“What the hell were you doing there?”
Marco glanced over at her for a moment before returning his eyes to the road. He had the nerve to look annoyed by her question.
“You’re welcome,” he said gruffly.
She turned back and stared out the windshield. Dammit. Whether she liked it or not, Marco had come to her rescue back there. Her gun wasn’t in her purse because it had somehow seemed disrespectful to bring it to Gram’s funeral. The woman had hated guns.
“Thank you,” Kat said stiffly.
“You’re welcome.” This time, his tone was sincere. “Ryan asked me to keep an eye on you.”
“Oh, did he now?” She would have to have some words with her brother. He should’ve talked to her first. But then again, if he’d told her he wanted Marco to keep an eye on her, she would have told him hell no. It pained her to admit Ryan might have been right in this situation. What might have happened to her if Marco hadn’t been there? She might have been able to fight off that man and maybe someone would have come to her assistance, but maybe not. And that’s what scared her.
“Do you have any idea what that was about?” Marco asked.
Kat ignored his question, looking out the window at their surroundings. Marco was taking them toward the hotel district, where she used to work. “Where are we going?”
Marco seemed surprised by the question. “I don’t know. I’m just . . . driving. Is there somewhere specific you want to go?”
Kat rubbed her forehead. After that scene, she wanted to go home where she could mourn Gram in private and try to wrap her head around what just happened.
Being in close quarters with Marco in the cab of the truck brought on conflicting feelings. On one hand, she was still drawn to him. He’d been sexy enough in jeans and a flannel shirt. But in the dark suit, he was positively mouthwatering. Her body betrayed her—despite everything, she desired him.
On the other hand, when she looked at him, she couldn’t help but see the man who had ruined her brother’s life. That was one fact that couldn’t be changed, so she’d just have to overcome the former.
“For the record,” she said icily, her tone just as much for her sake as for his. “This doesn’t make things okay between us.”
“I know,” Marco said quietly. “I told Ryan you wouldn’t want me at the funeral, but he insisted. I couldn’t say no. I owe him whatever he asks of me.”
Begrudgingly, she had to give him credit for that. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and his expression of self-loathing made her draw in a breath.
He despised himself for what he’d done to Ryan. She realized that he wasn’t just a spoiled rich boy who didn’t care how he hurt others, and her hatred of him slipped down a notch.
“Are you okay? You’re not hurt?” she asked, not wanting to be completely heartless. He’d literally wrestled a man with a gun for her.
“I’m fine,” he said immediately. “The important thing is you’re okay.”
Her heart involuntarily warmed at his sentiment. Dammit. Even though she was trying her best to be reasonable, she still didn’t want to feel any affection for him.
“Kat,” he said, “do you know who that man was and why he grabbed you?”
She shook her head. “I have no idea.”
“Just before all hell broke loose, the nurse was talking and she mentioned you. A man in the back of the crowd reacted, which drew the attention of those men.” He summarized the event using military precision. “Do you have any clue who that man might be?”
She closed her eyes. “What did he look like?”
She had a pretty good idea who he might be—the one person who’d be shocked to learn he had a daughter at his mother’s funeral of all places.
“He wore an eye patch. Scars on his face. Dark hair. Medium build.”
Fuck. That was him, her no-good father in the flesh. She’d been hoping he wouldn’t show his face there. In fact, since he’d been MIA for the last six months, she’d all but assumed he wouldn’t be there. She guessed she underestimated his allegiance to his mother.
Goddammit. Kat had carefully kept her existence a secret for years. Now that Gram was gone, it should have been easier. Nurse Hewlitt meant no ill will and couldn’t have known the trouble she was stirring up, but she’d revealed Kat’s biggest secret.
“His name is X,” Kat said.
“Shit.” Marco pounded his fist on the steering wheel. “I can’t believe I didn’t realize who he was.”
Kat looked over at Marco. “You’ve heard of him?”
“I did spend some time on the south side before joining the army, remember? He’s a notorious criminal and drug dealer, right?”
Kat hung her head and her hands fidgeted in her lap. “That’s him.”
What Marco said was true. But what he might not know was X had been involved with Natalie’s father and had kidnapped her.
Kat had made her peace with keeping her biological tie to X a secret from Natalie. When Kat first found out who X was, she’d been horrified. But she’d become friends with Natalie before she’d had her run-in with X. Kat couldn’t have known how X was going to torment her friend. And anyway, she wasn’t claiming him as a father. He didn’t even know she existed and she had planned to keep it that way. There was no reason anyone had to know.
But now, she’d be forced to tell Natalie. God, she only hoped her deception wouldn’t hurt her friend too much. Her heart had been in the right place, but sometimes that didn’t matter.
And shit—Knox and Tony. They’d once been fighters in X’s ring. What would they think about her being X’s daughter?
Marco sighed. “We can’t keep driving all day. Where do you want to go?”
She wanted to go home, but she doubted Marco would be willing to leave her by herself after he’d promised Ryan to look out for her. He was stubborn that way.
A little nagging voice told her it wasn’t stubbornness but honor that kept him there. He was making good on a promise.
