Shit, Tracy is coming. We have to hide you. What the hell are we going to do?”

I gaped around the room, exhaling as I caught sight of a closet. Sprinting over, I pulled it open and shoved Pussy inside. Running fully on adrenaline, I sprang into the closet with him and pulled the door shut, my body pressed against his firm form in the very small space. Good thing it was dark, because my face was glowing all shades of red. “Well, this is cozy,” I blurted out, more nervous than I cared to admit. Why I had jumped into the closet with him, I wasn’t quite sure.

I felt his muscles tense and I raised my hands and pressed my palms against his chest, surprised by his silence. Pussy didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who’d let an opportunity like this slide. “You’re quivering. Are you cold?”

I could feel him shake his head, body rigid. “No, I’m really just not a fan of small spaces. No big deal. It’s cool.”

From the tight whisper, I suspected it was, in fact, a big deal. Crap on a cracker. “I’m so sorry, I had no idea. You should’ve said something before I asked the three of you to jump into the crate earlier. I could have left you at home.”

I felt him shrug stiffly as he adjusted his position next to me, the full length of his body pressed up against my side. I bit my lip and hoped that he couldn’t hear my heart hammering in my chest. “It wasn’t so bad in the crate. I could see out a bit through the holes. Here, on the other hand, is another story.” A loud hiss and claws scratching at the other side of the closet door warned us we didn’t have much time.

“Well, what do you suggested we do?” I whispered hurriedly, wondering just what the hell Tracy would think if she came into the office to see two cats and no one else. Or even more awful would it be if Tracy opened the closet and saw me hiding here with a naked man. I swallowed hard, trying to push that thought from my head. I had to think of something, fast. “Okay, it’ll be fine. I’ll get you out of here. We just need a plan.” Before I had a chance to think, my phone rang. I reached down to pull my phone out of my jeans pocket and heat flashed over every inch of my skin as I connected with warm flesh. “Shit, sorry,” I swore. “That was an accident. I wasn’t trying to, you know, feel anything.”

His body relaxed slightly as Pussy leaned over and whispered into my ear, his warm breath caressing my skin. “You know what, it’s not actually so bad in here with you next to me,” he drawled. “I’m sure you could figure out a way to distract me.”

I smacked him with the back of my hand as I answered the phone, keeping my voice to the barest whisper. “Hello?” I listened to the stern voice on the other end of the phone, enquiring were they speaking to Miss Priscilla Jones. “It is, but I’m afraid this isn’t a very good time.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Miss Jones, because this is Officer Bert Fitzgerald of the Salem P.D. and I need to speak with you pretty urgently with regard to a recently opened case. I assume you’re still in town,” he barked. I opened my mouth to whisper a reply but before I could, the officer had continued his one-sided conversation. “Good. I’ll meet you at the thrift shop in ten minutes so we can discuss this further.”

Without giving me the chance to reply, my phone beeped, and Officer Fitzgerald hung up. I swore again under my breath and tucked my phone back into my pocket, this time careful to avoid giving the blond man beside me any distracting ideas. Although, from the sizable pressure against my hip, I had a feeling it was far too late for that.

From the other side of the exam room doorway, the sound of Tracy’s voice froze me to the spot. Heart pounding in my chest, I tried frantically to think of a way out of this mess. I was in a closet with a naked man in the vet’s office. I had come in the three cats, but now only had two. An angry-sounding cop needed to speak with me in ten minutes, likely about my mistaken involvement in a crazy old granny ghost’s murder, and the vet was about to step into the room any moment.

Perfect.