by Brooke Baker
“Shit, fuck, hell.” He slammed his fist on the dash. “God damn it, Kat. You shouldn’t have done it.”
“It’s too late for that now, Ethan,” I said, not wanting to dwell on my stupidity or why I had done it when we both knew I shouldn’t have. “And besides, those two looked like love birds if I ever saw any. So I’m glad I did it.”
“It wasn’t worth this. Do you want me to go with you to the police station? Why are you here? It can’t be safe. If he knows it was you, he might be trying to hurt you, Kat.”
"He's trying to get me in jail," I told him, avoiding the question of whether or not he was trying to hurt me.
It was likely that Jarvis had a hit out on me, but Ethan didn't need to know that.
“How do you know that?”
“The hack that Keye did. As far as I can tell, he was trying to collect evidence that I was hacking again.”
“And the feds are probably watching you, so as soon as you do something like that, they’d be able to arrest you and put you behind bars for years, Kat.”
“Exactly. Especially if Keye gets the evidence against me that he was looking for.”
“So you need to go to the police. They can protect you.”
I shook my head.
"I can't go to the police or the feds. Keye is likely watching them too, and he'll know if I'm there. It's possible Jarvis might try to kidnap me or… Whatever." He frowned at me, and I went on quickly, not wanting to worry him. I'd get Ethan to help me find a place to hole up and then send him away. I didn't want to put him in danger, but he was the only one I could ask for help with this.
“So, Ethan, I didn’t want to ask you. But I don’t have anyone else I can turn to.”
“What are you going to do?” Ethan said, looking upset.
“I need to hide someplace.”
“Okay, where?”
“Well, that’s the thing,” I said, feeling suddenly nervous. “I need your help.”
"Anything," he said immediately.
"I need to go off the grid. No tech that Keye could use to track me. Somewhere out of the city. Where there are no cameras. Where I can't leave a digital trail."
“And…?”
"I was hoping you could think of someplace that Jarvis wouldn't anticipate."
“Yeah,” he shrugged one shoulder. “I know a place.”
“You do?” I said, feeling excited. I knew Ethan could help me. “Where?”
“In the mountains. No tech. Not even electricity. No roads.”
“Where?”
“I probably shouldn’t say.”
“How am I going to be able to get there if I don’t know where it is?” I asked, stating the obvious.
"Because I'm going to take you," he said as if we hadn't been broken up for ages. As if we hadn't hurt each other in the worst way. As if there was no other choice for him.
“We just have to make sure we’re back for my next game.”
He said it calmly, but I narrowed my eyes at him. It was the end of winter. That meant the playoffs.
“Your next game? Where are you at in the series?”
“Game seven.”
“Game seven. Of which round?”
“The final round. For the cup.”
“Oh, is that all?” I said, not sure if he was serious. “And when is this game?”
“We have two days, Kat.”
Chapter 3
Ethan
Finally, Maddie went to bed, and as soon as her bedroom door closed, Dylan and Hunter sat up looking instantly alert.
“So who was the chick at The Jaded Glass,” Hunter demanded. “And what did she want?”
“And why were you gone so long?” Dylan added. “Is she another stalker?”
I blinked in surprise, taken aback by their sudden fascination with my love life.
“You guys were never interested in any of my other women,” I pointed out.
“Your other women are shallow, too young, thin, and generally not good enough for you.”
"Yeah, nobody knows why you bother," Hunter said. "Obviously, you like what they offer in terms of the bedroom, but beyond that…"
“That’s all I want from them,” I explained. “And that’s all they want from me. So it works out for everyone.”
“Aside from the completely untrue second half of that statement, there is so much wrong with what you just said that I don’t even know where to start,” Dylan said, shaking his head.
“Oh come on,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him. “Just because you fell in love, doesn’t make you a Super Romeo or something. You were just like me, once.”
“What? No. I dated. Properly. Not just sleeping with them for a few weeks and then cutting them loose.”
I gave him a look.
“Okay, it wasn’t much more than that. But I would at least hang out with them, too. To you, those women are no more than a booty call.”
He did have a point. I made it clear to every woman that I was going to potentially sleep with that I only wanted a physical relationship and that our arrangement could end at any time. They all agreed to it, thinking that they would be the one to change me.
Spoiler alert: they never did.
"This is off-topic," Hunter said, uncharacteristically getting us back to the point of the conversation. He's usually the joker, the fun guy, the one who gets us off-topic as much as possible. "Who was that woman?"
“Her name’s Katherine Evans,” I told them. “She and I dated for three months when you two were away that summer. I never told you about her.”
“Why not?” Dylan asked, studying me closely.
“Three months?” Hunter said, in disbelief. “You’ve never dated anyone that long. Why did you end it?”
I swallowed and avoided their eyes.
“I didn’t. She did.”
“Ohhhh, that’s why you never told us about her,” Dylan said, understanding. “She hurt you.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I protested.
Both men were silent.
