Carolyn McSparren - Safe At Home

Or maybe he just didn’t want to have to deal with the consequences of having to explain her carcass to the authorities.

She stood slowly. Baby rumbled again, but she seemed more disturbed at the loss of physical contact than angry. Tala felt the breeze from the slightly open door, and reached back. Pete’s big rough hand engulfed hers. “Hang on.”

He shoved the door open, yanked her around the edge, and almost dislocated her shoulder. He slammed the door and dragged her into a fierce bear hug, lifted her off her feet and swung her away from the door. “Dammit, don’t ever do that again.”

She forced her mouth away from his breast pocket and said indignantly, “Me? What did I do?”

He held her at arm’s length with her feet dangling as though she were a rag doll. “Didn’t you see she was out of her cage?”

“Put me down! By the time I spotted the empty cage, I had a lion on my feet wanting her ears scratched.”

On her feet again, she stood toe-to-toe with him. “I think I behaved pretty darn well, all things considered. For that matter, so did she. She’s a sweet pussycat who just needs a little affection!”

“Oh, my sainted aunt!” Pete struck his forehead with the flat of his hand.

“What’s the matter?” Mace came running around the corner of the building.

“She’s out is what. And little Miss Cat Lady here has been scratching her ears. I told you she was trouble.”

“Me or the cat?”

“Both, dammit!” Pete stalked off to meet his father. “How the hell are we going to handle the lion now? Even if we finish setting the posts today, the concrete won’t be solid until morning, and then we still have to stretch the fence and cover it over.”

“We could shoot her,” Mace said solemnly. Tala caught his wink, but Pete obviously didn’t.

“Are you crazy?” He stopped. “Okay. You got me. But we can’t leave her loose in the workroom either.” He turned to Tala. “Could you tell if she knocked down the enclosure?”

“Didn’t look like it, but I must admit I didn’t check closely.”

“Then she probably came out over the top. We can wire down some steel fence on top of her enclosure in about an hour and get her back into it with the capture gun if we have to, although I suspect another hunk of meat will do it.”

“Promise you won’t hurt her?”

“We will not hurt her. Not unless it’s her or us. In the meantime, I can sucker her into the guest bathroom with another hunk of deer meat. She’ll be okay.” He touched Tala’s shoulder with surprisingly gentle fingers. “And you. You okay? Did I hurt you?”

“Not a bit.” She smiled at him. “I’ll give her the meat if you like.”

“Sure you’re up to it? She must’ve scared you pretty good just now.” He smiled, his hand still kneading her shoulder. For a moment she wanted to relax against him, feel those hands on other parts of her body. Enough, she admonished herself.

“I’m fine,” she said and moved away.

Suddenly he sobered. “The instant you forget you’re dealing with a wild animal, you’re dead. Trust me on that. She may act like a pussycat, but she weighs two hundred pounds, and she’s used to raw meat. At the moment she’s well fed and still not feeling in hunting trim.”

“But won’t she smell fear?”

“Sure. So fake out your pheromones. Don’t be scared, be aware. And don’t take chances.”

Mace came down the steps of his trailer unwrapping a piece of meat. “That beast is eating all my venison, drat it!” He handed it to Tala.

“Go in through the front,” Pete said. “Open the door to the guest bathroom, then open the door to the exam room, show her the food, toss it on the bathroom floor, and once she’s in, shut the door on her. I’ll be right behind you. Think we need the rifle for safety, Dad?”

“No!” Tala wailed.

“Your safety is more important than she is,” Mace said. “Take the gun, Pete. Better safe than sorry.”

“All right,” she said. “But you won’t need it. I promise I’ll make this work.”

Tala wished she felt as confident as she tried to sound. She knew the scary bit would come from the time the cat saw the food until Tala could shut the bathroom door on her and walk away. Suddenly, Pete’s huge presence—even holding the rifle—was no longer threatening. He was comforting.

He stood in the hall doorway with his hand on the knob behind him as she inched open the door to the examining room. “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,” Tala called. She heard Pete’s snort behind her.

The cat still lay by the door, but on her back with all four feet in the air. She rolled her eyes, saw Tala, and struggled to her feet quicker than Tala would have imagined possible. She put no weight on her left leg, but she still managed to move quickly toward the meat. Tala stood behind the hall door, held out the meat, threw it into the bathroom and shrank back.

The cat ignored her, limped into the bathroom and sank onto the bath mat. Tala shut the bathroom door quickly on the sounds of crunching, then shut the door to the examining room and practically ran into Pete’s arms through the other door. This time she buried her face gratefully against his chest.

He held her awkwardly and patted her back. “You did great. We’ll take it from here.”

Her heart beat so hard she heard it in her ears.

“Hate to say this, m’dear, but didn’t you say you had to drive all the way home and get back to town before four?” Mace said from the doorway.

“Lord, yes!” Tala ran past the two men and to her truck. As she drove by, she called out the window, “I’ll call you about the job!”

“NOW SIT, stay,” Mace Jacobi pointed his finger at the lioness, who once more reclined on her blanket in her newly covered cage. She regarded him with wide yellow eyes as innocent as a week-old kitten’s.

“Even house cats don’t sit and stay,” Pete said, slipping the fencing tool back into the leather pouch strapped around his waist. “Have you taken a look at what she did to the bathroom? Shredded shower curtain, shredded bath mat, and deer blood from the inside of the bathtub halfway up the walls. It’s going to take me half the night to get the smell out.”

“Better than having her roaming around here while we worked.” Mace clicked his tongue. “That’s a gutsy little girl we’ve hired.”

“You’ve hired, you mean. Assuming she agrees to take the job. I had nothing to do with it.”

“The girl made the final decision, son. Besides, I think she needs help.”

“Right. She’s not even raising her own kids.”

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