“Katie,” her dad said. “We’re your family. We’re trying to protect and take care of you.”
Take care of her. She turned to stare at him. This was how it had been since the day of the attack. Or maybe it had always been this way and she had just been too stupid to realize it. “You really believe I’m incapable of taking care of myself, don’t you?” They had pushed her toward David from the beginning, putting her in his research program, wanting her to date and marry him. So he could take care of her. Because she wasn’t going to amount to much on her own.
His face contorted into pain before it hardened into resolve. “You had a head injury. Memory loss.”
“I had a concussion. Not a lobotomy.”
“Katie, think about your decisions. You walked away from a promising career as a chemist to work at a bakery. You bought it, refusing to listen to our advice and blowing through the money your grandmother left you. Do we even need to go into your panic attacks, or that you couldn’t go in public without causing a scene?” He visibly winced at her hair. “You have pink streaks in your hair.” He shook his head. “Don’t you see it, Katie? You’ve changed.”
It hurt more than she could bear. “I didn’t change, Dad. I just stopped pretending.” She pushed off Sloane’s arm and went straight through the house to the deck.
Sloane caught up to her. “Do you want to leave?”
Kat stopped at the bar and faced Sloane. “No. I want a drink.” She wasn’t running, damn it.
***
To her surprise, Kat ended up enjoying the dinner that the waitstaff was now efficiently clearing while more servers passed out champagne. Even the two women on Sloane’s right, who were working to get his attention, weren’t annoying to her. Especially since he had his hand on the back of her chair, toying with her hair and listening as she chatted with people.
A big part of her happiness was reconnecting with her old friend Amelia Gregory. They’d worked together at SiriX. Kat smiled as Amelia told the story of trying to bake a cake for her then-boyfriend’s birthday.
“Kat saved me, of course.” Amelia laughed. “She came over and stayed up until two a.m. making the perfect cake. She let me take credit.”
Amelia’s husband leaned around his wife. “She confessed before I could blow out the candles. Now she buys all our desserts from Sugar Dancer.”
Going with full disclosure, Kat said, “Amelia covered my butt in the lab more than once. I detested analyzing results and writing those reports. I owed her.” She’d hated the job altogether.
The orchestra stopped playing, and everyone turned to Marshall rising with his fiancée. Once they had everyone’s attention, Lila introduced her bridesmaids, followed by the maid of honor.
Then Marshall introduced those he’d chosen to be his groomsmen followed by his best man, Dr. David Burke.
A tug on her hair told her that Sloane had tightened his fingers around the strand he’d been playing with. Kat determinedly ignored it. David had more status than she did in her own family. Because he had more to offer SiriX, her parents’ true firstborn, and favored, child.
Oh they loved Kat. She’d seen their ravaged faces in the hospital. That had been real. But so was their disappointment in her.
Especially her mom. As a very young child, watching her mom get ready for work, Kat had wanted to be like her. Then came school and reality. Her mom’s growing disappointment as Diana realized her daughter wasn’t brilliant.
“Kathryn?”
Amelia’s voice jerked her from her thoughts. “What?”
Her friend’s hazel eyes sizzled with anger. “Doesn’t it bother you that your brother stays friends with your ex?”
Yes. She tried to wave it off. “You know Marshall. Avoid all conflict.” He poured all his energy into his love of science. Marshall, though, had choked down every dry and foul-tasting concoction she baked. Praised her improvements. Bought her books on baking, videos. While he had treated her like a kid sister, he’d never treated her as stupid or lacking.
“Yeah, well.” Amelia sank into her seat and muttered, “He could pick better friends than Dr. Burke.”
Kat had missed her friend. “Hush. You work for David.”
She turned to Kat. “I was glad when you dumped him.” Glancing at Sloane, Amelia grinned. “Your taste has improved.”
Sloane’s hand slid to her nape, big and warm. “Listen to your friend, Kat. I like her.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t feed his ego. His head is big enough.”
