Free Merlin's Misfortune by Shari Hearn

 
     
    Merlin’s
Misfortune
     
    A Miss
Fortune Kindle Worlds Novella
     
     
     
    Written
by
    Shari
Hearn
     
    Cover by Susan Coils at www.coverkicks.com
     
     
    Table of Contents
     
    PROLOGUE
    CHAPTER ONE
    CHAPTER TWO
    CHAPTER THREE
    CHAPTER FOUR
    CHAPTER FIVE
    CHAPTER SIX
    CHAPTER SEVEN
    CHAPTER EIGHT
    CHAPTER NINE
    CHAPTER TEN
    CHAPTER ELEVEN
    CHAPTER TWELVE
    CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     
     
     
     
     
     
PROLOGUE
     
    Dear
Readers
     
     
    Once upon a time…
    Yeah, not a
very creative beginning to a story. But I’m a cat. Cut me some slack, would
you? I have no opposable thumbs, so the fact I’m able to get anything on paper
is something worthy of an ear rub.
    I said,
worthy of an ear rub. Can you not take a hint? That’s right… higher… higher…
higher.
    Ahh… there
you go.
    Okay, now
stop. I’ve had enough.
    Now, where
was I?
    Oh yes,
once upon a time, say, five weeks ago, there was a young lady named
Fortune—human, not furry—who came to a town called Sinful. She was a CIA
assassin hiding out from a very bad man, and was told to keep a low profile.
Bottom line is, she didn’t. She met two shadowy old broads by the names of Ida
Belle and Gertie, and since then she’s been embroiled in one mystery after
another.
    But the
most important thing about her story is when she met me. She thought our
meeting was by accident. I came around begging for food and she took pity on
me, took me in and named me Merlin. Fine. I’ll let her believe that’s what
happened. But Fortune Redding’s not the only one with a secret. I’ve got one of
my own. And those two old broads and the Sinful Ladies Society who think they
run the town? We let them think that.
    Who are we?
We’re the cats of the Sinful Feline League, or SFL for short. We’re the ones
who really run this town, and have been doing so for generations. Sometimes we
lend the Sinful Ladies a paw without them having a clue we were even involved. Sometimes
we need their help, and play them like puppets, getting them to do exactly what
we want.
    And then
there are times when it’s a little of both.
    This is a
story about one of those times.
     
     
     
     
     
CHAPTER ONE
     
    Merlin
     
    The sound of her airboat signaled her
return. Finally. I had spent the better part of the last hour listening to the meows
of Buffy, the cute little tabby, outside of my window, calling me to an
emergency meeting at the headquarters of the Sinful Feline League. The one day
Fortune forgot to leave the pet door open, and it had to be this one.
    I stood
impatiently in front of the back door, tapping my paws on the kitchen floor.
    Calm down, I reminded
myself. Don’t let her know something’s up. But Fortune Redding was a
trained CIA operative; it was her business to detect when something was up. And
I was new to the spy life, having only been inserted into Fortune’s house two
weeks ago.
    She was
outside the door now, sticking the key into the lock. Turning the knob. A quick
pivot around her legs and I’d be free.
    The door
opened a few inches.
    Wider!
Wider!
    â€œHey,
Merlin. Just the one I wanted to see.â€