SO MUCH FOR A QUIET Saturday night with Maegan. Red and blue lights bounced off all the houses on our street from the three patrol cars that responded to my call while our neighbors watched the flutter of activity in and out of Maegan’s home from their lawns, porches, or big picture windows.
Adrian pulled up in front of the house and shook his head when he got out of his car. “We gotta stop meeting like this,” he said when he joined Jones, Wen, and me on the sidewalk. “Where’s Maegan? Is she okay?” he asked Jones. Why’d he ask him? Did they have a history, Jones and Maegan?
“She’s at my house with Officer Kasey,” I replied, trying to keep the possessiveness I felt out of my voice. “She’s okay; just a little shocked from everything that’s happened in the last thirty hours.” I thought Maegan was taking it better than most people would, but I couldn’t tell if that was a front for me, or just the way she handled things.
“Did you find any prints or evidence to nail this bastard?” Adrian asked me.
“There were no signs of forced entry, and we didn’t find any traces of an intruder in that house. In fact, if the cat hadn’t darted out the front door, we wouldn’t have known that our killer had paid her a visit.”
“Do we really know for sure he was here? Maybe the cat darted in the house when Maegan was letting her dog out before she headed to her parents’ house,” Jones suggested.
“The very same cat that startled her in the alley where the killer left the murder weapon?” I asked him.
“Do we really know it’s the same cat? There are a lot of black cats in the world,” he countered.
“Sure, both things are true, Jones, but my gut tells me that isn’t the case,” I said. “My instincts tell me that the killer lay in wait to observe Maegan’s reaction when she found the evidence. He was close enough to snatch the cat when it ran out of the alley. Then he waited for Maegan to leave, found a way inside her home, and put the cat inside to let her know he was there.”
“I don’t know, man,” Jones hedged. “That seems farfetched to me.”
I blew out a frustrated breath and willed myself not to snap. I was new to the department and making enemies of veteran cops on the force during my first week wasn’t a good idea. “Look—”
“Too much of a coincidence, Jones,” Adrian interrupted, winking to let me know he had my back. I took a few more calming breaths to get my shit under control. “There’s nothing neat and tidy about someone clearly unstable enough to kill. Don’t try to rationalize the irrational. The facts are that someone killed Thom Renzo not long before Maegan arrived at the house. We don’t know if the killer knew Maegan was due to arrive or not. Approximately twenty-four hours later, Maegan finds what we believe is the bloody murder weapon behind her business. Fast forward a few more hours and Maegan returns home to find a strange cat in her house that is either the same cat or similar to the one behind the alley. If we could find the cat, we could check its paws for blood. Did anyone see which way the cat went?”
“Up there,” I replied, pointing to a bare tree in Maegan’s front yard. Of course, the cat was perched close to the top of the huge oak.
“Meow.”
“I’m afraid of heights,” Adrian said.
“I pulled a muscle playing basketball,” Jones added.
“That means you need to shimmy up the tree, Romeo, and grab that cat,” Adrian told me. “Unless you want us to call the fire department. They’ll be happy to flex their muscles for Maegan.”
“Hey, I’m starting to feel better now,” Jones said, moving toward the tree. He suddenly sounded eager to impress Maegan or prevent the firemen from impressing her. I wasn’t happy either way.
I wondered if I was the only one who heard the low growl in my throat. “I can handle this,” I said calmly. I grew up climbing trees and playing rough. I didn’t need some damn do-gooder with a ladder trying to impress my girl. I… My girl? I tabled that thought for later as I made my way to the tree.
I leaped up and grabbed a sturdy branch above my head and pulled myself up until my head and shoulders rose above the limb. I repositioned my hands over the top of the branch, grateful that there wasn’t a layer of ice making my task more difficult, and continued to use my upper body strength to push up until the limb was even with my waist. Then I swung my left leg up and over like a gymnast until I straddled the thick branch.
I carefully got to my feet and reached above me for the next branch and repeated the process. Luckily, the limbs were denser the further I climbed, and I could just step between them like stairs as I got closer to the ball of black fur huddled at the top. The downside to the denser limbs was that they also became thinner. I had to test each limb before I moved onto the next. The cold made them brittle and likelier to break, so I tuned out the pseudo-encouraging words like “don’t fall and break your neck” and “only fifteen more feet to go” from down below.
“Elijah!” Maegan yelled. “What the hell are you doing up there?”
I made sure I had a good grip on the limbs above my head before I looked down at her. She stood on my front porch with her arms crossed over her chest. “I’m trying to interview a witness. What does it look like I’m doing?”
