by RJ Scott
“Fuck, Kat, I can’t—”
“You kissed me after prom, remember? It was a nice kiss.”
Nice? That kiss had broken him for any other kiss after, because it threatened his heart. “This isn’t right.”
She stiffened in resolve. “I’ll go out and find someone else, then,” she snapped.
And there it was: his Kat was back.
Jesus. “One kiss,” he said.
She put one hand on her hip and shook her head. “One is all I need, Ryan. Just lips. I’m not pushing my tongue in where all those puck bunnies have been.”
She looked so gorgeous, with fire in her eyes, her dark brown hair a little wild and tangled. She was everything he wanted, so what was one small kiss?
He stepped into her space and cradled her face in his hands. She was five six to his six four, and he stooped to reach her even as she leaned up.
He pressed a quick kiss to her lips and backed away, still cradling her face. “Okay?”
Their eyes met, and he stopped himself from stealing more than she wanted to give.
She frowned. Somehow he’d fucked everything up.
Then, in a surprising move, she leaned up, awkwardly off-center, and kissed him again. This time, the kiss was harder, her tongue tracing the seam of his closed mouth, enough so that he opened up and allowed himself the first taste of her he’d had in years.
And the kiss was heaven.
It was everything he remembered and more, and he held her close.
She stopped the kiss and moved away from his hands, and he was left stunned in the middle of his room.
“We’ll never talk of this again,” she said. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
And with that, he was dismissed. Abruptly, even though his world was different, and despite the fact his chest was tight, all he wanted to do was run.
Because what had just happened was wrong. Loki would kill him.
What had he been thinking? He’d kept his heart safe for years. Why did he let his guard down now?
The answer was simple.
Because she’d asked him to. She didn’t want him anywhere near her—she never had—but he’d been in the right place at the right time.
And I would do anything for Kathryn Lecour. Anything.
CHAPTER 3
Kat didn’t know who she wanted to avoid more this morning, Ryan or her brother.
Sleep hadn’t come easily; she’d been overwhelmed with residual fear and the taste of Ryan—not a comfortable combination—and woke to the scent of Ryan on the sheets, the mumble of voices outside the door, and her phone telling her it wasn’t much past seven in the morning.
A low knock on her door. “Kat?” Nicky’s voice, low but insistent.
“Leave her to sleep.” Ryan’s voice held irritation. He wasn’t a morning person, anyway, and he had to have had about two hours sleep, which didn’t bode well for a guy who Nicky called the Hibernating Bear.
“Get out of my way, Ry. I need to talk to her.”
Some noises followed, like a scuffle outside the door. All Kat could think was that Nicky should be careful of his knee.
“She needs to sleep.”
Actually, Ryan sounded less grumpy and more protective, and Kat groaned inwardly. This wasn’t going to end well if Nicky didn’t back off. Ryan was bigger, broader, and stronger and was used to fighting. Nicky was more used to skating fast out of danger.
Not that Ryan would fight when Nicky was on crutches.
They’d spent most of their teens on opposing teams, and Ryan knew exactly how to deal with him, even if hard checking was banned.
There was more low, heated discussion, and she knew it was about her, about what had happened.
Nicky would start with why was she even a paramedic. Pointed statements that she could do whatever she wanted, and why did she choose to be in a position where she could get hurt.
He would be pissed, do his big-brother act, get all up in her space, and then proceed to tell her he made enough money for her to give up what she loved doing, so she would be safe. That was all he wanted, for her to be safe.
The death of their parents had rocked his world, and hers, but Nicky had taken responsibility for everything. They were close in age, but he was the oldest, and he tried so hard to be both mom and dad for her.
It seemed like everyone else in the world got happy, laughing, teasing Nicky, while she saw the real man—the one who worried all the time about his sister’s wellbeing.
“Is she okay? Is she hurt?”
Nicky sounded defeated, as if the weight of the world had dropped right on him. Something had happened in his world that he couldn’t control, and she wanted to cry for him.
“No, I promise you she’s not hurt,” Ryan lied.
He lied to Nicky, even as she pressed her hand to the bruises on her throat.
“I told her what she does is too dangerous.” Nicky again.
“It didn’t happen to her on the job,” Ryan defended.
The grumbling moved away from the closed door, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
She could wait until they left the house; Ryan had a home game tomorrow, and Nicky might be well enough to at least go to the Sweetings Arena, home of the Dragons, with him. The docs had him on bed rest, but this was day three, and Nicky was never good with being told to do anything.
Then she realized what she was doing—wishing her brother would leave the house when he’d been told not to, just so she had space to do some fucked-up walk of shame.
Not going to happen.
“I can’t stay in here until tomorrow,” she murmured, acutely aware she was talking to herself.
She washed her face and examined the red on her neck, a vivid reminder of the man who’d hand his hands on her. The purple and swollen bruise around her eye was evidence of where she’d hit the counter when he shoved her away.
From the nightstand, she picked up her phone and took Ryan’s charging lead from it. Evidently, it didn’t work well with her phone or she hadn’t pushed the connection in correctly; it was only showing 7 percent charge. She’d already missed three calls and a heap of texts from Evan, her on-off boyfriend. The first text was simple.
