Chapter 6
“Mom, I'm not moving back home.” Kate unzipped her bag in the passenger seat and dug around for her headphones, taking the next turn at what had to qualify for reckless driving.
Her jeep skidded sideways on the gravel road, tossed back a fresh spray of gravel and dust, and then righted itself.
Not that she would mind slamming into a tree right now if that would effectively end this broken record conversation with her mother.
“But darling, Matt asks about you every day. All he can talk about is how much fun you two had together before you had to go and join that dreadful clan.”
Kate rolled her eyes. Only her mother would refer to the United States CIA as the 'clan.’
“Why you insisted on breaking my heart, I'll never know.
For the life of me I can't think of anything I've ever done to make you want to hurt me so much.” Her mother's southern accent slipped through the phone, sweet as honey but tinged with arsenic.
At twenty-seven, Kate felt that same burning sense of guilt when she knew she disappointed her mom just like she had when she was eight years old. Just like she disappointed the CIA.
“How many times do I have to tell you? It's nothing you did.
I don't make my decisions based on what other people want.
I'm a grown-up. And guess what, I was just offered a new job, this one paying twice my former salary.
I'm really excited about it. Can't you just be happy for me this one time?” Kate could practically picture the way her mom's lips turned down into a perfect frown, the kind that clearly communicated with just the slightest movement her devastating disappointment in her.
Just like she could picture her dad in the background shaking out his newspaper and rolling his eyes. Kate smiled. He, of all people, had been on her side the whole journey, and for the one time Kate could recall, he'd stood up to her mother when Kate enlisted.
Giving up her search for her headphones, she put the cell on speaker and tried to focus on her mother instead of worrying about Ethan.
She hadn’t been able to get him off her mind since that first meeting.
Something about him tugged at her – despite the fact he looked like he’d stepped out of a grunge magazine.
Kate sighed to herself. If her mother could read her mind – she’d never hear the end of that one. She had no doubt that if her mother sensed even the slightest hint of her attraction to anyone she’d drive here tomorrow to help things along. Anything to get her baby girl on track.
But Ethan was anything but on the right side of the tracks. She may have only met him briefly, but everything about him screamed bad boy.
Dangerous.
Everything in a man she despised.
So why can’t I stop thinking about him?
A deer ran into the road and froze right in front of her. Her heart rocketed up into her throat and she slammed on the brakes. “Jesus Christ!”
Her phone went flying. Her bag flew off the front set, spilling all of her clothes into the floor board. Her venti latte shot out of the cup holder and exploded over everything. Her clothes, the dashboard, her.
Fingers numb from the death grip she had on the steering wheel, Kate stared through the dripping coffee in shock at the large doe as she bounced off into the woods on the other side of the road like a near death experience hadn’t just happened.
“Katherine Elizabeth!”
Her attention jerked to her feet, where her cell lay next to the gas pedal, having momentarily forgotten all about her mom.
She snatched the phone back to her ear in time to hear her rant continue, “You do not use the Lord's name in vain.
I'm going to have to add you back to the prayer list at church, and all the ladies at Bible Study will be asking me what you did this time.”
“I almost had a wreck, Mom.”
“Not an excuse. There are plenty other nice young ladies out there who don't use curse words when they're upset.” If Mrs. Georgia Elise were ever held up, she'd probably lecture the person holding her at gunpoint on manners.
“Sorry, mom.” She stuck her phone between her ear and shoulder and reached for her bag, praying her clothes weren’t ruined. She pinched a shirt and lifted, her hope dying as the dark coffee dripped from the button up and into all of the equally wet clothes beneath it.
Ruined. Everything she’d bought for the training was completely ruined.
“Are you okay? You didn't really have a wreck, did you? Do I need to send your father?”
Fighting off a mild panic attack, Kate said, “It's okay, it was just a deer.”
“There should be a law against those animals. Your sister had one actually run into the side of her car last week. Little Robbie was in there too, scared my poor grandbaby to death. Nearly gave us both a heart attack.”
“Was anyone hurt?”
“No, thank heavens. They'd just pulled to a stop.”
