KATE: MADISON KATE #4

by James Tate

  "Not again," I whined.

  "Sorry, Hellcat," Steele murmured, handing the envelope to Kody when he held his hand out for it. "But this time we caught him on camera. Either his inside guy really is gone, or he can't hack through Leon's security."

  My brows shot up. "We did?" Steele nodded, then my hopes soured. "But let me guess. He disguised his identity so we're still no closer to working out who he is?"

  Steele shrugged. "Yep. But at least we know our camera feeds are secure now."

  "True," I muttered, "silver linings. What is it?" I directed my question to Kody, who had ripped the envelope open and pulled out a single sheet of paper.

  "It's..." He trailed off, his eyes scanning the paper before he frowned. "It's a paternity test."

  My eyes widened in surprise. "For me?"

  Kody shook his head, holding the document out for me to take. "No, for Deb... or more specifically, for Deb's baby just before she was killed. It wasn't Zane's."

  The silence that fell over our breakfast table was thick with tension. If my mom's secret pregnancy wasn't Zane's... whose was it? Samuel's? And did that mean Zane was back on the table as a murder suspect?

  "Well," I murmured, scanning the document and comprehending very little of the information there, "that's one way to kill the mood over breakfast."

  Steele winced. "Sorry, Hellcat."

  "Not your fault," I replied with a sigh. "Just a reminder that we're nowhere even close to done with this mess. Do we think Zane might have..." I trailed off with a wince and handed the document over to Archer to read.

  "Do we think he could have killed Deb if he found out he wasn't the father?" Archer tilted his head to the side, considering. "Maybe. It depends if he even knew about this, though. This is addressed to Deb, not Zane. There's every chance she had the test done without his knowledge."

  I groaned and rubbed at my eyes. "So it could have been Samuel's baby. Which caused Zane flipped his lid and kill my mom, along with the entire household staff, then, I don't even know, came back six hours later and let me out of the closet…" I wrinkled my nose. Even knowing Zane, that didn't make sense.

  Steele nodded, thinking. "Or it was someone else's baby entirely."

  "Fucking hell," Kody muttered, then took another forkful of food.

  "Why do I get the feeling my stalker wants to help us find my mom's killer?" With a sigh, I dropped my head into my hands. "Which means he doesn't know that we already know Kruger is behind it. This is getting really confusing."

  Steele's hand moved to my back and rubbed soothing circles. "We'll work it out, Hellcat. You're not in this alone, remember? We'll take care of the assassins and Kruger in a little over a week. Then we can deal with the stalker. I give it a month and we'll be free to start over on a tropical island somewhere."

  I gave a bitter laugh. "I hate beaches; sand gets everywhere. Can we get some sexy mountain cabin near a lake or waterfall or something?"

  Archer shot me a grin across the table. "Somewhere with awesome lightning storms?"

  I moaned and nodded enthusiastically. "And snow. I freaking love the snow."

  "Sold," Kody announced as he slapped the table. "I'll get my real estate agent onto it. In the meantime, Archer, you're late for training. If you don't win your fight in two weeks, MK isn't gonna give us that four-way you've been dreaming about."

  Archer choked on the mouthful of juice he'd just taken, spluttering as he scowled at Kody. "What the—"

  "Don't act innocent," Kody teased. "It's all over your face. You got a taste of group sex, and now you're a goddamn addict. You know you talk in your sleep?"

  A faint blush crept up Archer's neck, barely noticeable under his tattoos, but he glared at Kody anyway and shook his head. "You're a dick," he muttered as he finished his juice and pushed back his chair. "You coming, Princess? I can help work on your grappling game again."

  I let out a low laugh. "Nice try," I replied. "I'm going back to bed. Kody was nice enough to move my session to this afternoon." I shot my trainer a sly grin, and he winked back at me. Yeah, we’d had a late night.

  "I hate you all," Archer mumbled, stalking out of the kitchen.

  "Hey!" Steele shouted. "What'd I do?"

  Archer just flipped him off and disappeared in the general direction of the gym. Kody helped Steele and I collect up all the breakfast plates, then dropped a quick kiss on my lips.

