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  “Huh.” Del smiled at the kitten. “Well, you’re cute and all, but missy, you stink of piddle. A quick bath and towel dry and you’ll be good as new.”

  The kitten didn’t like the bath, but she didn’t mind the towelling, purring at Del and trying to grab her hand.

  “In the morning I’ll try to find out who owns you.” Del lightly tapped the kitten’s nose. “For tonight, you stay with me.”

  Later, lying in the dark, the kitten tucked up to her neck purring happily, Del had to admit she welcomed the company. It was the first time she could remember being a little unnerved by the encounter with a couple of drongos, but one of them wasn’t so harmless, and as for the other two, she didn’t know anymore.

  But she sure as hell was grateful for the new locks on the windows.

  Chapter 4

  Pulling into the driveway of the big brick house, Del looked at the box on the passenger seat. A little black paw poked out of one of the five holes she’d put in the sides for ventilation.

  “Sorry, Missy, but I can’t take you to work. You need access to a litter tray and food, and that I don’t have in the shop.”

  The little black paw waved at her. Grinning, she touched it with her fingertip. Immediately the little paw tried to grab her.

  “Okay, cuteness, time to meet my Mum.” Taking the box, Del got out of the car and walked up to the front door, calling out as she entered, “Hi Mum, it’s me!”

  A sturdy blonde woman with grey at her temples came out of the kitchen, a frilly apron tied at her waist. The smell of baking wafted out.

  “Are you baking a cake?” Del sniffed the air. “At eight in the morning?”

  “Better to do it before the heat sets in.” Mrs Miller kissed her on the cheek before looking down in amusement at the little paw stretched out of the box in a vain bid to grab her clothes. “Is this the little sweetheart?”

  “This is Missy.” Entering the kitchen, Del set the box on the table.

  Her father looked up from where he was reading the paper, his glasses perched on the end of his beaked nose. “Hi, sweetie.”

  “Hey, Dad.” Del opened the top of the box. “Brought your furry foster child to spend the day with you and Mum.”

  “You don’t say.” He watched with mild curiosity as she scooped Missy from the box.

  “Oh, isn’t she adorable?” Mrs Miller cooed, tickling her under the chin.

  “And sharp little claws.” Del stroked the kitten.

  Missy looked around in wide-eyed wonder.

  “She’ll love exploring the house.” Mrs Miller rubbed her behind the ears.

  “She’s small enough to get lost, trodden on, or tripped over, so you’ll have to be careful,” Del warned.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of her.” Mrs Miller glanced around. “Is her tray and food in the car?”

  “I’ve got an old box with sand in it which I’ll bring in for now, but I’m going to dash to the shop and grab some kitten food and milk.”

  “Don’t forget a litter tray and litter.”

  “She might not be staying with me.”

  Her parents looked at her in surprise.

  “She arrived last night,” Del explained. “Chased by a dog from over the road. I need to find out first if she belongs to anyone.”

  “And if she doesn’t?” Mr Miller queried.

  “Then I’ll keep her.” Del gave him a hopeful look. “As long as she’s okay to stay here when I’m working? It’d only be until she’s old enough to have three meals a day. Right now she needs about four or five, and I won’t be home to give it to her. I can only do a lunchtime feed.”

  “Fine by me.”

  “Meanwhile, she stays here anyway.” Mrs Miller took the kitten from Del. “Poor baby. Did the big doggie chase you? He’d have eaten you for dinner!”

  “Ugh.” Del have a shudder. “That dog was big enough to eat both of us.”

  “Whose dog was it?”

  “Cutter’s, maybe. I don’t know. I do know that the bloke who leashed it was a sadistic bastard.”

  Mr Miller fingered the edge of the newspaper. “Cutter and another bloke showed up on your property? Last night?”

  “In the dark?” Mrs Miller added.

  Uh oh. “They came for the dog. Okay, I gotta go and pick up Missy’s food or I’ll be late to open the shop.” Del gave her parents a quick wave and made for the door.

