All I Want(46)

Parker couldn’t see much else as the rest of the daylight faded away. None of them used any lights.

He called Wyatt.

“Yo,” Wyatt said. “I’ve got two minutes before emergency surgery. 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’m putting you on speaker. Dell,” Wyatt said, and Parker knew he was 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 know what we 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 anymore,” Dell said. “They lost their livestock not too long 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 now, mewed in protest.

“You have a furbaby?” Dell asked.

“I’ve got two kittens for next week’s adoption day.”

Wyatt laughed. “Zoe know?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you don’t have shit for adoption day. She won’t be able to let them go by then.”

After they’d disconnected, Parker stared at the feeds some more. So if there was no livestock, what the hell was in that truck? If he’d located Carver and the militia he was using to protect himself, the likely answer was that he’d possibly found the storage site for Carver’s illegal gains, his holding place before it was sold.

He got up, unintentionally disturbing the kittens, who let him know with their soft mews how unhappy he’d made them. He set them down on Oreo’s bed. “Sleep,” he commanded.

The kittens climbed all over Oreo.

Oreo gave Parker a baleful look.

“Like you don’t love them,” Parker said.

And indeed, Oreo licked each kitten from chin to forehead and then, after turning in a very careful circle—three times—plopped down. His hind end caught the gray kitten, who gave a muffled “mew!”, crawled out from beneath Oreo’s ass, and settled with her brother between Oreo’s two front paws.

Oreo smiled down at his babies.

Parker paced for a few moments, brooding over the action he was missing out on. He tried calling Sharon, but either his boss was over him or she was still pissed because she didn’t pick up.

When his phone finally buzzed, he answered immediately, thinking it was Sharon getting back to him.

It was AJ. “How are your ribs?”

“Great,” Parker said, touching them to check. Maybe great was a slight exaggeration, but it would do.

“We’re short a guy tonight for our rec league football game,” AJ said. “Wyatt says you’re the guy we need. You in?”

Parker looked around him, soaking in Zoe’s kitchen. It was a great kitchen, warm and cozy and comfortable. And in it, he was shockingly content for a guy who’d always believed he had to be on the go 24/7 to be happy.

But laying low for work was driving him straight up a wall and he had a lot of pent-up energy to burn. He’d like to burn some of that energy off with Zoe.

Naked.

But she was part of his problem. He didn’t want to sit around here and think about her, and without her, he didn’t have much to do except check the camera feeds. “Who’s on your team?” he asked.

AJ laughed shortly. “Worried?”

“I want to win.”

AJ laughed again. “Then show up. You won’t be sorry, trust me. We kick ass.”

Perfect. Just what he was in the mood for.

Several hours later, he was at the park, meeting the rest of the guys on his team. Wyatt. Dell, whom he already knew. Dell’s brothers Adam and Brady, both of whom looked very capable of kicking ass. A guy named Grif, whom Parker wouldn’t bet against. And Joe, who was filling in for someone, too. They were playing a team of first responders, which included Kel.

Kel grinned at the sight of Parker. “You here for me to wipe the floor with?”

Parker grinned back. “Try it.”

In the first huddle, Joe looked over at Parker. “You the reason she hasn’t made a decision?”

He assumed the “she” in question was Zoe. “Decision?” he asked.

“I offered Zoe an equal partnership in the FBO,” Joe said. “She said she needed to think about it for a while.” He paused. “She didn’t mention it?”

“No.”

Joe grinned. “Maybe you’re not the reason after all, then.”