“You must be worn out, Kat. I’ll go with Nick,” Jake says sheepishly.
“I’m fine. I’ll turn in early tonight. No biggie,” she says waving him off before pinning me with a glare. It’s starting to get funny at this point. You’d think I kicked his puppy the way she’s acting.
“I’ll take him, Kat,” I command as her hackles go up.
“I said I’m fine,” she grits out through her teeth.
It’s better than one word responses.
“And I said I’ll take him. I’m glad everyone is doing a good job of listening,” I snark.
“Jake can you give us a minute?” she asks turning around from the sink to face us.
“Sure,” he replies with giant eyeballs pointing at me. I know, man.
Jake bolts up the stairs and Kat waits until she’s sure he’s gone before she lays into me.
“You don’t run me. You may be my pretend husband when we’re in public, but when it’s just us you don’t run shit,” she seethes stopping on the other side of the bar in front of me.
Her hazel eyes are narrowed and her chest is heaving with quick breaths, but otherwise she’s completely in control. Let’s see what I can do about that.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Sunshine. I run this shit. I run anything and everything that I do so that now includes you. You wanna be pissed about that? Fine by me, but you’ll do what I say for two reasons. One, this is my op. If you wanna question Shane or Hal be my guest, but they’ll tell you the same thing. Second, I’m a man through and through. I don’t take shit from anyone. I can be respectful and kind when necessary, but at the end of the day, what I say goes. You’re my wife for all intents and purposes so you need to get used to this. From now on we’re the Johnsons twenty-four seven. We have no clue what we’re up against here so the op is on at all times. Get that or get your ass on a flight back to Virginia and ride a desk until Shane can find you something else,” I finish blankly and stand up to find myself some breakfast.
“Are you a caveman?” she asks astonished, watching me walk past her with the same big eyes she’s had since I started my diatribe.
“I’ve been called worse.”
Cereal it is. I make myself a bowl while Kat processes my words.
“I’m aware this is your op because Shane told me before we left. I was not informed you were some sort of crazy alpha male that I was required to submit to. I’d love nothing more than to tell you to go fuck yourself and climb on a plane, but I know Jake won’t come with me and I’m sure as shit not leaving him with you. So I’ll stay and be your little woman. I’ve lived with monsters before. I can do it again.”
I move quickly, pinning her to the counter from behind with my arms braced on the counter smashing her hands beneath mine. I keep my body flush with hers before dipping my head to her ear.
“I’m a monster you’ve never fuckin’ experienced. You’d be wise to steer clear of pissin’ me off just for the fun of it. I’ll take your mouth when it’s warranted, but only to a point. I’ve been nothing but kind to you since the moment you met me and I’ll continue to be kind to you. I fucked up with Jake last night and again, I’m sorry for that. It was a moment in a new house with virtual strangers, cut a motherfucker some slack. I’ll fix it with Jake today when I take him to school.”
I let her go and take a small step back. Slowly she turns around with a murderous glare on her face.
“Thank you for your kindness,” she sneers. “And for your warning, I’ll heed that information. If there aren’t any other orders I’ll go back to sleep now after sitting up all night with our nephew who was so fucked up over his nightmare that he clutched me tightly enough that I now have bruises on my back. Learn some softness, Nicky. It’ll take you miles beyond your cave.”
She pushes to move past me, but I grab her arm. Kat quickly executes a release move twisting away swiftly then punching me in the chest. I accept the blow noting she’s got some power before I encapsulate her in my arms spinning her away from me.
“I don’t wanna fight,” I whisper in her ear.
Her back is flush against my chest, her shoulders heaving with the urge to continue assaulting me.
“Show me your bruises,” I demand in a gentle tone.
I release my grip on her preparing for an attack but none comes. Kat dramatically unties her robe letting it fall to the floor before slipping off her spaghetti straps. The nightie tumbles to her waist before she stops it with her palm. On her back are small circular bruises from fingers digging into her skin. There are eight, four on each rib cage. I gently rub my thumbs down her back across the bruises. Goosebumps rise on her tan skin beneath my touch. That’s interesting.
