His face was mere inches from hers. With the glow from the street light, she could almost count every long, beautiful eyelash that framed his gorgeous amber eyes. It was distracting. “I didn’t think it was a big deal.”
“Kaitlyn, someone tried to run you over today. You didn’t think that maybe, maybe, it had something to do with this?” His voice rose with each word so that he was practically shouting at the end.
She slammed her hands on her hips. “Daniel John Bradley, don’t use that tone with me.”
He leaned even closer. “I’ll use any tone I damn well please when you act like an idiot.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You did not just say that.” She couldn’t decide if she wanted to slap him or kick him. Both options were equally appealing.
He sighed and straightened, running a hand down his face. “I’m sorry.”
Kait’s head jerked back. Did Dan just apologize. To her? He never apologized. She must’ve misunderstood him.
“Look, I am sorry, Kaitlyn. I lost ten years off my life today when I saw that car speeding towards you. Now to hear this…” He sighed. “You’re not an idiot.” Clearly uncomfortable admitting he was wrong, he changed the subject. “Do you have any idea who might’ve done all of these things?”
Her heart was galloping, first at his admission of being scared he thought she’d be hurt, then his apology. She tried to take calming breaths as she told him her suspicions about Amy.
“She’d never make the show on her cooking. Her food tastes like shit.” His eyes widened like he hadn’t meant to reveal so much.
Kait cocked her head. “How do you know?”
Dan glanced away, clearly uncomfortable. “I might’ve stopped by a couple of times for dinner.”
He had? And she didn’t know? Her just-calmed heart picked up speed again. “Why didn’t you ask for me?” She would’ve cooked him something special…unless he was there on a date. Her mad was returning.
“I did ask for you. The first two times, we went ahead and ate but the food wasn’t any good. The next four times I asked who the chef was before I sat down. When they told me it was Amy, I left. I was convinced you didn’t actually work here.”
“Who’s we?”
“Excuse me?”
“You said, the first two times we went ahead. Who is we?”
“Me and Mylonas.”
“You brought Alex?”
“Yeah. He hated the food, too.”
Someone needed to come by with a mop because she’d just dissolved into a puddle at his feet. He’d tried at least six times to taste her cooking, even though he was more of a red meat and potatoes guy. Damn him for making it impossible not to love him.
“I only work part-time. You could’ve called or texted to see when I’d be there.”
“Yeah, I could have,” he agreed. “So is this Amy still here? I’m going to make her sorry she messed with you.”
Always her knight in shining armor. Except when he was ignoring her.
“I think she left a few hours ago, but we’ve got her.” She pointed to the security camera facing the parking lot. “Dion installed cameras to ward off vandalism.”
“Dion…your boss?”
She nodded. “I think he’s still here.”
Dan grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”
His pace was purposeful and brisk but she managed to keep up with him, mostly because he was towing her along. It was either keep up or be dragged along like a truculent puppy. She didn’t release his hand even after they entered the building and he didn’t seem inclined to let go either. They found Dion in his office on the phone. He smiled and gestured for them to sit. They had to break apart to take a seat and she mourned the loss of contact. Dion quickly ended his call. Kait made introductions but neither man smiled when they shook hands.
“What’s up, Kaitlyn?”
“Someone slashed my tires.”
He straightened in his chair. “Here? In our lot?”
She nodded. “They got all four.”
“You have a security camera,” Dan prompted, his gaze narrowed at her boss. She wanted to roll her eyes and slug him in the arm for being so abrupt.
Dion scrubbed the back of his neck with a look of chagrin. “There is a camera back there but it went off-line about a week ago and I couldn’t get it going again. I have a call in to get it fixed, but it’s completely dead.”
“No other cameras around?”
Dion shook his head. “That one covered the entire employee lot.” Now it was his turn to narrow his gaze at Dan. “And who are you, exactly? Are you a cop?”
“He’s an agent with COBRA Securities,” Kait answered for him.
“Your brother’s company?”