  “That Cutter is bad news.” Mrs Miller hurried behind her, Missy clutched in her arms. “You be careful around him.”

  “I’m not making friends with him, Mum. Not him or Dawson or-”

  “Brand Dawson turned up as well?”

  Crap on a stick. Del barrelled out the front door. “They came for the dog, remember? Not for a cup of tea.” She shut the door before her mother could go any further. “Don’t keep the door open, Mum, or Missy will get out.”

  That effectively stopped her mother. For all of about three seconds. She simple started calling through the door as Del escaped to the car. “I’m worried, Del!”

  “No need, Mum. I’m fine. Just look after Missy for me until tonight, okay?” She opened the car door. “See you shortly.”

  Oh boy. Del drove into town. Talk about a slip of the tongue. She shouldn’t have mentioned the blokes that was for sure. Now her parents would start worrying.

  The supermarket was quiet, only a few people in the aisles doing early morning shopping. Will, the rotund, grey-haired owner, called a cheerful greeting to her, which she returned before disappearing into the pet food aisle where she chose a number of small tins, a box of kitten biscuits and several small cartons of kitten milk. She was sorely tempted to get a litter tray and some litter, but mindful that the kitten might belong to someone and be claimed, she resisted. The small box filled with sand would do for now. Surprisingly, the thought of Missy going to someone else didn’t make her happy. Funny how fast she was becoming attached to her. Not a good thing. She could become attached once she found out if Missy had an owner or not. Another job to do today.

  Del headed back to her parent’s house with the bag of food and milk, dropping it off quickly and making her getaway before her mother could grill her too much more about keeping bad company and being careful.

  For sure it wasn’t going to be the last she heard of it. She had to pick Missy up that night and return her the next morning and…and maybe she wouldn’t have her by tonight, never mind tomorrow night. Sobering thought. Hopefully no one would come forward. Sometimes it sucked being honest.

  By lunchtime she’d put a notice up in the shop window, had Dee put one up in hers, Will on the supermarket notice board, rung the vet, the stock-feeders, the two churches, the cop shop and the estate agent. Figuring she’d done as much as she could - no way was she forking out for a notice in the local rag, she had to drawn the line somewhere with her budget - Del locked the shop and headed into the newsagents.

  Dee looked up from where she was cleaning out the display case holding a small selection of mobile phones and covers. “Hungry?”

  “Yep.” Del waved an apple and the foam cup of instant noodles she’d dug out of the back of the pantry.

  “Wow. Talk about a feast.”

  “Nothing wrong with instant noodles.”

  “Someone say noodles?” A voice asked cheerfully from behind them.

  Del turned as Ash and Molly entered. Her gaze fell on Molly’s empty arms. “Hey, where’s the baby?”

  “Lily is with Mrs Miller. Not your mum,” Molly added. “Dee’s mum.”

  “Why’s she with Aunt Beth?”

  “Because I mentioned that I was working three mornings a week at the bakery again. The bakery is happy for my shifts to be when Kirk’s off duty so he can have the baby, but there is the odd time when he does extra or someone’s sick and he has to work for them, and then we need a last-minute baby-sitter, like today. She nearly fell over herself to get the babysitting job. Which is really nice of her, considering she had to bring up De
e and her assorted siblings. I’d have thought that would have put her off babies for life.”

  Dee flipped her the bird. “I was the best of the bunch.”

  “Didn’t set the bar high very high, did you?”

  “Don’t be bitter, no one can reach my heights.”

  “Sure. You keep telling yourself that.” Molly’s gaze fell on the instant noodles in Del’s hand. “That wouldn’t fill my big toe.”

  Del doubted it would fill hers, either. She really needed to do some food shopping. “I’m not that hungry.” As if to announce to the world that she was fibbing, her belly chose that exact moment to growl loudly.

  Dee’s eyebrows rose. “Either that’s hunger pangs or you’ve got a touch of the squirts coming on.”

  “Hope its hunger pangs,” Molly said. “I brought a left-over savoury bread twist from yesterday.”

