Page 33 (1/2)

He nodded and gave her a little smile, and damn if she wasn’t sorry that she’d ever answered her phone

Seventeen

Parker sat at the kitchen table with his laptop, the tabby kitten asleep on his lap and Oreo on his feet The kitchen floor was in sharay oman kitten who had attacked a roll of paper towels and spilled Oreo’s food and was currently batting a pen across the floor

Parker supposed it was fitting He had a certain brown-eyed brunette currently wreaking such havoc on his life and heart as well The kitten was just taking after the best

She batted the pen past the dog

Oreo, trying to sleep, sighed for the fifth tirabbed the little terrorist and lifted her to his face to look at her eye to eye

She batted at his nose

He laughed "Nap time, Destructo" And he dropped her next to her much quieter brother in his lap

She ilee, who opened one eye, gave a mew, and pushed her away

Not intiain and began to knead hi biscuits

The quiet tabby tolerated the abuse and finally she fell asleep, allowing Parker to work An hour ago he’d been alerted that theHe’d accessed the feeds and couldn’t believe what he was seeing

One minute there was a Humvee and the next minute it vanished Just disappeared into thin air Parker rewound and slowed things down This ti what looked like four men, drove onto the ranch It was followed by a sie livestock, and not all that different from the one that had clipped him with Carver behind the wheel

Parker couldn’t see ht faded away None of thehts

He called Wyatt

"Yo," Wyatt said "I’ve got two ery A lab ate its owner’s lace thong and it’s all tangled up in his intestines She needs to switch to edible undies"

And Parker thought his job was interesting "You ever hear of Cat’s Paw?"

"No, but hang on, I’ you on speaker Dell," Wyatt said, and Parker kneas talking to the owner and head vet of Belle Haven, whom he’d met the day he’d shoveled shit for two hours "Parker wants to knoe know about Cat’s Paw"

"The town or ranch?" Dell asked

"There’s a ranch called Cat’s Paw?" Parker asked

"Yeah," Dell said, "it’s an isolated place out at the base of Rocky Falls"

"We don’t service it?" Wyatt asked

"It’s not in business any after the economy took a shit and they couldn’t recover The place is deserted"

"As in the owners just walked away?" Parker asked

"Supposedly The bank took the land back, but like thousands of other properties across the country, the banks are in over their head Most of those out-of-the-way places are on the back burner"

"So no livestock," Parker said

"Not unless it’s wild and squatting on the land"

The tabby kitten rolled over and his sister, sleepy noed in protest