Chapter Four
Kat was sprawled on top of him when Stephen woke, one arm wrapped around his neck, the other resting against his chest, under her head. He breathed in her scent, too afraid to open his eyes, his dream disappearing in a puff of smoke. The feel of her skin against his had heat spiraling through him, his erection straining against his jeans. Finally, he opened his eyes, relieved when she didn’t disappear, a small sliver of peace in the hell that had become his life.
He reached for his phone on the nightstand, hoping against hope there’d be word of Alex. Nothing. Jesus, how long could it fucking take to find one agent? Unless that agent didn’t want to be found…
He shoved away the pain that thought caused, even as he wondered if he’d ever see his brother again. Kat moved slightly, her hair tickling his chin and he pulled her closer, seeking comfort as the light gray of dawn filled her bedroom. Only a couple hours had elapsed since he’d caught her just before she’d passed out, though he felt like he’d been asleep for days. He couldn’t wait any longer, didn’t want to live through it anymore.
Not without her.
He’d been in the process of making a change, getting ready to go after her, four interviews over the past two weeks, doing his damnedest to secure another position one-hundred and fifty miles from home, bringing him closer to Kat.
Hope, finally. He’d been able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now the tunnel was black, the light not just extinguished, but destroyed. Keeping his own position without a fight would be hard enough. Finding another?
Nearly impossible.
Kat snuggled closer, her defenses against him disappearing when she slept. They always had, from the first time he’d ever slept in her bed. It was truly the only time she ever trusted him.
Not true, he thought. She’d trusted him just before she’d been kidnapped. For a few blissful hours before everything went to shit and unfortunately, he couldn’t repress the memories. The look of horror on her face. Ethan nearly ripping Kat from his arms. Kat clinging to Ethan, holding on for dear life.
Stephen closed his eyes again, the moment he lost her was akin to a knife piercing his heart. He kissed the top of her head, breathing in her scent, the scent he swore he could still smell in his bedroom. An overactive imagination, he knew. Or wishful thinking, perhaps. But damn, she felt perfect in his arms. And he wondered if he had any chance in hell of keeping her there. For all Ethan’s threats, he obviously hadn’t taken steps to make Kat his.
Unless she’d said no?
Was it too much to hope? Stephen tightened his arms around her again, as if sheer will alone would keep her where she belonged. She stirred then, her hand slowly sliding up his chest until her fingers tangled in his hair. He couldn’t hold back the groan from escaping his lips as she mumbled his name.
Unfortunately. Kat’s entire body stiffened. Instantly she was a frantic tangle of arms and legs as she fought to escape him. Stephen sighed and let her go, missing the feel of her body before she was fully out of his arms. She wouldn’t meet his eyes as she stood, struggling to simultaneously tug down her dress and close the V. Or tried to.
“Good morning, sweetheart.” He was able to keep the laughter out of voice, but even he could hear the gruffness and longing. It didn’t have the intended effect. She scrambled further away, halted by the chair behind her. Stephen shot his hand out, catching her wrist just before she fell. Still, she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Without relinquishing his hold, he stood, cradling her cheek with his other hand, gently pulling her closer.
“Let me go.”
Never, he thought, even as he let his hand fall to his side. Kat stepped back, slower this time so she wouldn’t fall. And damn it, she still wouldn’t look at him.
Her doorknob turned, Stephen’s entire body going on full alert. He reached for his gun on the nightstand, immediately grabbing Kat and shoving her behind him.
Ethan.
Walking into her bedroom as if he had every right to be there. His gaze instantly locked on Stephen’s, his entire body going rigid. Ethan’s shock was obvious, quickly overtaken by a hate so pure and all-consuming, Stephen couldn’t help but be a little surprised. They still worked together. Far from friends, but they’d maintained a professional civility over the past few weeks. Apparently finding him in Kat’s bedroom pushed Ethan past his breaking point.
Not that Stephen cared. Instead he wanted to roar with frustration. He’d wanted, no needed, more time with her. Needed to clean up the mess he’d made with her last night, clear the air between them. See if there was still anything between them, something they could build on, despite the fact he had nothing to offer.
“Here to finish the job your grandfather started?” Ethan sneered.
“Ethan!” Kat hissed. “That was uncalled for—”
“Like hell it was!” Ethan returned, his full attention on Kat now, his body nearly shaking with the force of his anger. “Do you need a recap of how many times his family has put you in danger? How many times they’ve tried to kill you?”
Unfortunately, Stephen couldn’t deny the truth of Ethan’s cruelly fired comment. Guilt over what his family had done still tore him apart, undiminished during the past six weeks. Kat’s face paled before turning red with anger. “And do you need a reminder that Stephen was the one who pulled me from that fire seconds before I would have been burned alive? Jesus, Ethan, how can you be so heartless?”
