Page 2 of Herding Cat

He did that.

Sometimes without trying.

“We’re about ready to dock.” The low voice to her left shattered the moment. It was a relief. Catherine forced her attention from Garrett to Scott. Now there was a bodyguard. He didn’t burn her with a glance. He didn’t make her lower limbs all quivery. He didn’t fill her mind with all kinds of ridiculous, erotic fantasies. He didn’t loom.

Garrett, however, did. “Should we go down, ma’am?”

She tried not to flinch at that ma’am. She hated being called ma’am. It scraped at her nerves. She arranged her teeth into something slightly resembling a smile. “Catherine,” she said through the clench. “I told you to call me Catherine.”

Garrett nodded; there was a ghost of a smile on his face. “Yes, ma’am.” He held out an arm. “Shall we?”

Catherine blew out a breath and then nodded, preceding her escort back inside as the ferry grated into its slip at the Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry Pier in Kowloon. She made it a point not to touch him as she passed. But she did catch a whiff of his aftershave.

God. That aftershave should be illegal.

It could easily cause a riot.

The crowd surged toward the exits, but her party held back. There was no rush for them and, as her escorts had told her time and time again, crowds were dangerous. And while she doubted her brother-in-law would go to the effort to attack her here, so far from home, she’d been concerned enough about her safety to hire this security team from the Stone Hard SEALs protection service. It behooved her to follow their instructions.

And, Garrett aside, she did feel safer with them watching her back.

Even if Steven didn’t have the evil agenda she’d suspected him of since her sister’s untimely death, it was wise to take precautions when traveling in foreign countries. She’d done enough of that to know. Although, of all the cities she’d visited, Hong Kong was one of the safest.

Still, she was glad she wasn’t alone.

Most of the time.

She worried about her niece, Pansy, too. Worried enough to hire another of Ryder’s Stone Hard SEALs teams to keep an eye out for her back in the States. If Catherine’s instincts were right, Steven would do anything to inherit the family business, Flytower, the multimillion-dollar fashion line she and her late sister had created—and Catherine and Pansy stood in his way.

She could be wrong. Maybe her sister’s death had been an accident.

Maybe Steven wasn’t planning to launch a coup and steal the company he’d married into.

But she doubted it.

Steven was a snake. He had shifty eyes. She never trusted men with shifty eyes.

Besides, she’d rather be safe than sorry. And if she offended him by going to great lengths to protect herself and Pansy, he could just suck it. She’d never been on what one might call friendly terms with her sister’s much-younger husband.

Catherine had suspected, from the moment they met, that Steven was after Marla’s money.

Why else would a young, handsome, charming man woo a woman nearly twenty years his senior? And now...now that her sister had perished in a mysterious accident...all of her fears had been realized.

Well, most of them.

Catherine blew out a breath. She missed Marla so much. It was bad enough that she was gone, leaving a painful hole in Catherine’s world. The fact that the accident had never been explained, that Marla’s “grieving” husband had made a play for his young stepdaughter—which Pansy had rebuffed—and his ensuing attempt to take over the company made everything even worse.

It was horrible to think that had Marla not married Steven, she would still be alive.

But then, Catherine couldn’t prove anything.

Not yet.

As they filed along the aisle of the ferry toward the exit, the children of the family in front of her snagged her attention. Children often did. They laughed and giggled, flipping the seats as they passed. That was one of the really cool features of the Star Ferry. The seatbacks were adjustable so no matter which way the ship was traveling, you could always sit facing forward. One of the girls, an adorable little imp in a fancy pink dress, with her silky black hair pulled into two pigtails tied with ribbons, made Catherine’s heart ping painfully. Her grin was enormous and her laugh infectious.

It took some effort to bury the regret in her heart.

She’d been a mother once.