“Well, my brother started the firm with Dan’s brother.”
“Ah.” Dion sat back in his seat, his fingers steepled. “I’m sorry about the camera. I should’ve put a rush on getting it fixed. Hindsight...”
“That’s okay,” Kait said when Dan remained mute. “Do you know when Amy Warren left tonight?”
Dion’s brows lifted. “Amy wasn’t scheduled. I didn’t realize she was here.”
“I saw her when I arrived,” Kait told him. “I think she might be the one who tampered with my tires.”
Dion shook his head in a quick denial. “That’s not like Amy,” he insisted. “She wouldn’t do something like that.” He tilted his head. “Are you two not getting along?”
“I don’t have a problem with her, but apparently she’s not happy I made the cut for Killer Cuisine.”
“Ah.” Dion nodded in understanding. “She applied and I also gave her a reference, though it wasn’t as glowing as yours. I can see her being upset but I can’t imagine she’d resort to that kind of violence.” His thoughts echoed Henry’s. His phone rang and he checked the number. “I’m sorry, I need to take this call.” Dan stood and the men shook hands again. “Kait, do you want me to call a tow?”
“Thanks for the offer, but I can do it.”
“Send the bill to me.” When she started to protest, he waved it away. “It happened on my premises. I’ll cover it.” He bid them goodbye and then spoke into his phone.
Dan led Kaitlyn out of the office with a hand to her back. Tingles erupted at the contact. His touch always did that to her. A police car pulled up as they exited the building. One man in a uniform and another in a rumpled suit got out. “Bradley, Kaitlyn,” the uniformed officer greeted them. He’d been a couple of years behind them in school.
“How’s Stacy?” Dan asked.
“Moody as hell, but pretty as ever,” Bob Spaulding said. He smiled with affection. His wife was eight-months pregnant with their third child. God, she felt old.
Kait sighed when she spotted the other man.
“You’re working late,” Dan said as he shook hands with the detective. Frank Hurley was a good friend of the COBRA Securities staff, i.e. her brother.
“I was headed home when you called. I bummed a ride with Spaulding to check it out.” He eyed the tires and whistled. “Someone had a bit of rage in them.”
Dan informed him that the camera was out of order so they had no video of the crime, and filled him in on the events earlier in the day. Kait told him about her suspicions about Amy. He jotted down her name. “I’ll pay her a visit.”
“Kaitlyn?”
She turned to see Henry rushing over. “What happened? Why are the police here?”
Before she could answer, a tow truck turned into the lot and they backed out of the way so it could load up her pretty red Beemer. “Someone slashed my tires.”
Henry’s mouth dropped open. “All four?”
“Yep, and I bet if you check Amy’s knife, you’ll find little hunks of vulcanized rubber imbedded in the blade.”
“This is serious, Kaitlyn. Maybe it’s a good thing you’ll be gone for a few weeks. It’ll give her time to calm down.” He glanced around the area and then spun back to her with a hopeful look in his eyes. He pointed
to the building. “There’s a camera. You’ve got her red-handed.”
She shook her head. “It went off-line last week and Dion hasn’t had a chance to fix it yet.”
Henry narrowed his eyes. “What do you want to bet she knew that. Otherwise I don’t think she’d risk it.”
“You’re probably right.”
“Let me give you a lift home.”
“Kait?” Dan stood with the passenger door of his Escalade open. Her car was almost hooked up and Hurley and Spaulding had left.
“I have one, but thanks.” She hugged Henry. “I’ll miss you while I’m gone.”
“I’ll miss you, too and I’ll be flooding the phone lines voting for you.”
She waved to him as Dan helped her inside and closed the door. As she clicked her belt on, he rounded the hood. After climbing in and buckling up, he started the engine and pulled out of the lot. “That’s two attacks on you in less than twenty-four hours. Maybe you better stay at Luke’s tonight.”
She shook her head. “No way.” She spun in the seat to face him. “And the deal still goes. You’re forbidden to tell him about this, either.”
