“Are you sure?” she asked, peeking her head up above the desk while still holding on to my leg.
“911 what’s your emergency?” The operator asked. By this point we should be on a first name basis with one another.
There were only two 911 operators from our city, so it wasn’t hard to determine who answered if it went to the local police rather than the county. “There’s another body at the high school.”
“Oh dear me,” Myrtle said. “Another one. I’ll have units there in under two minutes. Actually, I think Detective Anderson is attending the game. They’ll be with you soon. Do you have an actual location in the school?”
I stepped outside to give her the room number while keeping an eye on Katy. I might never let her out of my sight again. “Is there anything else we should do?” I asked expecting her to talk to us about CPR or something. Ask if he was breathing.
“Well, actually…” she paused. “I have a bet with Mauve on when you and Katy started dating. There’s fifty bucks in it for you if you can confirm you’ve been dating for over a year.”
My eyebrows rose, and I stared at Katy. Somehow this involved her. I knew it. “Are you part of the phone tree?”
“Me?” she questioned, sounding appalled I even questioned. “Damn straight I am. Been third in line for ten years now. I have too much good insider info to be low on the list.”
This damn town. “About the detective?”
“Oh right. I’ll message him your location now. With the Katy thing is that a yes or…” She didn’t get to finish her question as I hung up and placed the phone back in my pocket.
Fucking Pelican Bay.
Sensing the danger had passed, Katy stood from behind the desk and waited beside me as we watched Lee working on a man he shot less than three minutes earlier.
“Are they supposed to try and save them after they shoot them?” Katy asked.
Jason took the bullet to the shoulder, and I was happy that he would more than likely live a long life in the state prison system. I’d make sure he paid for attacking Katy. Or she might have attacked him, but either way he’d spend a long time behind bars. “Ridge’s men have a code of conduct they operate by.”
“Too sad the bad guys don’t follow the same one.” Katy wrapped her arm in mine and leaned her head on my shoulder.
Heaven. As much as you could find it in a high school while watching blood pool around the shoulder of a man your girlfriend’s bodyguard shot.
“We should go on vacation,” I said.
Katy nodded and gave a soft hum of agreement.
The circumstances of the evening were not ones I’d ever wish for, but having Katy practically wrap herself around my body while we were basically in public had been a dream for years. My fantasies had less dead bodies and blood, but a similar general idea.
I had absolutely no idea how I planned to keep Katy safe for a lifetime. A small part of me worried attaching myself to her would probably give me a heart attack before I was sixty, but even with that knowledge, I wouldn’t change a single thing about our past, present, or future.
The bumps in the road brought Katy and me together. Without those years of strife, we wouldn’t be able to have the many years of happiness we had to look forward to. I knew it deep in my soul just like I’d always known that sooner or later Katy Kadish and I would be together.
You never bet against a Kensington.
25
Katy
“Are you sure this is okay?” I asked, as Pierce held the door to his car open for me.
He looked completely puzzled by my words. “What?”
Our walk slowed as we hit the side of the bed-and-breakfast. “Me, coming to a business meeting.” What else would he think I’d be talking about?
Pierce laughed. “It’s only Jerome. Since we missed our update meeting and meal after your… adventure Friday he wants to follow up and see you again.”
He’d refused to call what happened Friday night anything but an adventure. At first it drove me insane, but eventually I gave up and ran with it. Better than him calling me crazy or dumping me after his first real taste of the Katy lifestyle.
I planned to have many adventures with Pierce. We’d be adventuring all over the place.
