“Would you believe a lion saved me?” Again, he tried to laugh, only to gasp in pain.
“You mean a lioness?” she couldn’t help but huff indignantly. “Males have giant fluffy manes and are lazy as fuck. A male lion would have let you be eaten.”
“Whatever. Boy kitty. Girl. Doesn’t matter. It stopped that tiger from eating me.”
Her fur bristled at the dismissive tone. “Maybe you should be a little more appreciative.” A part of her wanted to press the point, wanted him to recognize she’d saved him at her own peril. She’d had no choice but to shift to save him from the tiger in the zoo. Then she’d shifted again to get him out of there. At the time, he’d been passed out and hadn’t seen her. He hadn’t made the correlation.
Yet. But if she wasn’t careful, he would discover her secret, and then she’d have no choice.
Claim him. Her feline’s suggestion was at odds with the prescribed death sentence for humans who knew too much.
“Guess now that the key is gone, you’ll be taking off,” he said, the pain pills having obviously kicked in as he swung his legs over the side of the bed.
“Is that what you’re doing? Going home?”
“What else would I do?”
“I’m surprised you’re giving up that easily.” Disappointed too. She’d not taken him for a quitter.
“There is nothing easy about it. But without the key, there is no quest,” was his angry retort.
“Wait, we are on a quest?” That sounded way better than the job she’d been handed so far.
“We were. Without the key, we’re stuck.”
“Says you. Way I see it we have two choices. Go after the people with the key and get it back, or get to the treasure before them.”
“There is no we.” He grunted as he stood and wavered on his feet.
“It’s either we or me, and if it’s just me, you should know you’ll spend that duration locked in this room. You decide.” She arched a brow.
“And they call me the felon.”
She smiled. “Is that a yes?”
“How is it you’re blackmailing me but I don’t hate you?”
“Because I’m cute.” She grinned sassily at him.
“Sometimes. You’re mostly persistent.”
“Very. But I’ll have you know I make a most excellent partner. Just ask Zach.”
“Your boyfriend.”
“Nope.” She stepped close enough she had to look up to keep his gaze. “That was just an act. I am single. Available. And my favorite position is on my hands and knees.” True. And a shocking admission. She almost blushed. But then she caught his reaction.
He sucked in a breath, swayed, and almost toppled.
She put a hand on his chest. “Careful, Montgomery.”
“What happened to Peter?”
“Depends. Are we partners?”
“You keep wanting us to be equals, and yet I’m the one who knows where we need to go next.”
“And I’m the one with the connections to get us there. I just need to know where so I can arrange transportation.”
“First off, there will be no arranging of anything because it’s too easy for those goons to track if they’re still watching me. And second, I’m not sure.”
“Liar. You came to Europe for a reason.”
“More like a hunch based on a riddle that I’m probably misinterpreting.”
“You’re referring to the story in that children’s fairy tale book.”
He eyed her sharply. “Have you seen it?”
“No, but I was briefed on it.” AKA, Zach flipped quickly through the book retrieved in Peter’s apartment so she could get the gist of the story via the images. “Basically, monster meets girl, goes on quest, uses a key to open some kind of chest. And they live happily ever after.”
“In a nutshell, yes.”
“We’re going to find that treasure.”
“Maybe. Keep in mind, even if it ever existed, it’s probably long gone.”
“Are you really going to play that game? You think it’s real and that it’s still there.”
“I think this might be a wild goose chase. I mean think of it, a hidden treasure that can be found by following clues in a children’s story?”
“But you believe it.”
He shrugged. “I do, and yet it’s crazy. I’m crazy. Like legit nut job. Just got out of a padded room a few weeks ago.”
“Just because they called you insane doesn’t make it true. Maybe they just didn’t understand you.”
That brought a choked chuckle from him. “Oh, they understood me all right. That was the whole problem.”
“Why were you there?” The medical reports were in Russian and only had a summary paragraph in English that said he was convinced he was being hunted by an old lady and her tiger. The doctors claimed he’d suffered a psychotic break with reality.
But she saw it as a clue. Peter had seen something. And she was going to find out what.
If he stopped being stubborn.
“I was put there because they found me naked in the woods eating grubs.”
“Raw, or did you cook them first to make them into crunchy protein bites?”
“This isn’t fucking funny. My life isn’t a joke.”
“I was being serious. Personally, I like them cooked with a hint of salt and chili powder. The best are grasshoppers. The big kind. Very flavorful.”
“There is something seriously wrong with you, Nora.”
“Because I’m not caught up in the usual Western hang-ups when it comes to my sources of protein? Bugs are meat of a different kind.”
“That’s just wrong and just another reason why you and I should part ways.”
He was trying to blow her off again so he could find the treasure by himself. Enough. Time he realized he wasn’t the one calling the shots. “Since you’re so desperate for me to leave, good luck getting anywhere. You have no identification. No money. Not even any pants.” She glanced at his groin then back at him as she said, “Although you do have the goods to make a few bucks turning tricks.”
His face turned red. “I’ll call my sister.”
“Go right ahead. Call her. Tell her where you are. Even better, maybe I will and tell her to come save you herself.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” he growled.
“You’re right, I wouldn’t, but you will because, without me, you’re stuck. Have fun.” She rose and made as if to leave.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t go.”
“Why?”
He glared at her. “You know why.”
She smirked. “Say it, Peter. Say you need me.”
“I. Need. You.” Spoken through gritted teeth, and yet her inner feline practically purred.
“Was that so hard?” Her gaze dropped, and the more she stared, the more she noticed not all parts of him hurt. “I see that it is. Hard,” she purred.
His embarrassment had him flushing, but he recovered enough to say, “Since you’re good at fixing stuff, feel free to fix it.”