“You don’t even know what I was going to say,” she said as he began walking again.
“I do know. And the answer is no.”
“But don’t you think it’d be smart to learn and have something on me just in case—”
He wheeled around so fast that she stumbled into him.
Grabbing her arms, he hauled her in close, so they were nose to nose. “That would be stupid. And dangerous. I saw what happened to you when my weapons were lying out on the table. You can’t handle it, Katherine, and you shouldn’t have to.”
She looked away and bit her lip, trying to ignore the prick of tears behind her eyes. Her reaction to what she’d seen was exactly the reason she wanted him to show her. To help her move past it. It wouldn’t be so bad if he was the one teaching her, maybe…
“Hey,” he said, tilting her chin up with his thumb. His expression softened, and she felt the familiar nervous flutter in her stomach stirring. “It’s not that I think you couldn’t take care of yourself. But you’ve got Kirkpatrick. You’ve got me.”
Full-on flutters now.
His gaze didn’t move from hers. “Trust us to keep you safe.”
“I trust you,” she said, breathlessly and without hesitation. And she did. He was so confident and sure. He wouldn’t put her in a situation he couldn’t handle, and Lord knew she wouldn’t be breaking the rules to test him ever again.
“Good,” he whispered, and dropped his hand. A rumble of thunder clapped through the sky, and he looked up. “We should probably get going.”
Still caught in a daze, she nodded absently, forcing her feet to follow him back to the car.
Did he feel that? The spark that ignited when they touched?
No, she decided. This couldn’t possibly be one-sided. Not after the way she’d caught him looking at her. And definitely not after the physical reaction she’d felt when she’d brushed against him. But just that one touch wasn’t going to be enough. Not by far. She’d had a taste, and now…
Now she wanted more.
“I’M NOT SURE how you sleep after drinking that so late,” Jason said, nodding at the large coffee cup that was currently warming her frozen hands. It was after her Thursday evening class, and sure enough, Georgia weather had turned frigid, so he’d humored her by stopping by Java House before heading back to the apartment.
“Doesn’t everyone get hyped up on caffeine before bed?” She opened two packets of sugar and poured them in her cup. The newbie behind the counter hadn’t added enough syrup, and it was super bitter. After popping the lid on, she took a sip, not bothering to blow on it first.
“Much better,” she said with a happy sigh.
“You do know they could’ve just remade it the way you wanted it.”
“No way. Never send back food, never send back drinks. Who knows what they’d put in there for being a pain in the ass customer.”
“Smart,” he said, holding open the door so she could walk through.
Making sure her body brushed his as she passed, she teased, “Did you say smart? As in me? Can you say that again in my good ear?”
When she turned back to him, his gaze was on a group standing outside at the far side of the cafe. Bree was taking long puffs of a cigarette and blowing shapes out into the cool air, her friends laughing and chattering around her. When Katherine caught her eye, Bree’s face turned to panic before she swallowed and put on a huge smile.
“Kat,” she called out. The group she was huddled with all turned to stare in her direction. A few of the faces she recognized from the party, but most were unfamiliar. Almost all of them glared at her accusingly, though, and she looked behind her to see if someone else had provoked those reactions. When a tall, blond head at the back of the group turned around, she got her answer.
Danny Riley looked seven ways to shit. One side of his face was bright red and bruised, as though he’d fallen face first into the pavement, and one of his arms was in a sling. When he caught sight of Jason behind her, his eyes bulged and he knocked over a couple of the guys beside him to get away.
“Fucking pussy,” Jason remarked behind her. “His arm isn’t anywhere near broken.”
She raised a brow, looking back at him. “What the hell did you do that night?”
“Scare tactics,” he said with a shrug.
Nodding with approval, she said, “Nice work, bodyguard.”
Bree handed off the cigarette and left the security of the crowd to head over to them.
Katherine wrinkled her nose. “When did you start smoking?”
“Why does it matter to you?”
“I’m not…it doesn’t…ugh.” She shook the jumbled thoughts out of her head and tried again. “How are you?”
Bree rolled her eyes and picked an imaginary piece of lint off her shirt. “I’m just fantastic, and yourself?”
A feeling of unease settled in Katherine’s stomach, and she asked, “Is there something we need to discuss?”
“By ‘discuss,’ do you mean having your bodyguard give me a bloody nose and a broken arm as well?” Bree asked. “’Cause that’s not something I’m in the mood for.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Jason interjected. “His arm isn’t broken, it’s bruised. Tell him to man the hell up and stop looking for a sympathy screw.”
“All right,” Katherine said, pushing him back behind her. “I don’t care about the douchebag. What I do care about is why you’re hanging out with a guy that tried to attack your friend the other night.”
Bree pinned her with a hard stare. “I was there, Katherine. He didn’t attack you.”
“He drugged me to attack me.”
“Says you. You had a lot to drink that night. Being drunk and making decisions you regret is not an excuse to cry date-rape drug and make false accusations.”
Jason pushed past her again. “I saw the little shit put the pill in her drink, so you can just stop right there. I’ve also got the remaining bag of evidence to prove it. But I will say, I’m pleased that he’s spreading this garbage around after our discussion the other night.” He grinned, showing all his teeth. “He won’t need any sympathy screws soon. His ass will be closed for business.”
