Page 12 (1/2)

She s those facial , and then her heart skipped a beat A warning light on the dashboard was blinking on and off, silent but as effective as a red-hot needle near her eyeball The symbol looked like a chunky toy submarine and had the word check underneath “Check what?” Her hands suddenly felt cla wheel and she wasn’t all that cold anymore She sed and stared hard at the road ahead that was quickly disappearing under the snow

“Just a silly light, cat, nothing that can’t wait until we can get to Mike the Mechanic in a couple of days Absolutely nothing to worry about”

She turned off the heater to be on the safe side and gritted her teeth hard There was a vibration, probably just the road surface, which reminded her that she hadn’t looked at the tread on her tires lately She eased off the gas although her instinct was to put her foot down and get to the vet clinic as quickly as possible, but she couldn’t risk skidding in this kind of weather Maybe she had a slow puncture… God, she hated having to drive anywhere in this heap of scrapspeed as the road sloped uphill, but putting her foot down didn’tbeca a panic attack She couldn’t stop; she had to keep going

“Shit” The fear in her voice was audible and that htened around the steering wheel and adrenaline prickled her forehead “This is all your fault, Sophie, just wait till I get a hold of you” And then one last grinding lurch and the engine spluttered and stalled

Piper tried the ignition, but after a fehiny atte to play So it wasn’t a flat tire It was a dying, possibly now dead car Perfect Her chest felt like so a fist inside of it “Deep breaths, Piper, this is going to turn out okay” She unclipped her seat belt and strained to reach her purse on the backseat to get her cell phone The cat started to growl in a deep, threatening way, and she wondered if anyone had ever been savaged to death and then eaten by a pregnant domesticated cat

To her relief, the cell phone showed a healthy signal so she could call Melanie and ask her to come and rescue her Her buddy Kira was probably closer, but she didn’t want to bother her She’d had such a hard tiht now, she had her hands full with her old boyfriend, Max Kira texted earlier that Max had refused to leave town like he was supposed to, and Piper hadn’t gotten the feeling that was a bad thing The last thing she wanted to do was interrupt a hot reunion between the two

Her dad was out of the question, too His car was ht now, so there’d probably be two of theht

The phone felt cold against her ear and she had an awful sense of foreboding about how this was going to turn out “Come on, Mel, pick up…” Her call went to voice in soency roadside assistance The cardboard box was starting to take on a life of its own and it sounded as if the angry cat was trying to claw and scratch her way to freedom Once the cat was out of the box, she’d be in serious trouble There hadn’t even been a passing vehicle to flag down in the last fewto have to s hed deeply and slid Matt’s business card out of the credit card slot of her cell phone cover “Talk about hu”

He picked up ie her mind “DeLeo” His voice exuded cal on an expensive chair in a cocoon of warmth with a nicely chilled bottle of beer close at hand

“It’s ot you know everything aboutmy cell phone number”

“You were added toyour card I had every intention of seeing you again whatever happened” He paused as if expecting a reaction, but Piper’s lips were pressed together “But anyway, this is a nice surprise I didn’t expect to hear fro yet?”

“This isn’t a social call”