What the hell? Stephen looked between them. Ethan had disappeared, leaving Kat alone? Shit.
“Please,” she whispered as Ethan balled his hands into fists. Stephen recognized the fear that was so clearly written all over Ethan’s face when he looked down at Kat. Fear that everything he held dear was about to be ripped away. Unable to witness it for one more excruciating second, Stephen turned away, walking toward the windows overlooking the street five stories below. Because Ethan’s expression? It was like looking into his own soul.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
He heard Kat’s words as if from a distance, but blocked out Ethan’s response. He knew exactly what Ethan’s issue was. If Stephen was a better man, he’d walk away. But every part of him rebelled as soon as the thought entered his head.
So it would become a war. One he had no intention of losing, yet one he wished he didn’t have to fight.
He wasn’t sure if he even stood a chance. The bond that existed between Kat and Ethan was powerful, one he’d be foolish to dismiss. And he knew Kat well enough that losing Ethan would kill her.
“Sorry I missed our date last night.”
Those words penetrated, ripping Stephen from his thoughts. As intended, no doubt. And he bet no truer words had ever been spoken. Never would Stephen have imagined he’d be forever grateful seeing her in another man’s arms last night.
“Did you also miss the fact that your girlfriend’s about to splash Kat’s identity all over the six o’clock news?” Stephen asked as he turned from the window.
Ethan glared at him as Kat backed away, turning toward the kitchen. At least until the words penetrated. “What?” His gaze whipped between Stephen and Kat. “Emma has the story?”
He sounded shocked. But as Stephen studied him, gauging his reaction, he couldn’t help but question whether Ethan had truly known. Emma was tight with Ethan’s family, practically raised together. And the timing? Couldn’t have been more perfect, giving Ethan the opportunity to tell the world he was a hero, had saved Kat’s life when he announced his run for District Attorney later today.
Yet Stephen dismissed the idea even as it occurred to him. Because as much as he hated to admit it, Ethan wasn’t the enemy here. Stephen was. Or, at least, his family was. Ethan had spent the last six years of his life protecting Kat. And as much as Ethan would love to see Stephen and his family publicly crucified, there was no way in hell he’d do that at Kat’s expense.
“Are you alright?” Ethan asked, grabbing Kat’s hand and turning her toward him, his body blocking her from Stephen’s view, as if shielding her from him.
Whatever Ethan must have seen in Kat’s expression had him swearing under his breath as he pulled out his phone, stabbing at the screen. Kat took the opportunity to move away from him, grabbing the carafe to the coffeemaker and filling it with water from the fridge, her movements jerky, attesting to her aggravation.
Ethan shoved his phone back into his pocket. The call must have gone to voicemail. He grabbed the coffee from the cabinet, gently moving Kat out of the way while he took over.
“I’m fine.” Kat told Ethan, but her hands trembled as she reached into another cabinet, pulling out a bottle of pain reliever and shaking three into her hand. Stephen didn’t miss the way her dress rode higher up her thighs. Either did Ethan. He turned to glare at Stephen as Kat swallowed the pills with a glass of water. She looked up at him, meeting his eyes for the first time over the rim. And he could have sworn he saw the same longing he felt, but it passed so quickly, he wondered if he was just seeing things he so desperately wanted to see.
“You always say that, Kat,” Ethan said when he finished making the coffee.
“And I’m always fine, aren’t I?” she returned, putting her glass in the sink and moving around the island counter, moving down the short hallway toward her bedroom. “Give me a minute,” she said.
But she never came back out.
***
“Good morning, sleepyhead. Or should I say good afternoon.”
“Nothing good about it,” Kat mumbled as she struggled to open her eyes. The night’s events began as a haze, flashing through her mind before forming a complete picture. Jen’s birthday party at the club. Stephen. The story.
Alex’s disappearance.