Katherine bit her lip to avoid smiling as she stared at him through a new lens. He was totally getting off on this, and standing up for her to boot. Truth be told, she found it hot as hell.
“Well then, there you have it,” she said, turning her attention back to Bree.
“Whatever.”
“Huh. So…that’s it?”
Picking the polish off one nail, Bree said, “What do you want me to say, Kat? You’re a total buzzkill lately, not that you were ever a bag of fun to begin with. I only wanted to room with you so I could use your father for a letter of recommendation when I graduate, but you both have some crazy mafia shit or something going on, and I don’t need that in my life.”
Katherine’s jaw dropped.
Bree rolled her eyes. “Surely that can’t come as a shock to you.”
“You…psychotic…bitch,” Katherine managed, trying to process the nonsense that had just come out of her supposed friend’s mouth. “Crazy mafia…buzzkill…are you fucking serious? What the hell is the matter with you? Are you on drugs?”
“Figures you’d think anyone who disagrees or dislikes you must be on drugs,” Bree snapped.
Katherine’s head was spinning. “Have you all lost your minds this week? I feel like I’m the only sane person on this damn planet anymore.” Jason’s hand was on her elbow, leading her away, and she let him. “So I guess that means we’re not roommates anymore, right? Maybe you can find another buzzkill to use and take my spot.” She was yelling across the quad now as Bree turned her back and walked back to her friends, all of them snickering. But Katherine didn’t give a shit. Two friends down within the span of a month, that has to be some kind of record, right?
She held up her coffee. “Can we stop and get some vodka for this?”
I NARROW MY eyes at the sc
ene before me.
If she thinks for one second her precious boy toy will finish something I started, she better fucking think again.
Stupid cunt.
TWO HOURS AND no vodka spike later, Katherine had taken her frustrations out on a rendering of Bree as a demon. Some of her best work, if she said so herself. She’d have to frame it for a dartboard. That demon, however, had led to another one, and she couldn’t stop herself from drawing what was familiar. What was scary. What was lost.
As she finished filling in the ring’s jeweled centerpiece, she heard Jason enter the room, and she shifted her arms to conceal it.
“No homework tonight?” he asked her from where he was leaned against the kitchen counter, rolling up the sleeves of his white button-up shirt. He’d taken his suit jacket off and unfastened the top few buttons, exposing a swath of tanned skin that had her licking her lips.
She met his eyes and smiled. “Checking up on me?”
“That depends. Do you want me to?” His lips lifted on one side in a cheeky grin that just about had her melting.
Oh, I want you to do more than that.
He seemed to read her mind, because his smile grew wider. Damn. He’d never flashed a full-wattage grin at her before, and until now, she’d never realized how utterly deprived that had made her. If she’d thought his intensity before was hot, then he was off-the-charts sexy when he was smiling and flirting.
Holy shit. He’s flirting. That revelation had her tongue-tied, something that never happened.
“So, I was thinking,” Jason said as he pulled up a chair next to her. “Since we’re…sharing secrets now, that means I get a peek of what you work on during all your downtime.”
Instinctively, she covered the drawing, just as she’d done every time someone had tried to catch a glimpse. Well, everyone but her mother. She’d never shared her art with anyone but her, and she most certainly had never let anyone see the ring. But…she’d decided to trust him, hadn’t she? To let him be the one person she could let in without judgment.
Letting the sketch she’d held up to her chest fall back to the table, she swallowed and watched as his eyes scanned over it. He was a master at never letting anything show, so she had no idea whether he thought what was on the paper was pure crap or actually not too bad. She also had no idea how to judge her skills, since, even though her mom had been a professional, she was kind of obligated to say it was good. She’d always encouraged her and told her she had talent, but wasn’t that what mothers were for? To make you feel better about yourself and help you find your place in the world?
Her place in the world…she still hadn’t found that yet.
“Katherine?” Jason’s voice broke through her thoughts. Chewing on her lip, she looked up at him, hoping she wouldn’t see a look of dislike on his face. But the expression in his eyes was one of admiration mixed with another emotion she couldn’t discern.
“It’s a rough sketch, of course,” she said, looking back down and shading a bit more of the side detail. His hand settled over hers, stopping her.
“This is incredible.”
Her head shot up in surprise. “Really?”
His lips quirked up on one side, and he nodded. “Yes, really.”
Blowing out a relieved breath, she smiled shyly. “You’re not just saying that, right? I mean, I don’t need you to blow smoke up my ass.”
A chuckle escaped his lips, and his hand left hers, causing her to immediately miss his warm touch. “I hope you’d know by now that I would never go near your ass.”
Something in the way he said it felt sexual in nature, and her heart skipped a beat. Oh fuck it, she thought, cocking an eyebrow. “Never?” she asked. “Not even if I asked you to?”
His eyes lingered on hers. “I have to obey orders, of course.”
Licking her lips, she repeated, “Of course.”
“I didn’t say I had to obey yours.”
