All of You (13 page)

“So, Stella’s got you sexting, huh?” Danny repeated, throwing his hands up when Nathan shot him a death glare. “I know, I know, your wife. Off-limits. I get it.”

Nathan unbuckled his seat belt, head shaking. “Speaking of my wife…” He shot Danny another look. “Who
doesn’t
sext…I need to run into that Walgreen’s and grab a few things for her.” Nathan opened his door and slid out, slamming the door behind him.

Danny immediate began texting Kat again.

He wrote:
Your secret is safe with me.

A few seconds later, Kat wrote:
You were wonderful with that little boy tonight, Danny.

His smiled faded as he wrote back:
No big deal.

She wrote:
Well, Carlo certainly thought it was a big deal. I think you’ve eclipsed Nathan as his law enforcement hero.

Danny:
Nothing heroic about it.

Kat:
I beg to differ, but we’ll agree to disagree.

When Danny didn’t respond, she texted:
Are you coming to Gigi’s for Christmas?

Danny:
No.

Kat:
Why not?

Danny:
Plans.

Kat:
Do tell.

Danny exhaled a hard breath, then wrote:
It’s midnight, why aren’t you sleeping?

Kat:
Reading.
It’s midnight, why aren’t you policing something?

Danny grinned and wrote:
Nathan’s in Walgreen’s getting Stella stuff. Slow night.

Kat:
Maybe I should rob a convenience store to give you something useful to do.

Danny:
Make it a few muggings. No cameras means more of a challenge.

Kat:
Will do. Should I text when I’m done?

Danny:
Nah. We’ll get the call.

Kat:
Great. I’ll aim for
drug dealers, so I can turn around and sell the stuff online.

Danny:
Where are you selling street drugs online, may I ask?

Kat:
I don’t know. Just figured there was a site for that. eBay?

Danny:
Pretty sure that wouldn’t work. No illegal drugs category, as far as I know. Maybe you should stake out a street corner.

Kat:
I’d need enforcers, as I am too small and sometimes too weak to deliver beat downs. Any suggestions?

Danny:
I’ve got a few guys in mind. They’re big, scary, and ex-cons, but I don’t doubt you could whip them into shape.

Kat:
That sounds like a lot of work. I’m think I should stick to being a geneticist.

Danny:
Speaking of which, you have to work tomorrow. So, go to bed.

Kat:
Then stop texting me.

Danny, grinning:
Night, Kat.

Kat:
Night, Danny. Be safe.

Danny:
Okay.

Kat:
Okay.

Danny:
Stop texting now.

Kat:
Okay.

Danny:
Stop!

Kat:
I am!

Danny:
Night, Kat.

I wish I was there with you.

It was starting to hurt how much he wished it.

Kat:
Night, Danny.

Danny powered his phone down and dropped it into his lap. A second later, Nathan opened the driver’s side door and slid back in.

He glanced over at Danny and scoffed, pulling his door shut. “Must have been one hell of a session. You’re still grinning ear-to-ear like a fucking idiot.”

‡

K
at pulled into
her apartment building parking lot and nabbed a front parking spot. The apartment was in a safe part of town, but Kat hated walking across the parking lot alone after dark. Usually Fi would be with her after their Tuesday night yoga class, but she was already in San Fran – probably shoving her face with great seafood and enjoying a beautiful coastal sunset while Kat trudged through dirty Ohio snow and slush.

Kat turned off the ignition, grabbed her yoga mat, and slid out of the car. After a quick press of the lock button on her key, Kat walked to their ground-floor apartment door…

Only to find it already partially opened.

Her heart beating a mile a minute, Kat nudged the door open farther with the toe of her boot. “Fi?” she called out, knowing damn well Fi wasn’t there.

Kat peeked inside the widened opening and her heart plummeted into her stomach.

The apartment was ransacked.

“
Shit!
” Kat flung the door open, too shocked and angry to consider whether the thieves were still around. She stepped into the living room and looked around at the utter chaos, eyes filling with angry tears. “
Shit! Shit! Shit!
”

Kat slowly walked from room to room and assessed the damage.

Every electronic device was gone. Every drawer had been pulled out, rifled through, and tossed aside. The closets had been torn apart and Kat felt a twinge of self-satisfaction at how disappointed the robbers must have been at her crappy taste in clothes and absolute disinterest in jewelry.

She also noticed, with a slight smile, that they’d left all of Fi’s jewelry-making crap on the kitchen table.

Apparently, degenerate, immoral jerks weren’t big fans of it, either.

Kat finally wandered back to her bedroom and sank to the edge of her bed. She looked around again and muttered, “Well…
shit
.”

She pulled her phone out and called Nathan.

After two rings, he picked up, sounding stressed. “Hi, Kat.”

“Hey, Nathan. What’s going on over there?”

“We just got back from the Urgent Care. Gia has a raging double ear infection and I’m about to run out and grab her medicine.”

“Oh, poor baby. Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine.” Gia chose that moment to start screaming like crazy in the background. “Well, she will be fine as soon as we start getting this medicine into her.”

“Okay, I’ll let you go. Tell Stella to call me later.”

“Did you need anything, Kat?”

Kat paused.

She desperately wanted Nathan’s help, but wasn’t going to ask him to come now…not with Gia being so sick.

“No, I’m fine. Just thought I’d see what you guys were up to.”

Never mind that she would have called Stella. Luckily, Nathan was too distracted to think it through.

“You’re welcome to come over, but I doubt you’d want to,” he replied over Gia’s screaming.

“
I’ll-talk-to-you-later-bye
,” Kat said and hung up.

Kat considered calling Nina, but quickly decided against it. Nina already hated the idea of her two single, unarmed sisters living in a ground floor apartment – and had said so a bazillion times. If Nina knew their apartment had been robbed and that Kat had waltzed around here alone, checking things out, she’d go ballistic.