“Heartless? I’m being heartless? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” he roared, rage and fury dripping with every word.
“Enough!” Stephen intervened, stepping between Ethan and Kat, a position he never dreamed he’d be in. “Take it down a notch, Ethan. Her grandmother is asleep in the next room.”
“Another victim of your honorable grandfather,” Ethan spat. “Should we take count?”
“Enough, Ethan.” Kat stepped around Stephen, her voice harder than he’d ever heard it before. She pushed against his chest, forcing him out of her bedroom as she followed. “If you can’t be civil, you’ll need to leave.”
But Ethan wasn’t done. As soon as they were in the kitchen, Ethan whipped around. “After everything this man has done, I can’t believe you’re defending him!”
“I haven’t done anything.” Stephen stepped in front of Ethan again, his hope of being able to diffuse the situation rapidly deteriorating. But he’d show no weakness in front of Ethan. He also refused to lower himself to Ethan’s level, hurting Kat in the process.
“Bullshit! You very nearly destroyed her! Where the hell have you been for the past six weeks? When she woke up screaming in the middle of the night? When she was crying out for—”
“Damn it, Ethan!” Kat yelled, louder this time as she grabbed his arm, demanding his attention. “I could ask you the same thing, so knock it off.”
What the hell? Stephen looked between them. Ethan had disappeared, leaving Kat alone? Shit.
“Please,” she whispered as Ethan balled his hands into fists. Stephen recognized the fear that was so clearly written all over Ethan’s face when he looked down at Kat. Fear that everything he held dear was about to be ripped away. Unable to witness it for one more excruciating second, Stephen turned away, walking toward the windows overlooking the street five stories below. Because Ethan’s expression? It was like looking into his own soul.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
He heard Kat’s words as if from a distance, but blocked out Ethan’s response. He knew exactly what Ethan’s issue was. If Stephen was a better man, he’d walk away. But every part of him rebelled as soon as the thought entered his head.
So it would become a war. One he had no intention of losing, yet one he wished he didn’t have to fight.
He wasn’t sure if he even stood a chance. The bond that existed between Kat and Ethan was powerful, one he’d be foolish to dismiss. And he knew Kat well enough that losing Ethan would kill her.
“Sorry I missed our date last night.”
Those words penetrated, ripping Stephen from his thoughts. As intended, no doubt. And he bet no truer words had ever been spoken. Never would Stephen have imagined he’d be forever grateful seeing her in another man’s arms last night.
“Did you also miss the fact that your girlfriend’s about to splash Kat’s identity all over the six o’clock news?” Stephen asked as he turned from the window.
Ethan glared at him as Kat backed away, turning toward the kitchen. At least until the words penetrated. “What?” His gaze whipped between Stephen and Kat. “Emma has the story?”
He sounded shocked. But as Stephen studied him, gauging his reaction, he couldn’t help but question whether Ethan had truly known. Emma was tight with Ethan’s family, practically raised together. And the timing? Couldn’t have been more perfect, giving Ethan the opportunity to tell the world he was a hero, had saved Kat’s life when he announced his run for District Attorney later today.
Yet Stephen dismissed the idea even as it occurred to him. Because as much as he hated to admit it, Ethan wasn’t the enemy here. Stephen was. Or, at least, his family was. Ethan had spent the last six years of his life protecting Kat. And as much as Ethan would love to see Stephen and his family publicly crucified, there was no way in hell he’d do that at Kat’s expense.
“Are you alright?” Ethan asked, grabbing Kat’s hand and turning her toward him, his body blocking her from Stephen’s view, as if shielding her from him.
Whatever Ethan must have seen in Kat’s expression had him swearing under his breath as he pulled out his phone, stabbing at the screen. Kat took the opportunity to move away from him, grabbing the carafe to the coffeemaker and filling it with water from the fridge, her movements jerky, attesting to her aggravation.
Ethan shoved his phone back into his pocket. The call must have gone to voicemail. He grabbed the coffee from the cabinet, gently moving Kat out of the way while he took over.
“I’m fine.” Kat told Ethan, but her hands trembled as she reached into another cabinet, pulling out a bottle of pain reliever and shaking three into her hand. Stephen didn’t miss the way her dress rode higher up her thighs. Either did Ethan. He turned to glare at Stephen as Kat swallowed the pills with a glass of water. She looked up at him, meeting his eyes for the first time over the rim. And he could have sworn he saw the same longing he felt, but it passed so quickly, he wondered if he was just seeing things he so desperately wanted to see.
“You always say that, Kat,” Ethan said when he finished making the coffee.
“And I’m always fine, aren’t I?” she returned, putting her glass in the sink and moving around the island counter, moving down the short hallway toward her bedroom. “Give me a minute,” she said.