Her eyes shot back up to his, and her face flushed, which made him laugh. Clearing her throat, she glared at him and went back to drawing.
“I do have a couple of questions…” he said, while she studiously ignored him. “The first being, you hate business management.”
“That’s not a question.”
“Right, smartass. Why the hell are you wasting your time with that when it’s obvious you have a talent and passion for art?”
And there it was.
She tapped the pencil on the page. “This was my mom’s thing. She was amazing…she could do anything—sketch, mold, design—but she was best at painting. Her work is in museums all over the world.”
“So you got the art gene from her. Why not use it?”
“Because,” she said, “it was her thing. Hers. It was just something we did together sometimes for fun, but now…”
“Now…?”
“It would remind my dad of her. That’s too much. I used to watch him sit in her workroom upstairs for hours after she died. It wouldn’t surprise me if he still does that every night. I can find something else I’m good at.”
He stilled her hand that was still tapping in a rapid beat on the pad. “You don’t want to do something you’re passionate about and good at because you’re scared to hurt your dad?”
“Something like that.”
“The dad you can’t seem to stand being in the same room with?” he asked.
“It’s complicated.”
“So uncomplicate it.”
“I know what you must think. You think I hate him. I don’t fucking hate my dad. I’m frustrated that he couldn’t be there for me in the way I needed him to back then, and I’m disappointed everything else gets his attention instead of me. But no, I don’t hate my dad. Just the opposite. I want to protect him, I guess.”
He didn’t say anything, just continued to look at her with an unreadable expression on his face. As usual.
“What?” she asked.
“I think he’d be incredibly proud of you if he could see what you do.”
“Well, he’s not going to see it, and you’re not gonna say anything. Capisce?”
“I think you’re wasting your time—”
“I’m not,” she said, a little too forcefully, and then lowered her voice. “I’m not wasting it. Getting a business degree is smart. I can do a lot of things with it. What would I do with an art degree?”
“Oh, I don’t know…get your work shown in museums across the world, for one?”
She shook her head. “Didn’t you have a second question?”
“Just think about it.”
“Second question?” she repeated.
He sighed. “What is that you’re drawing?”
She knew what he meant, but chose to play dumb. “If I have to tell you what it is, I’m not drawing it very well.” When he tipped his head to the side, she laughed once. “You asked.”
“It’s very specific, that ring,” he said, looking down at the drawing again. His finger ran lightly over the detail of the symbol. “What does this mean?”
Decision time. She could pretend it was nothing, or she could tell him the truth.
Swallowing hard, she said, “I’m not sure what it means.”
“No?” he asked.
“It’s not something I made up. It’s something I remember.”
His hand stopped moving, and his eyes flicked up to hers, questioning.
“Do you remember that night, when my room was ransacked?” She shook her head. “Of course you do. I just… Something went missing that night. Something I didn’t tell anyone about. Something I’ve never told anyone about…”
He sat up, waiting for her to continue, and she ran her fingers over the drawing as she spilled the words she’d never thought she’d say out loud.
“The night that my mom was…murdered…a ring flew off when one of the men was…” She swallowed. “It rolled into the room I was hiding in.” She touched the center stone on the drawing. “This ring. I found it and kept it all this time. Until someon
e stole it from my room the night of the party.”
Jason sat there, silent and immobile, before saying, “You had a piece of evidence that could’ve helped put your mom’s killers away, and you sat on it. Is that what you’re telling me?”
A stab of pain shot through her chest, and she shook her head vehemently. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“We always have choices, Katherine,” he said, his voice dispassionate.
“No, I…I was told I couldn’t say anything. If I did, they’d come back for my dad. They’d kill us both.”
Jason’s eyes hardened, and his jaw clenched. “What do you mean, ‘they’ told you? Who’s ‘they’?”
Looking up at him through a watery veil of tears, she said, “The ones who killed my mom.”
Katherine sat alone in one of the cold plastic chairs lined up outside the interrogation room at the police station headquarters while her father was being questioned.
It’d been three days. Three days since her life had changed forever, and she was numb and more alone than she’d been in her whole life. All the tears had been cried out of her body, and she couldn’t fathom how any more could possibly come, though with her mother’s funeral taking place later that afternoon, it was sure to happen. Closing her eyes, she slumped down in her chair, feeling invisible and scared.
“Is this seat taken?” A man’s deep timbre rang out to her right, and she opened her eyes briefly to shake her head at him before closing them again.
“Always so frigid in these places,” he complained, and she sighed inwardly.
He was gonna be one of those chatter types, and she didn’t feel like making small talk. Not today. Not ever.
“I know what you have, Katherine Shaw.”
Her eyes flew open and she jerked out of her seat, standing and taking a good look at the man who had sat next to her. He had a weathered, tanned complexion, and his eyes were sharp. A distinctive black mustache lined the top of his upper lip. Besides the fact that he’d said her name and knew who she was, the look of the man unnerved her.
She whipped her head around, looking for witnesses to see the stranger talking to her in case he tried something, but the place was empty, save for an officer walking down a far hall, his eyes reading over the paperwork in his hand.
Flash Point Page 11