Possession (The Plus One Chronicles) (20 page)

“They beat the ever-lovin’ hell out of you.” His eyes brewed with anger.

“If this is going to upset you, go have a brownie and hang out with Whitney in the front. I can handle this.” She didn’t want him reliving his own memories of an abusive relationship.

“Please, I’ve been in a knife fight. I’m tough as they come.”

“That’d be more impressive if you’d had a knife or, you know, fought.” Instead he’d been blindsided… Kat shook that off. Kel was recovering, life was good.

Kellen put his arm around her. “Shut up and click.”

After the first picture, it got easier to look through the others. Once she’d seen them all, she rubbed her eyes. “I don’t know if I want any of these on the video. Looking like a victim doesn’t inspire confidence.”

“You’re missing the point. If you show one of those first pictures and then contrast it with how you are now, that will demonstrate that you survived and triumphed. It will make you look strong. Like you can overcome adversity and problems, which every business has.”

Kat absorbed his words as if starved for them. “Do you think it’ll come across that way?”

He gestured to the laptop. “Go back to the beginning. That first one is pretty powerful. Let’s tag the ones that make an impact.”

After tagging two, Kat clicked to the next one. “Wait.” She snatched her hand back from the touchpad. A weird sensation disorientated her. The picture was shot from the end of her hospital bed. But Kat had her head turned toward the door. What had she been looking at?

There. A man stood at the edge of the frame in the picture. Kat hadn’t paid attention before as she’d been looking for a picture of her, but now the hairs on her neck stood up. Bile burned her throat. Wrapping her arms around her stomach, she tried to get control of herself. “That man.” Her voice sounded far away.

Kel leaned closer to the screen. “What about him? I don’t recognize him.”

“He doesn’t belong there. He shouldn’t be there.” Sweat prickled her back. “David knew him. Not me. Why was he there?”

Kel shut the laptop and swiveled his barstool to face her. “What about him?”

Kat took a breath and looked around. