His Dirty Secret (Best Friend Series Book 2)

by C. M. Steele

  “I have to head back. Enjoy your lunch. I’ll be with Nora. By the way, I really like her.”

  “Thanks, Joey.” I smiled like silly fool, but I loved it when he called me that.

  “Bye, Dad.”

  I hurried out of the trailer, so I wouldn’t get all emotional, and then fell and tripped at the bottom of the four damn steps. I groaned because that shit really hurt. Before I could get off the gravel, I felt strong hands grab hold of my biceps and lift me to my feet. I knew who it was from his manly scent. I looked up into panicked eyes.

  “Are you alright, Kitty Kat?”

  “I’m okay. Just embarrassed as fuck, but alright.”

  “Don’t. But next time don’t try to run in a construction site. It’s not a damn emergency just to try to get away from me. And look where it got you? In my arms,” he huskily replied.

  “I wasn’t running from you, but thanks for helping me up. I’ve got to go help Nora.”

  “She’s really nice. I can walk you back.”

  “No, thanks. You don’t seem to own a shirt.”

  “I own plenty, but I was working and it’s hot as fucking hell out here.”

  “I know, but it’s not appropriate in public.”

  “Kat, my shirt is right here.” He picked up a white crew tee and slipped it over his head. I watched as his muscles flex. My eyes absorbed the sight before me like it was the last time I would see it. Something told me that Liam had no intention of that being the case. If he had his way, we’d be fucking already.

  He walked me out of the job site and in to his truck. “I’ll drop you off at the cafe,” he snarled. It wasn’t far from here, but I wasn’t going to argue with him. He helped me into his truck, his hand on my backside lifting me into my seat. I tried to ignore the jolt of excitement running through my body at his touch, but I still let out a little shiver that he picked up on. With a crooked smile he said, “I promise in two days I’ll be giving you more than tingles. I’m going to worship your body like it was meant to be. Now, have fun, Kat. And don’t go falling for anyone or over anything else today.”

  With that he was silent until we got to the café. Literally three blocks away. He helped me down, touching me again. I closed my eyes against the onslaught of desire. “Have a great day, Kitty Kat,” Liam said, opening the café door. I walked in and watched as he strolled back to his truck and off to job site.

  I slowly moved to the counter where Nora was standing.

  “Wow. He must have said something to get you so flustered. Your face is beet red.” I gasped and clutched my cheeks which were extremely hot.

  “It was nothing. What do you need me to do?” I attempted to change the subject.

  “Nice try, Katrina. Don’t be embarrassed, a million women would give their souls for a man like him,” she said, patting my hand before moving to her bakery display. I stood there staring absently at the sign on the front door. It was just the first focal point that caught my eye while my mind wandered. Suddenly I wasn’t sure if I could make it the two days. Tonight was the rehearsal dinner, and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to deal with being in his presence that long. According to Nora, Liam had someone to walk down the aisle with at the wedding. It was Nora’s younger, single sister.

  Chapter 8

  Liam

  Even though the rehearsal lasted fifteen minutes at the church, they still wanted to have a dinner. I didn’t care because I would get to see Kat again, and that was worth dealing with Nora’s pain in the ass sister. I had to make a stop to pick up something special, so I was the last to show up. When I walked in the first person I saw was Mandy, Nora’s sister. She was a year younger than me, so she automatically thought we should hook up. I turned down several barbeques and get-togethers at Joe’s house because she was going to be there.

  She’d gotten divorced a year ago and was on the hunt for a rebound guy. I wasn’t that guy, but it didn’t stop her from trying to feel up on me every chance she got. I warned Joe that if she started with me again I’d never go to anywhere she was—including the wedding. He managed to keep her at bay for the most part the last few months, but the woman was a fucking flirt away from getting a restraining order put on her ass.

  She smiled at me with super white teeth. If she kept using all that whitener, her teeth were going to fall out. She was crazy as could be; her teeth were so white they were almost translucent. My eyes moved away from the desperate woman and searched for my sexy Kitty Kat.

