“It’s a long story.”
“Longer than the ride back to Lake Geneva?”
So now what was she supposed to say? “I was simply in an unusual situation. And I’m grateful that you could help me out of it.”
“Perhaps you ought to set your sights higher than a bartender.”
Whoa. He knew about Thorne? How?
Uncomfortable again, she said, “I needed to get away from Lakeside for a while.”
“Right. Because your first bartender ended up in the lake. Sam Gilbert, right?”
Her throat tightened. “Yes.”
“The media are making a lot of his death. What do the authorities have to say about it?”
“Not much yet. It’s too soon.”
“That’s all I got from this morning’s news report,” he growled.
“That’s all I know.” Her stomach was whirling now. “The ME is waiting for results from some test.”
“Then he’ll know whether or not there was foul play involved?” Eklund asked.
“I’m really not sure. He told me making a determination was complicated.”
And talking about it with Eklund was making her very, very nervous. She wished he would just drop it. His going on about it made her feel too vulnerable.
“I would think you would have turned to your family in this time of need. Your father has influence. I’m sure someone like Robert Hamilton could obtain a faster resolution.”
Her father again. Gerard Eklund was certainly interested in him. The man had asked about him before. Hadn’t been sure of his name, though. Now he knew it? Did that mean he’d caught it on the news that morning? So after her protesting that no one knew who her father was, she was now publicly connected to the Hamilton name?
She kept staring in her side-view mirror, trying to convince herself that she was overreacting. While other vehicles came and went, no black truck. Suddenly she realized they were no longer on the main road, but driving through a wooded area.
“Uh…where are we going?”
“Taking a shortcut. Not really shorter, just faster. Not so much traffic.”
Not so many people around.
No witnesses…
She was trying to get her imagination under control when Eklund asked, “So have the authorities figured out how the Bascom College gunman got his hands on the assault rifle made by your father’s company yet?”
The switch in topic froze Katelyn where she sat. Had Eklund put that together himself, or was he repeating what he’d heard on the news that morning?
“They haven’t even figured out the identity of the gunman yet. Or his purpose in killing those people.”
Before he could press her for more information, her cellphone rang, and a quick look at the caller ID told her it wasn’t Thorne.
Answering, she said, “Tansy, hey, thanks for getting back to me.”
“It sounded important. Do the authorities have some answers?”
“No, not yet. I needed a ride and thought you could pick me up and get me back to town.”
“Uh-oh, what happened? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. I ran into Gerard Eklund in Prairie Springs, and he’s giving me a ride back to Lake Geneva.”
She didn’t miss the man’s hands tightening on the steering wheel, telling her he hadn’t liked her bringing up his name.
“Eklund, huh?”
“That’s right.” It made her feel better that Tansy now knew whom she was with, because Eklund’s questions had put her further on edge. “We should be back to Lakeside in ten minutes or so.”
“You can tell me all tomorrow.”
“Will do.” At least an edited version, considering she had no real answers yet. “See you then.”
Thankfully, Eklund stopped drilling her for information. That, plus Tansy’s knowing she was with the man, settled Katelyn down somewhat.
Until she thought about Thorne.
What was she going to do about him? She needed to decide and she needed to get to the bottom of what was going on before she spiraled completely out of control. As they slowed when they hit town, busy even on a weekday during the summer, the pressure to make a decision built fast, tightening her middle. She was going to have to reveal it all to Detective Cole. Thorne could catch up to her at any time.
A loud thwack-thwack from overhead shifted her attention away from that particular problem. “What’s going on?”
“Looks like a helicopter,” Eklund said, “landing on your property.”
Katelyn groaned. “Daddy…”
Her father had arrived. Uninvited.
Chapter 10
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this, Gerard,” Katelyn said.
Media vehicles flanked the property, and the uniformed cop was still stationed to keep them at bay. Gerard stopped his vehicle in the parking lot, yards away from the helicopter with its blades still churning up the air.
“Are you certain I can’t be of further assistance?” Gerard asked.
Getting out of the car, she had to raise her voice to be heard above the helicopter’s whomping. “No, really, you’ve done enough.” She steeled herself against his obvious disappointment. “This is a family matter.”
Of that she was certain. Her father must have caught the news about Sam this morning. What did he think he was going to accomplish by showing up here? Undoubtedly his protective instincts were on high alert. She waved to Eklund and stepped away from his vehicle. Wearing a somewhat sour expression, he reluctantly drove away, leaving her to face the father who was already on the ground, rushing toward her.
“You’re all right?” he shouted.
“Of course I’m all right!” she shouted back as the pilot finally cut the helicopter’s engine.
She was just fine physically, but emotionally was another story. She hadn’t yet decided what she was going to tell her father about Thorne.
The blades whirled more slowly until finally stopping.
She needed time to think!
Then her father’s arms were around her, pulling her close, and Katelyn gave in to the lost-little-girl feeling she’d been fighting for the last hour. She hugged him back tightly.