He glanced at her with a frown. “Kait—”
She pointed at him. “You tell Luke nothing.”
He opened his mouth but she cut him off. “Ben, either.”
He sighed. “Kait, your brother is my boss. I’m not keeping this from him.”
“Oh yes you are. And he’s not really your boss. You’re every bit in charge as Logan and Luke are. They know it and you know it.” He narrowed his eyes, not denying her comment. “Besides, Luke knows about the problems I had filming the show. He doesn’t know about the returned food or the people getting sick on my marinara sauce or the times I felt like I was being watched, including the time someone followed me in the car—ow.” She jerked against the seatbelt, her hands flying out to brace against the dash as Dan slammed the brakes and whipped the SUV to the side of the road. She rubbed her chest where the belt cut into her. His eyes glued to the motion. She smiled to herself. He was so easy to distract. She pulled up her shirt. “Did it leave a mark?”
“Kait, Jesus Christ.”
“What?” She blinked at him, the picture of innocence. She was so glad she wore her Victoria’s Secret push-up bra with black mesh over fawn-colored material that matched her skin tone tonight.
“You’re not going to distract me.” His eyes were still fastened to her chest, but his Adam’s apple bobbed as he forced his gaze to her face. “Why didn’t you tell me about being followed?”
She sighed and dropped her shirt. “It didn’t seem like a big deal.”
“Even after someone tried to make you into the female version of Flat Stanley?”
Funny guy. “Look, I didn’t want it to be real and if I told you, it would be.”
“Tire tread tattoos don’t get much realer.”
“That’s not even a word…is it?”
He ignored her question. “Why don’t you want Luke to know?”
She laughed. “The same reason you keep things from Logan. You know how protective our brothers are. If it were up to Luke, I’d still be living in his house where he could keep tabs on me all the time.”
“Both incidents are on record with the BPD,” he pointed out.
“He won’t find out unless you tell him.” She hoped.
“What about Hurley or any number of cops that are still good friends with Luke? Several come by the facility to work out or play basketball.”
“Crap.” She bit her lip. “Well, I just have to hope no one tells him until I’m sequestered in the contestant house.”
“You think that would stop him?”
“No, but you will.” She was positive of that. And just to punctuate her statement, she grabbed his shirt in her fist, leaned over and did something she’d been dreaming of doing for hours, days, years. She kissed him. At the first touch of his lips, more memories came flooding back.
Kaitlyn sat in the stands with her girlfriends, cheering at the action on the baseball field. Her brother Ben was the captain of the team, the starting shortstop and clean-up hitter, following in his older brothers’ athletic footsteps. Both Grant and Luke had been star athletes throughout high school. But it’d been Luke with the natural talent, the one who should have been an NFL superstar.
Though she was rooting hard for her brother, she couldn’t keep her eyes off of the relief pitcher warming up in the bullpen. Dan had made the varsity team as a freshman. He had a growth spurt over the summer, so he was over six feet now, well on his way of matching his brother’s stature, but his weight hadn’t quite caught up with his height. He was a bean pole. But he was a fast bean pole and he could throw a mean fastball, and she would know. They played catch for hours. She had to add extra padding to her mitt. But all the practice paid off for both of them. She’d made the softball team as a starter, too.
She glanced over at Dan’s aunt Trudy, who was cheering wildly for the boy she’d raised since he was a toddler. Even wearing a sweatshirt with the high school logo and Dan’s name on the back, she looked regal and elegant. Kait glanced over at her brother Luke and Daisy, the woman he’d asked to marry him. He’d been dating her on and off for a couple of years and Kait couldn’t stand her. The woman was incredibly beautiful with a bounty of chestnut hair and green eyes. But she wouldn’t commit to a wedding with Luke while he was raising his siblings. She was selfish and manipulative and Kait really wished she had the courage to tell him how she felt. Her brother deserved someone who would love him unconditionally.