“It looks like you’re taking unnecessary risks with your life,” Maegan fired back. “There’s a much easier way to get that cat out of the tree.”
“How? Ask it nicely?”
“No, smartass.” Even from the distance I could clearly see her eye roll. “Watch and learn.” Maegan marched across both our yards and into her house. She returned less than a minute later with a can of something in her hand. “Watch yourself,” she warned as she popped the top. “Here, kitty kitty kitty.”
The black cat scrambled down the tree, using my shoulder as a launch pad to leap to the lower limbs. Maegan knelt and placed the can on the porch. The cat had devoured half the contents before I made it back to solid ground.
“Tuna,” I said once I reached the porch and could smell what the cat was wolfing down as fast as it could.
“Works every time.” Maegan stroked the cat’s back and it began to purr, but who could blame it? I’d had those lovely hands on my body and I reacted similarly. “I can feel every rib and vertebra of his spine.”
“How do you know it’s a he?” I asked her.
She looked at me like I was an idiot. The purring got louder the longer she petted him. “He’s been through a traumatic experience.”
“After he’s done eating, I’d like to look at his paws to see if I can prove this was the cat in the alley.”
“You doubt me?” Maegan asked.
“Not me, no.”
“Who doubts me then?”
“Officer Jones,” I said, not caring that I threw his ass under the bus. “Don’t spit in his coffee or anything though.”
Maegan snorted. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” She leaned toward me and lowered her voice. “I’m going to stop giving him the biggest apple fritter though.”
“That’s my girl.” I hadn’t realized what I said until a soft blush crept up Maegan’s neck. I wasn’t sure what to say. I didn’t want to take it back and hurt her feelings, but I didn’t want to give her false hope. The words just flowed out of my mouth naturally, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I lifted the cat and handed him to Maegan. I motioned for Jones to come over. “Let’s check this fella out.”
Jones stood beside me and aimed a flashlight on the cat’s front paws. Unfortunately, Maegan’s rack beneath her super soft-looking sweater was just as illuminated as the cat. I knew damn well what Jones was looking at, because I had a hard time concentrating on the task at hand too. I very well couldn’t tell Maegan to cover her tits with a coat like I wanted to, so I decided to get the job done quickly and send Jones on his merry way.
“Looks like dried blood to me, Jones.”
“I’m not crazy, Jones,” Maegan said.
“No one said you’re crazy, Maegan,” I said in a soothing voice. “Jones just pointed out that black cats are common.”
“You told her that I said she was crazy?” Jones asked incredulously.
“I told her that you had your doubts that it was the same cat.” I gestured to the feline who had started squirming in Maegan’s arms. It probably felt the rising tension and wanted to get the fuck away. There was no telling how the killer treated the animal while it was in his custody. “Let’s swab his feet to see if we can match the blood.”
“It’s okay, sweet boy,” Maegan cooed to the frightened cat, but her soft voice also soothed the beast stirring inside me. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.” Lulu barked from my front porch sounding like she was giving her mistress hell. “Don’t you worry about Lulu; she’ll come around.”
The cat growled low in his throat when Jones swabbed his paws, but he didn’t attempt to claw him or get away. Once we finished, Maegan rewarded the cat with extra cuddles as she carried him across the yard and inside my house.
“Looks like you’re getting a cat, partner,” Adrian said.
“No, Maegan is getting a cat,” I corrected him. “She doesn’t live with me.”
“Yet,” Adrian said. “See you in the morning, Elijah.”
“Goodnight, Adrian.”
The rest of the officers packed their stuff up and took off also. A few of them gave me curious looks and I knew they were speculating about my relationship with Maegan. Instead of dwelling on it, I locked Maegan’s house and jogged over to mine.
I saw that Maegan’s new friend was fast at home on her lap when I walked through the door. “He looks to be in relatively good health. I don’t see any mange or fleas on him. He’s just skinny.”
“You’ll have him right in no time,” I told her. “Hey, the previous owner left behind a cat litter pan, liners, and litter in the closet in the laundry room. I think there might even be some food. Hopefully it’s enough to tide the little guy over until you can get to the pet store to pick up more supplies.”
“Oh! I’m not sure I’m keeping him. I bet someone would love to adopt a handsome boy like him from the county animal shelter.”
The cat purred loud enough to be heard over Lulu’s snoring, which was pretty impressive. “Maegan, you might as well accept that the little rascal is all yours now.”
“Rascal,” Maegan repeated like she was trying to see if the name fit her new pet. “I think that’s a perfect name for him.”
