Chapter 12
HANNAH
Hannah was trying out another ‘foolproof’ recipe and things weren’t going well.
About as well as her supposed fresh start in NYC.
She had an incredible place to live in the most exciting city on earth but wished she could spend more time exploring it, or simply luxuriating in this gorgeous apartment, instead of spending time trying to figure out how she was ever going to prove herself to her new bosses and get away from the client list from hell. And try to sidestep the inevitable whispering amongst her new colleagues.
With regard to her clients, there was the narcissistic up-and-coming teenage singer-songwriter who made Veruca fromCharlie and the Chocolate Factoryseem positively angelic, an equally demanding girl-about-town who, having been cosseted by her adoring parents all her life, had illusions of becoming the next Kardashian, and, despite having never lifted a finger, expected Hannah to deliver her a readymade paparazzi following.
And then there was McKenzie.
If there was one thing that Hannah had learned from a young age, and which obviously helped as a PR strategist, it was how to read people. Usually, she was exceptionally good at it but now and then, she came across someone who wasn’t quite so easy to figureout. Macho bluster aside, there was something about the guy that eluded her. While so far he’d been a royal pain in the ass, there was also a vulnerability to him that she couldn’t ignore.
The fact that he was so easy on the eye and had such an unsettling effect on her was possibly clouding her judgement also, and that was thelastthing she needed just now.
She’d caught another brief insight into what she suspected was his true nature at the animal shelter that day.
Clearly, Ward had seen something of himself in that ill-fated cat – something wild that didn’t want to be confined, refused to be tamed. The problem was that Hannah didn’t want to tame him anymore. That wasn’t her job.
But to prove to her new bosses that her professional reputation was justified, she had to overhaul his car-crash image and rebrand him into a likeable, more accessible kind of athlete. And according to his agent, if she didn’t do what she’d been hired to do, he was in danger of being cut from the Panthers permanently.
Since the stubborn tough guy side wouldn’t let her in though, she needed to figure out another way to get a proper handle on him and …
Hannah’s head snapped up when suddenly she heard a sound coming from somewhere inside the apartment.
She instinctively picked up a kitchen knife from Courtney’s funky little knife holder, a stainless steel figure with knives sticking out of various body parts voodoo-style. Moving slowly to the doorway, she peeked into the living room before tiptoeing through, trying to better make out the direction of the noise. Which weirdly, sounded like people talking, followed by a dramatic burst of … was that music?
Hannah exhaled as all at once she realized what it was. Thesound was coming from the TV in Courtney’s room. One that she had accidentally discovered when she’d first arrived was motion-activated. In fact, all media in the apartment was; a supposed benefit of the younger girl’s state-of-the-art entertainment set-up.
She’d gotten a similar fright when, upon entering her assigned bedroom on the first night here, the TV had automatically flickered to life like it did in a high-end hotel.
To save her nerves, and following some help from Courtney’s assistant Sara, she’d since deactivated the sensor in the rooms she was using. But since Hannah had no cause to access the influencer’s bedroom unless expressly required, there’d been little need to do so in the primary suite. So what could have activated it now?
Tightening her hold on the knife again, she moved slowly through the living room in her stockinged feet, noting the front window ajar from when she’d opened it earlier upon her return from work to let in some fresh air. There wasn’t enough of a gap for anyone to have slipped through the opening though, to say nothing of the idea that it would have been impossible for an intruder to scale the fifteen-floor building height in any case.
Unless Ed from next door had finally decided to pop over the terrace divider and introduce himself? Though ‘terrace’ was overstating it, the horizontal ledge beneath the windowsill was barely wide enough to hold a planter.
Thanks to Hannah’s chocolate offerings, she and the old man seemed to have come to a sort of truce in the interim, exchanging notes with a little more frequency and even some camaraderie. She guessed he’d have softened up enough soon to the point that she could introduce herself in person, but for the moment was simply happy with no more complaints. But her neighbour coming through the window for a visit was highly unlikely given his ageand mobility issues and anyway, why wouldn’t he just knock on the door like a normal person?
Her head spinning with the various possibilities, most of which were too outlandish to truly consider, Hannah crept slowly toward the entrance to Courtney’s room. Her breath hitched when from the doorway she spied a dark shape sprawled out on the bed … indolently licking itself.
‘Where the hell did you come from?’ she sang, a mixture of surprise and relief flooding through her.
The cat looked back at Hannah with pure disdain, evidently annoyed at being interrupted. Brown and orange patterned, it was old and scrawny enough to be mistaken for a stray, save for the thin red collar around its neck.
Clearly, it hadn’t just wandered off the street and decided to scale the fifteen-floor height in through her open window. Though Hannah didn’t know much about cats, so maybe anything was possible. Still, wherever it might have originated, she couldn’t let the animal remain there on Courtney’s pristine Egyptian cotton bedding. For one thing, its fur would shed all over the white comforter.
But who did it belong to?
There was no mention of any cat when they’d been making preliminary housesitting arrangements or indeed since, and now that she thought about it, wasn’t this a pet-free building? Regardless, this kitty could not stay where it was, contentedly sprawled out on Courtney Wilde’s bed.
Hannah approached, and the cat immediately stood, arched its back and hissed.
Great, she thought wryly.Yet another hostile reception.
These days, it was becoming a pattern.
