20. Mattie
”Ow, Kael, stop pushing so hard,” I huffed as sweat dripped down my temple.
“I’m not pushing hard, you’re fighting it,” he grunted. “Relax.”
“I can’t relax,” I snapped, my eyes screwing shut. “You’re pushing it too—ah! Too hard. That’s too hard.”
“It’s not too hard, you’re too tight. Relax.”
“How can I relax when it hurts?” I growled.
“Well, if you would just—”
I kicked at him, pushing him away from where he was kneeling in front of me. “Just let it cramp. Ah, ah,” I grimaced, letting my head fall back as a cramp seized my right calf.
Kael took hold of my foot again, undeterred by my irritation, and supporting my calf with one hand, he stretched my sneaker-clad toe toward my shin with the other. “Stop fighting it, Mattie. Relax. Breathe.”
I tried to force myself to relax into the stretch, breathing in deeply and then letting it out slowly. “Why is it lasting so long? God.”
“There you go,” he soothed, pushing my toe closer to my shin and stretching the calf muscle out of the cramp. “Push against me.” I did, and his other hand massaged the calf muscle as the painful contractions eased. “This is because you don’t eat vegetables, you know.”
“I eat vegetables,” I bit out through gritted teeth. Relief shimmied my shoulders down into a slumped position.
“Sweet potato chips don’t count.” Kael rotated my foot in a circle with gentle pressure.
“Do too,” I muttered. I stared down at his kneeling form, smiling faintly as I took in the sexy hoodie made of stretchy athletic fabric he had put on. It had a collar that came up to his chin that was meant to cover his face when running in the cold weather, and it made him look all ninja-like. His thick brows were contracted, concentrating on my leg as he massaged the cramp away. I nudged him with the toe of my white sneaker. “This is because you’re making me run. You miss chasing me or something?”
He glanced up at me, and sardonic, dominant Kael gave me a heated look. “Sometimes I think you say things just so you’ll get in trouble.”
“What an outrageous accusation.” I pulled my foot from his hands and set it down on the pavement under the park bench. “But you should probably punish me later for my insolence.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “You’re incorrigible.”
“Pretty sure you prefer me that way.” I took a drink of water from my water bottle, and glancing around Central Park, I kept an eye out for the courier we were supposed to meet here. Not that I needed to be on the lookout. Kael had said he could pull this plan off blindfolded and drunk, and I believed him. He wasn’t concerned about my “heiress escape” scheme, but he did get nervous when I interacted with my parents. So, I did my part and kept my mouth shut so he didn’t have to make any more “demonstrations” about our relationship.
Kael stood, stretching his arm across his body and panning his gaze over Central Park. We were in a shaded spot just past one of the bridges, and the autumn colors shifted with a soothing susurrus overhead. I breathed in deeply, enjoying how the cold morning air felt on my face after being stuck with my parents for almost two weeks. Hell had nothing on the Thorne residence. Even with Kael there, keeping me sane during the day and driving me crazy with pleasure at night, I found myself counting down every hour until the damn party.
I followed Kael’s gaze. “Anything?”
“Stop looking. You look suspicious as hell.” He rubbed his lower back absently as he helped me to my feet. “Let’s keep running. We can circle back around to the bridge in five minutes.”
“I don’t want to run,” I griped, flopping forward to follow him at a reluctant pace.
Kael slid an acerbic look down to me. “I’m so sorry. Is our rescue attempt inconveniencing you, Your Royal New York Highness?”
My breathing picked up again as we set off on the paved path, weaving our way under bright orange, red, and yellow trees. A gaggle of fast-walking women passed us, and one of them waved at me cheerily. I returned it with a polite smile. Kael watched them with his sharp eyes, and the woman startled noticeably before walking faster and angling away from us.
I gave him a critical stare. “Stop scaring pedestrians.” I scanned the park trail again, forcing my tired legs to keep pace with him. “What does he look like again?”
“A middle-aged nerd. He has little spawn, too, so he’s probably covered in mysterious stains.”
I snorted, and my breath puffed out in a white mist. “Spawn? Do you have something against kids, Kael?”
Kael gave me a contemplative frown, his breath fogging out from his handsome features in a steady rhythm. “Don’t you? Your parents weren’t exactly good examples.”
“I love kids,” I said honestly. I bounced a glance up to him, only to find him staring at me hard. “What?”
“You don’t strike me as the type,” he replied, his brow still drawn in thought.
I bristled. “What does that mean?”
“Just… you’re very independent. Kids are a big responsibility.” He looked forward suddenly, like the conversation had made him uncomfortable.
I tilted my head in an exaggerated way to get a good look at his chiseled features. “Kael Middle Last-Name. Are you afraid of children?”
