I tug her through the room, keeping her tucked alongside me. She seems slippery. Like she’ll slide through my fingers if I don’t keep her exactly where I want her.
Darkness seeps through my words. “There’s only one way I like someone begging. So, I suggest you keep your mouth shutbefore I decide to force you to your knees and shove all these useless apologies down the back of your throat with my cock.”
She gasps in shock, the sound making me wonder if that's what she’d sound like the first time my dick slides into her.
Goddamn. Get it together.
Surprisingly, she listens for a moment before her mouth parts, hitting me with a question that is just as frustrating. “You’re just going to leave him here? Like that?”
Yep. That’s precisely what I’m going to do.
Twenty-four hours from now, the stench will be so horrendous that I’m hoping it might entice someone else to come out with the truth. Rowan wasn’t alone in collecting that shipment, and I’m hoping that when I sit Cathal down in front of his friend, he won't think twice about keeping secrets from me. Unlike Rowan, Cathal has a clean record with me. He might not end up dead like the bastard who was with him, but he won't escape unscathed either.
Pushing Kate out the door, I close it behind me, forcing her down the opposite end of the hallway she ran down. She nervously nibbles on her bottom lip as I march her to one of the military-grade utility vehicles we use to navigate the tunnels. Moving to the passenger side, I toss open the door and gesture for her to get in. Kate peers at me with hesitancy before I fold my arms in a silent challenge.
She swallows and crawls in, folding her hands into her lap, anxiously fiddling with her fingers as I shut the door. I move around the front and slide in beside her, firing up the vehicle as we take off, covering the half mile of tunnels that lead from the park to Lachlan Estate.
ELEVEN | PRESTON
“Absolutely fucking not.” Carter crosses his arms over his chest in defiance, not bothering to keep his voice at an inaudible level.
Kate peeks up from her knitted fingers in her lap from the accent chair she’s sitting on in one of the guest rooms at the estate.
Her new home for the next month.
She hasn’t spoken to me since I told her I was going to leave Rowan’s body in that room. I may not have delivered the final blow to his life, but technically, he’s still dying by my hand as he goes in and out of consciousness from blood loss.
Pretty anticlimactic if you ask me.
I inwardly groan. I fucking hate not finishing things.
On second thought, I could have Imogen fix him up so I can play with him more; keep him in the cells under the park so I can drag out his sentence.
Kate is just another distraction I have to deal with, which is why I’m trying to hand her over to Carter, who is irritatingly trying to hold his ground. He knows I’ll win this battle no matter how persistent he is about protesting.
“I have enough shit to deal with as it is. You know that. All I’m asking is that you keep an eye on her.”
“Babysit,” he growls. “You want me to fucking babysit.”
Kate stands from the chair. “I can hear you, and I’m not a child.” Her eyes snag on the expansive yard, lit up in the night through the massive windows.
She glares out as if it's the first time she’s seeing the impeccably mowed lines across the grass, patio, and the blooming garden beds. It isn’t. She was so zoned out and lost in thought when I drove out of the entrance to the tunnels, located in one of our armory buildings, through the trees. I sped across the yard, and then I ushered her inside through the back door quickly, like I was a teenager sneaking in a girl behind my dad’s back for a quick fuck.
This three-story estate is elegantly ominous enough to stop most people, but it was evident that her exhaustion and fear from the last few hours had taken a toll on her. She followed me like I had an imaginary leash hooked to that pretty little neck.
An idea triggers.
I ignore her, turning my attention back to Carter, who’s fuming enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if smoke starts curling out of his nose. “You’ve got to be fucking with me, Preston. Do you think this is the best use of my time, given that these shipments are going missing? You know I’m more useful than this!”
Placing my hands on my hips, I turn away from Kate so she can’t read my lips. My voice lowers. “Will you calm your ass if I tell you that my reason for keeping her under surveillance is because I think she’s related to this damn mess?”
His brow quirks at that.
“Remember when I got on the boat the other day when we took inventory, and I said I found someone on our dock?” I refresh his memory.
His tone softens for the first time since I called him into the guest room, but it still contains that dangerous edge. “That’sher? And you found her in the tunnels?” My sharp nod has him muttering, “Fuck.” He drags his fingers through his mussed hair in contemplation. “Yeah, I’ll keep an eye on her. If it will help.”
“I have an idea to keep track of her. Just give me some time.”