  Ash held up a bag. “Also, Molly taught me to bake little quiches and I was going to test them out on us before giving them to Scott.”

  “Jesus,” said Dee, “you’d risk our health before his?”

  “Need you ask?”

  “You should’ve tried them out on Simon. That man eats anything.”

  “Simon has a cast-iron gut.” Elissa walked through the door in time to hear. “No point trying food experiments on him, he’ll love anything he can eat.”

  Del’s mouth was watering at the thought of the little quiches. “I’ll sacrifice myself for the greater good.”

  Ash started for the back of the shop. “Let’s go, I’ve food to test out.”

  Within minutes they were around the table in Dee’s little kitchenette at the back of the shop. Ash was warming the quiches in the microwave while Del poured hot water into the noodle cup. Elissa placed five plastic glasses on the table and Dee filled them with Diet Coke from the large bottle she pulled from the little ‘fridge. Del placed paper plates on the table from Dee’s stash in the cupboard and Ash handed out plastic knives and forks.

  “I think I see a pattern forming,” Molly said as they sat and shared out the little quiches and savoury twist.

  “You think we’re seeing too much of each other?” Ash queried.

  “No, I think we’re getting lazy.”

  They all paused.

  Molly pointed to the paper plates, plastic knives and forks, and plastic glasses.

  Dee shrugged. “Normally we eat from plastic wrap, lunch wrap or lunch box.”

  “Besides, who wants to do the dishes today?” Del queried.

  Molly looked around. “Good point. This is actually economical.”

  “Oh, this ought to be good.”

  “I’m serious. This is saving time.”

  “You think?”

  “How much time would it take to wash five plates, glasses, knives and forks?”

  “Not long.”

  “Longer than tossing all this in the bin.”

  “A little wasteful.”

  “Ah, but that’s the thing. By using this disposable stuff now and again, we’re creating jobs and saving time. In fact, I’d say we’re doing the world a service.”

  “You think it balances the disservice we do it by using disposable items?”

  “I think it balances it out. We’re good people.”

  Dee rolled her eyes.

  Ash dimpled. “You do present a good argument. A little twisted, maybe-”

  “A little?” Elissa snorted.

  “-but still a good argument. On some points.”

  “Most of Molly’s ideas are twisted.” Dee bit into a quiche. “Oh, yum.”

  Everyone thought they were delicious, Del thought they were divine. Definitely filled her more than just the noodles would have done. The savoury twist was definitely yummy, as well.

  “There is definitely an upside to working in a bakery,” she mused.

  “It does have its moments,” Molly agreed. “Getting up in the dead of night to cook, however, not so much.”

  “Dead of night?” Dee squinted at her. “Geez, you make it sound like midnight.”

  “I get to work by five thirty to start the cakes and help with the bread.”

  “Well, pardon me. I get up at the arse crack of dawn six days a week to open up by six am. You certainly don’t get up every morning at that time.”

  “She has a point,” Del agreed.

  This had everyone’s gaze turning to her.

  “What?”

  “You open the shop at nine in the morning,” Elissa said.

  “What’s your point?”

  “I bet you don’t drag your bum out of bed at five thirty or six.”

  “I get to work on time every day.”

  “What time do you get up?”

  “What time do you get up?”

  “I’ll answer if you do.”

  “Good grief,” Dee said. “This is killing me. Del rolls her lazy arse out of bed about seven thirty. Even sometimes, dare I say it, eight o’clock.”

  “So?” Del twirled some noodles around the fork.

  “Here you are backing me up, saying I have a point when you don’t even do it yourself.”

  “Hey, I was backing you up. Doesn’t mean I have to do it.” Del smiled at her cousin. “Not all of us are meant to be up before the birds.”

  “In summer the birds are already up.”

  “And in winter I’m still toasting my toes on the hot water bottle while you’re freezing your arse off hauling in bundles of newspaper.”

  Dee’s lips pursed.

  “In the rain.”

  Elissa grinned. “Okay, now Del has a point.”

