Before Sammy could do a thing, Louis stepped backward, picked the cat up with his bare hands, and placed him into the shoebox.
Honestly, I was half expecting him to toss him. Luckily, he didn’t, or I would’ve had to beat him.
I’d just gotten that little kitten yesterday. Hell, I hadn’t even been aware that it’d gotten out of the house!
“Do you see his chest?” I asked.
“Somebody stabbed him?” Louis asked, bending down slightly to look closer.
“It looks like it,” I told him. “That’s why I called you.”
“You called me because you didn’t want to pick up your dead kitten,” he countered. “Something in which you’ve never been able to handle.”
He was right. Mostly.
I’d never been able to handle dead things. Not people. Not pets. Not anything.
I avoided death like the plague.
Which sucked because a couple of weeks ago, I’d seen my first up-close and personal dead body thanks to Ares’ fiancé shooting our campus resource officer who was holding a student and his child at gunpoint.
Needless to say, I was still having nightmares about it.
I also had to sleep under covers despite it being hot as balls out, and all the lights in the house blazing.
“I called you because I wanted you to come look at the kitten that was stabbed,” I murmured. “I was… I don’t know.”
I didn’t know why I called him now.
It seemed stupid.
I mean, what was Louis going to do about a dead cat? Nothing.
He could do nothing because it was just that. A dead cat. It wasn’t a dead body. It wasn’t anything that most people would even care about.
But I cared about it.
I’d been staring at that kitten all week online, trying to tell myself that I didn’t need a cat.
My house was too small for animals. And, even worse, it was in need of repair.
His eyes took me in with a long sweep of his gaze. “You heading out?”
I nodded. “Work. I’ll be late, but I can’t let that poor baby sit there all day.”
He looked at me long and hard for a few seconds too long before saying, “I’ll take care of it. Go ahead and go.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he shook his head. “Go.”
My eye twitched.
Taking orders from Louis was so annoying.
What was even more annoying was my body’s willingness to do it without first consulting my rational brain.
“Fine.” I snapped, marching toward my purse.
When I marched back, Sammy had the nerve to laugh.
“It’s not funny.” I snapped.
He held up his hands. “Have a good day at work.”
I flipped them off, made sure to wave at the others that were holding back, and left before Louis could make me do something even more stupid.
Like kiss him goodbye.
***
My stomach clenched when Romeo walked into my office.
He smiled his creepy smile at me, and it took everything I had not to squirm.
His eyes went to my computer monitor which was still a picture of my kitten—my now dead kitten—then back to me.
“Ms. Alvarez,” he said sweetly. “I have a stomachache.”
I nearly rolled my eyes. “Have you gone to the bathroom?”
He had a stomachache every day.
I asked him the same thing every day.
I was honestly wondering why the hell the teachers let him out of class at this point.
He was only doing this because it was getting him out of class—most specifically English.
“I don’t need to use the restroom,” Romeo all but snarled.
I clenched my fists underneath the desk, wishing he would leave.
“Well, just like yesterday and the day before,” I said softly, “there’s really nothing I can do for your upset stomach.”
Romeo gestured to the seat. “I can just sleep it off right here.”
No, no, he couldn’t.
“I’m sorry, Romeo, but I can’t allow you to do that. You need to get back to class,” I said, hoping today would actually be the day that he listened.
Before Romeo could object like he always did, something interrupted him.
“Knock, knock.”
I looked away from Romeo to see Louis standing in my doorway.
And a rush of relief hit me full force at seeing him.
God, Romeo really did give me the creeps.
I was fairly sure the seventeen-year-old was in a gang, and I was also sure that he only came to my office because he wanted to make me uncomfortable.
“Hey, Lou,” I said almost as an afterthought. “What are you doing here?”
He gestured to the office behind him. “Hayes came to see Ares. I thought I’d tag along. See how you were doing after this morning.”
“What happened this morning?” Romeo asked, sounding concerned.
My belly clenched all over again.
“Ms. Alvarez’s cat passed away this morning,” Louis answered, his eyes on the kid.
His narrowed eyes on the kid.
Jesus, was the man intimidating when he wanted to be.
Louis was six-foot-three inches of intimidating muscle. He had dark brown hair that was almost black, cut in a high and tight haircut that left just the smallest amount of hair at the top of his head. His eyes were dark brown, almost black. And his beard, although nicely trimmed, was intimidating to say the least.