Northern Rebel Daring in the Dark - By Jennifer Labrecque Page 0,110

that the deed was done, apparently realized the error of his ways and huddled on the ledge several feet away.

She lowered her voice. “Come on, baby. C’mere, Peaches. I’ve got a nice kitty treat waiting for you.” Her voice shook.

Peaches yowled in kitty hysteria but didn’t budge. Brilliant. If the people in the next apartment opened their window, the cat would probably be startled off the ledge.

Tawny gripped his arm again and Simon tried to reassure her. “Just stay calm.”

“I’m going out there after him,” she said.

“Bloody hell you are.”

“I can’t just leave him.”

“I’ll get him.”

“No. I can’t let you do that. And he doesn’t know you anyway.”

Over his dead body was she going out on that wet ledge. He looked down—all seven floors down—and it might very well be his dead body—but no way, no how was he letting her go.

“Panicked animals respond better to strangers in a rescue situation. I saw it on Animal Planet.” Total, absolute codswallop—to borrow Grandpa Dickie’s favorite expression—and he’d lie again to keep her off the ledge. He edged her out of the window frame and back into the bedroom.

“Wait here and I’ll hand him to you.” He didn’t give her a chance to argue. He climbed out of the window and onto the ledge. It was far narrower than it had appeared from inside.

He gripped the window frame with his left hand and slowly stood, struggling to maintain his balance. He braced his right hand against the rough brick, wishing the ledge was made of the same instead of slick, wet marble. He hugged the building.

He made the mistake of glancing down. Vertigo rocked him. Head swimming, he teetered and then regained his balance. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He didn’t like heights worth a damn.

“Simon, get back in here,” Tawny said, her head shoved out the window, near his knee.

“I will when I get the cat.” He kept his eyes trained on the building and Peaches.

“How are you going to do that?”

She’d picked a jolly time and place for a conversation. “I don’t know. I’m working on a plan now.”

“Don’t you think you should’ve thought about it before you went out there?”

“I think best under pressure.” More codswallop.

He edged toward Peaches, and his towel—the knot loosened by this climb out the window—inched down his hips. Lovely. He was only wearing a towel and it was falling off. Moving very slowly and carefully, he took it off and draped it over one shoulder. Better to hang his bare butt over a ledge than get tripped up by a towel.

Fuck again. He wasn’t even going to die with dignity. Honor, perhaps, but no dignity.

Buck up. Grow a spine. He could do this. The key to not dying was to move slow and steady. At least, he hoped so.

And he had about a snowball’s chance in hell of getting this cat. The bloody beast had swatted at him earlier when he’d tried to pet it. Simon did the only thing he knew to do—he kept sidling toward the cat and talked to it man-to-man...er, man-to-cat, in a low croon.

“Okay, mate. Just hang tight. See, this is the deal. You might have nine lives, but I’ve only got one....”

“What?” Tawny asked.

He carefully turned his head in her direction. “Just talking to the cat. Give us a minute, okay? And no noise and sudden movement would be most appreciated.”

He looked back toward Peaches and pattered on. “Quite frankly, I think I’m too young to die, but even if I’m not, pavement-diving naked isn’t exactly the way I wanted to go. And who knows, you might’ve used up your lives already.”

The cat gave another hair-raising yowl. A whisper of a breeze chilled the sweat trickling between Simon’s shoulder blades.

“Listen, I’ve got a deal for you. Just hear me out. I pick you up, we go back in there and I swear I’ll get her to give you another name. Peaches... I might be out here, too, if I had to live with that. But on my honor, you’ll be renamed as soon as my bare butt climbs back through that window with you.”

Peaches flattened his ears. Te-bloody-rrific. That wasn’t a good sign.

Simon was almost there...just a few more inches...

“I’m going to step over you, you know, to get to the other side.”

Simon sucked in a deep breath. It was do or die and he didn’t like door number two. He raised his right foot and stepped over the cat, which left him straddling Peaches on the ledge, somewhat spread-eagled