Okay, maybe it was like that.
“What did she want?”
“Well, remember when I told you I knew someone who could find out where Maddie lived?” I met Dylan’s gaze.
"She's the white-hat hacker, whatever that is?" Dylan was surprised.
"A white-hat hacker is someone who uses their skills as a hacker for good. They usually work for companies to find the holes in their security so that they can patch them up so real hackers can't get in."
“That doesn’t tell us what she wanted,” Hunter pointed out.
“She needs my help.”
Both guys rolled their eyes, and Dylan lifted his hands' palms out.
"Bad idea, Ethan," he said. "You, getting involved with this woman who broke your heart? It doesn't seem like a good idea."
“Too late,” I said.
“What?” Hunter sat forward on the couch and put his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands.
“I already agreed to help her.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because it’s my fault that she’s in trouble in the first place.”
“I don’t understand,” Hunter said.
"The hack?" Dylan said dismayed. "The one she did for me?"
"For me," I said. "I take full responsibility. I shouldn't have asked her. Which is why I have to help her. An old client of hers, a criminal, found her because of the hack, and he wants her in jail."
“Are you for real?”
“Yes,” I said, feeling worried about Kat and seeing that the other guys were too. This was way over our heads. We were just ordinary people. Okay, not quite ordinary, considering we play hockey for a living. But I didn’t understand Kat’s world, nor did I want to. Still, I couldn’t refuse to help her.
I’m not that guy.
“But you two understand that I have to help her, right?”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t want to tell you. I don’t want you involved. But I�
�ll be gone for the next two days.”
“Shit, Ethan. You’ll be back for the big game, right? We can’t win the final without you.”
Hunter looked really worried now.
“Of course I’ll be back,” I said, then I frowned. “But in case I don’t come back, I do love you guys. You’re the best.”
I stood up and grabbed my jacket.
“I have to go.”
“Ethan, you can’t just leave like this,” Dylan said. “What if you get in trouble?”
“I’ll contact you if there’s trouble, okay? And you can call the cops for me.”
“Okay,” Hunter said. “Ethan, man, are you sure you want to do this?”
“I’ve never been more sure in my life,” I said, striding to the door.
“Man, he’s got it bad,” Dylan said to Hunter as if I wasn’t there.
“Yep,” Hunter laughed. “He’s so in love with this chick. How the mighty have fallen.”
“Bye guys,” I said, ignoring their comments.
Fallen?
Or had he meant falling? For Kat?
I didn’t know about that. But I knew that I had to help her, had to get her away from these bad people, had to protect her with everything that was in me.
I had no other choice.
*****
"Is this a karate uniform?" Kat said as she put her bag in the back of the truck, spotting the white uniform in my half-open bag.
“Yeah,” I said, surprised. “You do karate? I didn’t know that.”
“Taekwondo.” She told me. “What belt are you?”
“Brown,” I said. “I’m trying for my black this year.”
"I've taken classes since I was eleven. Well, up until I moved here anyway. I couldn't find a good club. I was a red belt. Not ready for black yet. But I was pretty good."
She lifted her fists into a fighting position and grinned at me. Her long brown hair was braided back out of her way, and her matching brown eyes sparkled. She was so pretty.
“We should spar sometime.”
The truck, which I'd borrowed from a friend of mine who likes to restore vehicles, had a cap on the back, and I stowed my stuff and shut it. It was as good as a trunk back there and would keep any rain or snow off our stuff.
I kind of loved and hated that Kat and I had another thing in common. Somehow it had never come up in the time that we’d dated. Maybe because we had spent our time either out having fun partying or in bed. We hadn’t talked that much. There was still so much that I didn’t know about her.
I put my shields firmly in place. And reminded myself that Kat and I wouldn’t work. I had to remember to keep my distance. I was just helping her out. Not trying to start something with her. She left me. Just like the others.
A tiny voice in the back of my head said that I had pushed her away, and that was why she'd left. But I ignored the little voice and got in the old truck.
"You didn't bring your phone or any electronics, did you?"
“Nothing,” I said, holding up my hands to show I didn’t have anything. “No electronics in the truck either. All I have are some clothes and survival equipment.”
“Good. Let’s go,” she said, her voice sounding tense.
As we drove out of the city, I turned onto a small two-lane highway that led into the mountains.
“Where are we going?”
“Is it safe to talk about it?”
“I think so.”
“My father’s cabin,” I said.
"Your father?" She was quiet. "But he left. How do you know it's his?"
“You remember?”
My face heated, and I kept my eyes on the road as I recalled the night we'd made love, and then I'd told her about my parents leaving me. I might or might not have cried, and she might or might not have held me until we fell asleep. It was the only time I'd told anyone about that old pain.
"I remember," was all she said, keeping her own eyes forward when I risked a glance at her.
“Anyway. He used to take me there when I was a kid. And the last time I visited, about a year ago, there hadn’t been anyone there in years. It’s way up in the mountains. We have to walk in. No electricity or electronics. No cameras. No nothing except us.”
