Page 19 of Her Purr-fect Christmas Mate

Is this what he’d planned?Peony’s blood ran cold as she tried to make sense of what was going on. Beneath his shirt, Mordecai was stiff. He radiated displeasure—but that was his default, wasn’t it? It didn’t mean he wasn’t celebrating with the rest of them. He was probably just being judgy about the venue still.

He let out a long, slow breath. Perfectly controlled as usual. Her own breath caught in her throat. “I must admit, I was expecting a little more pushback.”

“You think we want to hold on to that old pile of junk?” Someone laughed. Peony curled up tighter, wishing she could turn off her ears. “You’re doing us a favor, taking it off our hands. Hell, can I interest you in the shithouse block of apartments downtown?”

“Hell of a trick to play.” Hebbings’ raspy voice was rich with admiration.I’m going to be sick,Peony thought. “Blanders is right. You know, we’ve got our reputations to think of—can’t go around throwing people out of their houses when you’re running for council. You, though… no interest in politics, eh, Leith?”

“None whatsoever.” She could have chipped shards off Mordecai’s voice and used it as a murder weapon. But he wasn’t all cold. Her cat tapped curiously at the icy shield around his mind and found a crack.

Rage boiled through, red-hot and fierce, before he hissed in a breath and locked himself away again.

Peony trembled.

“Well, if you want to take this other shithole off my hands, talk to my secretary…”

The conversation rolled over her, wave after wave breaking down everything she’d thought she had known. None of them had cared about the Hypatia. It had been a stone around their necks—a money sink, a waste of resources, more trouble than it was worth even to get permission to knock it down and get some value out of the site.

A waste of resources? None of you even spent anything on the building until it was literally falling down and I knocked on your doors begging for maintenance!The tiny spark of anger barely pushed back the tide, but it was enough that she suddenly felt she could breathe again.I had to quote chapter and verse of local laws to get the elevator fixed! The stairs were a firetrap for years before I waved enough hazard reports in front of your noses that you had to do something about it!

How had she never connected the dots before now? She had thought the board were absent-minded. A pack of old fuddy-duddies, but essentially all right. That was why she needed to put together full-blown proposals right down to the ‘press this button to call an electrician to fix this’ details whenever something went wrong.

But they weren’t absent-minded.

They just didn’t care.

Mordecai pulled an envelope from his other pocket. The sound of shuffling paper joined the clinking of glasses. They were signing something. Signing the rest of the building over to him?

So he could destroy it.

It shouldn’t matter to her. Itcouldn’tmatter to her. The Hypatia wasn’t important. It was just her backstory. Something she’d had to fill in time before her life began properly.

“Your new manager won’t be joining us, Arthur?”

“God, I hope not. Last thing we need, her crying about her precious books. You know she still hasn’t shut up about the goddamn hot water turning off last winter?”

Berwick chuckled. It was a nasty sound. “If it’s not one thing with that woman, it’s another.”

“There’s your silver lining, Arthur. No more whingy little—”

“I take it you’re talking about Miss Fisher?” Mordecai was stiff as a statue. Tucked against his side, Peony could feel him trembling slightly, as though he was coiled tight with power that might explode at any second. *You brought me here for a reason, Miss Fisher. Is there anything you’d like me to say to them?*

His telepathic voice rolled through her, underscored by menace. Was she feeling his emotions, as well as hearing his words? None of her family ever mentioned that. It was so… intimate. Horribly intimate.

And there, beneath the promise of violence, something dark and scaled that blotted out the stars…

Peony’s cat pricked up its ears at that, but the rest of her was too hollowed-out to pay attention. *No. I just want to leave.*

Mordecai stood. She tucked herself into an even tighter ball as he said something to the others. Then he was walking—through the tempest of scents that filled the club, past thumping bass that rattled through her tiny bones.

Out into the cold night air.

What now?

She couldn’t think about what they’d said about her. It hurt too much. But the building—that hurt too, even though it shouldn’t.

Blanderley and the others had hung on to the building like she hung on to old pencil-stubs. Not because they were useful, or she actually wanted them, but because there was always something more important taking up her attention. They hadn’t even cared enough about the Hypatia to bother getting rid of it.

But Mordecai does.Why? Why did he care so much about the Hypatia that he’d gone to all this effort to destroy it?

---