Page 42 of Savage Promises (Quinlan Empire #2)

Shane

T he cold wind and pelts of stinging rain whip harshly at my face, the phone pressed to my ear.

Rhys answers on the third ring. “Aye, Shane?”

“I need you. Right now,” I bark.

“What’s going on?” my cousin asks, already sounding alert.

“Just get to the brownstone. Bring the trackers.”

“Shane, are you serious? We’re staked out here.”

“Now,” I snap and hang up before he can keep arguing with me.

I pace up and down the sidewalk, my polished shoes getting soaked and my trousers ruined from the splash of puddles as cars race down the block. The umbrella does little to shield me from the deluge. The sky has darkened, and the damn streetlights don’t help much.

Rhys pulls up twenty minutes later and steps out of his Audi, followed by Blade and Jett, his dynamic duo. They’re the best when it comes to finding people who don’t want to be found.

Let’s hope that applies to cats.

Wearing a Yankee hat, Rhys frowns as he approaches me. “Who are we tracking down, Shane?”

“Hawk,” I say firmly and reach into my phone to find a picture of the furball.

“Do you mean Havok? The drug dealer?” Rhys shakes raindrops from his cap.

“ Hawk . My cat.” I show him one of the dozen photos Lennox texted me of him acting cute when I’m not home. “ My wife’s cat.”

Blade glances at Jett and I catch the subtle twitch of a smirk .

Rhys crosses his arms, his eyebrows furrowed. “Shane, you dragged me and my trackers away from protecting our weapons for a cat ?”

“This isn’t a joke,” I growl, stepping closer. “You find our enemies hiding in sewers and dumpsters. I expect you to find one damn cat who’s probably shivering under one of these cars. Got it?”

“All right, all right.” Rhys raises his hands in mock surrender. “Where was he last seen?”

I gesture to the brownstone. “One of my guards let him out earlier.”

“And the dosser’s still breathing?”

“It was an accident,” I growl, wishing I can at least smack the crap out of the guard, but that will only make Lennox feel worse.

The three guys spread out, canvassing up and down the block.

The rain has finally stopped and people are coming out of the woodwork.

Jett questions a dog walker with two German Shepherds who look like they could have eaten Hawk.

Blade checks under all the parked cars on the street with a mirror then rifles through all my neighbor’s trash cans.

No cat. But several rats. Great.

Rhys knocks on doors in case Hawk got confused and slipped into the wrong house. Or someone found him and claimed him. All while I’m calling out to him, hoping he recognizes my voice.

For the next hour, we continue the search. I’m freezing and my fingers are numb. Every second we don’t find him, my chest tightens. Lennox is in the house, probably crying, thinking the worst. And it guts me to have let her down.

Rhys comes back, shaking his head. “No luck. None of the neighbors have seen him.”

I rub my hands over my face, my frustration boiling over. “Damn it.”

Blade and Jett report the same grim response. “I can start looking on other blocks,” Blade adds.

Past my street, the city opens up. Hawk can be anywhere. That is a waste of my best trackers’ time to start tearing apart the entire Lower East Side.

“No. I’ll talk to Lennox.” I melt into damage control.

The four of us head back to my house. Blade and Jett take off, opting to catch a cab to meet up with Connor at one of the stakeout locations.

At the bottom of my stoop, Rhys cups my arm. “Shane, it’s a cat. He’ll show up. They always do.”

“They just moved in here,” I ground out, feeling guilty, like I didn’t make Hawk feel at home.

Have I made Lennox feel like this is her home, too?

“Rhys is right,” my guard Creed says from the top of the stoop, leaning on the front door.

“Let’s hope.” I trudge up the steps. “Rhys, you can take off.”

“I’ll come out periodically and check the food bowl,” Creed says, patting my back. “Get dry, boss.”

The weight of this failure shreds my insides more with every step. But before I open the front door, something catches my attention. A faint sound.

Meow.