The thought sent a shot of electricity through me. But I pushed my excitement away. This wasn’t a romantic getaway. It was an escape from bad guys. Kat and I were not getting back together.
"Okay," she said, still sounding stressed. "I'll be able to breathe easier once we're out of traffic camera range." I drove for an hour, and soon we turned onto a dirt road that was little more than two tracks through the forest.
She sighed.
"We're not out of the woods yet," I said, and she actually smiled.
“No, we’re definitely in the woods. Far into the woods.”
“I mean, we still have to hike to the cabin, Kat. And it’s getting dark.”
She frowned.
“But it’s afternoon, why…” She trailed off, her face worried.
“I checked the weather before I left. There’s a snowstorm coming,” I said, feeling my guts tighten. That was going to make things more difficult.
“Snow? Now? It’s practically spring,” Kat said.
“Evans. It’s the end of winter. And we’re in the mountains now. Snow is to be expected. Especially with a sky like that.”
I ducked my head to look up through the windshield at the clouds. They were dark. And grey. And it looked as though they were about to unleash the fury of old man winter on us.
Just then, the first flakes began to fall and hit the glass.
I looked over at her, and she met my eyes.
“Does that look like spring to you?”
She pressed her lips together and shook her head, her eyes anxious.
Our hike up the mountain just got a whole lot more complicated.
Chapter 4
Ethan
I pulled the truck to a stop and put it in park at the end of the road. We sat in silence and watched the thick flakes hit the windshield. It was beautiful and peaceful.
And dangerous for two people wanting to hike into the mountains.
"You brought your ski clothes, right?" I asked though I had seen her put a stuffed full bag in the back of the truck beside her backpack.
“Yes.”
"You sure you want to do this?" I met her eyes, needing to gauge whether she was really ready for what lay ahead. "It's not going to be easy hiking up the mountain. It's going to be even more difficult in a snowstorm with night coming on."
She looked thoughtful and stared out the window at the forest with the snow falling down.
“What’s my other choice?” She asked as if she were talking to herself.
“Go home?” I suggested. “Run?”
“Home and running both involve the digital world and cameras. Both mean that I can be tracked.”
“And that means he’ll find you. And you’ll go to prison.”
I didn’t want her to go to prison.
She dropped her eyes, twisting her hands together in her lap.
“Evans?” I said, recognizing when she was keeping something from me. It was one of the many reasons we’d broken up. Because she was keeping secrets and I knew she was lying. Wringing her hands was a dead give away. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Ethan,” she said, breathing out forcefully. “How do you know that I’m…”
"I know," I said, interrupting her and giving her a scathing look. She relented and turned to look out the window again. The snow was starting to build upon the windshield. If I didn't clear it, soon we wouldn't be able to see out.
“It’s just that… Jarvis… he might not only want to send me to jail. Though I'm sure, he'd be happy with that, too."
“What do you mean?” I scowled.
She turned to face me, wincing as she spoke the words.
"I think he might have greenlit me."
"Greenlit? Does that mean what I think it mea
ns? Like in the movies?"
She nodded, looking concerned but not scared.
“As in he wants to have you killed?”
“Yes,” she said. “And that means that if you continue with me and they were to find us. You could be caught in the crossfire. I don’t want you to come. You can tell me how to get there and then go home.”
I closed my eyes, curling one hand into a fist as I tried to wrap my head around what she was telling me.
“Okay, let’s deal with one thing at a time. Someone might be trying to kill you.”
“Yes.” She swallowed hard.
“Shit, Kat.” I slammed my palm into the wheel.
"I don't want you to come, Ethan," she repeated, her face resolved. "I got myself into this mess, and I'll get myself out."
“You got yourself in this mess? I think it was me who asked you to hack when I knew that you’d gone straight. I should never have…”
"No," she roared. "You are not allowed to blame yourself for this."
“Then what, Kat? What are we going to do?”
Kat
I kind of loved it that he said we. It was my problem, but just like that, when I asked for his help, he was all in. A hundred percent. Why had I ever let him get away?
Then I remembered how distant he was at the end. How he had done more and more to push me away. How by the time I broke up with him, there had been nothing left of the relationship or the man I'd fallen in love with.
By then, Ethan had hidden himself so far away that I hardly recognized him as the man who’d wept in my arms when he’d told me about what had caused him his deepest pain — his parents’ abandonment.
I'd understood what he was doing. I had even pointed it out to him. But I hadn't been able to stop him from doing it. He didn't want me to abandon him as his parents had. But then he basically created a situation where I had to leave him.
I couldn't do anything else. He had fortified himself against me so that when I left, it wouldn't hurt. But by doing so, he had been the cause of me leaving.
Yeah. It was fucked up.
But that was Ethan.
Like I said, he’s got issues.
But even knowing that, I felt myself falling for him again.
Bad move. I know. But I wasn’t sure I could help myself.