Page 48 of Shadow Blind

The growling stopped in mid rumble.

Huh. She straightened, her eyebrows rising. “What are you, the cat whisperer?”

With a heavy, put-upon sigh, O’Neill opened his eyes, which were green and bore a remarkable resemblance to the single eye glaring at her from Trident’s cage. What a weird coincidence.

“Cat’s like me.” O’Neill shrugged.

Demi digested that before asking tentatively. “When we land, could you help me give him his medicine? He missed his morning dose. He can’t afford to miss his evening one, too.”

O’Neill tilted his head, looking down at the travel carrier. “What meds?” He paused before looking up. “What’s wrong with him, anyway?”

Demi leaned back, sinking deeper into the cloud surrounding her. Lord, this was the most comfortable chair in the history of comfortable chairs. “He was hit by a car. The vet had to remove his back leg, tail, and eye. He’s on an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory. But he’s feral and hates people, which makes it hard to get him to take his medication.”

O’Neill’s thoughtful gaze shifted to her arms and lingered. A hint of softness touched his face. “That’s where you got the scratches? From trying to give him his meds?”

Demi froze, considering the man across from her with caution. O’Neill was the best option she had for getting the meds into Trident. She couldn’t afford to scare him away.

His narrowed gaze lingered on her face. He scoffed softly. “Relax. Once the Citation’s in the air, I’ll take him back to the head, lock us inside, and get the meds into him.”

Unless the jet’s bathroom was bigger than a normal airliner, there wouldn’t be room for him, her, and the crate. “There won’t be room for—”

“You’re not invited to this party.” The curve to his lips took the sting from the comment. “One more set of scratches on your arms and Aiden’s gonna drop kick this old warrior out the emergency exit.”

Demi wasn’t sure whether the old warrior O’Neill referred to was himself or Trident. Guilt stirred. Her seatmate had no idea what he was getting himself into. “He’s difficult to handle—”

“Like I said,” he held her gaze, “cats like me. He’ll take his meds. No problem.” But then disgust crossed his face and his lips twisted. “Now, if he was a bird, we’d have a situation.”

Confused, she shook her head. What did birds have to do with anything? “What do you mean?”

“Birds hate my guts.” He shrugged, as though it was no big deal.

But judging by the tightness around his eyes and the furrow above his eyebrows, the avian reaction did bother him.

Weird.

But what was even weirder was how he twisted in his seat and glanced toward the front of the plane. When he turned back to her, his mouth was a thin line and frustration lit his green eyes.

Weird. Weird. Weird.

With another unconvincing shrug, he sprawled back in his seat. “Yeah, our feathered friends hate my guts.”

Had she heard regret in his voice? No, that couldn’t be right. Why would anyone feel regretful that birds didn’t like them? Seriously, why would that even matter?

She had to be reading him wrong. Except she was almost certain she wasn’t.

Chapter twenty-one

Day 7

San Bernardino, California

“You keep grinding your teeth like that and you’ll be bunking with the base dentist.” Cosky shot him a derisive look from his seat across the aisle. “Trust me, O’Neill’s not putting the moves on Demi.”

Aiden’s jaw tightened, not because of O’Neill. Even if the asshole was hitting on Demi, she wouldn’t reciprocate. Not in front of him. Nor would she troll for a new dude so soon after their breakup. He forced himself to relax. Besides, that kiss they’d shared earlier had been too intense, too emotional. She wouldn’t have kissed him like that if she really planned on going through with this breakup.

The teeth grinding and tension had nothing to do with O’Neill and everything to do with Demi—with the way she was ignoring him. Would it kill her to acknowledge his existence? But this wasn’t the time or place to hash out their relationship. Not with an audience of assholes clustered around him who were sure to rate his reconciliation attempt in the negative and follow that up with a bombardment of unhelpful advice.

The view from his window changed as the plane rolled down the runway. Metal sheds gave way to crisp, yellow grass, then chain link fencing, and finally the rounded tips of Ponderosa Pines as the plane took to the sky.

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