Rather than running from my methods like a little bitch, I straightened my shoulders. “You’re a soldier, Taube. You’ve interrogated people before. Hell, everyone knows what went down in GITMO. Not sure you’re someone who has the right to judge?—”
“Oh, I don’t judge. But Kitty will.”
My temper fractured. “If you’ve done anything to hurt her?—”
“What, more than you have, you mean?”
I gritted my teeth. “You have sixty seconds to leave before I forget that you’re an ally.”
“My only ally is myself,” she spat.
“Cin,” Chad beseeched. “That’s not true.”
“Sure it is.” She barked out a laugh. “Didn’t see you calling my phone when you heard I was presumed dead, Chad. Didn’t see you flying to Cancún to go through the rubble for me. Didn’t find you outside my door, waiting for me once you knew I was alive…
“No. I’m on my own. You can fuck off.”
With that, she snapped the baton back into place and sauntered over to the gates like she had all the time in the world.
It spoke of my trust in her ingenuity that I let her go at all.
While furious and well aware that I had yet more shit to fix with Kitty, I had no doubt that Taube had ensured her exit.
And frankly, I didn’t feel like picking my limbs up off the asphalt.
So, I turned to the man Icouldraze with my fury. “You’re in a relationship with her?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Sometimes.”
I didn’t ask him if he was insane. He had to be. Yet, the level of anguish in his eyes spoke louder than words.
“The other night, where were you?”
“With a friend. We held a private wake.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I love her, Stan.”
I stared at him. Blankly. Unsure if there could be much worse a punishment than loving a creature like Taube…
“Go to her,” I grumbled eventually, releasing a put-upon sigh as I watched Taube stride from the warehouse courtyard like she owned the place.
I was no Cupid, but I couldn’t deny Taube had helped bring Kitty back to me faster.
“No. She wouldn’t welcome me.” He ran a hand over his head. “Aren’t you going to go after her?”
“No.” I could literally hear my death knell. “She did me a solid.”
“What?!” Chad sputtered.
But he wouldn’t,couldn’tunderstand.
Anyone else, I’d have strung them up by their tongues for daring to get between me and my woman.
But Taube’s words had hit a nerve.
Because she was right.
Again.
Kitty deserved to know what kind of monster she was getting into bed with.