Amelia touched her shoulder. “Kathryn, we should all go out sometime. Double date, if you two don’t mind hanging with an old married couple.”
Kat froze, unsure what to say. Sloane didn’t date, he’d made that clear. They weren’t going to dinner with another couple. Never mind the fact that Kat had stopped seeing all her old friends when the panic attacks had overwhelmed her life. “Sounds like fun,” she said vaguely, then grabbed her purse off the table and stood. “I’m going to the restroom.”
Sloane got up. “I’ll come with you.”
She didn’t want to listen to him reminding her they had an arrangement. She forced a smile. “Don’t be silly. I’m fine.” She hurried away.
Once in the house, she went upstairs to her old room. The attached bathroom had been retrofitted with bars on the jetted tub for when she’d been recovering.
Her parents had taken care of her after the attack. Done everything they could for her. Especially her dad. At first he had been consumed with action, consulting doctors, hiring contractors to retrofit her bedroom…but eventually he ran out of things to do. Anger began to set in. He couldn’t fix his daughter, couldn’t control what had happened.
So he tried to control everything else with her. In her dad’s head, Kat had been pursuing her love of baking when she was hurt. Never mind that David was there—William believed it would have been worse if David hadn’t been there.
Fears didn’t have to be rational, she knew that. Look at her refusing to wear a skirt. Some would say that was irrational. Didn’t matter, she couldn’t do it.
Same with her dad. He believed she would be safe if she’d marry David and work at SiriX.
Instead, she’d broken up with David, left the company and bought a bakery. She just couldn’t be what they wanted. And they couldn’t accept her as she was. The rift kept growing wider.
She sighed, finished up in the bathroom and walked out.
Then froze.
“David, what are you doing in my room?”
He sat on the edge of her bed, his hands folded over his dark slacks. “I want to help you. Look, Katie, I know we’re over. It’s been more than five years, I get it.” Dropping his gaze, he added, “Maybe that’s for the best.”
Kat softened, seeing the man she had respected. Nothing in life had been handed to David. His parents ran a small vintage clothing store, barely making ends meet. They were nice, but baffled by their off-the-charts-smart son. David won scholarships, took out loans, and fought his way to a PhD in neuroscience. It had been his fiery passion for his work that she’d loved. She leaned against the doorjamb. “I’m glad you see that.”
He stood. “Tell me what you remember, and I’ll try to help. Give it context. Maybe then you’ll realize I’m not lying.”
Doubt closed in on her. They’d been down this road before, so why would today be different? A faint buzzing started, but she breathed slowly to keep control. They’d come this far with him saying he knew they were over, she was willing to try. “Someone knew your name. Called you Dr. Burke.”
He flinched slightly, jerked a hand up to rub his neck and shook his head. “Oh, Katie, you’re mixing that up. That was the police officers I called, they were addressing me as Dr. Burke.”
Disappointment warred with her old anger. Nothing had changed, he was giving her the same old answers. “You rub your neck or pull on your ear when you’re stressed or lying.” She’d tried to give him a chance to tell her what really had happened
that night, but it was pointless, so she headed for the door.
He grabbed her arm. “I’m not lying, I’m trying to help you. What else do you remember?” His left eye twitched. “You have to tell me, damn it.”
He was too close. The heavy smell of his cologne smothered her, while his grip trapped her. The noise in her head amped up, peppered with words:
Consequences.
God, stop!
“Let go of me.” It came out too thin. Kat struggled to break free. Every second built the wave of panic rising in front of her, ready to consume her.
He tightened his fingers. “You don’t understand what you’re stirring up with your—”
“Let her go. Now.”
Sloane came at them, breathing pure menace. His eyes blazed.
David’s thumb dug into her arm. “This is between Katie and me.”
Sloane caught hold of the hand gripping her arm and did something she couldn’t see.
David yelped, let go and stumbled back, clutching his hand.
