Chapter 12
Kate
The ease with which they fell into a routine surprised Kate—the fact that she let him get away with lying to her surprised her more.
Nights and weekends were spent at his house.
They’d stopped at her apartment to pack up two full suitcases so she had plenty of clothes.
But on two separate occasions, she’d found him gone and his security completely unaware that he’d left.
She’d suspected it that first weekend, but when it happened twice in the same week and he gave her no explanation she couldn’t excuse it or brush it off.
The fact that he’d done it on her watch added to the sting.
First in the office that morning, and then again after they’d gone home. He’d mentioned reviewing some contracts and that he’d join her in the pool, but he was a no show. She’d searched the whole house and he wasn’t present.
His security was still on the gate. Giving in to temptation, she turned on the GPS tracker in his phone and found it—in his home office. He’d left it sitting right on the desk. Picking it up, Kate turned the device over in her hand.
Since meeting Richard, she’d never seen him without his phone. Panic burned like a flash fire in her system.
If he left it here… The door creaked behind her and she turned. Richard stood in the entryway, keys in one hand and his expression unreadable. “Hey.”
“Hey?” Irritation scraped along the inside of her skin. Holding up his phone, she raised her brows. “Where did you go?”
He flicked a look from her to the phone, then back to her. “I thought we might grill by the pool for dinner.” That wasn’t an answer. He set the keys down on the bookshelf and shrugged out of the suit coat—a different one from what he’d worn to the office.
“Richard?”
“Or we can order in.” He gave her an easy smile. “Whatever you want. Though, I like the second option because it means we can eat in bed. What do you fancy? Chinese? Thai? Mediterranean?”
Kate grew tired of biting her tongue. It hurt. “I’ll pick up something on my way back to my apartment.” She tossed his phone and strode past while he fumbled to catch it.
“Hey.” Richard followed her down the hall and then up the stairs. But she didn’t stop, and continued to the guest room where she’d left her overnight bags. Her shoulder throbbed with the tension cramping her muscles, however, she continued moving. If she stopped she’d either cry or punch him.
She didn’t really feel like doing either.
Richard’s hand came down on her arm and stopped her at the door. “Kate, stop.”
After halting, she refused to turn. “Yes?”
“You’re angry.” And his almost conciliatory tone was the last straw.
“No, I want to shower, change and go to my apartment.” Firming her lips into a thin line, she pivoted to face him. Since he’d ducked answering her question without any pretense of lying, she waited a beat.
He sighed. “Look, Kate, you’re mad because I left, but I had somewhere I needed to be.”
Which wasn’t really an answer. Her pulse thrummed with the surge of adrenaline. He’d been out there, alone and exposed. Anything could have happened. “You’re an idiot.” She shoved him back a step, then retreated into the guest room and slammed the door in his face for good measure.
Fuming, she scanned the room for her bags.
They’d been on the bed and now they weren’t.
Crossing the bedroom to the closet, she pulled it open.
All of the new clothes with their tags still in place seemed to mock her, she still had no idea why he had the clothes.
Unfortunately, her bags weren’t in evidence.
Aggravated, she headed back to the door.
One part of her mind seemed to take a step back, and recognized her wholly irrational reaction as that of a jealous, worried lover instead of the cool practicality that came from being a bodyguard.
But I am his damn lover. She’d given up the bodyguard gig and traded it in for his bed.
Fists clenched, she stopped just short of the door.
His leaving without word or security baffled her on all levels—the soldier and the woman.
Blowing up didn’t help her cause. Exhaling a long breath, she tried to gather up the ragged ends of her temper.
Opening the door to his cool, impersonal attorney’s face aggravated her all over again.
“As I was saying,” he began as though she’d never slammed the door. “I had somewhere I needed to be—”
She cut him off with a wave of her hand. “Without your security?”
“Look, if they can’t figure out how I’m getting out then neither can the people they’re supposed to be protecting me from.
And I still think that was a random act of violence and the only reason I haven’t called Armand on his over protectiveness is that you were hurt.
” Anger tensed his jaw and for a moment, she saw the same flash of danger in him she’d seen that day on the golf course when he’d taken on Bing in her defense.