  I didn’t see her. Walking around the room, I didn’t spot her. There wasn’t that many people here, so where could she be?

  “You look like you’re looking for someone,” Mandy said.

  I turned around to her and said, “Yes, Joe. The person I came here for. Excuse me.”

  “You don’t have to be a dick, Liam. I brought a date tonight.” She huffed away and walked up to a guy who was leaning over another woman. When she called out his name and he turned toward her, I saw fucking red. Why was he all up on my woman? Marching the fuck over there, Katrina shook her head. I guessed she didn’t want me to start some shit. It’ll have to wait, but I stepped in between the fray.

  “Kat, it’s so good to see you,” I said with a smile, kissing her cheek.

  “Thanks, Liam. Let me take you to my dad.”

  She grabbed my arm and walked me away from the two in a hurry. Kat was probably afraid I’d kill him.

  The feel of her hand touching me made me want to slam her against the nearest wall and mark her as mine. My seed dripping down her thighs after I came inside her was all I could think of. I felt territorial tonight. If anyone tried to take her away from me they’d have hell to pay.

  Something about the guy had me really fucking angry. I didn’t know if it was because he’d been about to pounce on my woman or the look of fear in her eyes. I wanted to find out who he was, but first I needed to tell her how beautiful she looked.

  “Stop,” I said, coming to a full halt just around the corner from where we were.

  “What’s up, Liam?”

  “I wanted to tell you that you look so damn beautiful,” I answered her.

  “Thank you,” she replied, her face pinking in the process.

  “I can’t wait to make love to you, Kat. Tomorrow after the wedding, we’re going back to my house. I’m going to fuck my kid into you while I make love to you all night long.”

  She gasped, blushing again. “Why wait until tomorrow? We could leave now.”

  “Because your father is spending the night at my house tonight.”

  “Well, then let me take you to him before I get too carried away and let you kiss me.” She tugged on my hand again and went on the hunt. We spotted him talking to Aiden.

  “There he is,” Joe said, giving me a hug.

  “Excuse me, I need to find the woman with the appetizers around here. I’m fucking starving, but it’s going to another twenty before the food is here.” Aiden left us to scour the crowd for something to eat.

  “I ran into Mandy right now,” I grumbled.

  “Oh shit,” Joe remarked, and I felt the ice coming straight from Kat’s body.

  “Excuse me. I have to use the bathroom.”

  “Okay. Thanks for bringing Liam to me. He’s trying to avoid Mandy.”

  “I get it.” She walked away, and Joe totally missed the rage in her eyes and the trouble he accidentally caused me.

  “We need to talk, Liam.” Joe gave me a caustic look.

  “Okay. Everything alright?”

  “Yeah, sort of.” Damn, did he know about my need to claim his daughter?

  Chapter 9

  Katrina

  I went into the bathroom to get a hold of myself. David Killian was here. I couldn’t believe that he found me after so long. It had been three years since our encounter. How he found me was a mystery, but the fact that he was with Mandy told me it was intentional.

  When they first came in I didn’t recognize him because he had a bit of facial reconstructi
on on his nose and was wearing blue contacts. It took until he cornered me and spoke for me to recognize him. “If you say a word to anyone, I’ll put a bullet through your father’s head,” he whispered. Then the shivers ran through my body. The look in his eyes had been as cold as they were that day. I thought he was going to drag me out of the place, but then Liam showed up to the rescue. I wanted to alert everyone, but I was afraid he would attack my dad. The fear of the past washed over me, and I tried to play it off with Liam.

  After getting my shit together, I decided to stay close to a couple of the guests including Aiden. I didn’t want anything to do with Liam now. He had been with Mandy, and that was too much for me to take in at the moment, not when I was hoping to get Killian out of here before he got to my father. My feelings were too raw to even look at him. I wanted to get some air and get away from Killian’s eyes that had been on me everywhere I walked in the room.

  I decided to walk out on the back deck that led to a garden, and Aiden had been out there on his phone. I was just about to tell him to call the cops when Mandy walked up on us. “Your mom is looking for you,” she told Aiden. He squeezed my arm goodbye and went to look for Nora. Once he was out of sight, Mandy turned her angry expression on me.