A round of cheers drew her attention back to the field. It was the ninth inning and they led by one run, thanks to Ben’s homer his last at-bat. There were two outs, but the other team just loaded the bases. The coach called a time out and motioned to the bullpen. Kait’s heart hammered as Dan loped onto the field, his hair a disheveled mess of long black locks tamed only by the cap he wore. This was his first game. He had to be beyond nervous.
Several of the infielders had gathered around the mound, waiting for his arrival. The coach handed Dan the ball and he gripped it and tossed it into his mitt a few times. As the coach jogged away, Ben said something to Dan and then slapped him on the back. He nodded fiercely and focused on the catcher. He threw warm-up pitches as the rest of the team resumed their positions. Dan nodded that he was ready and the other team’s power hitter stepped up to the plate. He knocked his bat against his cleats, loosening the mud, and then took two practice swings. Dan acknowledged the sign from the catcher, wound up and let the ball fly from his grip. Swing and a miss. Strike one. The catcher returned the ball and Dan lined up for the next pitch. The batter caught a piece of it and it floated behind the plate. Foul ball. Strike two.
The crowd surged to their feet, the stands rocking with excitement. Kait couldn’t even hear herself cheer. Dan wound up and rocketed the ball towards home plate. Swing and a miss. Strike three. Game over.
Kait jumped up and down, hugging her friends. She spotted Trudy doing her own version of a victory dance. Luke was screaming, his arms in the air. Daisy sat on the bleachers looking bored.
Kait lingered after the game, waiting to congratulate Ben and Dan. Luke was talking to one of his cop buddies and she watched as Daisy said something to him and then wandered off. She really wanted to follow her and see where she was going, but just then, the locker room door opened and a few of the players stepped out, including Ben. She ran to her brother and threw her arms around him, beating his girlfriend of the moment. She could just wait her turn. He was hers first.
“I’m so proud of you.”
“Thanks Katydid,” he said, calling her the nickname he’d saddled her with when she was little. “But it was your boy Dan who won the game.”
“Good game, bro,” Luke said, giving Ben a one-armed hug. “Proud of you.”
Ben glowed from the praise of his hero older brother. “Thanks. Did you see that knuckleball…”
Ben and Luke’s conversation co
ntinued but she didn’t hear the words. The door had opened and Dan had swaggered out. People were cheering for him and like the ham he was, he was smiling and waving like he’d just pitched the winning game in the World Series. A local reporter who covered the high school sports scene interviewed him. Kait knew Trudy would love to add that to the weekly box she sent Logan while he was serving the country as a Navy SEAL.
Dan finished the interview and accepted congratulations from several people including his aunt. He looked around and when he spotted her, a slow grin broke out. He headed for her and scooped her in his arms and twirled her around. “All those hours of throwing the ball around paid off, Kait.” She loved playing catch with him. Anything to spend time together. “Come here, I want to show you something.” He tugged her hand and led her around the visitor dugout.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.” He pulled her with him as he skirted around the field and detoured under a set of bleachers.
“What is it, DJ?”
“This.” He gathered her into his arms and kissed her. Kait was so shocked she stood perfectly still. Her first real kiss! And it was Dan, the boy she’d loved since first grade. They’d kissed before, but those were innocent, childish kisses. This was not. She wasn’t sure what to do so she tried to follow his lead. When his tongue licked at the seam of her lips, she gasped. He took that as an invitation and his tongue brushed inside to tangle with hers. Kait felt dizzy. The sensations bombarding her were too much. All too soon he broke away. They were both breathing heavy. Unconsciously, her hand strayed to her lips, trying to capture the feeling of his mouth on hers forever.
“Wow,” she said in awe.
He looked shaken, too. “Yeah, wow,” he echoed.
Kait narrowed her eyes. “How did you learn to do that? Have you been practicing?” And if so, she’d slug the other girl.
He shrugged, a wicked grin tipping his lips.
“DJ.” Her voice was low and lethal. “Who is she? Who taught you how to kiss like that?”
His grin was pure naughtiness. “What can I say?” He held his arms out. “I’m gifted.”
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