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Book Title: ALLEY CAT
Author: Christine DePetrillo
Excerpt:
Flames climbed into the dusky sky. Orangered
flares shot fury into the growing darkness.
Shara Dumorte watched from the street curb as the
fire swallowed her apartment. She only had the
clothes on her back and the satchel on her
shoulder. Luckily, her cameras were in the satchel
along with the photographs she’d taken on the
shoot this afternoon. Be a shame to lose an entire
day’s work along with the rest of her life’s
treasures.
It sucked coming home to an inferno after a
lovely day photographing models for an issue of
City Chic
, the hottest fashion magazine to hit the
stands. Shara had only lived in the apartment for a
couple years, but it was home, her private space.
What was she supposed to do now?
She glanced down the street as fire trucks
screamed closer. She wanted to tell them not to
rush. There’d be no saving the building. Windows
were already shattered, walls blackened,
possessions melted, memories lost.
Once the fighters and investigators arrived,
there’d be questions. Questions about why and
how. When and who. Questions whose answers
never got her any help. Shara swept her gaze to the
left and right. Took a good look at her neighbors,
whose homes were now lost too. Lost because of
her bad choices.
Because of Jesse Franchetti.
It should have been so simple. Her phone
call to the police when she had heard Jesse and his
crew planning to break into and clean out the First
American Bank should have solved everything. The
police should have stormed into her apartment
when Jesse was asleep on her couch—where he had
pretty much taken up permanent residence—and
carted him off to jail. He shouldn’t still be roaming
the streets.
Hunting her down. Plotting to silence her for
good.
Sure, the police had offered her protection
in the form of a bodyguard who followed her
everywhere while they investigated Jesse. That got
old pretty quick. Especially when the bodyguard
wrestled one of the cover models to the ground at
work. The model had yelled at Shara about the way
the overhead lights made his spray-on tan look
fake. Shara dealt with models like him all the time.
The shouting hadn’t bugged her in the least, but
the bodyguard took it as a threat and things went
south from there. She’d traded that bodyguard in
for another, who had spent more time flirting with
her than watching out for Jesse. She’d had to let
him go too.
She’d considered the witness protection
program, but Shara couldn’t see starting all over
somewhere else. She’d made a name for herself in
the world of photography and wasn’t about to let
that all go to hell because of Jesse. Too bad he’d
turned out to be such a creep. A really hot creep.
She’d fallen for his movie star good looks and the
tasty cooking Jesse did in the Italian restaurant he
owned. Now she was homeless because of him.
Jesse had promised to kill her when he found
out she was the one who had ruined the biggest
bank heist in history. Shara had thought he’d meant
that figuratively. No such luck. Turns out he was
more of a literal man.
She’d narrowly escaped his attempt to run
her down with his truck. She’d outmaneuvered two
of his goons while walking home from a late photo
shoot. Shara had even managed to swim to safety
when Jesse, posing as a jogger in the park, pushed
her into the freezing lake water. Her time at the
gym pool had not gone to waste.
But fire. She couldn’t undo that damage or
squirm her way out of it. In another few moments,
despite the hoses now spraying water in thick
streams, her home would be a pile of ash. She
untied her sweater from her waist and slipped it
on. A fall breeze sifted through her straight, black
hair, sending some of the funky purple highlights
she’d just had done fluttering about her face.
Smoke billowed from the apartment carcass, and
the air smelled like burned toast.
Shara fiddled with the studs lining her left
ear and flipped through a mental address book,
trying to figure out whom she could crash with for
a few days. As she ticked through the list, the
whine of a motorcycle sent her feet flying into a
sprint.
Away. She had to get away from the scene.
Away from Jesse and his next attempt to finish her.
Shara ran past her neighbors. Past the
firefighters and police. Down the narrow streets.
Her feet barely hit the pavement that snaked
between the towering buildings of the city. The
motorcycle engine buzzed over her drumming pulse
as she rounded the corner. He wasn’t far behind
her. She had to keep moving.
If he finds me, I won’t see tomorrow.
Shara shuddered, but quickened her pace
and dodged into a smaller alley off the main
roadway. The buildings around her kept the city
light out. She could let the shadows swallow her.
She could disappear.
“Lost, are you?”
Shara squeaked and clamped a hand over her
mouth to stifle the scream about to give away her
location. About to kill her.
“Need a place to hide?”
“I always need a place to hide.” Shara
glanced to the street and back to the shadow now
taking shape in the coming nightfall. She craned
her head up and took in an impressive height.
Run.
She should run. This guy could be one
of Jesse’s thugs. He had so many jerks doing his
bidding. Before she could bolt, however, the white
of a smile streaked across the shadow’s face in the
dim light.
“This way.”
The voice somehow calmed the storm
swirling inside Shara. A hand emerged and reached
out to her. The motorcycle’s headlight
laserbeamed over her as the bike screeched around
the corner. Four more headlights appeared behind
the first.
Shit, he’s got the whole gang.
Shara couldn’t outrun five of them. To be honest, she
was surprised she’d lasted this long against Jesse.