He smiled at my use of substitute names for him. “I’m not afraid of them. But, like you, I didn’t have the easiest childhood.”
“Oh, my childhood was easy,” I argued lightly, blowing out a breath against a stitch I was getting in my side. “It was my teen years when my parents realized I was an asset that things got weird. But tell me about your childhood.”
Kael gave me that keen, assessing look that told me he had uncovered something about me that fit like a piece to the “Mattie Puzzle” in his head. “Asset, huh?”
“Childhood?” I pushed, squirming under his gaze.
Shaking his head, Kael scanned the park again as he looked for our courier. “My stepfather was a hard man. Old school. Nothing I did was good enough for him. Then he got Alzheimer’s and became so violent, we had to send him away for care when I was a teenager.”
I stopped running, and taking his hand in mine, pulled him off the side of the path. Our labored breaths mingled into a mist between us, and I held his cold gaze. “Kael. That’s… that must have been really hard. I’m sorry you went through that.”
He shrugged. “He died ten years ago. Not that I mourned him, really.”
I nodded, searching his expression. “Your mom?”
“I think her way of coping was to withdraw. And she struggled with addictions on and off throughout my childhood.” He rolled his shoulders, like he could shake off the discomfort of his memories. “She has Alzheimer’s now, too. She doesn’t recognize me, but I tried to make sure she was comfortable. I—” He paused, and his mouth tightened.
I peered at him. “You what?”
He blew out a breath, looking away for a moment. “She sort of sparked a foolish idea, and that was the only reason I took your assignment in the first place.”
I frowned. “Wait, really?”
“Not entirely,” he amended. “I don’t need the money. It’s really dumb, but I thought if I could save enough for a ranch in Montana with obscene amounts of land, I could get my mom her own place there. She could be close, even if she didn’t recognize me. And I could be, you know,” he gestured futilely. “Away. If I were to settle for something less, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I just wanted something… remote. Big.”
I read between the lines—away from everything he’s had to experience and do. I took his other hand in mine. “Tons of land, no people, and a place for your mom? Sounds amazing. And I don’t think it sounds dumb.”
His mouth pulled to the side, and his eyes scanned me. “Well, anyway, that was where the money thing came from in the first place. I’ll be fine without it,” he added. “It was just an extravagant goal.”
“I kind of want to turn myself in for real, now,” I joked. “Who cares what my parents want? That’s so fucking noble, Kael.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well. My mom wouldn’t notice where she was either way, ranch or not. It’s not that big of a deal.”
“Even if she doesn’t, I’m sure you worry about her. That must be hard to watch.”
Kael looked uncomfortable. “It is. And… there’s a good chance I… well, I’ve had to prepare myself mentally for the possibility of getting it myself.”
“And you worry about passing that onto your kids,” I guessed.
He nodded, expression solemn and concerned. “Right.”
“And so,” I continued, squeezing his hand again, “your plan was to be alone forever so you didn’t burden someone with this possibility?”
Kael shrugged one shoulder, the picture of vulnerability and fear. “Maybe.”
I wrapped my arms around his trim waist, hugging the hard planes of his body to mine. “That’s silly. You deserve to be loved.”
He loosed a rueful chuckle, fitting me tightly to him. “I deserve a lot of things. Love isn’t one of them.”
“Bullshit,” I replied, my voice muffled as he hugged me tighter than he needed to.
After a few seconds, he released me. “I think I found our guy,” Kael sighed, kissing the top of my head. “Come on.”
Reluctant to let that conversation go, I started to protest, but Kael pulled me down the path to a deeply shaded area where a man jogged in a red Utah State University sweatshirt. He waved at us, stopping just a few feet shy of where we stood, and he tugged his baseball cap down on his forehead nervously. He had broad shoulders and an athletic build, and a swoop of dark blond hair curled over his forehead. From behind a pair of thick-rimmed glasses, he bobbed an uncertain glance between us. “Kael and Mattie?”
“Hey, Remington,” Kael said, holding out a hand.
The other man took it, smiling with straight, white teeth and looking like Clark Kent come to life. “Hey, there.”
I stared at Remington with my jaw slack. He didn’t look like a middle-aged anything. He looked like a model. “Hey,” I said faintly.
Kael slid a suspicious look my way before returning his attention to Remington. “You didn’t have to fly all the way out here just to do all this.”
Remington shrugged, putting his hands in his hoodie pocket. “The wife and kids wanted to see New York. Seemed like a good opportunity.”
“Your kids are here?” I asked, looking around.
“Well not here,” he clarified with another smile. “Although, we’d love to have you come meet them.”
“Not a good idea,” Kael cut in, his voice clipped. “Being around us is a bit of a hazard at the moment. But I appreciate it all the same.”
“Right,” Remington nodded with forced seriousness. “Hacker spy shit.”