  "Actually sleep, babe," he told me in a murmur, "and make Steele sleep too. He looks like shit warmed up."

  "Harsh, bro," Steele muttered as he rinsed off the sticky plates so we wouldn't attract ants. Despite the fact that we had household staff, the boys were surprisingly thoughtful in small tasks like that. I'd even caught Archer emptying the dishwasher several days ago.

  Kody snickered a laugh and clapped him on the shoulder. "I call it how I see it. Now, I'm gonna go make Archer wish he'd never met me." His evil chuckle lingered behind as he left the kitchen, and I couldn't help smiling.

  I fucking loved that idiot, and I was well past due to tell him that.

  "So." Steele looped his arms around my waist from behind and kissed my neck. "I'm pretty sure Kody just told you to sleep with me, Hellcat."

  I chuckled and leaned back into his embrace. "He did. Sleep. Come on; you need a shower first." Linking my hand with his, I gave him a suggestive brow waggle and tugged him out of the kitchen with me.

  He took no coaxing whatsoever. Especially when I generously offered to scrub his back for him in the shower. After all, Kody's order had only been about sleeping, not showering, and it was a proven fact that sleep was better after sex.

  26

  Later in the day I was in the gym with Kody, punching his pads with gloved hands as he barked commands at me. He was all business for our training session, and I wasn't arguing. Our stalker mail always seemed to refocus on the stakes at hand.

  The intercom near the door buzzed, and I paused my punches to raise a brow in question.

  "I've got it," Archer muttered, getting up from his seat against the wall where he'd been watching and offering critiques. He moved over to the wall-mounted intercom and pressed the button to answer the call. "Yeah?"

  "Sir," the man on the other end said, "there's someone here at the gate asking to speak with Miss Danvers. Says his name is Barker?"

  I frowned and swiped sweat off my face with the towel Kody passed me. Why the fuck would Bark be here? Chasing more alien theories?

  "Sorry," the guard amended, "Professor Barker."

  Even stranger still. Archer met my gaze, silently asking what I wanted to do, and I shrugged. "I'm curious. Aren't you?"

  Kody snorted a laugh. "When are you not curious, babe?"

  "Shut up." I socked a gloved punch at his hard abs. He let out an ooph, even though I doubted it'd hurt him even in the slightest. My ego liked it, though.

  Archer just shrugged and pressed the intercom button again. "Let him up," he told the gate guard.

  Steele groaned and sat up from the weight bench, where he seemed to have been napping for the past half hour. "I'll grab some guns," he announced with a yawn, "never can be too careful."

  Holding my hands out for Kody to unstrap my gloves, I agreed with a sigh. "True that,"

  He tugged them off my hands, then smacked a kiss on my cheek. "Go get changed, if you want. We can make the good professor wait."

  I gave a short laugh but took him up on that offer. I still remembered the leering way Professor Barker had offered me extra credit when my grades had started slipping. So I really had no desire to chat with him while coated in sweat and wearing just a sports bra and shorts.

  When I returned back downstairs some fifteen minutes later, freshly showered and dressed in jeans and a long sleeve T-shirt, I found the boys sitting with Professor Barker in the formal dining room. Or, as I was starting to think of it, the interrogation room.

  They weren't even trying to be subtle, either. Archer sat opposite Professor Barker with his gun on the table in front o
f him. Steele leaned on the wall behind Archer, and Kody slouched causally at the head of the table.

  "Sorry to keep you waiting," I commented with a tight smile, not meaning a damn word of my apology. "I'm a bit surprised to see you here, Professor Barker."

  "Please, call me Roy," he told me with a brittle smile. He'd told me that once before, and just like then, I pretended I hadn't heard him.

  "So, what can we do for you, professor? I withdrew from your class weeks ago." I sat down in the chair that Archer pushed out for me beside him.

  Professor Barker cleared his throat, his eyes flickering uncomfortably to the gun in front of Archer, then back to me. "Well, I got the feeling our last meeting might have left you the wrong impression of me, Madison Kate."

  "It's Miss Danvers," Archer corrected him. "You're not on a first-name basis."

  Professor Barker flashed a tight smile. "Or is it Mrs. D'Ath?"