“I don’t understand,” he grumbled, his blue eyes a bit teary, filled with concern for her. “Why did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Leave!”
“Leave?” He must have known she wasn’t in Lake Geneva, and that was the reason he’d come to find her. “I-I just needed to get away from here for a while.”
She waited for him to say something about Sam being found under her pier. But before he could utter a word, another vehicle came flying into the parking lot. She gaped at it. Thorne!
Pulling away from her father’s arms, she glared at the man through the windshield of his truck. “Um, Daddy, I have a complicated situation to deal with here.”
“You think I don’t know how complicated?” her father asked. “You have some explaining to do.”
How was she going to explain Thorne? And keep her father safe? She hadn’t forgotten about the gun in Thorne’s glove compartment.
Stopping yards from where they stood, Thorne jumped out of his vehicle and strode toward them. Thankfully, no gun in sight. Sunglasses hid his eyes, so the only thing she could read was his body language. From the tension visible in his muscles, she figured he was tightly wound, as much on edge as she was.
She stood shoulder to shoulder with her father, but aimed her words at Thorne. “You have a lot of nerve showing up here!”
Thorne’s jaw clenched. Then he spoke directly to her father. “Sorry, Mr. Hamilton. I’ll understand if you no longer want me involved.”
“My daughter can be unpredictable, as I told you when you called me this morning. But I trusted you to guarantee her safety.”
“No longer want you involved?” Gasping, Katelyn glowered at Thorne, then at her father. “I trusted you?” Looking from one to the other and back again, she nearly choked, s
aying, “You two know each other?”
Stepping away from them to give herself some breathing room, she stared fiercely at both men.
Her father sighed. “When you wouldn’t agree to a bodyguard, I hired Hudson to protect you.”
“What!” Why was she so shocked? She gave Thorne a pointed stare. “You’ve been working for my father all along?” Then she turned her attention to her father. She’d obviously overheard Thorne talking to him this morning and misconstrued the situation. “I told you I didn’t want a bodyguard!”
“Exactly.”
And of course he couldn’t live with her decision. “So you’ve known everything that’s happened here?” she asked her father.
He nodded. “Hudson kept me well informed.”
“And getting me out of town was some kind of a plot you two hatched together?”
The two men looked at each other as if they knew they were in trouble.
Her father cleared his throat and said, “I thought spending some downtime at Daniel’s place would help you forget about everything for a while.”
Daniel’s place? “So Daniel Westergard is your friend?” she asked her father.
“He’s a close business associate.”
“But not of yours,” she said to Thorne, whose expression became even grimmer.
So he’d lied to her. He’d made up that story about chauffeuring the Westergard family to suck her into some fantasy. And she’d been fool enough to believe in him. Was anything she thought she knew about him real?
Katelyn was furious with both men. She could forgive her father, who’d been trying to protect her, but Thorne? He’d been paid to protect her. He hadn’t just tricked her into believing in him. He’d outright lied. And then he’d seduced her! His deception reminded her of the way Aaron had manipulated her. Aaron, who’d pursued her so he could get in tight with her father and launch that career he’d never gotten off the ground.
Again her father was in the middle of her relationship with a man.
A relationship that is over, she corrected herself. She was done with Thorne Hudson.
“How could you go behind my back like that, Daddy?” she demanded.
He drew himself up to his full height and scowled down at her. “Because I love you, Katie-bug. I won’t let anything bad happen to you because of me!”
“Love? You think tricking me is love? You’re every bit as controlling as Mom always warned me you were!”
In her opinion, her father had caused something bad to happen here. If not for him, she would never have met Thorne. Never would have slept with him. Never would have fallen in love with him, only to find out she’d been deceived and betrayed by a man once more.
“I had to protect you in any way I could,” her father said.
“I am not a child. You can’t protect me from life!”
“You are my child, and I can damn well do whatever I must to keep you safe!”
She stared at Thorne, challenging him to say something. Whatever he was thinking, she couldn’t read him. Wasn’t he going to defend himself? Tell Daddy exactly what had gone on between them? No? Of course not. He’d withdrawn into himself and now stood like his spine was made of steel. His face, too.
What did he think he was going to get out of this assignment? A cushy job? Head of security at one of her father’s businesses?
Would her father dispose of Thorne’s services immediately if she told him exactly how her bodyguard had been protecting her? Not that she was about to admit she was even more foolish than he’d ever guess. She didn’t want her father to know what had gone on between them any more than Thorne did.
Swallowing hard, she ignored her latest mistake with men, made a note to herself to give up on relationships for good.
“So, on top of this catastrophe, I guess the media has blown my cover.”
Her father gave her a puzzled look.
“Reporting that I’m your daughter,” she clarified.
“Not that I know of. No one has come to me with that information.”
