Just Bob (Assassins Inc. #1)(20)

“He has to be here somewhere. He was here just a few minutes ago.” It wasn’t like he could walk out of the apartment. The door was closed and Mustachio didn’t have thumbs.

“Ouch!” Stryker shouted. “Shit.”

I glanced over to the couch where he stood. “What?”

“I found the damn cat.” Stryker shook his hand. There was a nice scratch all the way across the top. “Little shit scratched me when I tried to pick him up.”

Obviously, the cat had taste.

I tried to keep my amusement to myself as I stepped around the man and squatted down by the back of the couch. I could immediately see Mustachio crouched down behind the couch. His ears were pressed down close to the top of his head, his eyes wide. I was a cat shifter so I could interpret the cat’s posture easily.

Mustachio was terrified.

I let a low purr rumble through my chest to reassure the cat before slowly reaching out with my hand. When Mustachio hissed at me and crouched down even further, I let out a little of my panther and hissed back. The cat growled at me, but after a moment, he lifted up to press against my hand.

“There you go,” I said in a soothing voice as I reached down with my other hand and picked the cat up. “I know you’re scared, but it’s going to be okay. We just need to get you out from behind this couch and into your harness.”

I cradled Mustachio to my chest as I stood, petting him and trying to exude calming feelings. “Someone get the cat harness out of the closet.”

Stryker’s eyes were comically large when he handed me the cat harness and leash a moment later. “Damn,” he said. “You weren’t kidding. What does that thing weigh? Twenty? Thirty pounds?”

“Feels like it.”

It took me a minute to figure out how to put the harness on Mustachio. I had never put one on a cat before. Or a dog. I didn’t do harnesses or leashes. Although, I’d consider one for Bob if it kept the man at my side.

Speaking of which…

“Here,” I said as I handed Mustachio over to Stone. He seemed to get along better with the cat than Stryker did. “I’m going to go see what’s keeping Bob. We need to get going.”

Hyenas had one thing going for them—depending on how you looked at it. They were fast and they were tenacious. Once they caught a scent, they ran their prey to the ground until they were caught. If we didn’t hightail it out of there rather quickly, the hyenas would be after us, and shaking them might be harder than keeping Bob alive.

I couldn’t allow that.

“You about ready, Bob?” I asked as I pushed the bedroom door open.

It took me about two seconds to figure out the room was empty. It took less than a heartbeat for pure panic to fill every cell in my body.

I knew my eyes had to be filled with my fear when I turned to look at Stone and Stryker and both men stiffened. “Bob’s missing.”





Chapter Seven


Bob



My head hurt. It didn’t feel as though I had been hit by something, but more of a deep throbbing at my temples. I didn’t know if it came from the aching in my head, but I couldn’t see anything but faint shadows.

Wait.

There was something over my head.

I started to reach up to remove whatever was blocking my view only to discover my hands were bound behind my back.

Not good.

Panic ate me up as I struggled, trying to free my hands. It took me a moment to figure out I was bound with rope, but that still wasn’t helpful. I was still tied up. What I wouldn’t give for a sharp blade right about now.

Hell, I’d even take a dull one.

I went still when I heard footsteps heading in my direction. I prayed whoever was there wouldn’t hear the rapid beating of my heart. Darn thing was threatening to jump right out of my chest.

Whatever was over my head was dark, but there was enough light in the room to allow me to see a blur of movement as someone walked past me. I couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman, but whoever they were, they were big.

Which made sense. The person who had grabbed me as soon as I walked into the bedroom and knocked me over the head had seemed huge. I had only gotten an impression of the body I had been pressed up against before unconsciousness took me, but they could have easily been the same person.

The question was, who was that person?

And why had they taken me?

“Has he woken up yet?”

Crap, there were two of them.

“No,” another man said. This guy was much closer. “He’s still out cold. I don’t know how much of that shit Johnson used, but this guy’s gonna be out for another few hours at least.”

Bullshit.

If the guy had been in the room ten seconds ago, he had to have seen me struggle against my bonds. Why was he lying? What was his game?

Who was he?

“Let me know when he wakes up,” the first guy who spoke said. “I need information from him.”

“Yeah, whatever,” the second guy said.

“Just do it!”

I swallowed hard as I listened to footsteps walk away and then fade off. I was afraid to move because I was pretty sure the liar was still in the room. I couldn’t see him, but my luck just seemed to go that way.

That phrase that goes “If I didn’t have bad luck, I would have no luck at all.” Yeah, that was me.