“Do they hurt?”
“No,” she whispers the anger gone from her voice.
I wrap my arms around her waist pulling her snugly into my chest. She has one arm covering her tits and the other maintaining her nightie in its place.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper into her ear before pulling her straps back up her body and turning my head so as not to see anything when she slides her arms through the wholes. Bending at the waist, I tag her robe off the ground, holding it open for her. Once it’s around her body, I reach around, gently tying her sash.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“Can we be done fighting?”
“Yes.”
“Are we back to one word responses?”
“No, Nicky, we’re not. I’m tired and I don’t wanna fight with you. I understand how you want things now so I’ll be accommodating. I don’t need you to be soft with me, but I need you to be soft with Jake. If you’ll do that for me, you and I can coexist peacefully,” she says softly with her back still to me.
I spin her around and tip her chin up with my finger. Her face is stunning, but her eyes are tired.
“I’ll be soft with you and Jake both. I spent a decade bein’ a monster and that’s not an easy skin to shed. We have to be able to do this thing between us all the way. If you’re gonna hate me most of the time it won’t play. Do you want me to call Shane? I can pull you outta this today, but it needs to be now.”
“I’m good. I’ll get some sleep and feel better. I appreciate your apology and I accept it. It’s been a rough few days for me and I’m a bit off. I won’t be this difficult most of the time. Let’s put it behind us and move forward.”
She leans up on her tiptoes and pulls my face down to her with her hand behind my head before pressing a soft kiss to my cheek.
“Have a good day, Nicky,” she murmurs into my skin.
“Get some sleep, Sunshine.”
She nods pulling away and offers me a sweet smile before leaving the kitchen and my head in a clusterfuck.
Kat
Fucking prick! Nick Cooper is a fucking prick and I’m tempted to put my gun down his throat. I run shit. Well fuck you buddy!
I hurl myself into our mammoth bed and punch my pillow twenty times before I collapse. Yes, I was hard on Nick for how he treated Jake last night. The tone he used with him was so devoid of any sincerity it riled me up. If Nick had just let me cool down, take Jake to school and get a nap, we never would have had an argument just now.
I’m glad we did though. The jerk almost had me fooled. I thought he was sweet and quiet. Turns out, he’s some raving controlling lunatic. He can’t be worse than Marco and I don’t have to have sex with him so that’s a bonus. I’m a chameleon. I can do this. I can be the good little wife that lets her man run shit. This is just another op.
I get up on my knees and attack the pillows a bit more before I hear a throat clear.
“You’re a good actress, Sunshine,” Nick purrs from behind me.
Shit. I punch the pillow.
Double shit! Two punches.
“There’s a reason I have this job,” I huff diving face first into the mattress.
“Wanna punch me?” His voice is now at the edge of the bed.
“Yes,” I shout into the duvet.
He chuckles his warm belly laugh.
“All right. Come on.”
I turn my head as he’s peeling out of his robe and then his shirt. Good God this man’s body looks better in daylight. I caught a glimpse last night during the craziness with Jake, but this is a treat. His chest is perfectly sculpted completely bare of any chest hair with smooth olive skin. His arms are thick and chiseled all the way down to his wrists. I can’t see it, but his back is surely defined at the same level as the rock hard unflexed eight-pack I’m currently ogling. Hello man V of the gods.
“Like something you see?” he teases.
He’s trying to lighten the mood back to joking between us.
“Just the target I’m painting on your chest.”
“Are you shooting me or punching me?”
“Today?”
He nods.
“Punching. I think Shane’ll fire me if I shoot you day one.”
He chuckles again. I stand up off the bed and remove my robe before squaring my shoulders and unleashing a torrent of body blows. I wish I had my garish ring on right now. That thing would cause some damage. Nick stands and takes it until I land a hit under his ribs causing him to stumble back.
“Feel better?”
“Mildly,” I say with a shrug.
Actually I feel a shit ton better. Good idea Nick.
