Page 24 of Whiskers on Kittens

As Belial couldn’t teach me everything about police investigations over the course of dinner, he produced five different textbooks on crime scene investigations, general procedures, and everything else that hadn’t been covered during my stint through college and university. For the most part, it consisted of pay attention, ask people questions, make certain we had jurisdiction before asking questions, and heading over to the nearest CDC office to get an appropriate badge so we wouldn’t have to wrangle jurisdiction issues until we finished our assignment.

The FBI would help with that although the CDC would handle the pertinent details.

Once I gorged and stole a six inch stack of documents I felt would help us the most, and begged the Devil and Belial to make the rest accessible should it be needed, I accepted another teleportation back to the hotel. Rather than the lobby, the Devil took me straight to my room.

While Belial’s teleportation packed a bit of a punch, the Devil’s knocked my virus for a loop, and stars danced around in my vision.

“Off to bed you go,” Lucifer said with laughter in his voice, gave me a pat on the shoulder, and disappeared.

While I managed to escape my clothes, I failed to change into pajamas. As my virus supported the idea of naked cuddling, and the thought of it restored her to functionality, I opted to go with her flow.

If Easton decided to use me as a living furnace and woke up with his arms full of naked woman, I wasn’t going to complain about the situation.

Had I been thinking clearly, I would have tried to beat him awake. Instead, he startled me with his yelp, which heralded a rather loud thump. Blinking, I stretched, clued in I’d gone to bed in the nude, and that the cop had launched himself halfway across the room before hitting the ground.

If I could purr, I would have, but I settled with a throaty, rumbly chuff. “What’s wrong, Easton?”

“You’re naked!”

I double-checked my status as free of any clothing before nodding. “I have brought you a gift of information, courtesy of those downstairs. I paid for it through dealing with a dinner date while you were sleeping.” I pointed at the table, which had my new pile of books and papers. “I even got you some reference material so you can start your career as a detective on the right foot. I have some forensics training so I can help with some things, but my contacts provided those, which should cover your base information. If you’re tired of driving, you can read while I take us to our next destination.”

Easton’s gaze fixed on my chest, and at my virus’s insistence, I posed for him. Smiling, I added, “If I didn’t want you admiring the goods, I wouldn’t have put the goods on display or gone to bed in the nude. In reality, I managed to get undressed but was too tired to put my pajamas on, so I skipped them.”

The wolf let out a gusty breath. “Should I be thanking you or apologizing?”

“You’re welcome.” I hopped out of bed, went to my bag, and dug out my jeans and blouse. I thought about leaving off the bra to drive him to the brink of madness, but I picked the lacier of the two I’d brought with me. “If you’re body shy, you don’t have to show off your goods. If you’re not, I don’t care if you prance around in the hotel room naked, but should you, I’m interpreting that to mean you want me to take a good look at you.” After a moment of thought, I determined I’d convinced him I was quite promiscuous. “I was born infected, but my mother contracted lycanthropy after conception, which is why I’m a girl rather than a boy. My mother then passed the virus onto my father. She became infectious a lot sooner than expected. She didn’t undergo any testing because they won’t test pregnant women, especially with a pregnancy as touchy as mine was. I’m lucky to be alive, and they think the virus is why I made it to term in the first place. Let’s just say my parents were poor then. They aren’t poor now because I pulled a lot of strings to make it that way. They’re half the reason I bust my ass so hard. The only reason I haven’t bought them a new house is because they love the house they’re in now even though it’s small. I won’t take that from them.”

Instead, I’d wrangle his parents, move them next door to the guest house, and then work on making him move into my house. I allowed myself a sly smile, wondering how long it would take him to figure out he’d been selected as a viable suitor.

Ideally, he wouldn’t clue in until I stole his belongings from his apartment, moved them into what would be our house, and used my charms to keep him from leaving. Then I’d wait for him to realize he no longer needed to return to his apartment because everything except his furniture had been removed.

And, if I could get away with it, I’d pilfer his furniture and move it into one of the empty rooms in my basement so he could visit his old things anytime he wanted.

I bet Amy would help me if I asked her.

“I’m not sure I like that expression on your face,” he confessed.

I grinned at his worry. “I am contemplating how best to bring ruin to these traffickers, and I’m appreciating where my thoughts lead.”

Of course, I wasn’t going to tell him I thought beyond bringing the kittens home for Christmas. I wasn’t sure how I’d plan on getting his parents to my place on schedule.

Easton relaxed, and he picked himself up off the floor, dusted himself off, and gave himself a shake. “I mean, I’ve been thinking about that, too. My virus is not happy about the trafficking situation.”

I nodded. “Mine is ready for some violence. Hey, I have a question for you.”

“What?”

“How do you feel about breaking and entering if we’re procuring evidence that could lead to the safe recovery of the kittens?”

While Easton scowled, he considered my question, which was better than I’d initially expected from him. “That depends. Who is your informant?”

“The Devil.”

The cop blinked. “Excuse me, but did you just say the Devil?”

“Well, it began with my contacts last night.” Once I finished dressing, I went to my phone, grabbed it, and showed him my contact list. “I got Belial’s contact a while back. It happens with major corporate hustles; devils, demons, and angels all get in on that action. I gave him a call, asked him if he could go out for dinner last night, and he brought the Devil along for the ride. The Devil took the place of the waiter, and I got yelled at for feeding you but not feeding me. So, I have to feed me more and feed you more, and it’s a damned good thing I have a good savings account, else we’d eat my wallet to ribbons in the next few days. Anyway, Belial is in charge of general ruin. He really wants to see these traffickers destroyed. I got information on where to strike. I’ll have to stalk them for when they leave, but I’ve been informed that we can make off with all their laundered money, which they’re leaving around as cash and other easily sold objects that are difficult at best to trace.” I giggled, set my phone down, and rubbed my hands together. “I’m going to turn the laundered money into a trust for the trafficking victims to get them back on their feet.”

After staring at me for a disconcertingly long time, Easton erupted into curses, the kind my mother would have grounded me over for life.