Whatever It Takes 2

by Christy Reece

  No, she couldn’t take the chance. Could not risk her heart. Losing him would destroy her.

  She would do her job, help him find out who was trying to kill him, and then she would be gone.

  But until then… She closed her eyes and allowed herself to relive the most intensely beautiful moments of her life. Moments that could never be repeated.

  Chapter-Thirty-five

  Eli had spent a miserable night alternating between hurt and fury. Knowing that Kathleen was across the hall and all he had to do was walk a few steps and confront her was of no use. More than a couple of walls separated them.

  He tried to force the regret away, but it kept getting in the way of his self-righteous anger. He had known damn well she wasn’t ready for more, wasn’t prepared to face her feelings, much less his. And what had he done? He’d railroaded her into an ultimatum. Was it any wonder she’d shut him down?

  He was groggy and out of sorts. However, he wasn’t about to change his routine. Breakfast with his daughters was the highlight of his day. Everything always seemed brighter after spending a few minutes with them, even if it was only through a webcam.

  After breakfast, he had a morning full of meetings at his office, then it would be back here at home for another afternoon of research, conjecture, and more damn guessing games.

  If there was one advantage to sleeplessness, it had given him plenty of time to come up with a plan. He was tired of the non-action. Tired of waiting around. This shit had to stop. And the only way to stop it was to bring the bastard out in the open, trapping him in his own game.

  After showering, Eli dressed and then walked out of his bedroom. Kathleen’s door was closed. The temptation to knock and have it out with her was great, but he resisted. Until the threat against his family was neutralized, perhaps it was best to back away, pretend yesterday hadn’t happened. When things were calm and his life didn’t resemble a nightmare, he’d pursue her to the ends of the earth.

  Feeling slightly more optimistic with a plan in place, Eli pushed open the kitchen door, looking forward to having breakfast with his daughters. He didn’t expect to find that Kathleen had arrived ahead of him and was already seated. Even though she usually joined them for breakfast, somehow he had assumed she would skip today. It showed him, more than anything else she could have done, that she wanted to be with him…with them. Whether she was ready to admit it or not, they were already a family.

  Throwing her a small smile, he settled at the table, prepared to have breakfast with his three favorite girls.

  They sat across from each other, she and Eli, pretending for his daughters’ sake that everything was fine. And even though Eli had smiled at her a time or two during breakfast, Kathleen knew things were far from fine.

  “And Gammie bought us new shoes and socks and pillows and a truck.”

  She’d been listening while Sophia listed all the things their grandmother had purchased for them. From the sound of it, Eli’s mother and sister had been making up for lost time by purchasing everything two little girls might want. But the last thing was different.

  “A truck?” Kathleen said.

  Sophia nodded emphatically. “Gammie said no, but Aunt Lacey said Texas girls should have a truck. Mine’s blue. Violet’s is green.”

  “That sounds really pretty.”

  Thrilled to have an audience, Sophia said, “I’ll go get it.” Before Kathleen or Eli could protest, she’d jumped from her chair. While Sophia went to get her truck, Violet started with her own litany of gifts her grandmother and aunt had purchased.

  “It’s not really all that much, Eli.” An older woman appeared on the screen behind Violet. In her mid-sixties, Eleanor Slater was still a beautiful woman. Fragile-looking, with skin stretched tightly on her face, she had a delicate, refined air about her. When Kathleen had first met her, via their video calls, she had seemed stressed, uncertain. The longer her grandchildren stayed, it seemed the more relaxed and happy she became.

  “I’ll have to send a second plane to bring back all the stuff you and Lacey are buying them,” Eli joked.

  At the mention that they would at some point be leaving, Eleanor’s eyes darkened and her smile disappeared. “I’ve so enjoyed having them here, Eli.”

  “When this is over, Mom, you can come back home. See them every day.”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” She waved a fluttering hand. “After everything…”

  “It’ll be time, Mom.”

