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“I missed you, too,” I say, feeling a little breathless from his kiss. “Everything okay?”
“As okay as they can be right now.”
“Connor?” I wait until he pulls back to look at me. “Will you please tell me what’s going on? Did you go…do something…to Quad’s club?”
His jaw tightens. “We acted against the Eagle’s Talon, yes.”
Oh my God.“What did you do?” I ask breathlessly.
“I can’t tell you that,” he barks, but when he sees me flinch, he continues more gently. “Babe. We acted to protect you. You’re gonna have to trust me.”
“How can I trust you when you keep things from me?” I insist.
“We talked about this. I promise I’ll tell you everything I can.”
“Connor.” Is my brother in trouble?”
“He might be,” Connor admits. “But what we did was the right thing to do.” He searches my face. “Babe, why do you care about him? After everything he’s done to you?”
“I know he’s done some bad things. But in spite of everything, Quad is my family. I still care about him, even when I don’t want to. Can you understand that?”
His thumb brushes against my cheek. “Katrina. Quad doesn’t care about you. He’ll hurt you if it benefits him. You know that, right?”
“I can’t believe that.” I shake my head. “I don’t want to believe that.”
“Then you’re living in a fantasy world,” he retorts, an edge of anger reappearing in his tone. “I’m gonna protect you from anyone who’s a danger to you, Kat, whether you want me to or not. Even him. You’re safe now.”
Suddenly everything is too much. I don’t want to think about any of it anymore.
“I’m safe?” I ask him. “I’m out of danger?”
“Yes.”
I nod slowly. “Good. Then I’d like to go back to my apartment now.”
“But Kat —”
“If I’m safe now, then you have no reason to refuse me, do you?” I insist. “I want to be alone, Connor. Please. You can’t keep me here against my will. I want to go home. Now.”
Connor is silent. His brows knit together. Eventually, he sighs, resigned to the knowledge that I’m not going to take no for an answer.
“Fine. I’ll take you home.”
22
FURY
Idon’t refuse Kat when she insists on going back to her apartment.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t keep watch on her.
She’s quiet and lost in thought when I drive her home on my bike. I try to come up to her place and stay with her, but she refuses. “I’m sorry, Connor,” she sighs. “I just need some time alone to think.”
I don’t push it, much as I want to. It ain’t right to force a woman. So instead I go back home and get my truck. And spend the night outside her place, watching.
I follow the lights in her apartment as they turn on and off. I watch the comings and goings of other people in the neighborhood. I watch every single person who goes into her building.
No one suspicious shows up.