“You’re the hacker spy,” Kael reminded him with a crooked grin.
Remington returned the expression. “Yeah, whatever. It’s been kind of fun. Don’t tell Lachlan, because he did move there to be close to me, but Idaho is boring. It’s cool to do something useful.”
“What did you find?” I asked with greedy curiosity.
“Not here,” Kael reprimanded with a scowl.
Remington laughed. “Juicy shit. SynthoCare is a sitting duck. I think they might actually be feeling invincible or something because they didn’t even try.”
“Okay, time to go,” Kael said in a clipped tone.
I snickered. “I can’t wait to see their faces.”
“Ooh, record it for me,” Remington said with a bounce of his dark eyebrows above his glasses.
Kael steered me away. “We’re going now. Stay safe.”
“Wait,” I looked between them in confusion. “Weren’t you supposed to… I mean, he was carrying—”
Kael pulled me down the path. “Enjoy New York, Remington.”
“Thanks!” Remington gave us a winning, panty-melting smile, gave me one last wave, and then continued on his jog.
Kael yanked me in the opposite direction. “We have what we need. Chill.”
“How?”
“He gave me the thumb drive when we shook hands, okay?”
“Oh,” I gusted out. “Right.” Kael shook his head, muttering something about Siberia.
By the time we made it back to the apartment building, I found a gloom settling over my head again like a storm cloud. And to make matters worse, Kael couldn’t hold my hand or comfort me. He had to stay three paces behind me, arms folded and imitating the appearance of an aloof bodyguard.
We took the elevators to the penthouse, and Kael whispered to me just before the doors opened. “One more day.”
I fought a smile. One more day. And then what? I frowned as that question settled over my thoughts uncomfortably. What do we do when I’m free of them? Or is there a “we” in the future at all?
Assuming things did go well. Granted, there was a variable I still couldn’t bring myself to tell Kael about. But it was a non-issue. It was in the past. No matter what my parents meant for this party to be, Kael and I were putting a stop to it. It didn’t matter what Jonathon thought he was owed when I was shutting down SynthoCare anyway. He wouldn’t want to make a deal with my parents worth millions if their business was in ruins… even if he did want me.
Like my thoughts had conjured a dark spirit, I felt an unusual chill in the apartment when the guard opened the door for us. It might have been the thin film of sweat that had gathered under my baby blue athleticwear outfit, but I shivered as I walked into the foyer. Somehow, I thought something might be off. When my mother emerged from the study in a black and white, floor-length designer dress and her hair perfectly swirled away from her neck, a prickle of dread stung my skin like spitting flecks of grease from a hot pan.
“Matilda!” she smiled brightly. Her velvet brown eyes, so devoid of warmth, latched onto me, and she flared her faux lashes with pleasure. “I’m delighted you’re keeping your figure in mind, darling. Exercise is a fantastic habit. Hurry and wash up, love.”
I glanced down at my willowy frame. I resolved to eat more sweet potato chips as soon as possible. “Wash up for what?”
“We have a lunch date,” she smiled meaningfully. “With Jonathon. Isn’t that exciting?” She said this with a piercing, hard look that told me I had better be excited.
Mindful of Kael and his responsibility toward me, I plastered a smile on my face. “Oh. Nice.”
“He’s just returned from an exciting deep-sea exploration in the Puerto Rico Trench, and he wants to meet with us. He has an entire collection of mineral deposits from the trench itself that he’s installed in the chateau. Can you believe that? He lives such an exciting life,” she added with a bounce of her painted-on eyebrows.
“He’s so exciting. I almost feel better about selling you to him!” I mocked to myself.To keep myself from saying something stupid that would enrage her and tip off Kael to what was really going on, I reached into my pocket and unwrapped a piece of bubblegum. “Lunch. Got it. What time?”
“We’re leaving at twelve sharp,” she said with a point of her finger. “And please wear something appropriate.” She gave me a squinty-eyed look. “Something that does your lovely assets justice. Yes?”
I actually felt the way Kael stiffened behind me. I resisted the urge to close my eyes in frustration. “Of course,” I agreed tightly.
“Lovely.” Alicia swept a look over to Kael, and then my stomach lurched at the way her eyelids fell to half-mast as she took in his body-hugging athleticwear. “A pleasure, as always, Kael. You’ll be joining us, I hope?”
“Naturally,” Kael said with easy confidence.
How is he so good at this? I thought with a stab of annoyance. Nothing phases him.
“Perfect. I’ll see you both soon,” she smiled.
I turned and ate the distance to the stairs with long-legged strides, my insides boiling with rage and curdling my thoughts to worry. Why couldn’t Jonathon have stayed at the bottom of the fucking trench, permanently? Kael followed close behind, and I could sense his unhappiness even before the door was unlocked, opened, and had shut behind us.