  Archer stilled beside me, and I gently placed a hand on his knee under the table. I wanted to hear what the fuck the creepy professor was here for before his brains decorated the ugly wallpaper.

  The professor puffed up a bit like he had regained a bit of his confidence. "See, I noticed your engagement announcement in the Gazette and thought it was a bit odd... After all, I could have sworn I saw your filed marriage certificate at the courthouse more than a year ago."

  I heaved a sigh. "That's a shame."

  His smile faltered. "What is?"

  "You," I replied with a shrug. "We're probably going to have to kill you now. But I guess if you came here with some important information for us...?" I left the question open, quietly hoping he had nothing. I didn't like him; he gave me the damn creeps. Apparently I'd already become jaded because I had zero qualms about leaving Bark without a dad.

  Professor Barker gave a short, uncomfortable laugh, like I was making a joke. Then his eyes flickered around at the boys, then at the gun on the table, and his face paled.

  "Look, I'm not here to make trouble," he quickly told us, holding his hands up. "I just wanted to explain. I'm writing a book, you see? It's fiction, but I've based the crimes all on real events here in Shadow Grove. The more I dug into old case files and newspaper articles, the more I discovered, and I just got a bit... uh... obsessed. I guess. I knew your mom back in the day, but we were never involved or anything. She was way out of my league, you know?" He gave another uneasy laugh, and sweat beaded on his brow.

  I drew inspiration from Archer's interrogation techniques and said nothing in response. The silence thickened, and Professor Barker shifted in his chair. Fuck, I hoped that was the chair Jase had sat in naked.

  "Why'd you come here, Professor Barker?" I asked after a painfully long silence.

  "I'm asking myself the same damn question," he admitted with a wobbly smile. "I, uh, I guess I just wanted to ask if maybe I could interview you properly at some stage? I'd really love to pick your brain about how all this crime in Shadow Grove goes so unnoticed by city and state officials."

  Wow. Professor Barker seriously had a death wish. It was almost laughable.

  I exchanged a look with Kody, who just cocked a brow at me. The implication was clear. It was my choice whether Professor Barker walked away on his own two feet... or became pig food.

  Decisions, decisions.

  Taking a deep breath, I gave Archer's knee a quick squeeze in a silent warning to not argue with me.

  "Get out of our house, Professor Barker," I said in a cold voice. "I suggest if you value your life, or your children's lives, you won't keep digging. Stick to fiction, or you'll be killed. Understood?"

  The professor blinked at me a couple of times like he thought I might be joking. Then Archer reached out and placed his hand over the gun on the table.

  "You heard her, prof," he snarled, "go now, before she changes her mind."

  It was safe to say I don't think my criminology professor could have escaped our house faster if he'd tried. I was surprised not to see a trail of piss following him, as petrified as he looked. How in the hell he'd stayed alive this long was a mystery.

  "Should have killed him," Steele murmured when the front door slammed. Kody had followed to ensure the professor actually left our property, but Archer, Steele, and I remained.

  I sighed, dropping my head onto Archer's shoulder, and leaned into him when his arm wrapped around me. "I know," I mumbled, "but I get the feeling we're going to be doing a lot of killing in the next few weeks. Maybe sparing professor Barker will balance the karma a little."

  Archer scoffed. "Doubtful. But he definitely struck me as more annoying than dangerous. We'll pay him a visit later when he's not expecting it. You know, really make sure he understands the importance of keeping his mouth shut."

  I shivered at the violence in his voice. "Damn it, Sunshine, you're getting me all turned on with that kind of dirty talk."

  Archer and Steele both laughed at that, but fuck... I wasn't joking.

  "Come on," Steele said, pushing off the wall, "it smells like Anna has dinner almost ready."

  My stomach rumbled at that comment, and I happily got out of my chair to follow him. Now that we'd gotten used to Anna cooking proper meals, it was a bit embarrassing how dependent on takeout we had been before. Not to mention how limited our diet had been.

  Now, though? Anna was turning us all into actual foodies, and she was openly proud of that fact.

  Steele had been right. Anna was just putting out the last of the plates of food when we entered the kitchen, and she happily talked us through what she'd made for us: spinach and ricotta cannelloni with a side of freshly made garlic bread. Yum. So much yum.

