Page 11 of Burn Bag (Owens Protective Services #31)

DAPHNE

I burst free from the clinic as sirens wailed around me. My heart hammered in my chest and tingles shot through my hands. I couldn’t believe I was doing this.

Again.

This was not my first rodeo, but that didn’t mean it was any less frightening to do it. I spun and got down low, spreading a few treats on the ground as I puckered my lips and called my little escapees.

“Come on, babies! Let’s go!”

A kitten climbed out of my hoodie, desperately seeking food, but if I allowed him out, I’d have one more cat to wrangle. I tossed a few treats in my hood and turned my attention back to the six kittens fleeing the clinic.

“Come on! Momma’s gotta move!”

I glanced over my shoulder. Only one hundred feet separated me from my vehicle. I could do this. The kittens were running toward me, each of them crying loudly for more food. Poor things were probably starving .

I continued to gently coax them, using a soothing voice as I continued to guide them to my car. Yanking the door open, I started piling them inside just as the clinic door burst open and the owner ran out, yelling at me as soon as he spotted me.

“Shit!” I tossed a few more treats to keep them inside, then slammed the door and ran around to the driver’s side of my 1994 Volkswagen Golf. She was old, but she still got the job done.

“Come on, Delilah!”

I turned the ignition and pleaded as she whined before finally starting up. I shifted in reverse and hit the gas, narrowly avoiding hitting the man chasing me.

“Sorry!” I shouted, raising my hand in apology, though I wasn’t sure why I was apologizing for stealing cats from that wretched man. I had to get out of here, and fast.

I zipped through a yellow light, closing my eyes and squealing as it changed to red. Thankfully, I made it through with no issue and hit the gas, taking me farther and farther from the scene of the crime.

My car started clunking as I took a hard right, and I ran my hand over the dash, coaxing her along. “Come on, girl. I know you still have it in you!”

Delilah clunked again, but kept going, saving my bacon when I was so close to being caught.

I pulled into the underground parking and found the closest spot I could to the elevator.

As soon as I shut down the car, I closed my eyes and let the silence wash over me, sure I would hear sirens at any moment, coming to surround me and the police there to haul me in and arrest me.

Instead, all I heard were the little meows of the kittens as they climbed around the backseat, desperate for more food.

One of them climbed up between the seats and stared up at me with his head cocked to the side, meowing loudly.

Smiling, I bent over and nuzzled his head with my nose. The little guy was so cute.

“Alright, fellas. It’s time to go to your new home.”

I grinned as they all started climbing over the seats as if they understood me.

Wrangling this many cats at once was going to be difficult, but well worth the effort.

It took me fifteen minutes and the last of my treats to get them into the elevator, but we made it.

Now I just had to get them into the apartment.

Luckily, Emily was just leaving and held the door open for me as I darted toward her slack-jawed face.

“What is going on here?”

I winced, knowing I was about to get yelled at. “I had to do it?—”

“Stop!” She held up her hand, her eyes closed as she breathed through her anger. “Daphne, you say this every time?—”

“I know?—”

“And every time you come home with a new animal!” She quickly counted, then spun to me in horror. “Six!”

“Actually, seven,” I winced. “But I had to do it!”

“I can’t do this,” she muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“I swear, I will find them homes as quickly as possible,” I said, rushing over to her as the door swung shut, locking us inside the apartment.

“Do you have any idea how stressed I am right now?”

Actually, I didn’t. I guided her over to the couch and rubbed her back. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“I agreed to marry some random man!” she shrieked, surprising the hell out of me. “He’s just someone I met on the internet. I mean, who does that?”

I was shocked because this was not at all like her. This was actually something…well, something I would do. “Um…”

“I mean, I have to be out of my mind! I’ve only met him once!”

I winced, wondering if she at least let him buy her dinner first. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Fine?” she snapped, her head whipping to face me. “When has anything in my life ever been fine?”

I hated to point out that she lived a relatively normal life. She had a good job, she had hobbies and crafts that she did regularly…in general, she seemed pretty happy.

“Why would you agree to marry a man you’ve never met?”

She groaned, burying her face in her hands. “I don’t know. Impulse. ”

“You’ve never done anything impulsive in your life.”

“I know, and I was trying to be less like me!”

I snorted at that, but continued to rub her back. “You know, most people do that by getting a new hobby or taking up sword fighting.”

“Who takes up sword fighting?” she practically shouted.

“Certainly not me! And do you know why?” she asked, shoving to her feet.

She spun around, jabbing a finger in my face.

“Because I don’t like change. I hate it, in fact!

If there is one thing that will be listed on my gravestone, it’s that I despise change!

And here I am, agreeing to marry a man who lives halfway around the world! ”

“Wow, that far?”

She shook her head irritatedly. “It’s only Kansas, but it might as well be the end of the universe!”