She closed her eyes again, unwilling to deal with it just yet. Her grandmother placed a steaming mug on the nightstand, the tempting aroma finally forcing Kat to drag herself into a sitting position. She grabbed the coffee gratefully, luxuriating in that first heavenly sip. “Thank you.”
Lynn Collins didn’t look like she was still recovering from triple-bypass surgery. She looked strong and healthy, the mini-vacation at her friend’s house on Long Island last week putting color into her face that hadn’t been there before. Her eyes were filled with questions, the exact same shade of green as Kat’s. But that’s where their similarities ended. Lynn was tall, still reaching five-ten even though she was in her mid-seventies. She was impeccably dressed, her short white hair styled, not a hair out of place. “Going out?”
“No, just got back. Ethan and I went for lunch. Must have been some birthday celebration. It’s nearly two in the afternoon.”
“Yeah, it was. Went late,” Kat mumbled.
Her grandmother sat on the edge of her bed. “So I gathered.” She handed Kat her phone, which she must have left in the living room. If her grandmother had heard any of the fighting early this morning, she didn’t mention it. Thank God.
“Drank a little too much.”
“So I gathered,” her grandmother repeated, making Kat laugh before she remembered she’d left Stephen out in the living room with Ethan. Crap.
She looked past her grandmother, out toward the door Kat had sworn she locked. “You’re a lockpicker now?”
Her grandmother waved a tiny screwdriver, giving Kat a smile. “Easy as pie.”
Kat chuckled, then groaned when her head pounded. Lynn handed her two pain relievers. “Thought you might need these.”
“Thank you.” Kat swallowed the pills with her coffee.
“Ethan’s waiting. You need to get ready for the parade. And I hear you have a couple fancy parties this week. One at the senator’s house?”
Fourth of July. Given last night, and this morning, she’d nearly forgotten. The last thing she felt like doing tonight was going to the parade and the party afterward. But Ethan was announcing his run for District Attorney. The party at the senator’s vacation house was apparently an annual event, thrown at the ski slopes where tonight’s fireworks would be set off. And as excited as she was for Ethan, despite the lingering tension between them, she couldn’t help the sadness she felt for Stephen. He’d planned on running as well.
The end of his dreams.
Kat looked down at the phone resting near her thigh, wondering if Stephen had texted or called, but she didn’t check. Didn’t know how she’d feel either way. “The story is about to break.”
“Stephen told me last night. I’m so sorry,” her grandmother said, her eyes filling with sympathy. Kat couldn’t help but feel sick all over again. How many times had the woman told her to leave it alone, to get on with her life?
Stop looking toward the past and start living for the future.
And when she wrapped her arms tightly around Kat, she felt the tears she’d been holding back burn her eyes. She fought like hell to make sure they didn’t fall. “You’ll be safe here,” Kat whispered. “I don’t think you’ll be part of the story.” And thank God for that.
“It’s not me I’m worried about.”
Kat pulled away. “It’s not me I’m worried about either.” And for the next half-hour, Kat told her all about Stephen, pouring out her heart and soul, everything she’d gone through, everything she’d felt. And then she focused on the guilt that was tearing her inside out, feeling like a child as her grandmother held her. She recounted how she’d ruined Stephen’s career, his family. How Alex’s life was now in jeopardy. But if she
thought she’d feel any better, any less guilty, she would have been wrong.
Eventually Ethan appeared, nearly filling the doorway, but didn’t step over the threshold. She’d almost forgotten he was there, hoped he hadn’t overheard everything she’d said in the tiny apartment. The sunlight coming in through the living room windows lit him from behind, limning his entire body in a halo, reminding her in that moment he truly was her guardian angel. Her hero. And despite the awkwardness between them, the rush of emotion that filled her was powerful enough to take her breath away. She’d missed him so much.
“You okay?” He smiled then, his light blue eyes crinkling a little at the corners in his tan face. His dark blonde hair was a mess, probably from running his hands through it too many times. She had to fight the need to push it back into place, especially when he finally stepped into her bedroom and held out his hand.