  After we all ate, I packed up the plates, then went hunting in the freezer for ice cream. Just because Archer needed to eat well to make weight for his fight didn't mean the rest of us had to deprive ourselves.

  Except we were all out.

  "Who ate all the ice cream?" I demanded, turning around to scowl at the three boys. All of them gave me innocent "who me?" faces, but I narrowed my gaze on Archer. He thought he was so sneaky with his late-night fridge visits, but I was onto him.

  "You. Go. Buy more ice cream." I pointed at him, then at the door. "Now."

  He shook his head. "Can't, sorry Princess. For one thing, Kody is the ice cream thief. For another, I need to get back to the gym. Big fight coming up, you know?" He hurried out of the room before I could argue with him, so I switched my glare to Kody instead.

  "Way to throw me under the bus, asshole," Kody grumbled, his cheeks pink. "But... I should really go and oversee his training."

  I rolled my eyes. "You both suck."

  Steele snickered a laugh. "I'll go, Hellcat. But only if you let me pick the movie when I get back, okay?"

  "Deal," I told him quickly.

  His eyes narrowed, thoughtfully. "And you watch it with no pants on."

  I grinned. "Deal."

  "Dammit," Kody grumbled, "well played, Max Steele. Well fucking played."

  I laughed, then followed Steele as he headed for the garage. "Wait up, I'll come with you."

  He paused, arching a brow at me in question, so I just shrugged and slipped my feet into a pair of ballet flats at the front door.

  "Safety in numbers, Max," I told him quietly. "Even on a trip to the store for ice cream."

  His lips tugged up in a smile, and when I came closer he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me into a long kiss. "You're adorable, Hellcat," he murmured, then handed me a gun. "Take this. I've got a spare in the car." I gave him a wide-eyed look, and he shrugged back. "Better safe than sorry, gorgeous. And I have confidence in your gun-handling skills these days."

  "Aw, you guys are going to give me heart failure with all these sweet comments," I teased as we continued into the garage and climbed into one of Archer's black Porsches. Steele had probably chosen it for the bulletproof glass, and for that I was thankful.

  We drove to the closest store, and Steele carefully checked our surroundings before we ex
ited the car and headed into the shop. Getting shot from a distance had made him hyper-vigilant, and I didn't blame him. We all felt that way so close to the wedding—and our trap.

  "Just ice cream?" Steele asked as we headed to the frozen section of the little store.

  I nodded, then hummed. "Do we have any Bailey's at home? That's definitely what I'm in the mood for: mocha ice cream covered in Bailey's Irish Cream." I moaned, already tasting it.

  Steele chuckled and tucked an arm around my waist. His forearm rested over where I'd stored his gun, and it was a solid reminder that we always needed to be on our guard.

  A point that was proven just moments later as I hunted through the freezer for an elusive tub of mocha swirl. It happened so quick I barely even had a chance to gasp. One second my head was buried in the freezer, the next Steele grabbed the gun from my waistband and pointed it at the hooded man who'd just approached.

  "What," Steele growled out, "the fuck?"

  The man put his hands in the air in front of him, a gesture to show he was unarmed, but his dark hood shadowed his identity.

  "I'm sorry," he said in a rough voice. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to startle you. Your gate guard wouldn't let me pass, and I just... I just need to know where he is. Okay? I just wanna know where Scott is."

  I frowned, taking a small step closer. "Officer Shane?"

  The man jerked a nod of confirmation and tipped his hood back slightly. I gasped when I saw his face. Or rather, when I saw the bruised mess that had been his face. Fucking hell, someone had seriously laid into him.

  "Holy shit," I murmured, "what the hell happened to you?"

  Scott's older brother gave me a startled look, his gaze flicking to Steele, to the gun, then back to me. "I tripped," he lied through gritted teeth. "Look, I know I'm breaking the rules, but I just want to know where my brother is and I know you know. Please just tell me."

  "Rules?" I repeated, dumbfounded. "What rules?"

  Shane's nervous eyes flicked to Steele again, and understanding washed over me. Oh, I see.