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“Did you lose her?”
Adele’s tone of mild interest finally sank in. She was pissed. And if she was pissed at him, then she had talked to Kat. The talons of fear gripping him loosened a little.
“You’ve talked to her. So you know I didn’t lose her, she left.”
“Imagine that.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, yeah, I fucked up. But I really need to know Kat is okay.”
The background party noise got briefly louder, then faded. “Of course she’s not okay.”
“I know that, I mean is she safe? It’s late and...” He trailed off, unwilling to verbalize what was in his head.
Adele was quiet for another moment, then sighed. “I just got off the phone with her. She’s physically fine.”
“Where is she?”
“Nuh-uh. No way. You’ve gotten all you’re getting, and you should be happy with that. You should be damned grateful I didn’t just hang up on your sorry ass. Which is what I’m doing now.”
The line went quiet in his ear and he cursed.
“Where is she?” Hunter’s question reminded him he wasn’t alone.
“She wouldn’t tell me. But she did say she just talked to Kat and she was okay.”
“Does her phone have a tracking app?”
Liam stared at Hunter. “What happened to ‘she’s a big girl’?”
“Those apps are great for tracking down stolen smart phones.”
“It never seemed like an issue.” Even as he spoke, Liam kicked himself for not thinking the way Hunter did in this one regard. If Liam saw Kat as someone who needed to be protected, if he was the protective warrior type, maybe they would have a tracking app on their phones.
Or maybe they wouldn’t be together in the first place.
The Christmas tree distracted him from his chaotic thoughts. He had a flash of Kat insisting that she help him wrestle the tree into the house. Kat had bet him a blow job it was too tall. He’d collected his winnings before they’d begun decorating, Kat going down on him with the fresh evergreen scent of the tree stinging the air and boxes of ornaments piled around them.
He walked over to the spruce and plucked a gold and porcelain ornament from a branch near the top. It was the first they’d bought together when she’d moved into his tiny apartment off campus. The scraggly table-top tree had barely been able to support the winter scene, but no tree had ever been so beautiful.
Hunter’s voice cut across the room. “Dude, trim your tree later. What are we going to do about Kat?”
“We’re going to wait. She’s not missing, she’s avoiding.” Liam gently replaced the ornament. Things were at a delicate crossroads here, and one wrong move would bring everything crashing down around his head.
He looked up to see Hunter shrugging into his coat, intent on the door. Shit.
Liam stepped into his path, blocking the door. “Where are you going?”
Hunter’s stone-face look was back in place. Liam wanted to punch him in the face just
to get a reaction.
“I’m going to look for her.”
“No. I know my wife. Just wait.”
Hunter’s flinch told Liam he’d hit a nerve, but the rush of cold air behind him stopped Liam from poking the wound. Relief and dread both washed over him as he turned to face Kat, who stood in the open door looking back and forth between him and Hunter.
“You haven’t killed each other. I guess that’s a start.” She closed and locked the door. After one look at Hunter’s coat, she blocked the exit with her compact body. Speaking to Hunter, she said, “Leaving? I suppose you left another goodbye note. Well, a note’s not good enough. Take off your coat. I’m going to set the table. Hunter, put your hand-held weapons training to good use and chop vegetables for the salad. Liam—”