Kat reached out, letting him pull her up from the bed and into his arms, breathing in his scent. None of the tension that had surrounded him earlier was evident now. That had probably left about the same time as Stephen.
“Do I have time for a quick shower?” she mumbled against his chest, even though she wasn’t nearly ready to let him go.
“Of course.” He kissed the top of her head, letting her know without words that everything would be alright, that he’d be there to shelter her from the coming storm.
Like always.
Chapter Five
He built you a fucking house!
Stephen’s words flashed through her mind as Ethan pulled up her long, winding driveway. Flowers bloomed in an explosion of pinks and purples, the small Tudor a painting come to life. A fairytale house nestled in a fairytale town.
Yet she knew the horrors beneath the picture-perfect surface.
Kat glanced over at Ethan as she opened the passenger door, but didn’t get out. He gripped the steering wheel as if they were driving through an obstacle course instead of parked in her driveway, attesting to the tension flowing through him. The tension he’d tried to hide behind constant conversation during the long two and half hour drive from the city.
Not how she’d hoped the ride would go. But as soon as she’d asked him where he was last night, why he hadn’t shown up for Jen’s birthday celebration, why he’d basically disappeared from her life, the strain between them had crept back in. She wished she could blame it on Stephen showing up. But the truth? Things hadn’t been right between them since the morning she’d left.
“Are you still mad?” Kat held her breath as she waited for his answer, finally asking the question that had been weighing on her mind for weeks. She didn’t need to clarify. The memory played itself out in every painful detail. Waking from another nightmare, covered with sweat, barely coherent until she felt strong arms wrap around her. She’d begged him to stay, begged him to never leave her again. Repeated over and over how much she needed him, wanted him. Only it hadn’t been Ethan’s name that had fallen from her lips.
It had been Stephen’s.
Even now she could remember the way his entire body had tensed, his hand freezing mid-stroke up her back. He’d told her she was safe, to go back to sleep. In the morning when she woke, Ethan was gone.
“I was never mad.”
Bullshit. But she let it go. “Then what’s your issue, Ethan? Do you even want me here? Because it sure as hell doesn’t seem like it.” Without another word, she got out of his car, grabbing Jake’s cat carrier before slamming the door.
Ethan was in front of her before she rounded the hood of his car. “I’m sorry,” he said, gripping her shoulders with both hands. “Of course I want you here, Kat. I’m just worried about the story airing. Thinking you may be better off in the city.”
Kat took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her own tension increasing. “And that’s why you’re so stressed?” She didn’t believe him. “I’ll deal, okay? It’s not as if I have anything to hide anymore. I wanted this week to fix—” Us, she thought, but the words sounded too…needy, she supposed. And maybe that’s why Ethan had kept his distance.
“Fix what, Kat?” Ethan asked, moving his hand from her shoulder and cupping her chin so she was forced to look up at him.
“My nightmares,” she evaded, glancing beyond him to the house. “I thought facing them would help.”
He looked at her for a long time before giving her a single nod and letting her go. Opening the trunk with his key fob, he grabbed her suitcases and followed her up the walk.
“You could stay with me if you don’t want to stay here,” Ethan offered. “I finished the guest room.”
“You did?” she asked, forcing lightness into her tone. “What color did you paint it?” And when had he had the time? His current project, just across the highway, had been a mess when she’d left, and he’d still been recovering from a bullet wound in his shoulder.
“Almost finished,” he amended, shooting her a smile. A smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I was waiting for you to paint.”
Like his, she was sure her smile looked just as forced. “Good. It’ll give me something to do in between parties.”
“Sorry I couldn’t take the week off.”
“It’s fine,” Kat shrugged. That had been the plan, but between the mess at the DA’s office, his campaign, and the time he’d taken with his shoulder, he couldn’t take anymore. “How do you feel about neon orange?”
“Not quite feelin’ it,” Ethan laughed, some of the tension leaving his face.
She smiled back, a real smile this time, as he followed her up the stone path. “Chartreuse?”