  “So there you are. I want to have a little heart to heart with you, Katrina before the food comes,” Mandy said snidely. I didn’t like her since Nora mentioned her.

  “To have a heart to heart, you actually have to have one, and I’m afraid you don’t qualify,” I hissed back. She had been looking at me in disgust since she walked into the restaurant.

  “Listen, you little bitch. Stay away from Liam. I want him and now instead of his eyes on me, they’re on you. He only wants you because you’re young and pliable.”

  “I suppose it’s just because you’re an old hag that he doesn’t want you? Or could it be that he’s had his way with you and you’re old news.”

  “I’m not either, you slut. I saw the way you tried to steal my man earlier. You can have Dave. I don’t want him. He’s just here to make Liam jealous, but thanks to you, I brought him for nothing,” she screeched loud enough for the person that crept behind us to hear.

  “I tricked you into bringing me, you dumb bitch. I’ve been after this one here for a long time. I look a little different than before and it’s all your fault. You started a rebellion against me and another little bitch fucked up my face, but she didn’t make it out of the home. And you won’t make it far, either.”

  “You’re fucking crazy, Dave,” Mandy shouted at him.

  “Bitch, shut up before I shoot your ass. That cowboy don’t want you because he has better taste than that. This one is on the menu because I’m sure she’s on every man’s menu. I bet your own fake father wants to do you, too.”

  “You’re sick. Leave us alone,” I told him. I had no idea what possessed me to challenge this fuck, but I wasn’t going to be his victim again. I’d rather fight to the death.

  “No. I’m not leaving until I get what I came for. So both of you start walking.” He pressed the gun against my back and held Mandy by the throat. From where we were, people from the party couldn’t get a clear view of us. Within another fifteen feet, we were behind some shrubbery. That’s when he shoved Mandy to the ground. Before I could react, he shot her in the leg with a gun that had a silencer. She cried out, but the rehearsal dinner party was too loud and far away for people to hear.

  I was about to scream for help, but there was my father out on the deck of the place just looking around. “I’m a crack shot and you know it, Kat. It came with the territory. That’s how the other girl met her drugged out fate in the alley. They believed it was a drug deal gone wrong while she was supposedly looking for some meth. What people believe when you have someone on the take,” he said, then laughed to himself.

  “Please don’t hurt him,” I pleaded. That’s when I saw Liam on the deck with my father. I closed my eyes because if he raised his gun I’d scream.

  “I won’t hurt him if you come along with me. I want to finish what we started.” He kicked Mandy’s purse to the side and dragged me down to his car. I had to think of a way to escape. I wouldn’t let this be the way I’d go down. Not after I’d finally found my father or finally wanted someone like Liam. I wished I had been mature enough to talk to him earlier about Mandy, then I would have been attached to his side or warned my father about Dave. Part of me didn’t want to tell my father because I was afraid that the bastard would attack my father for the ultimate payback. So I hoped he’d been worried that I told the guys and left, but I over thought it and he now had the upper hand.

  “Where are you taking me?” I asked, looking for a way to escape his hold.

  He pushed me into the driver’s seat, shoving me until I got into the passenger seat. He pulled my hair and hissed in my ear, “You don’t need to know. Now sit fucking tight.” He smacked me with the gun across my face. Damn weak motherfucker. Killian locked the doors and sped off.

  “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?” I felt the fear wash over me again. The thought of never seeing Liam or my father would be what I needed to hold onto. I had to get away.

  “Eventually.”

  Taking a calming breath, I thought of my possible exits. “Okay.”

  “Okay. Okay?” he screeched. “I’ve been waiting years to pay you back for my nuts. I’m about to rape and kill you, and all you’ve got to say is okay?” He was pissed as fuck, but I needed to not show fear. I wasn’t going to make it easy or pleasurable for him.

  “What am I supposed to say? Please don’t? I already know that you want revenge. There’s no way around it, so what the fuck am I supposed to do?” I asked, rubbing my face.

