Page 21 of Herding Cat

“Be careful,” she said and he grinned, as though she’d made a joke. This was no joking matter.

He peered through the fisheye and then opened the door. To her relief, it wasn’t another assassin, but the other two members of their team.

“Sorry to wake you,” Garrett said in a glib tone. “But we’ve had an incident.”

Tate scanned the crumpled cretin, then Catherine and scowled.

“Awesome.” Luke put his hands on his hips and studied the man still fighting against his bonds.

Garrett nudged the fallen pistol with his toe. Tate and Luke seemed to know what this meant—again, that secret language they had—and they both nodded.

“Do we know if he’s the only one?” Though Tate asked in a whisper, Catherine heard and her gut churned. She knew Steven. If he was going to do something, he would not do it half-assed. It was probably a really good assumption that he’d hired a team.

“We don’t know,” Garrett responded. “We’re onto plan B.”

Luke and Tate nodded.

“What’s plan B?” She had to ask. All of them whipped around to stare at her as though they’d forgotten she was there.

Garrett frowned. “Never mind—”

“What’s plan B?”

Luke stepped forward and fixed her with a somber look. “Plan B is offense.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means we assume there are other threats out there and act accordingly.”

“And what does that mean? Exactly?”

Tate frowned. It was indeed a fierce frown. “It means we take precautions.” This he said as though she knew what he meant. She did not.

Garrett sighed. “It means we stay in the hotel.” When she winced, he added, “For the time being.”

Stay in the hotel? Hell no. “I have a business to run.”

“You won’t, if they get to you.”

Catherine shook her head. “They got to me here. What makes you think this hotel is safe?”

The large, looming men exchanged a look. “She’s right,” Luke said. “We should move to another location.”

Catherine sighed. “That was not what I meant.”

But they ignored her. “Let’s meet up tomorrow and discuss the options. In the meantime”–Garrett gestured to the catch of the day–“this needs to be handled.”

Tate nodded. He grinned wolfishly. “No prob.”

“I’ll take her to my room tonight.” Though a thrill shot through her at Garrett’s casual statement, it bothered her that it was as casual as it was. As though he’d done this a hundred times with a hundred other women. Somehow, that just sawed on her nerves even though she told herself she didn’t care.

“Roger that.” With sketched salutes, Luke and Tate collected their prey and left.

Silence hummed in their absence. To break it, and because she was interested, Catherine asked, “What will they do with him?”

He didn’t answer, merely shot her a speaking look.

What a pity she didn’t speak SEAL.