Then how had Eklund known about him? She flashed Thorne a quick look before asking her father, “But you’ve been getting daily personal updates on everything going on around here?”
“I know about your last bartender, yes. I’m very sorry. And we’re worried that his death might be connected to the person sending me those threatening emails.”
“You think whoever is trying to get to you had something to do with Sam’s death?” It would confirm her fear that someone out there was trying to make her disappear.
“I don’t know.”
“But it’s likely,” Thorne countered. “Big coincidence that he disappeared right after your father received the first email. And I don’t believe in coincidence.”
Then it hit her. “You said first email. As in, there’s been more than one. You received another?” she asked her father.
He pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket and handed it to her without a word. Unfolding it, she read:
Separation hurts. Death is forever. The child taken from you has the most power over your heart. What if taken became forever?
“Oh, Daddy, have you shown this to—”
“The authorities? Of course. They know that you’re the target.”
Still not wanting to believe it, she argued, “You have three children.”
“This is you, Katie. You. You were the child taken from me by your mother before I had a chance to know you existed. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to make up for that. I can’t lose you forever. It’s bad enough that I have the deaths of those seven students on my conscience. If something happened to one of my children, and because of me…” He shook his head and his eyes grew watery. “Please come home with me, where I can keep you safe.”
If someone wanted to get to her badly enough, she wouldn’t be safe anywhere. Being in the same house with his real family would crush her emotionally. No doubt they would all blame her for bringing danger their way.
“Your home isn’t mine, Daddy, you know that. It never was. Right now, this is my home.”
“When they catch the bastard threatening your life, you can come back here, pretend like none of this ever happened. I’m not trying to take away your dream!”
Her dream had just turned into a nightmare. When this was all over, would she even want to be here? Or would she want to sell the place and move somewhere far, far away? She honestly couldn’t say. But that wasn’t the point. Not now. Not yet. Now she had to face the reality her father had been trying to protect her from for the last week. She couldn’t deny what was going on any longer. She couldn’t simply wave off the danger as if it didn’t exist. She had to deal with it. Directly.
“I may be the target,” she admitted, “or that email might have been concocted to throw you off. Some hocus-pocus, making you look after me. In the meantime, Lilah or Jason could be the one being hunted. You really can’t say for certain, Daddy, so I’m staying put.”
His expression showing his frustration, her father ran his hand through the silver streak in his dark hair. “Then please be reasonable and at least promise me you’ll cooperate with Hudson so he can keep you safe.”
She slid a questioning look at the man who had broken her heart.
Still stoic, he swore, “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you.”
“This happens on my terms,” she insisted.
“As long as your terms don’t endanger you,” he agreed, for a moment sounding like a man who actually cared what happened to her. “No more taking off like you did this morning. Promise me you won’t go anywhere without me until the authorities put a stop to this threat.”
She forced herself to ignore the odd note in Thorne’s voice. How could she know what to trust as far as he was concerned? No question that he would do whatever it took to satisfy her father. But there would be no more satisfying her. Not in a physical way. No more lies to seduce her.
No more deception.
“I’ll cooperate
as best I can.” That was all she was willing to promise him. She turned to her father. “What have the authorities been doing? What about the FBI? Does Special Agent Ortiz have any clue as to the identity of the person threatening revenge?” Ortiz had interviewed her at length by phone the day the first email arrived. “What about finding the shooter?”
“Nothing they can bank on, not in either case.”
“It’s been a week, and they don’t know anything?”
“The only thing we do know from the serial number is that the assault rifle was lifted from the factory. It hadn’t yet been consigned to any agency.”
Horrified that someone who worked for her father was guilty, she said, “So it was stolen—an inside job?”
“The FBI has a couple of my employees under surveillance.”
“Not necessarily the shooter,” Thorne added. “Probably someone who wanted to pocket some extra money.”
“So greed got seven people killed?”
Her father sighed. “You could say that’s the same reason I bought Precision Weapons—the biggest mistake of my life. If I hadn’t, maybe those kids would be alive now. Why don’t we go inside and sit down and talk things over.”
“A person crazy enough to kill will find a weapon somewhere, Daddy. You’ve got to stop blaming yourself.” Katelyn led the way. “You’d better tell me everything you know from now on. No more hiding anything from me.”
She flashed a look at Thorne.
Of all the things kept hidden from her at various times in her life, Thorne’s deception was the cruelest of all.
—
The next hour was one of the most uncomfortable ones Thorne had ever spent in his life. He had to act like the professional bodyguard he was without revealing his feelings for Katelyn lest Hamilton get wise and replace him. He couldn’t let that happen. Even if she never forgave him, he would protect Katelyn with his life. No one could be more committed to her. No one could care for her more deeply.
He’d never known what love felt like before.
He had never thought he could be with someone forever, that someone would want to be with him. For one day, he’d felt that anything was possible, but now he knew the pain of loss.
His Deception Page 14