Where are you? Kat?
The second and third were way more pointed.
Call me.
Kat, NOW.
Evan was as bad as her brother, worrying and fussing and stating in no uncertain terms that he hated that his girlfriend was a paramedic and sometimes in danger. Evan wanted to protect her, have her sitting at home all day where she was safe. It didn’t matter to him that she was good at her job.
What is it with the men in my life?
From the changing tone of the series of texts, he’d obviously found out what happened. Although how the hell he would have, she didn’t know. As far as Evan knew, Kat was on duty and wouldn’t be around to see him until the middle of the week.
She used that excuse a lot.
Anyway, he was in New York for the foreseeable future, temporarily transferred to the head office of the investment company he worked for.
The last text was simple. I saw the news. Call me. I can be with you in a couple of hours. Do you want me to get a flight out?
The news? Shit. She could imagine the headlines now, Sister of Hockey Star in Gun Battle. That was a way worse thought than having Evan visiting.
She should call Evan; she really didn’t want him to get a flight. Evan was the last person she needed hovering around her.
But first, she checked her news app, which was telling. Because she wanted to see it more than she wanted to contact her boyfriend. Classic avoidance tactic on her part and yet another bump in the Evan-Kathryn relationship.
She found what she was looking for, not under News, but filed under Sports and Hockey.
The grainy video was a security feed from the cameras in the gas station. Kat was clearly front and center, moving in front of the family on a road trip, trying to talk down the assailant with
the gun, holding her hands out in front of her. The man with a gun pulling her close as flashing lights filled the parking lot.
The report underneath spoke of a paramedic being held at gunpoint and added street-view information. It went on to say the guy used the woman—identified as Kathryn Lecour, sister of hockey player Nicolas Lecour—as a human shield, before changing his mind, dropping the gun, and falling to his knees.
When the report changed to show a photo of her and Nicky with the title “Sister Of Dragons Hockey Star Has Gun To Her Head,” she hoped to hell Nicky hadn’t seen it as soon as he woke up.
Everything had happened so fast last night. The video even captured the tussle and the kiss, although, from the angle, it looked like he was only leaning in and threatening her.
She pressed fingers to her lips, concentrating on the kiss Ryan had gifted her, even though that memory left a flush of shame that heated her skin.
How the hell was she going to face him? Let alone Nicky.
She twisted her hair back in a loose ponytail, straightened the clothes she’d slept in, pushed back her shoulders, and opened Ryan’s door quietly. Then she headed straight to the kitchen.
“Morning,” she said brightly to Nicky’s back.
He whirled around so fast that she saw him wince, but crutches or not, he was up off the stool and hobbling over to her in seconds.
“Careful,” she admonished, even as she sank into his hold and listened to him breathing fast in her ear.
“Shit, Kat,” he murmured.
“I’m okay.” She wasn’t lying; she’d woken up in a safe place, with Ryan, and she’d kissed away the taste of the man who’d wanted to hurt her. Nicky held her with a tenderness that made her want to cry and a strength that made her feel safe.
She buried her face into Nicky’s neck and gripped his shirt.
Ryan was in the room, over by the stove stirring eggs, but he hadn’t looked over when she said good morning. Not that she’d had a lot of time between saying it and Nicky hugging her close.
“What happened?” Nicky asked, holding her away from him.
His cell vibrated on the counter, and he glanced at it with a frown. “Coach,” he said over his shoulder to Ryan.
“On it.” Ryan picked up the phone and walked away from them.
Kat leaned back into her brother one last time. This was all the sympathy she would get for a while—she knew damn well the lectures would start next.
“What were you thinking?” Nicky finally said.
She was half listening to Ryan explain that Nicky had no comment to make other than that his sister was safe, and no, this wouldn’t be a setback in his recovery, and no, he wouldn’t give any interviews.
She looked up at Nicky and into his familiar green eyes, his gaze steel-hard and focused. “I was getting gas.” Kat suddenly wished she hadn’t leaned into her brother and held him so tight, because it exposed her weakness, that she actually needed him at that point.
“At one in the morning?” He sounded incredulous, as though gas had to be gotten at a specific time, preferably in daylight.
“I was just off shift,” she pointed out.
Now it was her turn to receive a call, and she fished out her cell. Evan again.
“Let me take this. It’s Evan,” she said and moved away from Nicky’s reach.
He let her go but clearly had more questions to ask, more lectures to give.
She took Evan’s call as a way to avoid Nicky. Her life was spiraling. “Evan, hi.”
“Kathryn, what the hell happened?”
“Nothing major,” she began to defend. “I was just—”
“I saw the video. What were you thinking?”
Oh great, another lecture. “I’d stopped for gas—”
“I didn’t mean that. You were putting yourself in harm’s way.”
“I was doing what I’m trained for.”
“I’ve already had the senior partner on my ass this morning, asking what the hell was I doing letting you get gas in the middle of the freaking night.”