“Let’s do this next time instead of the acting and then walkin’ off to attack innocent pillows,” he suggests seriously.
“Fine. I’ll enjoy kickin’ your ass,” I sneer flopping onto the edge of the bed.
“I need you to be real with me, Kat. You can do fake in front of everyone else but with me you’re real. You’re pissed we deal. You’re sad we deal. You’re something else we deal. That’s how this works. I know I seem like a fuckin’ prick right now, but I promise I run a good op. I have to be able to trust you completely for this to work and that means you’re real with me.”
“You win. I submit and all that other shit you demanded downstairs. I don’t know if you could tell when you met me, but I usually run my own shit. You runnin’ it will take some gettin’ used to.”
I fling myself to my back dramatically, throwing my arms over my head. I’m too tired for this shit. He could tell me to do a strip tease to the “Macarena” right now and I’d do it if I could go to sleep afterward.
“I can see your nipples,” he says in a husky voice I’m not sure I’ve ever heard from a man.
“You’re my husband. Get used to it.”
“Noted.”
I wait for a moment and finally turn my gaze from the ceiling to him. He’s staring at me with lust filled dark and dangerous eyes. Oh my.
“Like something you see?”
“Kat,” he warns.
“Gonna do somethin’ about it?”
Two can play at this game.
“Careful.” His tone menacing.
“Careful of what exactly? You’re the one starin’ at my tits.”
“Kat,” he growls.
“Yes,” I purr.
“Don’t,” he seethes, never leaving my eyes with his gaze.
“’Kay.”
I flop my head back down on the mattress and listen to him thud away into the bathroom. Ha! Now he’s as pissed off as I was. I slide into the sheets and pull the duvet up to my face before quickly finding sleep.
“Kat,” a male voice whispers in my ear.
“Huh?” I grunt.
“Kat, wake up. You’ve slept the day away. I’m a growing boy that needs to be fed,” Jake teases.
I open one eye just a slit to see Jake lying in bed with me peering sweetly into my face with his big brown eyes.
“Hey,” I groan stretching my arms above my head. “How’d it go at Maybelle High?”
“Fine. Found my locker and my classrooms. I’m not sure signing up to go back to high school was my brightest choice though. I forgot how awful that shit is,” he huffs rolling to his back.
“It’s good to get your feet wet on an op at your age. You’ve got three more years of training before you’re an agent. This’ll be good…in a shitty way.”
“I’m sorry about last night, Kat. I haven’t had a nightmare that bad in a long time,” he whispers.
“There’s nothing to apologize for. Life has a jacked up way of dealin’ with shit. Nightmares are part and parcel of life and this job. I struggled my first few years with ’em. I always felt better when I had someone with me afterward…even a mark.”
“You still have ’em? The nightmares?”
“Not really. I don’t know how to explain it. One day they were just gone. Maybe I’d done so much fucked up shit by that point my brain couldn’t pick what to torture me with so it gave up.” I shrug.
Jake moves his gaze from the ceiling back to my face.
“It’s the bedroom.”
“The bedroom?”
“Never had one of my own. Whenever I’ve slept in one…” he trails off not needing to finish.
I saw the fear and I’m pretty good at math. Someone in his life did some fucked up shit to him.
“Can I help you with that?” I ask softly running my fingers through his shaggy light hair.
“I need to do it on my own. But thanks, Kat. I just really…thanks,” he breathes out closing his eyes.
“You’re welcome. You need anything I’m always here.”
I stroke his hair a few more times before patting his cheek and sitting up. I look over at the clock that reads 3:32 pm. Shit I slept all damn day!
Sliding off the bed, I right my extremely annoying nightie.
“You and Nick gonna be all right?” he asks standing up from the bed.
He looks so cute in a white polo and plaid shorts.
“You and Nick all right?” I return.
“We’re fine. I get that you were pissed at how he talked to me, but that shit doesn’t faze me. I wasn’t mad at Nick. I wasn’t offended by Nick. He’s a good guy. He apologized and offered to help me out just like you. You can call off your dogs if you’re only pissed because he was a kinda rough during a weird situation.”