The flutter in her stomach warned her she found it just as attractive now as she had then. That only served to piss her off more. “I can’t believe you would endanger yourself so recklessly.”
Impatience mixed with arrogance cooled his dark eyes. “You let me worry about the choices I make. Now, did you have a preference about dinner?”
Frost hung off his every word and she nearly shivered, suddenly aware that she wore only her bathing suit with a towel wrapped around her waist. “So you’re done discussing this?”
“Yes, I am. I’m sorry you’re upset,” he said, cool dismissal in each syllable. “But you were safe here and that’s what mattered. And like I said, it’s not my problem the so-called bodyguards can’t figure out how I’m leaving…” Whatever else he said faded as her temper spiked.
He was absolutely right. It wasn’t their fault they didn’t know how he did it. She hadn’t reported his absences. With that thought riding her, she spun away from him again and headed for the stairs.
“Kate?”
She ignored him for the second time in as many minutes and took the stairs two at a time. Her shoulder still ached, but it had nothing on the sick feeling in her stomach. If Richard got himself killed on her watch… She couldn’t complete that thought.
It mattered to her.
He mattered.
In his office, she picked up the keys and looked at them. There were three—and one was for a vehicle. She ducked around him and checked the garage, neither of the cars responded to it. When he went to block her path, she eluded him again.
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded and followed her as she went out the back door to the deck and the pool.
No way he left via the front with the guards.
They would know. So that left somewhere from the deck—which meant he’d slipped out either while she was swimming laps or while she’d changed.
The deck overlooked the beach, and the rock face was pretty sheer, but that didn’t mean it was all sheer.
“Kate,” Richard repeated, standing at her elbow now. “What are you doing?”
“Figuring out how you do it.” She told him bluntly. “If you want to endanger yourself, then I need to know not only when, but how.” If that meant following him next time she would.
Scrubbing a hand over his face, Richard eyed her. “You don’t have to do that.”
Oh the hell I don’t. But she kept that sentiment to herself as she studied the lay of the land.
The pool area was gated, and boasted a significant fence, not that it needed one—nothing about it was visible from the road or the beach and his nearest neighbor was more than a half mile away.
Prowling past him, she walked the perimeter and if she hadn’t been looking for it, she wouldn’t have seen the difference in the boards.
A gate blended into the fence line—it had no actual handle, just a different seam for the wood.
Across the pool, nestled against the rocks was another more obvious gate, but those were for the pool cleaner and pump.
Richard stopped a pace behind her and she glanced at him once, then pushed the slightly off-sized wooden panel and heard the distinct pop and lock as the gate opened.
The sun slid down the western sky, but there was still plenty of light to see the slightly worn track that led from the gate over the hill. She made it three steps before Richard said, “Wait—please.”
The trail was nestled right against the hill. She couldn’t see the road or the beach. The house blocked it from view. “Are you going to tell me now?”
“Kate, you have bare feet.”
That wasn’t an answer, so she plunged onward intent on following the trail.
“For the love of God, you’re stubborn.” He all but growled the words. Aww, had she pissed him off?
Good.
“I’m sorry pot, what did you call the kettle?” But her temper had cooled, because she could see the trail went for a ways and if it continued down the side of the hill, it likely let out in one of the other neighborhoods.
She glanced at the keys in her hand. It wouldn’t be hard to park a car there or rent a garage.
“Stop. Seriously, stop.” Richard caught up to her. When he took her arm and tugged her around, she let him. Worry furrowed his brow. “If you don’t know the way, you could get hurt.”
“I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself, remember?” But it wasn’t his words that halted her but the bleak expression on his face.
“I remember you getting shot because you were with me,” he said quietly. “Come back inside. Trust me.” When she didn’t move immediately, he cupped her chin and brought his forehead to hers. “I promise the next time I go, I’ll tell you.”
“Take me with you,” she countered.
“Kate…”
“No, if I’m in, I’m in.” God, was she in. Losing him would be harder than losing a limb. She’d been stupid not to realize how far she’d fallen for him. “Let me in.”
He sighed. “Babe, don’t you understand how far you already are?”