Page 44 of The Cat's Mausy

Tiger shook his head. “I do not think so, though they would have liked to claim him, I imagine. From what Seong has told me, I think he was just a man in a new country trying to carve a life out for himself and fell in with the local powers. Not one like me at all.” His eyes darted towards the hall. “Do you think I could talk to him? It has been a long time since I have been able to have a conversation in German.”

Felinus shrugged. “If you say he understands you, I’m not going to stop it,” he told the former assassin. “Just tread lightly. He’s a bit… raw.”

Tiger nodded. “I recall the feeling. I won’t push.”

“We’re getting him into therapy, right,” Snake asked as Tiger walked back to the breakfast bar. “I mean… I knew he needed it when you brought him in the first day, but this?”

“I haven’t talked to him about it, but yes,” Felinus said, bringing his mug back up and frowning at the lack of coffee. “So much therapy.”

* * *

Issac had been startled when Tiger spoke to him in German when Issac took a seat next to him at the breakfast bar. It wasn’t that Tiger hadn’t spoken German around him; those short-sentenced answers Issac had heard him say had a scattering of German throughout them, mostly in the form of name-calling towards Bat in an almost affectionate way. Before Issac knew it, they were having a conversation, Issac’s German broken and mangled with English that Tiger smiled at as he gently corrected him.

He was embarrassed to learn that he swore like a child according to Tiger. Mist had been one of his dad’s most common swear words, usually muttered under his breath or after a long sigh. His mom never liked it being repeated. Tiger shrugged, explaining that it wasn’t a particularly bad word and that children often used it. Then he grinned and asked Issac if he’d like to learn the actual bad ones.

Issac couldn’t help but wonder later if Felinus had asked Tiger to keep the conversation going in the hopes that it would distract him long enough to miss his class.

To say that Felinus and the others were displeased with Issac’s insistence that he still be taken to school would be an understatement. No one shouted at him, but they argued with him. Snake and Bat tried convincing him that he wasn’t going to fail the semester if he didn’t go in this one time. Brutus reasoned that if Issac did go in, he would be too tired to actually write anything down so he might as well just tell Dimitri to send his notes to him and go back to bed. Felinus looked as if he was considering carrying Issac back to bed himself. Tiger’s sudden silence somehow felt like a protest.

In the end, they came to the compromise that Felinus would drive Issac to his first class, give him thirty minutes afterwards to find and speak with anyone he needed to for the remaining information and pick him back up before noon.

“Do you see them all,” Felinus asked as they pulled into the roundabout in Felinus’s sports car.

“Yep,” Issac said quietly, scanning the immediate area. “Adrian with Dimitri, obviously, two more behind them pretending to be students, one pretending to be a janitor on break, two on the roof prone, and there are three cars idling in the parking lot.”

Felinus sat forward to peer at the roof. “Don’t like that,” he muttered then shook his head. “Did your dad teach you how to do that?”

“Him and my uncles,” Issac said, seeming to wince at the word. “I don’t think he really wanted me to learn but they argued that it was a useful skill to have even if I wasn’t going to take the clover.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Felinus sighed, not liking that he potentially agreed with men who betrayed Issac.

“Me either,” Issac said, sighing as he sat back. “Isn’t this all overkill? Why are they bothering with this?”

“The Russians have never exactly been… subtle,” Felinus said, his pause making Issac think that it was the nice phrasing of what he thought of the men outside his car. “They said they will protect you, so they are showing what that protection looks like. It might also be a passive-aggressive reminder to me that I’m alone in their Ring.” He reached across the space and touched Issac’s cheek, something Issac leaned into immediately. “They aren’t going to start anything,” he said reassuringly. “The Pakhan is beyond pissed that you fell through the cracks of the Casualty Orphan clauses of the treaty, and probably at his own kid for not figuring you out before I stepped in.”

“The fact that I was actively trying to keep that from happening isn’t going to mean much here, is it?”

Felinus smiled at him. “You are a smart one,” he praised a little mockingly. “Don’t worry,” he continued softly. “No matter what happens, the Pakhan and the Don have sworn that you are under their Rings’ protections. No one is stupid enough to try to touch you with those in place. It’ll sign their death warrant immediately. You are safe. Now, go pat Little Volkov on the head and tell him he’s a good boy before he has an accident over there. I’ll be back at eleven to pick you up and we’ll get lunch on our way back home.”

Issac looked over at Dimitri to see that his classmate was shifting from one foot to the other as he stared at the tinted windows. Adrian had a subtle hold on the back of his jacket as he sipped coffee out of a paper cup like he expected Dimitri to bolt on him any minute.

Felinus’s hand laced into his, warm and comforting. “We could always go home now,” he suggested. “I’ll call Adrian. Tell him you needed the day. They have seen how bad your condition is, they aren’t going to question it.”

Issac squeezed the hand back. “I’ll see you at eleven,” he said, opening the door and feeling the cold air across his face.

* * *

The young man who got out of the sports car matched the general appearance of the one his men had followed around the mall, but he could already see how much weight he had gained in just four days. He was still a long way from healthy, based on the medical records the Cat had left with them last night, but Adrian couldn’t fault the Cat or his men on their efforts to keep Issac fed.

He could, however, find fault in the off-colored concealer under Issac’s swollen eyes and the turtleneck just covering bruises in various stages of healing. He really didn’t want to deal with any more misunderstandings, but he also really didn’t want to ask his brother’s long-term crush if those were all hickeys or if things were rougher than the Cat let on.

“Issac,” Dimitri said, as Issac approached them. Dimitri was practically vibrating as Adrian kept hold of his jacket hem like he used to when they were little to keep him from running off. “Are you-”

“I didn’t sleep well,” Issac interrupted, then rolled his eyes when Dimitri’s shoulders tensed. “Not like that. Literally. Could not stay asleep.” He looked at Adrian. “You must be Adrian. Dimitri speaks highly of you.”

“Not as highly as he speaks of you, I imagine,” Adrian said, letting go of Dimitri to offer his hand to the smaller man while Dimitri sputtered out a complaint. Issac really did look tired and he didn’t have a particularly strong grip when he took Adrian’s hand. The sports car was still idling in the drive as he glanced at it. “Did he tell you why I am here?”

“Something to the effect that your dad wants to offer his protection as well as keeping the Cat and his men out of your Ring as much as possible while I go to school here,” Issac said, sighing slowly. “Can I just state for the record that this show is overkill? I’ve seen how your men work on tailing people. You didn’t need this many.”

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