Obviously all of the sisters would find out eventually, but Kat was in no mood to deal with anyone’s theatrics tonight.

Against all Better Judgment – and for no better reason other than Fickle Bitch Brain – Kat scrolled through yesterday’s calls and found the number she was looking for.

Two rings later, Danny’s deep voice answered, “Hey.”

“Hi, Danny, it’s Kat. Ciaramitaro.”

“I know, Kat. Hi.”

“You’re not working tonight, right?”

“Actually, I am. I’m on-duty right now.”

“Oh, because I talked to Nathan and he said he was home.”

“Yeah, he went home early,” Danny said. “Gia’s got an ear infection, so he took off. I’m finishing the night up alone.” He paused. “So, you looking for more ways to break the law?”

Kat’s heart rate sped up at the playful tone of his voice. “Oh, no, I’m, uh, calling because I came home a few minutes ago and found our apartment robbed.”

“What? Damn! Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I wasn’t home, obviously, and Fi is out of town, thank God. But they made a mess of the place and a bunch of stuff is missing.”

“Did you call the cops?”

“I called Nathan, hoping he’d come over and handle it, but, for obvious reasons, I didn’t say anything to him. I thought about calling Nina, but you know how she is.”

“You’d rather not involve the local police?”

“Not if I can help it. I’d rather deal with someone I know, if possible.”

“Huh, well, guess you’re shit out of luck, then,” he said. “Good luck with the good ole boys over there in West Cleveland.”

Kat was taken aback…until Danny exhaled a low, deep chuckle. “I’m kidding, Kat. I’m already on my way. I’ll be there in a few.”

She sighed. “Thank you. I really appreciate that.”

“No problem. I’m sure you already know this, but don’t touch anything. To be honest, nothing will probably come of the pictures I take, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“Okay.” Kat wedged the phone between her head and shoulder and wrapped her arms around her midsection. The adrenaline coursing through her body had her teeth chattering and her body trembling. “Do you think we could stay on the phone until you get here?”

“Of course. I was about to insist on it. You doing okay?”

Kat wanted to lie. She wanted to put on the brave, unflappable, sensible front she was famous for, especially in front of Danny.

But something weird had gone on between them the past few days and it made her feel funny about lying to him.

“Truth?” she asked.

“Yeah, truth.”

“No. It’s dark out, so I don’t want to walk out the car, but the lock on the door is broken, so I don’t want to stay in here,” Kat said, glancing around. “Logically, I know they aren’t coming back for Fi’s jewelry-making crap or my stack of books on gene therapies, but I’m still really scared.” Kat rolled her eyes. “Ridiculous, huh?”

“Uh,
no
. You’re by yourself in an apartment that has just been robbed. It’s dark out and your sense of personal security has been violated. Of course you’re scared.” With a grin in his voice, he added, “Anyone would be scared, even beautiful, genius doctors.”

Kat groaned. “For God’s sake, Danny, do
not
repeat that! How mortifying…” She dropped her head into her hand, head shaking. “My entire family is hell-bent on embarrassing me at every possible opportunity.”

“Your family is amazing. And they are so proud of you and love you so much. You don’t know how lucky you are.”

It was as impossible for Kat to miss the longing in his voice as it had been to miss it on his face at Pops’ house and at the restaurant yesterday afternoon. Kat was dismayed to realize her heart hadn’t hardened a smidge to it.

“Well,
I’m
embarrassed to admit I didn’t know a geneticist was a doctor,” Danny said, kindly changing topics.

“I’m not a medical kind of doctor; I’m a PhD kind of doctor, so there is a difference.”

“Hey, a doctor is a doctor, as far as I’m concerned. And it’s pretty damn incredible, either way,” he replied and Kat couldn’t help but feel good she’d impressed him somehow. And with her brains, no less. “I think I’ll start addressing you as ‘Dr. Ciaramitaro’ from now on.”

“You’d better not. I don’t even let my guys in the lab call me that.”

Danny paused. “Your guys, huh? How many guys you got over there?”

If Kat hadn’t known better, she would have sworn Danny sounded jealous. Which was beyond ridiculous.

“There are seven people in my lab all together. Six men and me.”

Danny let out a low whistle. “Nice setup. The queen and her minions.”

Kat scoffed. “Not quite.”

“I’m sure they’re all in love with you.”

It wasn’t a question and Danny wasn’t looking for an answer. He said it so flatly, so matter-of-factly, that Kat was momentarily taken aback.

She forced a laugh. “You’ve obviously never spent time around medical researchers. They aren’t in love with anything but their work.” Kat reconsidered. “Well, their work and maybe Comic Con.”

“Uh-huh.”

Kat was so turned around, she didn’t know if she loved or hated this conversation. Danny’s tone screamed
jealous
and that made Kat stupidly ecstatic, but the whys of that implication – and her reaction to it – were confusing and unsettling.

“By the way, how do you know my address?” she asked, before Danny said anything else she could misinterpret.

“I was there once, remember? When Nathan and I dropped off that table Fi bought?” Danny paused and Kat heard some police scanner chatter in the background. “Some sort of craft thing?”

“You mean the one that’s still in the box in her closet? Yeah, I remember now. You’ll be bummed to know that, despite you and Nathan lugging that stupid thing in, Fi still insists on throwing her pottery, stringing her beads, and assembling her mosaics on our kitchen table.” Kat pushed her glasses up on top of her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I love her to death, but she drives me up a wall with that stuff.”

Danny laughed. “Yeah, I can imagine. But I do admire the hell out of her enthusiasm. I never was any good at trying new stuff or sticking with anything that took patience. Must be nice to be creative like that.”