Page 49 of Master of Secrets
“I’ll tell her to call you. What’s your name?”
“Joanna.” The girl crossed her arms, studying me with growing fascination. “You sure don’t look like a housebreaker, in that fancy suit. What’s your name?”
“I’m Ethan,” I hedged, since my surname was often recognized “Are you a neighbor? Is that your cat?”
“Yes. Her neighbor, her student, and her friend. This is Ambrose. He’s also her friend. He’s mine, but he’s adopted Kat, ever since she rescued him.”
“Rescued him? From what?”
“She saved him from my butthead ex-boyfriend,” Joanna confided. “We broke up, and he was holding Ambrose hostage to spite me, even though he hates cats, and kicked Ambrose when he was drunk. That was actually why we broke up, the dickface. So, anyhow, Kat shows up at my mom’s house—my mom lives across the street—and she’s got Ambrose in her arms, and she’s all scratched up and bleeding from Ambrose freaking out. And she told me she didn’t actually do anything bad to Ricky, but I don’t believe it, because he’s avoided me ever since. Then I heard he went up to Alaska to work the fish canneries, or some shit. Good riddance.”
I drank it all in, fascinated. “Wow, that’s some story.”
“Yeah, I know. Probably shouldn’t have told it. Kat says I gotta learn to keep my mouth shut. So I study martial arts with her. To calm down, see?”
“Yeah, martial arts can chill you,” I agreed. “I have found that to be true.”
Worry still shadowed Joanna’s eyes, in spite of her nervous babbling. “Kat’s a badass,” she said, in a low, warning tone. “You better not mess with her.”
“I absolutely am not messing with her,” I assured her. “I have nothing but the deepest respect and admiration for her.”
“Yeah?” Joanna narrowed her eyes. “Well, good, then. Have her call me.”
Ambrose stalked out of the pantry, sat, and meowed, as if placing his own emphasis on Joanna’s command. She scooped him up into her arms. “Let’s go, you greedy chunk, you. You weigh a ton.” She glanced at me. “So…Kat gave you a key?”
Yikes.“No, actually,” I admitted. “I got in here with my credit card. But I’m not a burglar. I’m just picking up some stuff up for her.”
Joanna looked unconvinced. “There’s not much stuff to pick up,” she observed. “Kat has less stuff than anyone I know. She says it’s easier to clean that way.”
“True thing,” I agreed.
“What’s your last name? You know. In case I need to tell the cops.”
I let out a sigh, and gave in to the inevitable. “Ethan Masters.”
Her brows came together. “Sounds familiar. Are you, like, a movie star?”
“Nah. I work in tech.”
“Hmph.” She held up her phone and snapped a photo of me. “There,” she said. “That’s for the police, if she doesn’t call me right away. Got me?”
I almost laughed, but it would be disrespectful of the girl’s uncompromising instinct to protect her friend. “I will tell her to contact you, I promise.”
She jerked her chin at the door. “How about you leave first? Then I’ll lock up.”
My phone pinged with a text. I glanced at it. From Jenn.
for the love of God please hurry
“I’ll head out,” I told her. “It was good to meet you, Joanna.”
“I can’t really say the same,” she said, as I went out the door. “Not until I’m sure you’re not a serial killer.” She leaned out the door and studied the car waiting for me at the end of the walkway, Trey in the front, Jenn glaring from the back. Ambrose writhed in wild protest in her arms. “I don’t think serial killers drive cars like that,” she added, a note of grudging admiration in her voice. “Or get driven in them, as the case may be. Mobsters do, though. Are you a mobster?”
“No. Like I told you, I’m in tech. Just your average computer geek.”
“If you say so. But if she doesn’t call me, I’m rolling over on you, buddy.”
I got into the car laughing, in spite of Jenn’s reproachful frown. Kat’s power and moxie had rubbed off on Joanna. I could feel its effects, and it was energizing.