  Eleanor’s gaze flickered nervously over to Kathleen and then back to Eli. “Does Kathleen know about—”

  “No.” The abruptness of Eli’s answer was startling. A tense silence followed, and for the first time, Kathleen felt like an outsider.

  “Here’s my truck!” Sophia dropped a large toy truck on the table.

  Everyone laughed, and the tension disappeared as Violet insisted on showing off her truck, too.

  Breakfast ended with “I love you’s” to Eli, and for the first time, Sophia, followed immediately by Violet, said, “I love you” to Kathleen.

  Her throat clogged with emotion, Kathleen barely managed an “I love you” in response before the screen went blank.

  The instant the call ended, Eli went to his feet. “Are you finished?”

  She glanced down at her empty plate. Even though she hadn’t acknowledged her hunger, missing dinner last night had given her an appetite. She’d eaten her omelet and toast without even realizing it.

  “Yes.”

  “Come into my office. I need to talk to you.”

  Eli then thanked Teresa for breakfast and walked out the door.

  “He’s not upset with you, Miss Kathleen,” Teresa said. “He’s missing his young ones so much.”

  Knowing that Eli’s grimness wasn’t just about missing his children, Kathleen smiled, thanked Teresa for breakfast, then headed toward Eli’s office. She stopped at the door. She rarely came in here. It was his domain, masculine without the extreme tidiness of the rest of the house. It wasn’t junky so much as it gave her an idea that Eli’s management style was more hands-on than most CEOs.

  “I wanted to talk to you before I left for the day.”

  Kathleen braced herself to deal with the aftereffects of yesterday’s monumental event. “The condemned ate a hearty meal” flitted through her mind. Though she had no real clue what he was going to say, she got grim amusement that at least she’d had a good meal before Eli told her to leave.

  Instead, he completely took her off guard by saying, “I’m going to trap the bastard.”

  “What do you mean by trap?”

  “This research is getting us nowhere. Our only option is to take the fight to him.”

  “And how are you going to do that?”

  “Be as visible as possible. A helluva lot more visible than being chauffeured to and from work every morning in a bulletproof limo. When he makes another try for me, we’ll take him on. If he’s a hired gun, which would surprise me, as inept as his attempts have been, we’ll have him lead us to the person behind this.”

  The very thought of Eli putting himself out there as a target chilled her blood. “I think it’s a bad idea.”

  “You have a better one?”

  No, she didn’t. And the reason she didn’t like the idea of using Eli to set a trap for the killer had nothing to do with the plan itself. As these kinds of plans went, it was fairly straightforward. No, it wasn’t the plan, it was the target she had a problem with. Explaining why she didn’t want him to take this risk would require her to acknowledge something she refused to give a name to. So, she went with a lame comeback.

  “It’s too dangerous.”

  “What’s the alternative, Kat? Bury myself here at home until the guy gives up and goes home? He’s not going to give up, and I refuse to let him control my life any longer.”

  “Putting yourself out as bait is too big of a risk.”

  “But one I’m willing to take. I’m not going to hide under the covers.”

 
She wrapped her arms around herself and walked to the conference room door, seeing the boards they’d been working with. All of this information and not one solid lead. He was right. Staying inside, hiding from this unknown threat, was counterproductive. Her rational self said this was the best way to catch a killer. Her emotional self was shouting that it was too risky. She hadn’t wanted to care for this man. And now that she did, she was thinking with her heart and not her head. To hell with that.

  She whirled around. “Fine. I want to be in on it.”

  “In on it how?”

  “No one but those closest to you know I was guarding your children. Anyone who saw us taking them to school might assume we were doing so as a couple. So we can keep up with that pretense. If you’re out and about, putting yourself in the crosshairs of this person, I’ll be with you. It’ll be assumed we’re dating, and I’ll be there to watch out for you. No one has to know it’s fake.”

