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“The same thing I told you yesterday holds true today,” I said. “If I let you loose on the streets of Seattle, anywhere at all, you’ll be dead in a day, and I am not okay with that. Therefore, for now, you stay right here. I’m sorry it upsets you.”
Kat crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s how you get off? I should have known. The captive sex slave vibe? That’s your kink? Because I won’t play.”
I took the final swallow of my coffee, and slammed down my cup hard enough to make both her and Mick flinch. “We’ll discuss the captive sex slave issue at great length when I get back,” I told her.
“The hell we will, dickhead!”
Mick made a desperate sound under his breath. “Ethan, I don’t want to hear this. Can I go?”
I ignored his pleading. “Mick here, plus three more extremely competent ex- special Forces soldiers, will guard you while I’m gone. I’ll be back in the evening.”
“Sweet Jesus,” Mick murmured.
“I will leave,” she said. “You can’t keep me here.”
“Yes, we can, and no, you will not be allowed to leave. You can go wherever you want inside the complex. You’ll have every comfort.”
“What I need is to order a car and disappear!”
“That option is not on the menu. Use my library, watch TV, use any computer. Just click on the guest account icon, and use the words ‘trusted visitor’ plus today’s date as the password. Full disclosure, though. Everything you write or click on will be monitored in real time.”
“I’ll call the police,” she said.
I smiled. “No, you won’t.”
Her lips tightened, and I knew I’d called it. Whatever her secret problems were, they weren’t problems she could share with the cops. Which suggested many interesting possibilities, but no time for that now.
I walked past her on my way outside. “It’s just a few hours,” I said. “Please don’t hurt my staff while I’m gone. It would be unfair. Save it all for me.”
“No promises,” she said.
I didn’t look back as I beckoned to Mick. “Walk me out to the car.”
I waited until we were outside before waving the file. “So? What did you find?”
“Not much,” he said. “All the stuff she told you about San Diego, the mom, the dojo, it checks out. But it’s thin. Thinner than a real girl living a normal California life. It’s thin here in Seattle, too, in my opinion. I mean, she’s here, she’s on record as having a degree from UCSD, there are records of her living and working in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, various jobs. Six years ago, she settled here, rented this dumpy little place in Rainier Beach, and started teaching martial arts to women and girls. She temps occasionally, as a secretary, a paralegal, a receptionist. Won a few championship titles for karate, judo, aikido. But there are no pictures of her. Not on the dojo website, not on any social media platforms. She’s like a ghost.”
I took the file. “Keep digging,” I said. “And watch out for her. She’s extremely dangerous if she wants to be.
“Yeah, I heard.” Mick looked pained. “Wrangling this girl is your job, Ethan, so get your ass back here as soon as possible to attend to it.”
“Absolutely,”’ I promised.
Trey and Cade were waiting for me in the helicopter, which was ready to go. I got in, strapped in. Trying to justify and re-justify my decisions to myself.
So fucking ironic, to find a woman who blew my mind, and then be forced by circumstance to make her hate my guts. The last thing I wanted was to betray her.
No, that was the second to last thing.
The last thing was to find out my enemies had slaughtered her.
CHAPTER17
Kat
That two-faced, lying bastard. After the amazing, scorching intimacy of last night, his behavior this morning felt like a rank betrayal. He was just leaving me here, under heavy guard? What had I done to deserve this? I should have let those guys in the elevator flatten his ungrateful ass, for all the points it had earned me.
But the intense and revelatory night I had spent with Ethan made it harder than usual to lie to myself, or resort to anger. I walked out onto the terrace, and watched the car Ethan was driving come into view for the briefest moment on a curve of the road below on the mountain. I was furious at him for insisting that I stay under his staff’s watchful eye, as if I were a helpless child who required babysitting.