But she never came back out.
***
“Good morning, sleepyhead. Or should I say good afternoon.”
“Nothing good about it,” Kat mumbled as she struggled to open her eyes. The night’s events began as a haze, flashing through her mind before forming a complete picture. Jen’s birthday party at the club. Stephen. The story.
Alex’s disappearance.
She closed her eyes again, unwilling to deal with it just yet. Her grandmother placed a steaming mug on the nightstand, the tempting aroma finally forcing Kat to drag herself into a sitting position. She grabbed the coffee gratefully, luxuriating in that first heavenly sip. “Thank you.”
Lynn Collins didn’t look like she was still recovering from triple-bypass surgery. She looked strong and healthy, the mini-vacation at her friend’s house on Long Island last week putting color into her face that hadn’t been there before. Her eyes were filled with questions, the exact same shade of green as Kat’s. But that’s where their similarities ended. Lynn was tall, still reaching five-ten even though she was in her mid-seventies. She was impeccably dressed, her short white hair styled, not a hair out of place. “Going out?”
“No, just got back. Ethan and I went for lunch. Must have been some birthday celebration. It’s nearly two in the afternoon.”
“Yeah, it was. Went late,” Kat mumbled.
Her grandmother sat on the edge of her bed. “So I gathered.” She handed Kat her phone, which she must have left in the living room. If her grandmother had heard any of the fighting early this morning, she didn’t mention it. Thank God.
“Drank a little too much.”
“So I gathered,” her grandmother repeated, making Kat laugh before she remembered she’d left Stephen out in the living room with Ethan. Crap.
She looked past her grandmother, out toward the door Kat had sworn she locked. “You’re a lockpicker now?”
Her grandmother waved a tiny screwdriver, giving Kat a smile. “Easy as pie.”
Kat chuckled, then groaned when her head pounded. Lynn handed her two pain relievers. “Thought you might need these.”
“Thank you.” Kat swallowed the pills with her coffee.
“Ethan’s waiting. You need to get ready for the parade. And I hear you have a couple fancy parties this week. One at the senator’s house?”
Fourth of July. Given last night, and this morning, she’d nearly forgotten. The last thing she felt like doing tonight was going to the parade and the party afterward. But Ethan was announcing his run for District Attorney. The party at the senator’s vacation house was apparently an annual event, thrown at the ski slopes where tonight’s fireworks would be set off. And as excited as she was for Ethan, despite the lingering tension between them, she couldn’t help the sadness she felt for Stephen. He’d planned on running as well.
The end of his dreams.
Kat looked down at the phone resting near her thigh, wondering if Stephen had texted or called, but she didn’t check. Didn’t know how she’d feel either way. “The story is about to break.”
“Stephen told me last night. I’m so sorry,” her grandmother said, her eyes filling with sympathy. Kat couldn’t help but feel sick all over again. How many times had the woman told her to leave it alone, to get on with her life?
Stop looking toward the past and start living for the future.
And when she wrapped her arms tightly around Kat, she felt the tears she’d been holding back burn her eyes. She fought like hell to make sure they didn’t fall. “You’ll be safe here,” Kat whispered. “I don’t think you’ll be part of the story.” And thank God for that.
“It’s not me I’m worried about.”
Kat pulled away. “It’s not me I’m worried about either.” And for the next half-hour, Kat told her all about Stephen, pouring out her heart and soul, everything she’d gone through, everything she’d felt. And then she focused on the guilt that was tearing her inside out, feeling like a child as her grandmother held her. She recounted how she’d ruined Stephen’s career, his family. How Alex’s life was now in jeopardy. But if she thought she’d feel any better, any less guilty, she would have been wrong.
Eventually Ethan appeared, nearly filling the doorway, but didn’t step over the threshold. She’d almost forgotten he was there, hoped he hadn’t overheard everything she’d said in the tiny apartment. The sunlight coming in through the living room windows lit him from behind, limning his entire body in a halo, reminding her in that moment he truly was her guardian angel. Her hero. And despite the awkwardness between them, the rush of emotion that filled her was powerful enough to take her breath away. She’d missed him so much.
“You okay?” He smiled then, his light blue eyes crinkling a little at the corners in his tan face. His dark blonde hair was a mess, probably from running his hands through it too many times. She had to fight the need to push it back into place, especially when he finally stepped into her bedroom and held out his hand.
Kat reached out, letting him pull her up from the bed and into his arms, breathing in his scent. None of the tension that had surrounded him earlier was evident now. That had probably left about the same time as Stephen.
“Do I have time for a quick shower?” she mumbled against his chest, even though she wasn’t nearly ready to let him go.
“Of course.” He kissed the top of her head, letting her know without words that everything would be alright, that he’d be there to shelter her from the coming storm.
Like always.