I didn’t stop to look at him. I didn’t give him the chance to read me, and I headed for the shower with purposeful momentum, chewing my gum and blowing out a bubble. Kael followed, silent and watching. That was worse. Much worse. I was making it worse by reacting this way—I needed to find my indifferent mask. I breathed in deeply, sweeping into my bedroom, but slowing my steps and smoothing my features. I chewed my gum and tried to look like an indolent cow.
“Ah, ah,” Kael chided, closing my door with a snap. “It’s too late for that. Don’t hide how you’re feeling from me, Mattie Thorne.”
“I’m irritated about going to lunch,” I replied crisply. I went toward the bathroom, my sneakers squeaking against buffed hardwood floors as I peeled my lightweight hoodie over my head.
Kael caught the shirt before I could get it off my arms, and with a tug, he twirled it around my wrists, maneuvered my body to the doorway, and wedged me between his hard body and the wood trim. He pinned my bound hands above my head. My stomach somersaulted just before I gasped and hinged an outraged glare up to him. Kael stretched my arms high enough that I had to lift onto my toes. “Let’s try this again.”
I gusted out a sound of indignation. “Excuse me.”
Kael leaned down, crowding me with his scent and his warmth. “Enough of the lies.” His other hand pressed into my lower back, flattening me against his unyielding body. “The truth. Now, Mattie.”
My heart tapped an anxious percussive tune against my ribs. “I—I can’t think with you doing this.”
“Good,” he replied heartlessly. “Less scheming, more answering. Who is Jonathon?”
“He’s a work colleague.” I swallowed, accidentally downing my gum, and my eyes moved from his lips to his whisper blue gaze.
“Wrong answer.” Kael stretched my arms until they hurt, and then he hauled me up against his body like I weighed nothing. It took the pressure off my arms, but the feel of his solid torso against mine, and the way he had me surrounded by his presence was doing weird, scrambling things to my brain.
“Oh hell,” I gusted out. “Kael, you’re hurting me.”
“No, I’m not. I’m intimidating you. And it’s working. The truth, Mattie,” he snapped.
“Fine,” I squeaked. “Fine, you fucking animal. Jonathon is someone my parents want me to… marry.”
Kael loosened his hold on my body, sliding me back onto my feet but keeping my hands secured above my head. He studied my face. “Is this a party they’re planning or a wedding?”
“Party,” I rushed to assure him. “They want me to marry him because it would look good, but I’m not interested in him.”
“This is the person Augustus is making a joint venture with?”
“Right.”
“The one who likes seeing happy families?” Kael asked incredulously.
Unease slithered through me. “I guess so. He’s weird.”
“He’s thirty-eight and unmarried,” Kael shot back dryly. “He doesn’t give a fuck about family images.”
“How do you know that? How do you even know who he is?”
“I had Tabitha run his background after I saw his name on a document,” Kael admitted. “Is that a problem?”
“No,” I said quickly.
Kael cupped my jaw. “Mattie, are you in danger from this person?”
Heat suffused my neck, climbing up to my face and all the way down to my toes. I wanted so badly to tell him, to confide in him. Kael was as close to a friend as I’d had in a long time. More than a friend, maybe. I trusted him with my life. But that was because he valued mine, and if he knew what Jonathon wanted, he would sweep me away before we could finish this exit plan. We were so close. I just had to fend off Jonathon, expose my parents, cash in my inheritance, and get the fuck out of Dodge.
So, I couldn’t confide in him. I couldn’t give in to the insane urge to throw myself into Kael’s arms and unravel into the mess I really was. I didn’t know what waited for us when all of this was over, but I knew I wouldn’t forgive him if he hauled me away from my goal when I was this close to the finish line. I molded my features into nonplussed amusement. “Jonathon?” I asked with a soft snort. “No. He doesn’t even send his steak back if they overcook it. He’s a total pussy.” The memory of his wide, flat knife against my cheek surfaced in my mind. Lies, I thought with a pang of fear. He’s dangerous. Tell him, Mattie.
Kael’s grip shifted to my chin. “You wouldn’t lie about your safety, would you?”
“Of course not.” I smiled slightly. “Although… I like knowing you care.”
He lowered my arms slowly, unraveling the shirt and then tossing it aside. “You’re literally going to drive me to insanity, Mattie.” He took both my hands and cupped them between his, warming them after he’d cut off some of my circulation. “Why don’t you trust me? Still?”
“I trust you more than I’ve ever trusted anyone,” I answered honestly. “I trust you with my life.”
“But not your secrets,” he whispered. His eyebrows tilted up with concern, and it nearly chipped away at my defenses. The problem was, I got the feeling that although my walls had retained necessary layers, I had cracked Kael’s down to the foundation.