21
"Ms. McDane's agent sent over two more offers from other novelists. I'll forward you the email so you can look over them. Is there anything else you need me to do?"
Aiden was worth his weight in gold. But even an all-star assistant deserved to spend the holiday with the ones he loved. "We're good. We can catch up after the New Year."
"Okay. Hey, I wanted to say thanks for the bonus check. It came in the mail yesterday."
Noah cleared his throat. He'd rather Aiden hadn’t mentioned it at all. "You've done a great job for me this year. I wanted to make sure you know how much I appreciate you."
He was about to hang up when his assistant said, "Noah, are you okay?"
The question was a surprise. It was outside the bounds of their normal conversations.
"Jilly called me this morning,” Aiden continued. “She seemed worried about you. And... I just wanted to make sure that you were, you know…"
"I'm fine." He wasn't fine. He was a mess. Aiden could probably hear it in his voice.
Just the mention of Jilly’s name made Noah feel as if his insides had been pulverized with a meat hammer.
Before he could reiterate just how fine he was, he heard a noise from the other room. He realized he hadn't gotten a headbutt to his leg or a claw in his sock for twenty minutes. Where was Honey Bear?
He stuffed his phone in his pocket and stood to investigate.
He paused on the threshold just before he hit the kitchen. There was someone in here. He sensed the person before he heard the harsh breaths from across the room.
"Stop right there." The young voice was pointed and angry.
"Casey?" What was the kid doing here? How had he gotten inside? Noah was sure he'd locked all the doors.
"Stay away from me. I've got—I've got your cat. And...I've got a knife."
Noah went perfectly still. The boy's emotions were out of control. Noah recognized the shaky delivery but also the certainty underneath the boys words. If he didn't really have a knife, he was excellent at bluffing.
"Don't move! I promise you I'll do it." Something was very wrong if Casey was threatening the kitten that he'd spent so much time loving on.
"Is it okay if I sit down? I'll put my back to the wall. See?" Noah sat on the cold tile floor, his shoulders against the wall on one side of the doorway.
Noah wasn't going to do anything that might jeopardize the kitten that had shown him nothing but affection.
And deep down, he knew that, if Casey harmed the kitten, there would be no coming back from that. Jilly would lose him for good, maybe lose all of them. And Casey would lose the chance at the normal life he had right now. A violent twelve-year-old would be treated much differently in the system than a normal kid.
He had to be careful. He needed Casey to put down the knife. All his inferiorities showed up and laughed in his face. What did he know about reaching a kid Casey's age? He couldn't keep a friendship alive. There was a part of him that was still a scared twelve-year-old boy staring in horror at the lifeless body of his best friend.
"I don't think you really want to hurt Honey Bear." He said the words with his voice as low and calm as he could make it. No shouting, even though he wanted to howl at the unfairness of this whole situation. Getting upset was only going to magnify what Casey was feeling. "What did she do to you?"
"Nothing." The boy grunted. "But you did."
The boy was standing between the counter and the table. The kid was smart. He had a clear line of sight to both the mudroom and the kitchen doorway. If anybody came to help—cue hysterical laughter here, who was coming?—Casey would be able to see him.
"Whatever's going on, we can fix—"
"Stop it!" Casey cried. "Shut up!"
Behind Casey's shout, Noah thought he heard a sound like the front door knob rattling.
"This is all your fault." The words were punctuated with a sniff.
Noah felt a little like crying himself. If he’d stayed away from Jilly... If he hadn’t tried to make friends with Chad... If he’d never been born... "I know," he whispered.