  “You used to be a quiet sheila, Elissa, but it's obvious you’ve been keeping bad company,” Dee said.

  “I never thought of you girls that way.”

  “Want to see how bad I can get?”

  “How kinky is this going to be?” Molly picked up her plastic glass. “Because I’m warning you all, I didn’t have sex this morning so-”

  “My ears are starting to bleed.”

  “I’m just saying.”

  “Is this because you had to get up early for work?”

  “Well, Kirk and I were getting a little frisky before that-”

  Del squinted at Molly. “How detailed is this going to be?”

  “How detailed do you want it to be?”

  “How much pain do you want to be in?”

  “So is that ‘a lot’ or ‘a little’ in regards to the details?”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think you’re giving me a headache with all this indecisiveness.”

  “You must do Kirk’s head in a lot.”

  Molly smirked. “His head? I’ll tell you what I do to his-”

  “Please don’t.”

  Molly turned to Ash. “Anyone would think Del was shy.”

  Ash smiled.

  Del rolled her eyes.

  “Anyway.” Molly turned back to Del. “What I was going to say was that Kirk and I were getting a little frisky, but then Lily woke up and pfft! That was it.”

  “Flames of desire fizzled?” Dee nodded. “That’s what happens.”

  “How would you know?” Del looked at her incredulously.

  “I’m just trying to be the understanding friend.”

  “Well don’t. It’s unnerving.”

  Molly nodded. “We pretty much like you as our usual Dee.”

  “Rude and sardonic,” Elissa agreed.

  Ash smiled gently at Dee. “We love you just the way you are.”

  “Thank God,” Dee muttered. “I was starting to feel ill from all the sweetness.”

  Del grinned. “It was becoming a bit of a stretch.”

  “Speaking of stretches.” Her cousin turned her attention to Del, the amusement disappearing from her eyes to be replaced with a steelier gaze. “I heard you had a night visitor.”

  “Huh?”

  “More than one, in fact.”

  For several seconds Del couldn’t think what Dee meant, but then she rea
lised and groaned. “For crying out loud! Did Mum ring you?”

  “She wanted to know if I knew anything about last night.”

  “What about last night?” Elissa asked curiously.

  “Nothing.” Del shrugged. “Just a dog chasing a kitten through my property. The kitten took refuge on my veranda, and Cutter and a couple of his mates came over to get the dog.”

  Ash’s expression grew concerned. “What time of night?”

  “Well, you know, late afternoon-”

  “Around seven, seven thirty,” Dee cut in.

  “How the hell would you know?” Del demanded.

  “Ryder and I stayed in the flat last night, I saw you leave at six fifty.”

  “Jesus, you’re nosey.”

  “I’m observant, and don’t change the subject.”

  “Did you call the police?” Elissa queried.

  “Why would I?” Del replied, a little irritated “I dealt with it.”

  “Cutter’s bad news,” Ash stated.

  Elissa rolled the bottom of the plastic glass on the table. “You’re out there alone.”

  “Now you’re sounding like your brother.”

  “We’re from the city, what do you expect? Where we come from everyone locks their doors.”

  “We lock our doors here.”

  “At night and when away, but that’s about it.”

  Del took a sip of Diet Coke, catching her cousin’s intent look. “What?”

  “You need to be careful.”

  “Are you kidding me? You, Dee?”

  “You had that altercation with Pierce and Dawson, then had a confrontation with a savage dog and three idiots. And Cutter’s not exactly a harmless idiot.”

  Del folded her arms. “I have a baseball bat.”

  “And an attitude.”

  Del burst out laughing, she couldn’t help it. That particular wording from the Queen of Attitude was almost hilarious. Even her friends had to grin.

  Ignoring them, Dee pointed at Del. “You need help, you ring me.”

  “You?” Molly echoed. “What about the cops?”

  “Fine. Ring me and then the cops.”

  “Then ring me,” Molly added.

  Good grief. Del held up her hands. “Okay, stop. I’m fine. It was one encounter-”