Atria’s stomach dropped.Shit.
ChapterTwenty-Two
In the end,Kaz did not, in fact, call his brother. He texted him.
It was the coward’s way out, but he was too focused on what had to be done to care. It wasn’t like he could risk staying on the phone long enough to have his location tracked, either. It was bad enough that he had to turn his phone on at all.
Steering wheel in one hand, he activated his phone just long enough to see a cascade of missed calls and text messages, each one more furious than the last — save for one.
Blue Brother 2:04 PM: Just in case you’re not dead in a ditch somewhere, Ruby’s still missing. We’ve been forced to report it. Keep your eyes on Atria and COME THE FUCK HOME.
Kaz’s gut tightened, but the news only steeled his resolve. His mate wasn’t safe in the EVP, and the only good lead he had was close. He’d promised her that he would do this and he would. Turning back now wasn’t an option.
So he shot his brother a single message:We’re safe. I’m figuring shit out. Talk soon.
That done, he powered his phone off, grabbed Atria’s from his pocket, and heaved them both out of the car window.
Atria didn’t like seeing her phone shatter on the asphalt in the rearview mirror, of course, but Kaz stoically endured her railing at him for an hour before she eventually settled back into angry silence.
He didn’t exactly enjoy that either, but it was better than the yelling.
They’d driven well away from Denver, so it took several hours to make a circuitous loop back. There were more direct paths, but he was constantly worried that he might have missed a tail, so he took several detours.
By the time they made it back within the city limits, the sun was beginning to set. Atria hadn’t spoken much throughout the ride, but after a while, even she grew tired of the quiet.
She asked him questions about living in San Francisco and about Margot, but he preferred to listen to her speak, so he immediately redirected the conversation back to her. Kaz asked her to tell him about her work and where she’d grown up. Not only was he gathering intel on his mate, but he liked hearing her stories. He also quickly picked up on a pattern: almost all of them involved Ruby. It appeared his mate really wasn’t exaggerating when she said she really only had one close relationship.
The more she spoke, the more justified he felt in refraining from breaking the news about Ruby.
Instinct told him that it would be a gut punch, and he felt like she’d had enough of those over the past few days. He’d tell her soon, but not untilafterhis little chat with Norman.
Though she was nervous and increasingly loud about her skepticism that her ex could be the person who sold her out, Kaz had long since discarded any doubts. The hair on the back of his neck stood up whenever she mentioned his name, and not just because this was a man he knew had been with his mate. Everything Atria told him made Norman seem even more suspicious.
Of course, he wasalsoso jealous he could practically feel it oozing out of his pores.
Six fucking years,he thought for the thousandth time as the navigation system guided him down a quiet street not too far from Denver’s premier university.Six fucking years he was with her and I wasn’t.
When he spotted her at the wedding, she’d been with Norman. He might have even beenat the wedding.With her. His hands on her. At the wedding whereKaz was.
If he thought the pull made him a monster before, it was nothing compared to keeping his aggression and possessiveness in check now that he knew the man who once claimed his mate wasalsoputting her in danger.
Though he kept a calm exterior, he was certain Atria could pick up on his tightly coiled rage. He wasn’t entirely sure how she sensed emotions, but he could imagine what his must have felt like. Did she see them? Did shefeelthem? Or was it some other sense he couldn’t picture?
Every single question he came up with seemed to give rise to ten more. Every story she told, every reluctant bit of information she shared made him somehow more curious than he was before. It felt like Atria was somehow outmaneuvering him at every turn without even trying. He was on an information-gathering mission with no apparent end — something that thrilled and terrified him in equal measure.
At least he now knew that it wasn’t a one-way street. She could apparently share her feelings with him as well. She’d shared some with him in the diner, which had been… an experience.
It was just a shot of gratitude, foreign and warm as sunshine, but it felt like she’d taken a haymaker to his heart. Like she’d reached inside him, past every prickly layer, and stroked something soft and lonely he tried so hard to bury.
It was there and gone in an instant. Too soon, she was pulling away, a surprised look on her face.
Had she felt something she didn’t like? Perhaps she’d been able to sense how deep he’d begun to sink, how he’d completely lost what tenuous control he once possessed.
Maybe she felt how much I want her.
That would certainly be enough to put a shocked look on anyone’s face.
It was one of many conversations they needed to have, but not something they could talk about at that moment.