I freeze, my eyes snapping upward. The tree outside Lennox’s bedroom window sways in the wind. I focus my cellphone flashlight on the tree. “Fuck, there he is!”

Hawk is perched on a branch, his tail flicking as if he didn’t just scare the shit out of me. Relief floods my veins, but it’s quickly replaced by horror.

“He’s got something in his mouth, boss,” Creed says curiously.

A dead bird. Christ, that’s what this was about? A vendetta against the birds who flutter and tease him outside the window?

“What are you doing, Hawk?” I watch his butt wiggle, like he thinks he can dive onto the narrow ceramic ledge under Lennox’s window.

It’s barely two inches wide and the way the water sluices down the side, I bet it’s slick. He’ll slip with his smooth indoor paws and fall thirty feet.

“No!” I rush down the steps. “Don’t you dare.”

Hawk crouches, his little body tensing with other ideas.

“Hawk!” I shout, panic lacing my voice. “Stay there!”

I’m about to yell at Lennox to open her bedroom window and call him when... The damn cat leaps.

He hits the glass with a dull thud, scrambling on the slick ledge for purchase, and then he’s falling.

I dive forward, my arms outstretched. By some miracle, I catch him just before he hits the ground.

I land hard on my knees, tearing my pants.

The not-so-dead bird wiggles out of Hawk’s mouth and takes flight, getting a new lease on life.

I cradle the squirming ball of fur against my chest. My heart is pounding so hard I can barely breathe. Until I start sneezing.

“You little menace,” I mutter, pressing my face into his soft fur. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

“Boss, I can’t believe you caught him!” Creed says, looking up at the tree.

“Yeah, me too.” I sniff, my eyes watering.

“Boss, can I make a suggestion?” Creed’s voice gets low.

“Make it quick.” I hold the squirming cat whose claws are sinking into my skin.

“There’s a shelter around the corner. You can drop him off. Say he’s lost.” He eyes the patch on my arm. “ No more suffering.”

“ My wife will be devastated,” I bite back immediately.

“You can get her one of those hairless, hyperallergic cats. Or a dog.”

“ Hypo allergenic,” I correct him because I already looked it up.

I consider the suggestion for half a second but then Lennox’s tear-stained face flashes in my mind. “No. She loves this cat. And I... She’s my wife. I want her to be happy.”

“Good thing, boss.” Creed opens the door for me when we get back up the steps.

When I shuffle inside with Hawk tucked securely in my arms, Lennox jumps to her feet.

“Hawk!” she cries, her voice cracking. “You found him! I can’t believe you found him.”

She runs to me, reaching for her cat. But not just him. She throws her arms around me, hanging on to both of us like she’ll never let go.

“He kind of found me,” I confess. “He didn’t go far. He was in the damn tree outside your window terrorizing birds this whole time.”

Lennox gasps. “Bad kitten!”

But she snuggles him against her chest.

“He’s wet,” I remind her and grab another towel from the bathroom to dry him off. After Lennox wipes him down and gives him a treat, Hawk curls up in her arms like he didn’t almost fall to his death ten minutes ago.

“Thank you, thank you so much.” Lennox holds me, her sobs soaking into my already wet shirt.

I stroke her hair, murmuring, “It’s all right. He’s safe now. He’s home.”

“And you’re home.” She kisses me.

“You know what that means.”

“I sure do. Come on.” Lennox climbs the stairs cradling Hawk like a baby and urges me to follow .

Inside her bedroom, she gently sets the still-damp kitty on a heating pad in his cat bed. Lennox fusses over him, petting him, and cooing softly, but her attention eventually shifts back to me.

There’s a fire in her eyes as she steps closer. Her hands slide up my chest as she whispers, “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Her lips softly brush mine, but the kiss turns deeper, hungrier.

I groan against her mouth, my hands roaming her curves. “Let’s hope we never find out.”

“Shane,” she squeaks out, her voice trembling. “Thank you.”

I smirk, lifting her effortlessly and laying her on the bed. “You already thanked me with your lips. Now thank me with your body.”