“Don’t even know what that is,” Ethan replied.
“What’s the code?” Her door had a new lock and she wondered when he’d installed that. And then wondered if it because he thought Stephen had a key.
“Me either, but it sounds ugly, doesn’t it?” she said once they were inside.
“It does,” Ethan agreed as he set her suitcases down in front of the wall near the front door. The same wall Stephen had taken her against when he’d lost all control, forcing three orgasms from her…
Feeling the heat staining her face, Kat bent down to open the cat carrier, unable to stop her body from responding to the memory. She swore she could still feel his hands gripping her wrists, imprisoning them above her head. The same things she’d wished for when she woke in his arms this morning. At least until the fog of sleep had cleared and she’d all but panicked. Now, she was glad she had panicked. He’d left without a word, without a text or voicemail. Again. She couldn’t help but wonder if she’d see him again.
Or if she wanted to.
Jake shot up the stairs as soon as she opened the door. Kat sighed, knowing it would be a day or two before she saw him again. Perhaps she should have left him with her grandmother, but the thought of being without him for a week…she hadn’t been able to do it.
“You’d think he’d be used to it by now,” she said as she made her way into the kitchen. Sunlight greeted her when she entered the kitchen, the smell of oranges assaulting her. The house was spotless, no dust anywhere.
“Thank you for taking care of the house while I was gone,” she said, unable to help herself from glancing out the French doors, her gaze moving directly toward the crystal-clear pool glinting in the sunlight.
“Thank my sisters. They came this morning,” Ethan said, standing behind her. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted it covered or not. Or maybe even filled in.”
It was such a peaceful sight, so calm and soothing. Unbelievable that it also was the site where a woman was brutally murdered.
“I’m not sure yet.” She wasn’t sure about even keeping the house. Was nearly positive she was going to sell it. It wasn’t as though she needed it, living back in the city. She had no intention of coming back, not with years of schooling ahead of her beginning in September.
“Ethan—”
“We need to get ready,” he said, cutting her off as he turned back toward the foyer. “Parade
lineup is at six. We can’t be late.”
And he left. Abruptly. Before she could even utter a sound.
***
“You’re pretty good at schmoozing the crowd,” Kat teased, offering Ethan a bottle of water as he approached the float, decorated in red, white, and blue, with Ethan’s name emblazoned on all sides. The sun was wickedly hot even though it was approaching 8:00 p.m. But that hadn’t deterred the crowds from lining Main Street. There had to be ten thousand people packed into the small town. Music from the local high school marching band stopped abruptly as soon as the students’ feet hit the convenient store parking lot, signifying the end of the parade’s route. Kat had felt bad for them the entire evening, with their dark uniforms covering them from head to toe. They had to be absolutely melting.
But to Kat, the heat felt glorious. The sun kissing her skin warmed her like nothing else had over the past five weeks. Breathing in the fresh air was once again a novelty, something she’d taken for granted. The scent of flowers replaced the smell of exhaust fumes, a scent she’d become so accustomed to, she’d barely realized it. Kat soaked it all in, letting it soothe her. The perfect blue of the sky, unobstructed by skyscrapers. The sound of birds replacing the incessant horns and sirens. Despite the tragedy she’d suffered, she could almost believe she’d find that peace she’d enjoyed for such a short amount of time.
“Schmoozing?” Ethan laughed as he took the bottle. His mood had been much lighter when he’d picked her up and she’d followed his lead, letting the stress between them go. “I don’t schmooze.”
“You do,” Abigail said, reaching for Ethan’s hand as he helped her down from the float.
“Kissing babies,” Arianna added.
“Tossing candy to the kids,” Annalise laughed. “Definitely falls under the schmoozing category.” It was still a shock, seeing Ethan’s identical sisters. Tonight it was easier to tell them apart. Abigail wore red, Arianna, white and Annalise wore blue.
Betrayal (Secrets, Lies, and Deception Book 2) Page 4