She quickly dismissed the idea. There were way too many flattering thoughts about Marco floating around in her head.
“Take me to Ryan’s house.”
* * *
Marco and Kat sat at Ryan’s kitchen table while he made coffee. Marco winced when he saw the amount of coffee grounds Ryan dumped in the filter. It was going to be as thick as tar—the kind of coffee Nonno used to say would put hair on a man’s chest.
They could all probably use a healthy dose of caffeine, though.
Marco wouldn’t say it aloud, but he was worried about Kat. Her hands were clutched in her lap and her shoulders were slumped. That wasn’t the worst of it though. The dark circles under her eyes and the lack of color in her cheeks concerned him more. He’d describe her as fiery—always—but now she just sat there.
He didn’t like it.
He didn’t have all the details yet, but he could piece together enough to figure out that Kat was in deep shit through no fault of her own. Every instinct told him to demand the truth, but his better judgment said not to press her. But fuck, how the hell was he supposed to help her if she didn’t confide in him?
That was probably the point. She didn’t want his help. But that wasn’t up to her. Not anymore.
During the drive to Ryan’s, Marco had determined that he wasn’t walking away until the situation was resolved. For better or worse, Ryan had gotten him involved.
He might not be worthy of his friend’s sister, but he would damn well protect her with everything he had.
Kat would have to push aside her feelings toward him for the time being. Hell, he’d have to do the same thing. Every time he was in her presence, he reacted in two ways.
One—he wanted her. God, he wanted her. Even now when she wore a modest black dress, plain black heels, and minimal jewelry, he couldn’t be more attracted to her. Her understated style showed she didn’t like drawing attention to herself, but it hadn’t worked with him.
He wanted to peel
that dress off her and explore her body, which was anything but understated.
It was both infuriating and inappropriate.
His second reaction to being with Kat was the guilt that consumed him, sometimes unexpectedly overwhelming him. Over the years, he’d learn to push the guilt down, to ignore it. But when he was in the company of those whose lives he’d affected, it wasn’t so easy. It ate away at him, a black mark on his conscience and his soul.
He couldn’t risk hurting Ryan and his family any more than he already had. After what he’d done, he didn’t deserve the chance at happiness with Kat.
“Tell me again what happened,” Ryan said, positioning himself at the table.
He’d looked at Kat when he spoke, but Kat remained silent, so Marco answered.
“The nurse outed Kat as Fran’s granddaughter. Two men took after X and another one grabbed Kat,” Marco relayed succinctly. “I got her away and now we’re here.”
Ryan scratched his chin. “It seems like we’re missing something. It’s way too simple. That can’t be the full story.”
“Speaking of the full story,” Marco said, “it would have been helpful if you’d have clued me in on the fact that X is her father. I would have been better prepared.”
“That’s her secret to tell.”
“Not anymore,” Kat muttered, the first thing she’d said since they arrived.
Both men looked at her. Ryan sighed.
“Kat, it was only a matter of time. Things like that don’t stay buried forever.”
“Why not?” she asked sharply. “I’m no one special. Why should anyone care who my father is?”
Marco understood the point she was trying to make—it wasn’t like she was a celebrity who was featured in the tabloids. No one was hunting around for dirt, so theoretically the truth could have stayed buried.
But she was dead wrong about being no one special.
Kat rested her face in her hands. “Maybe I should have skipped the funeral,” she said miserably, giving in to self-pity. “If I hadn’t been there, the nurse wouldn’t have called me out.”
Ryan snorted and Marco gave him a dirty look at the insensitive gesture. But when he saw the fire return to Kat’s eyes, he retracted his judgment. Ryan knew his sister a hell of a lot better than he did and it was obvious he cared about her. He wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.
Ryan wasn’t the one she needed to be protected from.
Marco was.
How could he protect her when he was the one she needed to be protected from? Despite everything, he wanted her just as much—maybe more—than he had when he’d kissed her that first time. But he was no good for her. He was only four short years removed from his destructive habits that nearly killed her brother. He had no right to pursue her, not when he’d already gravely hurt her by hurting her family.
“You know you wouldn’t be able to forgive yourself if you didn’t go,” Ryan said, his tone gentle.
Marco lowered his eyes. He hadn’t attended his own grandfather’s funeral and he regretted it. He’d been halfway around the world and it had happened so suddenly. There simply wasn’t time for him to return.
Kat shook her head. “I shouldn’t have gone. If I hadn’t—”
Ryan interrupted her by snorting again. “What is it you told me just the other day? You can’t play the ‘what if’ game. You have to deal with ‘what is.’”
Kat narrowed her eyes at her brother, then pushed back from the table. She stalked over to the coffeemaker and yanked open a cabinet with more force than was necessary. Any harder and she’d have yanked the flimsy door off its hinges.
Marco looked at Ryan with a question in his eyes because he was yet again out of the loop, but Ryan just shook his head.
“It would be a lot easier if we knew who those guys were who went after X,” Ryan commented.
Kat slammed a mug down in front of her brother, and coffee sloshed out over the rim. “No shit. But what do you want to do about that? Should I post a question on Facebook? Or better yet, I’ll post an inquiry on Gram’s wall on the funeral page website.”