She looked at the hand still waiting, then
risked a glance over her shoulder. The headlights
now illuminated pairs of legs marching toward her.
She heard several clicks. Guns.
Dodging bullets is definitely not on my
resume.
Shara had no other choice. Sucking in a
breath, she took the shadow’s hand and was
wrenched forward before she had time to change
her mind. After a few moments, the grip on her
hand loosened until she couldn’t feel the stranger’s
fingers anymore. Her feet weren’t touching the
ground. Something had taken form beneath her
instead. She wasn’t being dragged forward. She
was
riding something. Something big.
I should be scared. Out of my mind scared.
But she wasn’t. Instead, Shara leaned down
and buried her hands in the silky fur spanning the
shoulder blades of whatever carried her away from
trouble. Her stomach pressed against the long line
of backbone beneath her. A wonderful smell tickled
her nose, a cross between summer sun, wet earth,
and trees. She couldn’t see a thing, didn’t know
where she was going, and had no idea who was
helping her.
None of that mattered.
The whir of motorcycles had died away
behind her somewhere. In fact, all city noise had
been silenced. The only sound reaching her ears
was the soft thump of footfalls beneath her as they
darted deeper into the night. They left the
buildings and asphalt behind them. The woodsy
smell intensified, and trees now encircled Shara
and the…creature.
She turned her attention to the growing heat
beneath her. Taut muscles worked hard under the
fur pressed into her palms. Though a man had
originally offered her help in the alley, no man was
with her now. Her only guide at present was this
animal moving lithely, swiftly through the
thickening forest.
Its pace slowed, and a bright yellow-green
eye came into view as the creature’s head swung to
the right. Moonlight filtered through the treetops,
revealing a regal profile.
A cat. A huge, black panther to be exact.
Nostrils flared, breathed in scents, analyzed,
decided. Whiskers twitched, and the massive feline
leaped to a flat rock as Shara held on. It lowered
its body so she could slide off. The fur was a silken
sheet beneath her hands. A fleeting desire to get
naked and rub her body, cat-style, over the fur
almost consumed her.
Before she gave in to the ridiculous
yearning, the panther shimmered—like a quick
blurring of reality—and a naked man stood before
Shara.
Her eyes combed over the well-defined
contours of his body. Long legs, powerful arms,
strong shoulders. Muscles gave his skin an athletic,
chiseled look, and Shara wanted to spend eternity
admiring him. Perhaps admiring wouldn’t be
enough.
The man’s chin-length black hair looked as
soft as the fur of the panther. Shara reached out a
hand, not able to control the desire to touch him.
Quick as lightning, however, he disappeared over
the side of the rock. An instant emptiness filled
Shara. She took a step in the direction he had fled,
but within a moment, he was back and adjusting
the folds of a long, charcoal overcoat. Shara
stumbled back, but couldn’t help being a little
disappointed he was so thoroughly wrapped.
“What are you?” she whispered.
“What do you think I am?” He raised eyes
the color of the panther’s—a strange golden green—
to meet her gaze. Long, black lashes fanned across
his lids like feathers.
“I think you’re my savior.” The words
escaped on a breath, and Shara’s pulse drummed in
her neck.
“Haven’t ever been called that.” Sadness
filled his beautiful eyes, and Shara wanted to erase
that emotion from his face.
The man took two steps closer and extended
his hand. “Renn Tygris.”
Shara shook Renn’s hand and enjoyed the
feel of it in her own. His grip, both soft and strong,
made her feel safe. Not something she felt often.
Not something she felt ever.
“Shara Dumorte.” Her legs suddenly wobbled
beneath her, so she lowered to sit on the rock.
Renn crossed the few steps between them,
gathered the folds of the coat, and sat beside her.
Shara studied Renn’s hypnotic, yellow-green eyes
as he regarded her.
He offered her a grin as he nudged her
shoulder with his own. “You can hide out here if
you want.”
Shara scanned the forest sprawling out in
every direction. “Where exactly is here?” She
thought she knew every corner of the city, but this
lush woodland was foreign. The only trees she
frequented were in the park, surrounded by iron
benches and spray-painted with various
obscenities.
The trees encircling them now, however,
stood like giants with leafy arms raised
heavenward. In every direction, the ground was
covered with a carpet of ferns and wide-leafed
plants. Boulders like the one Shara and Renn sat on
dotted the forest, and when Shara placed her palm
on the stone’s surface, a warmth radiated up her
arm. She pulled her hand back and looked at Renn.
“What is this place?” The first prickles of
fear tingled in her mind. What was she doing in the
middle of a forest that shouldn’t be here? What
was she doing with this man who maybe wasn’t a
man?
Three Questions:
1. What does Shara Dumorte do for a living?
2. Who is Shara Dumorte running from?
3. What does the man who comes to her rescue change into?
Buy Links:
From Whispers - http://whispershome.com/whispersstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=144
From Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Alley-Cat-ebook/dp/B004IAT96E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334014752&sr=8-1
Author website - www.christinedepetrillo.weebly.com
Author Facebook page - www.facebook.com/christinedepetrilloauthor