Kate slapped her lips together. Her mother freaked out about a deer hitting her sister’s parked car when Kate could've died. She sighed...and so the world turns, her mother would never change and Kate would never be the perfect daughter.
Kate used the small dry portion of her jacket sleeve to wipe her face dry, leaning up to glance into the rearview mirror, only to groan. Great. She had to go train with him and not only was her power suit soaked, her hair was plastered to her temples.
“Anyway, the reason I called was to tell you that your sister is pregnant! Isn't that wonderful? I'm going to be a grandmother.”
“Mom, that's her fourth kid. You're already a grandmother.” Her little sister had done the dutiful thing, marrying a nice local farmer and settling down a mile from her parents’ house, proceeding to pop out kids left and right and stay home and raise a family.
Georgia huffed. “Oh Kate, if you had children you'd know that every single one of them is special and precious and the most wonderful gift God could ever give us. Why you must deny me that joy, I haven't figured out.”
Kate shut her eyes for a moment, trying to block out her mother and her desires. If only she'd been born complacent and happy with her lot.
Kate opened her mouth, ready to cut the conversation short, but she had no hope of stopping this roller coaster. Her mom had already started the downhill swoop and she wouldn't stop until she hit the end.
“Your sister's husband won Farmer of the Year for Cleburne County, and you know what? They come over to eat every Sunday after church. I get to see them all the time.” Her mother's voice wobbled and Kate sighed. “And I don't stay awake at night worrying about her safety.”
Kate bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. She'd have to ride it out or hang up on her mother altogether, something that would earn Georgia's unending animosity.
“Honey, it’s just that I want you to get out those books and start trying to live a little. You’re a beautiful woman, even if it’s not with Matt, I wish you’d at least try dating. Your child bearing years are narrowing by the minute.”
Definitely time to nip this conversation in the bud. “Mom, listen—”
“You can’t put me off forever.”
Leaning her head back against the head rest, Kate stared blankly at the overgrown trees and dirt road stretching out in front of her. She was literally sitting in the middle of a gravel road in the middle of nowhere listening to her mother lecture her on approaching spinsterhood.
How did she even have cell service out here?
Why hadn't she thought of this before? Being lost in the woods in southern Mississippi offered one and only one perk. “Mom. There. Can't. No. Service.”
“Katherine, please be careful. Please, call to let me know you’re safe.”
“Love you, Mom.” Kate disconnected the call. Her mom should get national recognition as the Grand Master of Guilt.
She'd broken off an engagement to a good boy back home, breaking her mom's expectation to marry and stay home to pop out a herd of children like her sister. And then she'd gone and committed the ultimate of all betrayals: she tried to join the military.
A man's profession.
Then came the revelation of her ineligibility and her successive move into the CIA, a place of inherit evil according to the good folks of her hometown in Greenville, South Carolina.
Well, she didn’t have time to worry about that now.
She had to find her training camp and pray they had a washing machine- otherwise she’d be stuck wearing coffee the rest of the week.
Keeping a watchful eye for deer, Kate eased off the brakes.
After another twenty-minutes of driving she started to worry.
How long was this road? If she didn’t find her way out of the woods in the next ten minutes, she’d have to break down and call Grey for directions, even if it made her appear totally incompetent for her new job.
If she couldn't follow the simple map he’d laid out for her to the training grounds, how would he ever have confidence in her abilities to run or participate in an operation?
Short answer: he wouldn't and Kate would find herself back in her apartment hugging a gallon of Ben he didn't have a classically handsome face, his features were too harsh for that. He'd had a rough life, that much was obvious, but the barely suppressed intensity in his eyes called out to her.
Although his too-long black hair and thick beard made her fingers itch for a pair of scissors and a comb.
She approached him cautiously, like she would a wild wolf caught in a bear trap. All too aware of how horrible she must look and smell, she tugged her jacket tight around her stained white shirt as she neared him.
She tried to find something about him that she didn’t like. But even the black leather chaps and matching vest wasn’t enough to blind her to his devastating good looks.
They just made him appear more dangerous…and sexy.
Dear lord, this was going to be a very long two weeks.