Ryan shot her an annoyed look. “Is that necessary?”
If the situation weren’t so dire, Marco might have laughed. The bickering between these two reminded him of him and Tony.
Ryan ran his finger along the edge of the mug to wipe off the spilled coffee. Then he promptly waved his hand in the air to dry it. “Damn, that’s hot.”
Kat gently placed a mug in front of Marco, not spilling it like she’d done with Ryan’s, so that was something.
“Thank you,” he said earnestly, appreciating the gesture.
Kat sat back down with her own mug, cradling it in her hands. “The important thing now is that those men don’t find out you’re my brother.”
“I’m not worried about me. It’s not like your crippled brother is any use to them.”
Marco cringed and Kat leveled her gaze at him. “Stop with that crippled shit. You’re just saying that to piss me off.”
“Is it working?”
“What do you think?” Kat snapped.
Ryan grinned. “Good. I much prefer you pissed off to lethargic. Now tell us everything you remember Fran saying about X.”
Chapter 11
Two hours and a pizza delivery later, and they hadn’t gotten any further. They still knew nothing about who those men were and what they wanted. Years ago, Ryan was in touch with some of the seedier parts of town, and Kat never thought she’d say this, but she wished he still had those connections.
It didn’t pay to be an upstanding citizen when the bad element forced itself into her life, leaving her with no way to fight back.
“Think, Kat,” Ryan prodded. “You have to know something.”
Kat crumpled up her napkin in disgust and tossed it onto her paper plate. “I already told you. We didn’t talk about him. We had an unspoken rule about that.”
“X was the only family she had besides you,” Ryan argued. “She had to have talked about him sometimes.”
“She only talked about him when she was having an episode, so anything she said isn’t relevant. Like she’d talk about picking him up early from school for a doctor’s appointment or something like that.”
Kat’s frustration matched Ryan’s, but unlike him, she was certain there was nothing she was missing. She’d had no interest in the man who’d fathered her—and still didn’t except for figuring out who those men at the funeral were. Aside from that, she’d be content to going back to pretending he didn’t exist.
Marco sat with his arms crossed, silent as he’d been for most of the past two hours. At first she’d thought he was staying quiet for her sake. That he knew his presence was irksome to her, so he was trying not to piss her off. Then she realized that unlike Ryan who talked way too much, Marco didn’t speak unless he had something to contribute. That probably came from his years of military service.
But now he spoke up. “I think we should talk to Knox. Wasn’t he involved with X at some point?”
Kat opened her mouth to reply but clamped it shut. She’d been about to mention Tony’s involvement with X, but she realized Marco must not know about it. Otherwise he would have made the suggestion to call his brother hours ago.
“I’d prefer not to involve him,” she replied.
“Why not?” Ryan asked.
“Because involving him would involve Natalie. I don’t exactly want her to know the man who abducted her is my father.”
Bringing in Knox would make things all kinds of complicated and she wasn’t about to be a hypocrite and spill Tony’s secret. If the media got wind of his involvement in an illegal fighting ring, she couldn’t even imagine the backlash he’d have to deal with. Because of his father, Adamo Enterprises had been in the news a lot lately and the last thing Tony needed was to add fuel to that fire.
And she was worried about what Natalie would think. Kat didn’t have many girlfriends and she wasn’t about to lose her best one because o
f some dickhead her mother had had an affair with.
The two men exchanged a look and some kind of unspoken man code passed between them. Kat almost rolled her eyes.
“We might not have a choice,” Ryan said. “That’s our only option.”
“Those men wanted X, not me. And I’m nothing to him. He doesn’t even know I exist.” She’d stated that before, so she didn’t know why she said it again. It was as if she hoped if she said it enough, it would matter.
But she knew all too well that when it came to criminal activity, the innocent often got hurt.
“He does now,” Marco said quietly. God, she wished that weren’t true. She wished she could jump in a time machine and clamp her hand around the nurse’s arm, stopping her from going to the podium.
“Regardless,” Kat said, “we might be making something out of nothing.” Even as she said the words, desperate for them to be true, they rang as naive to her ears. She was normally a realist, but this recent turn of events was bad enough that she’d adopted an optimist’s attitude. What was it that people said? If you put it out into the universe or some craziness like that, it would come true?
God, if that was the best she had, then things were really bad.
“You’re the only daughter of a notorious criminal with lots of enemies,” Marco said. “All three of those men had their guns aimed at you at some point this morning. That does not seem benign to me.”
“That’s it.” Ryan thumped his fist on the table like it was a gavel. “You’re officially on lockdown.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kat scoffed. She’d like to see him try to lock her down. The idea was preposterous.
“No, I’m serious,” Ryan insisted. “You’re tough, Kat, but you’re not tough enough to handle three men with guns.”
“I hate to say it, but he’s right,” Marco said, earning a narrow-eyed look from Kat. “But to be fair, not many can handle being outnumbered three to one, especially when the opponents are twice your size and have weapons.”
“Then it’s settled,” Ryan said. “You can stay here.”
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