Maegan’s cell phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket. “Everything is fine, Mama,” she said in way of greeting. “There’s no need to come over. Besides, I’m at Elijah’s house.”
I went into the kitchen to grab us some drinks and noticed the bag of food that I’d forgot about when the cat darted out Maegan’s door. My stomach chose that moment to make its displeasure known. Luckily, the stew and dinner rolls would reheat nicely. I popped the containers in the microwave for a few minutes and looked in the refrigerator for something to drink. The options were pretty slim—Coke, beer, water, or milk. I had no idea what Maegan wanted, but I cracked a beer open for myself and took a long sip. What. A. Day.
“I’ll take one of those too,” Maegan softly said when she entered the kitchen. “I hoped Miss Emma included a lot of cinnamon butter because it’s a two-roll kind of night.” Maegan pulled the box holding the bread out of the bag and flipped open the top. “Oh yeah, this will help.”
I handed Maegan a beer and opened the microwave to give the stew a good stir before starting it back up again. “This smells like heaven.”
“Tastes even better,” Maegan said. She wasn’t trying to be coy or sexy, but I couldn’t help but equate her words with the way I felt about her pussy.
Down, boy! My dick had its own agenda, but I was mature enough to ignore it. The last thing Maegan probably wanted, or needed, was to be mauled by me. She needed comfort and care, not a douche bag who couldn’t wait to part her legs and slide into her hot, wet….
“Do you mind if I take a shower?” she asked.
I nearly moaned out loud just thinking about her standing naked in my shower, water streaming down her luscious body. “Of course not,” I managed to say even though my mouth suddenly felt as dry as the Sahara Desert.
“Care to join me?”
“I… uh…”
Maegan smiled because she knew she had me by the balls. The lady was no shrinking violet. She knew what she wanted and went after it. She walked around me and turned off the microwave before she circled back around to hook my belt loop with her index finger. Maegan started walking backwards, but she didn’t have to pull me. In fact, I scooped her up in my arms and took the stairs two at a time.
Maegan laughed gleefully over my exuberance until I flipped on the bathroom light. She gasped and covered her mouth in surprise. I looked around the room to see what caused her reaction and caught her staring at the huge clawfoot bathtub in the corner.
“Oh, Elijah! It’s magnificent.”
“I’ve been told that a time or two,” I told her.
“Yes, your cock is amazing, but that bathtub is… just wow.”
“Would you like to take a bath instead of a shower? I can go downstairs and wait for you.”
“Or you can get in that tub with me,” she suggested.
“I’m not much of a bath guy.”
“Do you have any idea of the things I could do to you in that tub?”
“Let me grab some clean towels,” I said, setting her feet on the bathroom tile.
“And condoms!”
“Oh, hell yeah.”
Maegan had already stripped her clothes off and was running water in the tub when I returned from my bedroom. I stood in the doorway and raked my eyes over her toned legs and perky ass. My dick throbbed, demanding attention, but all I could do was stare. She looked over her shoulder and winked at me, and damn, it was all I could do to keep from mounting her right then.
“You’re about to become a bath guy, Elijah. A big fan.”
“Okay.”
“Take off your clothes and bring that box of condoms with you. I like your preparedness. Let me guess; you were a Boy Scout.”
I laid the towels on the closed toilet lid and brought my right hand up to salute her. I confess my eyes didn’t stay locked on hers, but how could they with her beautiful body on display. I whipped my shirt off at the same time I toed out of my shoes.
“Let me help,” she said when I reached for my belt. Maegan closed the distance between us and knocked my hands out of the way. She sank down to her knees, unfastened my jeans, and pulled them down to midthigh along with my underwear. “You are magnificent,” she said when my cock sprang forward.
“I just want you to know that I wasn’t expecting sex when I invited you to stay here tonight.”
“I know.” Maegan slowly licked her lips like my cock was a treat she couldn’t wait to devour.
“Just because I have a dick doesn’t mean I am one,” I said, trying not to push said appendage toward her parted lips. “We don’t need sex tonight.”
“Your cock doesn’t agree.” She wrapped her fist around the base of my dick and pumped it a few times.
I groaned in ecstasy then said, “You’re naked, Maegan. Of course, he’s hard and eager to have you. If this doesn’t feel right then we won’t do it.”
“I’m eager for him to have me.” She looked up into my eyes and I saw certainty in her green irises. “Nothing has ever felt so right.”
I cupped the back of her head in my head and said, “Then let me love you.”