  “You know you’re taking the fun out of this. I wonder if you’ll beg for death after I violate you over and over again.”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t let you get your way last time. Maybe you’ll have to fuck my corpse.” I flipped the visor down to look at the possible bruise. I knew it would fluster him.

  “Sweetheart, I don’t know why you’re looking at your face. It won’t matter,” he sneered, turning back to the dark road we ended up on.

  Just then, several cows started crossing and he had to stop. Killian turned off the engine and took the keys with him as he jumped out of the car and tried to shew them away. It was my chance to escape. I crept out of the car and ran down the road. By the time he realized I was gone, I was hiding in a ditch in the cover of darkness. I had to wait until I heard him slam his car door closed before making a run for it, but I just heard the cows mooing. There were some lights from a house about half a mile away. I just had to make it there, and I’d be safe. At least I hoped so. “Katrina,” he shouted into the night air. I closed my eyes and thought to myself, “Stay strong.”

  Hearing him shout for me again before shooting his gun a couple of times in the hope of spooking me into revealing my hiding place had me shaking. That was when I heard the car door slam, and I knew I had to run so he wouldn’t see me. Staying on the edge of the road, so that the light didn’t hit me, I ran my ass off. I’d just gotten down a quarter mile when I saw lights in front of me.

  Chapter 10

  Liam

  I hadn’t seen Kat for over twenty minutes. They were just about to sit down and eat. I didn’t know where she cut out to, but then I didn’t see that guy who’d been Mandy’s date either. Something about that still niggled at me. Did she know him? Or was he just a creeper?

  “Joe, I haven’t seen Kat in a long time,” Nora said walking up to us.

  “I haven’t seen her either since she went to the bathroom,” he replied with a worried expression.

  “Aiden said she was out on the deck with Mandy, but I went to look for them and neither of them were there. The thing is, Mandy wanted to get Katrina alone. She told Aiden I wanted to talk to him, but I didn’t. I’ve called her cell and she’s not answering.”

  We all spread out around the place. No one had seen her
since earlier. I damn near tore the place apart when I found Mandy crying in a corner of the courtyard.

  Joe, Nora, and I ran up to her. “He shot me and took her,” she sobbed. Her leg was bleeding.

  “Who took her?” Joe shouted.

  “My date David.” Nora was crying, holding her sister’s bloody limb. I didn’t give a shit if she bled out after I got all the information I needed to get my Kat back.

  “What happened?” I asked furiously.

  “They knew each other, but not in a good way. He said he was going to finish what he started, then he was going to kill her.”

  “Where did he take her? How long have they been gone?” I roared. My boiling rage had just turned ice cold. He was going to kill my Kat. Not going to happen.

  “He just dragged her away. He rented a cabin outside of town. It’s on my phone in a text. Please get me a doctor,” she pleaded.

  I ignored her request and told Joe, “I’m going to go find her.”

  I grabbed Mandy’s purse that was just a few feet away and ran to my truck. Joe opened the truck door before I could drive away and got in beside me. He pulled out the phone and searched out the address. My knuckles whitened on the wheel as I drove in a furious rage.

  “Please tell me your guns are in the truck.”

  “Yes, they are, and I’ll be using them tonight.”

  “Let’s get my daughter home and safe, and then you can tell me when you fell in love with her.”

  I nodded. He reached into the glove compartment and pulled out one gun. “There’s another in the backseat,” I told him.

  “Got it,” he said, reaching that one. “We’re good to go. I want that bastard’s blood. I know who he is.”

  “You do? Why didn’t you kill him at the damn party?” I roared.

  “I didn’t know who he was until we found out he took her. It has to be that son of a bitch who tried to rape her at the orphanage.”

  There wasn’t a moment for me to consider anything other than getting to her. Anger and frustration because no one told me about this fucker only made me feel all the more beastly. I was doing over a hundred miles an hour when I got on the open road. I didn’t give a fuck. We pulled off on a backroad, and I knew we were only ten miles away. That’s when I’d seen a shadow running down the side of the highway. We pulled up and it was Kat. “Kat!” I shouted, jumping out of the truck to get her, my gun in hand.