Familiar tension sparked between them. She couldn’t blame him, really; his investment career was important to him. When they’d started out, she’d just been a college student who was the younger sister of a rising hockey star. He hadn’t gotten into a relationship with a paramedic; he’d gotten with the sister of an NHL hopeful. She felt guilty for last night again, and she hated it.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, glancing up just as Ryan finished his call with Dragons management.
He looked right at her, right through her, his gaze pointed, his focus complete, as she stumbled over the apology with Evan. What did that look mean? His gaze dipped to her lips and then back up to her eyes, and his expression changed; he narrowed his eyes, and a familiar darkness appeared in them.
He was angry with her, and she didn’t think she could handle one more man in her life who thought what she did was wrong. She turned her back on him and hunched over the phone, listening as Evan went on and on….
“You’ll need to rethink this when we’re married,” he was saying earnestly.
Evan’s views on what Kat would be doing when they got married were right out of the fifties. He didn’t come right out and say she was ill-advised, never once used the word stupid, but he implied it in mentions of being worried and loving her.
She pulled herself back to the conversation and pushed any thoughts of Ryan’s temper out of her head. “Sorry? Rethink what?”
“Being the wife of Evan Walters means you can’t be seen getting involved in this kind of thing.”
“Sorry?”
He’d proposed twice, and she’d turned him down twice. Yet still he assumed it was a done deal.
“Someone caught it on video, Kathryn. You’re on YouTube.”
Kat frowned. Her colleagues wouldn’t let her live that down. And then something hit her. “Wait. You’re saying it’s okay for me to get involved, as long as I don’t get caught on camera?” Why was this not making sense?
“No, I didn’t say that.” He sounded exasperated. Like she was a child and didn’t understand what his point was. “You should think about handing in your notice.”
“What?” She couldn’t be hearing this right.
“I think that sounds like a good plan. You could have some downtime, maybe work on the place in New York.”
Another issue. Evan was looking to become permanent in New York; he rented them an apartment, wanted her there, and all she wanted was to be near Nicky.
And Ryan, her traitorous brain offered.
“Evan—”
“It’s okay, sweetie. I’ll smooth things over with the partners, maybe brush it under the carpet with tickets to the next Rangers game if you could ask Nicky if he has any contacts in New York.”
“Nicolas,” she amended by rote.
“Sorry?”
“You called him Nicky; it’s Nicolas.”
Evan had a habit of calling his future brother-in-law “Nicky,” and only one person called Nicolas Lecour that, and it was her.
As usual, he ignored her. “We should focus in on Nicky rather than you. Yes, I think that could work.”
“Okay,” she found herself saying.
And then it hit her. Had he actually asked if she was okay? Why wasn’t he here at Nicky’s door demanding to see her? Why did he ask her if he should get a flight? He should have just done it. Last night when this happened.
Knowing Nicky was out of action, why hadn't she called Evan?
Because Ryan was in town, only twenty minutes away, she admitted to herself.
Yeah, right, her inner idiot snapped back at her. You would always choose Ryan over Evan.
Why didn’t she want her boyfriend to come to the precinct? She told herself it was because he’d have to fly in from New York, and that Ryan was closer.
“Kathryn? Sweetie? Are you still there?”
It was always Ryan she would call if Nicky wasn’t able to help.
&nbs
p; She walked to the window, forehead on the glass, staring out at the lake beyond the landscaped gardens of her brother’s place. She never felt anything but peace here, the water a reminder of her childhood.
She heard Ryan’s voice from behind her, then the noise of the front door opening and shutting, and she turned to see her brother watching her from his perch on the stool. He smiled at her encouragingly.
“I’m okay,” she said to Evan. “It’s nothing serious.”
“I can probably get a flight this weekend,” Evan said.
She could hear him rifling through his damn diary. “No,” she said quickly. “I’m on shift. I wouldn’t be available to see you. Listen, I’ll see you soon. I have to go—my battery is low.”
She ended the call without a goodbye, seeing with satisfaction that she was now only at 4 percent battery. If the phone was dead, no one would be able to reach her.
Nicky opened his arms, and she walked into them, her head a mess of concern and anger, her throat scratchy.
They didn’t get on, Nicky and Evan. Nicky didn’t hold back on his feelings about how Evan wasn’t the right kind of man for his sister.
Kat wasn’t happy with Evan, but he was easy to keep in her life, a wall between her and the world. But easy didn’t make her happy. She doubted easy made him happy either, and she thought their relationship was coming to a natural end. They hadn’t seen each other for two weeks now, and coward that she was, she’d used every excuse under the sun not to see him. She told the lies, and he accepted them as truth.
“Is he flying out?” Nicky asked into her hair.
“No.” He didn’t ask, and I didn’t invite him to.
“I’m not surprised,” Nicky said.
Kat couldn’t even summon resentment that her brother felt he had to comment on her boyfriend.
She moved back and away and considered him critically, automatically slipping into medical mode. “You look like shit. How’s the pain on a scale of one to ten?”
She crouched down in front of him, looking at the knee as best she could, imagining the muscles and surgery beneath the bandages. There was no obvious swelling above or below the knee, and even though he looked steadier this morning, not as spaced out as two days back when he’d arrived home from the hospital, he was still pale.