Page 74 of Slay Ride

My heart beats a little faster in my chest, but I hold the panic at bay. Shorty can be a bit difficult sometimes, but he’s still in my room. He has to be. It’s not as if he grew opposable thumbs and opened the fucking door.

I grab my phone from the nightstand and use the flashlight to look under the bed, dresser, and inside the closet, but my poor cat is nowhere in sight. I hurry to the bathroom next. It isn’t his favorite room, what with all the water, but he sometimes sneaks in when I’m getting ready.

He isn’t in there, either. The bathroom is just as empty as I left it.

Despite my best attempts to remain rational, panic creeps in. What if he got out of my room? Worse, what if he got out of the mansion? My poor baby isn’t cut out for cold weather, and the expensive mansion furnishings aren’t cut out for cat piss. He’s litter-box trained, but the only litter box is in this room, where he isn’t.

I hurry into the hall and knock on Bennett’s door. He takes too long to answer, but I’m too flustered to complain when he finally appears.

Tears brim in my eyes. “Shorty is missing. I think I lost my cat.”

“Hey, hey, don’t panic. I’m sure he’s around here somewhere.” Bennett steps into the hall and wraps his arm around my shoulder as he closes his door behind him. “Let’s go to your room and find him.”

Relief washes over me the moment he says he’ll help me, and we head into my room. Bennett begins searching all the obvious places I’ve already looked. Under the bed and dresser. In the closet and bathroom. He has the same luck I had. Shorty isn’t in here.

I can’t hold the tears back anymore, especially once Bennett wraps his arms around me. I weep against his chest, not caring that I’m getting snot all over his shirt.

“I suck at acting. I suck at being a personal assistant. I suck at being a friend because I can’t even talk to my bestie about the guy I’m fucking.” I take a deep breath in. “And now I can’t even take care of a fucking cat. Acat, Bennett. I chose this species because it’s the most difficult to fuck up, and yet I still managed.”

Bennett guides me to the bed and sits beside me, but he doesn’t hold me and let me cry. He grips my chin in his hand and forces me to look at him.

“You don’t suck at acting,” he says. “In fact, you’re so good at it, you have everyone at the retreat thinking you hate me more than ever. So what if a few casting directors can’t see your worth? I see it. Fuck all the rejections.”

While his words are sweet, they bring forth a question. “How did you know about the rejections? I never mentioned them to you.”

Bennett shrugs and closes his eyes. “I may have talked to Maverick, and he might have mentioned them.”

“You talked to Maverick?” I almost shout the words at him. “What the fuck were youthinking, Bennett?”

He sets his jaw as he looks at me. “Are you afraid your little crush might catch on? Afraid he might not want you once he finds out Bennett’s had his dirty dick inside you?”

“I don’t have time for this,” I say as I head toward the door. “I have to find my cat.”

I almost run into Maverick as I fling the door open. He’s standing in the hallway, his fist raised to knock. I leap back into my room and slam the door before he can get a good look inside.

“Hide!” I whisper-shout toward Bennett.

Like a crazed cartoon character, he runs from one side of the room to the other before diving between the bed and the wall. He bumps the nightstand on his way down, and the lamp teeters before coming to rest at the edge.

I take a deep breath before opening the door.

“Everything okay in there?” Maverick asks as I peep through the small crack.

I smile up at him. “Oh, yeah. Everything’s great. I just . . . I can’t go because my cat is missing.”

“Want me to help you find him? He couldn’t have gone far.” Maverick pushes his way into my room. I’ve dreamed of this moment for so long, but it’s playing out like a nightmare now.

“He’s probably just sleeping somewhere,” I say as I hurry to get in front of him before he can check the other side of the bed. Or under it. “I’m sure he’ll turn up soon.”

Maverick stops in the center of the room, his left eyebrow raised as he studies me. “So you aren’t concerned, but you’re too concerned to attend shooting practice?” He fingers the hem of my coat. “You’re already dressed and everything.”

“I got dressed before I realized the cat was missing. Now I can’t go. You understand, don’t you?” I blink up at him, silently pleading for him to let it go.

But instead of leaving, he grabs my hand and guides me toward the bed. Again, the moment I’ve dreamed of is now cast in a nightmarish light. The man I want is now cowering behind the bed, where the man I no longer want is leading me.

And I don’t know how to stop this train from derailing around the next bend.

“You know what?” I say. “Maybe you could give me, like, thirty minutes. Just let me find my cat, and I’ll meet you down at the barn.”

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