Page 5 of Herding Cat

To his utter relief, she nodded. He had expected—from her humming energy and the determination in her tone when she’d demanded to check up on Scott—that she might prove obstreperous.

She often was.

He lifted a hand, and a cab appeared. With a quick check of their perimeters, he handed her in and then dropped onto the seat beside her. The cabbie glanced back at them and, even as Garrett named their hotel, Catherine said, “King’s Park.”

He glared at her. “We’re not going to King’s Park.”

She sniffed and waved a hundred-dollar bill at the cabbie. His eyes lit up. “Queen Elizabeth Hospital,” she said in a tone that left no room for dispute.

Garrett, however, disputed it. “Ms. Hightower—”

She whirled on him. Her expression was like a punch to the gut. He’d had no idea she had the ability to cry, as frigid as she was, but there were tears in her eyes. “I have to make sure he’s okay,” she said in a whisper.

Garrett had no idea why her anguish made him all gooey inside. He was a former Navy SEAL. There was not a gooey bone in his body. He couldn’t help pulling her into his embrace, though he shouldn’t have. It was far too tempting.

For some reason, she allowed it.

“He’ll be fine. Trust me. I’ve known Scott for years. The car barely clipped him.”

“He was hit because he was protecting me, wasn’t he?”

Ah, hell. Yeah. He should never have pulled her so close. Her gaze, wide and watery, locked on his. He could taste her exhalations. Her body was warm against his and too damn soft. It made him...want things. Things he had no business wanting.

“He’s tough.”

“But it’s true, isn’t it? If I hadn’t hired him, he wouldn’t have been hurt. Would he?”

Fuck. It was true. But she needed to see the big picture. “No.”

Her chin wobbled.

“You would have been. And you probably would have suffered more than a broken leg. That car changed direction, veered into another lane...to hit you. Do you understand?” He scraped back her hair and held her head so she couldn’t drop her gaze. “Do you?”

“You think it was deliberate?”

“I think it could have been. I think it’s suspicious enough for us to take precautions. Like going back to the hotel.”

She huffed a breath. “I’m here on a business trip. I cannot spend the whole week in a hotel.”

“I know that. I was talking about tonight. We usually work two deep and with Scott out of action, I’d rather have you someplace manageable, where I know I can keep you safe. Tate and Luke will come on duty in the morning, and the three of us will make up a schedule to make sure you have full coverage when you go to your meetings. But tonight—”

“Tonight we’re going to check on Scott.”

Damn, she was adamant.

He couldn’t help liking that about her.

“And then we go to the hotel?” He could probably live with that concession.

She stared at him for a long moment. Outside the cab, the city whipped by in a blur. The night lights were coming on and the streets were a splatter of multicolored neon. “All right,” she said at long last. “After I’m certain Scott is okay, we’ll go back to the hotel.” She pulled away—he couldn’t help regretting that—and crossed her arms, staring forward. “I wanted to go to the Night Market tonight.” A mumble.

His gut clenched. The Night Market was a vibrant, bustling sector of Kowloon, endless with writhing mazes of stalls selling everything from Pashmina shawls to Louis Vuitton knockoffs. It was jam-packed and chockablock with vendors, tourists and pickpockets. It was a nightmare from a security perspective.

She caught his expression and laughed. He liked to think she wasn’t laughing at him. “Don’t worry. I won’t sneak out. I’ll wait until we have a full team.”

Thank. God.

Thank. Fucking. God.