“Right, I can see that,” I frowned, trying to figure out how Kansas was really that bad. We literally lived on the border in Kansas City, Missouri.

“I just don’t know how I got myself into this mess. I wanted to be like you. I wanted to be adventurous and live a little!”

“Uh…I hate to point out that I’ve never been that adventurous.”

She glared at me, obviously not approving of me talking at the moment. “What am I going to do?”

She flopped down on the couch, bent over as she buried her face in her hands again. I rubbed her back soothingly, trying to help her find a solution.

“Well, you could always just back out. Tell him you’ve changed your mind.”

“But then I’m doing what I always do.”

“Making sane, logical choices,” I nodded in understanding.

“Don’t you see how bad this is? The one time I try to do something rash, I go way too far and make things so much worse!”

Yeah, she wasn’t exactly taking the baby steps we had discussed in the past. In fact, she basically got in a Ferrari and went from zero to sixty in four seconds.

“When’s the wedding?”

“Tomorrow. ”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “And you’re still here?”

Her head snapped to face me and she shot me a withering glare that had me checking my tone. “I’m procrastinating!”

“Right, of course,” I nodded, going back to rubbing her back.

As much as I wanted to sit here and talk this out with her, I had the tiny issue of kittens running around and begging for food.

Plus, I still had to hide my tracks as best I could, which meant getting on my computer and wiping out any trace of myself on those cameras.

If they had them online, which I hadn’t had time to check before my break-in. Time was of the essence, as it was now.

But I sat here and commiserated with Emily because I had no idea what else to do. With every second that passed, I knew I was giving the man at the clinic too much time to catch me. Any minute, he would be pounding on my door, demanding his cats back, and I couldn’t allow that to happen.

“I can’t do this,” she groaned. “I don’t know what I was thinking! There is absolutely no way I can marry a man I met for all of five minutes!”

“But you already have the dress, right?”

“Yes,” she waved me off. “I can’t believe I spent money on it. What was I thinking?”

“That you wanted to be happy?”

She groaned, tossing her body back into the couch. “This is what I get for trying to be impulsive. Why couldn’t I just be like you and get a cat?”

I looked at the multiple kittens at my feet and cringed. “I’m not sure that’s what you really want.”

She shoved to her feet and paced the living room. “I have to call it off.”

“Emily—”

“You don’t understand!” she shouted. “I can’t live like this. I’m not you. I don’t want to be impulsive and do crazy things. I don’t want to marry a man I just met. All I want is to meet the one for me.”

Tears filled her eyes as she started to hyperventilate. At the same time, I heard the dreaded sirens outside. It wouldn’t be long before they found me. I had to get out of here.

“Quick, give me the information.”

“What?”

“The information. Where am I going?”

“Going?”

I sighed in frustration. “Who am I marrying? Where am I going?”

“But…why?”

“Because I have a very powerful man on my ass, and if I don’t get out of here, he’s going to have me arrested!”

“But—”

“No buts. Give me your wedding dress and everything I need to know. I’ll take your place at the wedding.”

Her face filled with hope for just a second before it was dashed. “You can’t just take my place. It doesn’t work like that!”

“Nothing works like this!” I shouted. “You were about to marry a man you just met!”

“Right. Right,” she said with a little more conviction. “You’re absolutely right.”

She ran off to her room while I gathered all the kittens with treats. I didn’t have long to get all of them out of here, but I knew I couldn’t leave them behind. It would be a death sentence.

As quickly as possible, I ran to my room and gathered up a bag of clothes.

Emily could mail me the rest. I just had to get out of here.

Then I ran to my secret stash and gathered all my cash, tucking it into various safe spots in my bag, my shoe, my purse, even my bra.

By the time I was ready, Emily had all her wedding things in a pile.

“Okay, now we just need to get out of here as quickly as possible.”

“Wait!” she gasped, snatching my arm. “You can’t leave in your car. They’ll see you!”

“Right.” I had to think of something fast, or this would never work. But just before I suggested calling a cab, she ran over to her purse and grabbed her keys. “Take my car.”

“Are you sure? ”

“You’re saving me from a wedding. I think I can safely say you’ve earned this.”

“Thank you,” I beamed, hugging her tight. “I need your help.”

“Let’s get this stuff to the car first. Then we can come back for the animals.”

I nodded in agreement and hurried to the parking lot with her. Luckily, the police weren’t anywhere in sight, so we quickly loaded up, then returned for the animals. By the time I was done, I actually had tears in my eyes. I didn’t want to leave her.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Better than okay,” she beamed. “I never could have gone through with it.”

“Well, here’s hoping he likes crazy women,” I laughed, hugging her one last time before I got in her car and drove off.

I was going on an adventure. I just hoped it didn’t end up with me in jail.