When he puts it like that, I feel like a complete drama queen. I have too much pride to admit that though.
“He also informed me that he runs shit and that I’m expected to just take what he dishes out. That’s my bigger irritation at this point,” I huff.
“Can you imagine Nick not runnin’ shit? Have you met him? Do you know anything about his last op?”
“I don’t know much. I know it was ten years long, which is well outside company norms. I know he informed me he’s a monster like I’ve never encountered. I’ve been with the company long enough to know how guys like Nick work, all bossy and demanding. Just never had it laid out for me like he did this morning.”
“He was an enforcer in a crime family. I know that much. There’s not a lot of detail in his files beyond that, but from what I gathered, he’s lived a long time runnin’ shit in a way you and I haven’t. That doesn’t just go away because he has to play family man now.”
Well, that gives me a bit of insight into the man pretending to be my husband. A decade of murder, torture and God knows what else would be hard to break out of.
“Did Shane tell you Nick was runnin’ this op?”
“Yeah,” he says like I should know that too.
I lied when I told Nick I knew. Well, that entire interaction was me lying and faking just to get away from him before I did something that would surely get me fired.
“Damn it. Shane did not tell me. He’s got an ass whipping coming his way once we’re back in Virginia.”
“I suspect he didn’t tell you because you wouldn’t have taken that news very well. He needed you here. Shitty move, but it makes sense.”
“You’re too sweet and too logical for me to talk to anymore.”
He beams a bright shiny smile at me and I beam one right back.
“Nick did say we’re now workin’ the op twenty-four seven. I think that’s
a good idea. I feel like there are eyes on us wherever we turn. When we walked around the high school there were definitely interested eyes on us.”
“It’s easier to work an op that way. It gets exhausting going back and forth, at least for me. I can’t be super Stepford all the time though. My brain’ll rot. But I can do the housewife roll with ease. So with that in mind I need to get dressed and begin preparing dinner.”
“You a good cook?” he asks excitedly.
“I do all right,” I lie. I’m a damn good cook when given the opportunity.
“Liar,” he snorts. This kid reads people too well. I’ll have to keep that in mind.
I scrunch my nose at him gaining me a tickle of laughter that warms my soul. I like Jake…a lot.
“I’ll be down in a bit,” I say turning toward the bathroom.
After a miraculous shower that took me a good ten minutes to figure out how to operate, I feel like a new woman. I would love to sink into a pair of jeans and a hoodie, but I have nothing close to that in my closet. I did find a pair of blush colored Marc Jacobs twill pants and a coordinated striped crew neck capped sleeved shirt. There’s a manual in the dressing room that helps me out (instructs with precise detail) with my wardrobe. I’m not an idiot when it comes to fashion, but I’m not from the multimillion-dollar-mansion thousand-dollar-pants world either. I’m happy for the assistance.
I leave the make-up light and nude with a pink lip and my hair in an off kilter chignon at the base of my head. No fluffy bunny slippers so I settle on low heeled strappy sandals. Small drop pearl earrings and a pearl bracelet with diamond accents are in place with my Franck Muller diamond faced watch. I’m a vision of Stepford.
I step into our bedroom and quickly make our bed before heading to the kitchen to feed my family.
When I enter the massive space I find it empty, save for a murmur coming from the family room. I take a few steps in that direction to find Jake and Nick stretched out on the couches watching ESPN.
“Good afternoon boys,” I call out to them.
Jake, like a good teenager, simply waves his hand over his head without looking at me. Nick swiftly scissors up off the couch to come and greet his wife properly. He makes his way through the room slowly, allowing me to drink in his appearance. Perfectly tailored dark wash jeans hug his thighs just enough to let you know the legs beneath are defined and powerful, paired with a snug charcoal polo. His wrist is adorned with an all black Franck Muller skeleton watch. His wedding band is wide and shiny, glinting in the sun streaming through our wall of glass in the breakfast area.
Into the Blackness (Blackness Series Book 4) Page 5
