Clearly, I wasn’t the only one to notice.
“Yeah, but he was fun,” Zan says, and it’s impossible to miss the whine in his tone.
“He was,” she says with a nod, holding her hand out to him, and he’s quick to move to her. “If I might ask, what makes finding him such a priority that you needed our help?”
I open my mouth to answer, but before I can, I realize she isn’t looking at me.
No, her gaze is behind us, and I have a feeling I know what I’ll find even before I turn around, even though I really hope I don’t.
I’d hoped to shield her from this, at least until she could let me know how she wanted to handle it.
“I…” Her eyes cut to me, and I see the panic there.
“You don’t have to, Katherine.” I push past everyone around me until she’s in front of me, quickly wrapping her up in my arms.
A very unmanly wail muffled by a gag has me turning, and I hold Kat’s head to my chest, looking up to find that Jade, the tiny girl who runs the Russian mafia with her brother and cousin, is every bit as deserving of that title.
Carter is on his knees, clearly having been dropped forcibly. Her hand is wound in his hair, yanking his head back. The anglelooks uncomfortable, but I’m sure it’s nothing compared to the feel of the knife that’s biting into his throat.
“You don’t, but I promise it helps,” Jade assures her, and I see it, the flash of trauma that shines in her eyes, and while I have no doubt she uses it to her advantage now, I’m sure it wasn’t always that way.
Kat pushes at my chest, and I reluctantly let her move back enough that I can meet her gaze when she looks up at me.
Her eyes shine with determination, and I don’t want to let her do this. I want to protect her from everything, but I know I can’t, especially from things that have already happened.
I make myself let her go, or mostly let her go; letting her face this doesn’t mean she has to be alone. Letting my hand trail down her arm, I intertwine our fingers and allow her to see the position Jade has Carter in.
I’m not sure how I thought she might take it, but the way her eyes shine was unexpected. All that does is let me know how fucked he must be; our Kat doesn’t have a mean bone in her body.
Kat tells us about how they met in school, how she thought they were soulmates, and how everything was wonderful—until it wasn’t. Her face falls, and I hear her disdain seep in as she talks about how he started treating her, leaving her home, disappearing for ‘work trips,’ comparing her to coworkers.
By the time she gets to the part where she walked in on him with said coworker, I’m not the only one seething.
Jade’s guys look like they would love to tear him apart themselves.
“And you're sure you want to handle this yourself?” Jade asks, and again she doesn’t look at any of us but Kat.
She turns to look at me, and I see the uncertainty in her eyes.
I hate it and need it gone. So, I do the only thing I can think of that will whip that look away. Cupping her face in my free hand,I hold her in place as I lean into her, pressing my lips to hers with more force than necessary, as if I could physically force away her doubts with just my lips alone.
When I finally force myself to take a step back, I get the satisfaction of watching her slowly blink up at me in a daze.
“What was that for?” she asks in a quiet voice meant only for me as she presses a finger to her lip.
“I just wanted to make sure that you understood how important you are. He might be a stupid fuck with a death wish, but at the end of the day, he chased you away, right into our arms, and I’m super fucking grateful for that. For you.”
I hadn’t meant to pour my heart out, but it’s all true, and the way her cheeks heat is so damn cute.
“Yeah, Kitten, you’re ours now. So let us handle the trash and be done with it, once and for all. We have a life to build, and we don’t need any skeletons in the closet.”
Kat shakes her head at his silly metaphor, but the smile on her lips gives away how she really feels.
“If you guys want to handle him, that’s fine. I don’t care who does it. I just want him to leave me alone. I don’t want to put Addy in danger again.”
“Your daughter?” Jade’s question catches me off guard. Make no mistake, my family is very much in the public eye, but I didn’t expect her to know us, not like that at least.
“Yes, he tried to kidnap her, making Kat give herself to save her,” Vince hisses, his gun pointed at Carter as if daring him to move so that he can shoot him.