Kat stood there immobile, trying to get air into her frozen lungs.
Sloane cupped her chin, tilting it up. “Look at me. You’re okay. Just breathe. I won’t let him near you.” He rubbed her arm with soft, easy strokes.
She stared into his face, needing the anchor. His body heat seeped into her chilled skin. The panic faded and her head cleared.
“What’s going on?” William demanded from the doorway.
David straightened and shook out his wrist. “He tried to break my hand. Katie and I were talking when he came barreling in, grabbing me.”
“That’s it. Sloane, you will leave now, or I’ll have security escort you out.” Her dad reached for her. “Kathryn, come with me.”
Kat stepped back, glaring at her father. “You didn’t even ask me what happened.” He believed David’s version without question.
“I don’t need to. I saw Michaels grab you in the library.”
Sloane didn’t seem to react to her father or David. He kept his focus on her. “What do you want, Kat? If you don’t trust me to take you home, then I’ll call Diego or anyone you want to come get you. But I’m waiting until you’re safely in the car with them. I’m not leaving you here with David the dickhead.”
“Kathryn, you can’t go with him,” her father pushed in. “Sloane didn’t even tell you that he knew me.”
She just wanted to go home. It had been a mistake to bring Sloane here. He’d drop her off and they’d be done. But she knew he’d get her home safe. She believed that much. “Take me home.”
Chapter Eleven
Sloane got Kat in the limo, told Ethan to take them to her house and engaged the privacy screen. “Drink?”
“Water.”
He opened a cold bottle of Pellegrino water, poured some in a glass and handed it to her. Took a deep drink of the remainder and sat back. “David was with you when you were attacked.”
She shrugged. “That’s what they tell me.”
Sloane mentally counted to five. She was retreating from him, throwing up that wall again. “Do you remember anything?”
“Nothing more than flashes and a random word or two. I know I had dragged David to shop for wedding cakes.” She sipped some water. “I remember being excited…then nothing but those flashes until I woke up in the emergency room.”
He studied her for a second as he thought back over what had been said about the attack. “What do you think happened, Kat?”
She kept her face averted from him. “David had a sprained wrist. I got worked over with a baseball bat by a couple thugs. What do you think happened, Sloane?”
A baseball bat? Jesus Christ. His guts twisted. “He ran. Then why the hell is he around your parents, the best man at your brother’s wedding?”
She looked over at him. “They don’t think he did anything wrong. We were mugged. David claims I refused to give the muggers my engagement ring. They started whaling on me with a bat. David ran to the car to get the cellphone. Locked himself in there to call the cops.”
“They don’t think leaving you, their daughter for Christ’s sake, was wrong?” The question came out loaded with sarcasm. He didn’t care. No one could believe abandoning Kat had been the right thing to do.
“No, it was smart. That’s how evolved, educated people react. They solve problems with intellect, not violence. Besides, I was the fool who didn’t want to give up the ring that, oddly enough, I don’t remember caring about all that much.”
“He lied.” Sloane took a gulp of water to cool his ire. Kat’s flat tone was driving him to violence, but her explanation was giving him some insight into why she was so scared and a fighter at the same time. Kat’s natural instincts were to fight, but she’d been raised to repress that. “You know it was cowardly to leave you, Kat, and hide in a car. And then trying to shift blame to you for resisting. Which I seriously doubt was true.” If anything, she went immobile with panic.
She shrugged. “I could have lived with that. I can’t exactly throw stones since I froze when Kellen was stabbed.”
He frowned at her. “When I got out there that night, I saw you crawling across the asphalt, cutting up your hands to get to your friend. Not running away. It’s not the same as David running and leaving you.”
“Kellen was still stabbed.” She fisted her hand in her lap. “Anyway, everyone has flaws, Sloane. I never thought David would be brave in the face of violence. But I thought he was strong in other ways. I thought we had something real and honest.”
“And?” He urged her to tell him.