  In a half-dozen strides, he was in front of her. Grabbing her arms, he shook her slightly. “Fake? You think what’s between us is fake?”

  “This isn’t the time, Eli.”

  Pulling her closer, he smashed his mouth against hers in an angry kiss. “When would be a good time, Kat? When this is over and you can leave? You do your job, kept my kids safe, help me find the asshole trying to kill me, and then when it’s over, you can leave with a clean conscience?”

  Eyes glittering with anger, he shook his head. “No, I think now is a damn fine time to talk about us.”

  “There is no us.”

  “Then what was yesterday about? You weren’t faking that, baby.”

  “That was—” She stopped, swallowed, and tried again. “It was just—”

  “Don’t say it, Kat. Don’t say it was just sex. Don’t you dare try to pretend you don’t feel anything for me.”

  She wondered what was more painful. Seeing something you desperately wanted and being too afraid to go for it? Or having it within your grasp, opening your heart to all the possibilities, and then losing it?

  Showing that he was more attuned to her than anyone she’d ever known, Eli asked quietly, “It’s time to tell me. The truth this time. What are you afraid of?”

  No longer able to hold back, Kathleen gave him the answer he deserved. “I’ve lost everyone I’ve ever loved, Eli. My entire family is gone. One at a time. How the hell can I take the risk of loving someone else? I can’t go through that again. I just can’t.”

  “I understand that fear. But if you don’t take that risk, what have you lost?”

  Beautiful dark eyes filled with so many emotions—compassion, frustration, affection, and desire—stared down at her. The shadows beneath his eyes told her that he had slept as poorly as she had last night. The scar on his forehead reminded her of the close call he’d had a couple of weeks ago.

  And now he was wanting to go out and put himself in danger again?

  No, she couldn’t do it.

  She backed away, pulling out of his arms. “We’ll pretend to be a couple. You can still set the trap, but you’ll have additional protection.”

  “That’s it, then? Pretend and nothing else?”

  “That’s all I have to give you, Eli.” She turned her back on him, walked to the door. “Let me know when you’re ready to begin, and we’ll plan accordingly.”

  She left the room before he could say anything to stop her. If she turned back to look at him, she feared what she would see. Not just hurt, not just sadness. She feared she would see disappointment, perhaps even disgust at her lack of courage. She might feel those things herself, but she could not bear to see them in Eli’s eyes.

  Eli watched her go. He wanted like hell to call her back, reassure her that he wouldn’t ask her again for something she wasn’t ready to give. Problem was, he didn’t know if she’d ever be ready. Yes, she had lost a lot. And while he understood her fear, he couldn’t deny his frustration.

  Pushing anyone into anything wasn’t his way. And pushing Kathleen into a relationship with him was definitely not what he wanted. But, dammit, she cared for him. He knew she did. He saw the tenderness in her eyes, felt the passion in her body. Saying yesterday had just been sex was ridiculous. He’d seen the lie in her face even as she uttered the words.

  How many women had pursued him? He was smart enough to know part of his attraction was his wealth, but more than a few women, just as wealthy or wealthier, had made their interest known. Hell, he’d even had a couple of them, disgusting as it was, come up to him during Shelley’s memorial and offer to comfort him. No one, until Kathleen, had interested him. And no one in his life had enthralled him as much as this woman did. So how ironic was it that the only woman he wanted was too frightened to love him?

  He picked up a framed photograph of Shelley from his desk. After her death, he hadn’t wanted to hurt the children by taking away any of the pictures that had been around the house. He never wanted them to forget her, and never would he taint their memory of her with his own bad ones. Shelley had been a beautiful woman. A tall, slender blonde with an infectious laugh and good sense of humor. Before she’d started using again, they’d had some great times together. And after the first couple of stints of rehab, when he’d tried to convince himself she would stay sober, there had been some good times. After that, not so much.

  If Adam had been right about one thing, it was that Shelley’s first loves were alcohol and drugs. But she hadn’t deserved what happened to her. Hadn’t deserved Adam’s and Mathias’s cruel interference. Without them, perhaps she would have stayed on the road to recovery. But just like everything else his father and brother had touched, she had been destroyed.

  Eli opened a bottom drawer and dropped the photograph inside. He had stopped loving Shelley long before she finally left him. It was time to let her go for good.

  Hell, even if Kathleen wasn’t afraid to get involved, was it any wonder that she had reservations? His family wasn’t exactly a 1950s sitcom. And she still didn’t know everything. His mother’s reference this morning had been a grim reminder of that. When this was over and his family was no longer being threatened, he would tell her everything. Deciding she didn’t want to be with him because of his screwed-up family was one thing. Making the decision because she was too afraid she’d lose him was ludicrous. Nothing worthwhile was without risk.

  Turning toward the door, he made a decision. He was in love with the prickly, unpredictable, frustrating, amazingly strong, vibrantly beautiful Kathleen Callahan. She was the woman he wanted. And if there was one thing he had inherited from his father, it was sheer dogged stubbornness. He would not give up.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Kathleen rushed into the conference room. She was late. She and Eli usually had lunch with Kennedy and Nick in the small dining room before coming into the conference room for the afternoon. Not only had she missed lunch, but she was fifteen minutes later than she had intended. She did, however, have a good reason.

  She gave a quick nod and smile to both Kennedy and Nick who sat at a table, laptops in front of them. Eli was standing at one of the whiteboards, apparently staring at it and hoping for answers. Kathleen didn’t have any yet—just more questions. But she had discovered something that might lead to another avenue.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Lacey almost died when she was a child?”

  Eli jerked around, the expression on his face more puzzled than startled. “It was a long time ago.”

  Showing that both she and Nick were in the dark, too, Kennedy asked, “What happened?”

  Eli gave a one-shoulder shrug. “It was Lacey’s fifth birthday. My parents threw her a lavish party at one of our hotels downtown. I remember that Lacey wanted to go to one of those pizza joints that cater to kids, but Mathias insisted on the party since he wanted to invite some of his business associates.

  “Lacey is highly allergic to peanuts. Can’t even be in the same room with them. My mother swore she’d talked with the kitchen staff and warned them. Lacey too
k one bite of her birthday cake and went into anaphylactic shock.”

  “Did your parents not have epinephrine close by?” Kennedy asked.

  “Yes. My mother always carried an injection with her. When she opened her purse to get it, it wasn’t there. Fortunately, someone else at the party had a similar allergy and had one with her. It saved Lacey’s life.”

  He frowned at Kathleen, confused. “What does any of this have to do with Mathias?”

  Instead of answering his question, she continued on the same path. “What did the kitchen staff say about the cake?”

  “They denied using anything related to peanuts in any of the cooking. Adam has a similar allergy, though not as strong. He ate the cake and was fine. It was decided that someone must’ve given Lacey something to eat that had peanuts in it, and she didn’t remember.” He shook his head slowly. “I never would have related that incident to any of this. It’d make no sense.”

  “It might not be that big of a coincidence,” Nick said. “We wanted to wait until Kathleen arrived to tell you about a thread Kennedy uncovered yesterday.”

  “What’s that?” Eli asked.

  “Kathleen actually helped me with it,” Kennedy said.

  “How so?” Kathleen asked.

  “A few days ago you asked what if this had nothing to do with Mathias’s or Adam’s businesses. What if it was a personal vendetta? So I started going farther back to when Mathias was a young man.”

  Kennedy told them what she’d uncovered last night about some robberies in Dorman, Nebraska. And Nick added in the information he’d found about the Slaters of Dallas, Texas, visiting relatives during that time.

  Before they finished, Eli was shaking his head. “I appreciate you guys for digging that deep, but relating everything that’s happened to my family over the last fifty years to what’s happening now is crazy. Every family has odd, scary things happen to them. Lacey’s incident is no different.