She lifted her shoulders. “He’s lying. I began having these flashes, and they aren’t the same story he’s telling. Someone else was there that night. Someone who called him Dr. Burke.”
That slapped him right in the solar plexus. “You told your family?”
She sighed, clenching and unclenching her fist. “They don’t believe me. They can’t. David’s key to the drug they’re bringing to market.” She paused and said, “He saved my mom’s work on Alzheimer’s. She couldn’t get to the next step, but David did. It’s easy for them to believe him. While I’m the average daughter who never measured up.” When she lifted her head, stark vulnerability shimmered in her eyes. “I didn’t want to find out who they’d choose, me or him.”
Average? It began to make a sick kind of sense. Her parents, brother and David had doctorates, impressive resumes. “You have a degree, right?”
“Just a BS in chemistry.”
Just? Like a degree in chemistry wasn’t pretty damn impressive? But not impressive enough for her family. He wasn’t touching the who-they-would-choose comment. On no, he’d been there.
His mom had chosen her Prince Fucking Charming every time.
So he got it. It was fucked up six ways to Sunday, but he’d seen a lot of screwed-up families that treated each other like shit, both with his mother and various foster families he’d crossed paths with. He wasn’t going to be able to fix this.
Didn’t need to, he reminded himself. He and Kat—they were plus-ones. That was the beauty of the arrangement, sex and convenience, but no emotional shit storms. Did they continue? Or cut their losses? He leaned his head back on the seat, closed his eyes and forced himself to relax. “What now?”
“Your driver drops me off. I thank you for everything, and we go back to our lives. I bake, you go SLAM something.”
She said it with zero inflection in her voice, but he couldn’t help a small smile. “Violent name for a company. It’s named after me. Sloane Adam Michaels.”
She faced him with a twitch of her lips. “You’re a violent man, Sloane Adam Michaels.”
Mesmerizing. She was behind her wall, throwing off comments, trying to push him away. The streetlights slid by, casting her alternately in layers of lights and shadows. “God, you’re beautiful.” But that wasn’t it, wasn’t the reason he couldn’t seem to end it now. It was the strong woman fighting to break out who intrigued the hell out of him.
; “Don’t.”
Did she doubt him now? “You believe them? That I’m using you to get to your family?” She’d denied it, but her family had planted the thought in her head. Was it taking root now?
She stared up at the roof of the car. “The carjacking. How is it that you came outside just as we were being attacked?”
Stifling a flash of anger took effort. He rarely explained himself but conceded it was a fair question. Given the things Kat had told him about her family and David, he could understand her caution. “I was looking for you.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Why?”
“When I spotted you in the ballroom, standing there by that cake, I told you I thought I recognized you. It nagged at me. I was sure I’d seen you before. So I decided to find you. Ask your name.”
“You could have asked the bride.”
“I wanted to ask you. When you did tell me your name, then I knew where I’d seen you before. At your sixteenth birthday party.”
Wariness brimmed in her eyes. “You were there?”
“I was the dishwasher. I was eighteen, barely scraping by, and doing anything to fund my training to fight. I remember you in the center of that ridiculous winter wonderland party. You were, at the time, untouchable to me.” He stopped there. She didn’t need to know any more.
Didn’t need to know about Sara and how he’d hated the younger Kat for being so alive and loved while Sara was dead.
“So you knew who my family was?”
Furious, he snapped out, “I’m worth billions, Kat. I don’t screw women to get further in the business world or extract some murky revenge.” It was utterly ridiculous. He’d won in the skirmish with her father. Going after revenge for petty shit wasn’t his style.
No, he saved revenge for those who preyed on and murdered an innocent girl.
Not tonight. Don’t think about it. All of that had nothing to do with Kat, with them.
The limo pulled into Kat’s complex and slid to a stop in front of her condo.
“I’m home. Good night, Sloane.” She held out the barely touched glass of water.
The Proposition (The Plus One Chronicles) Page 10
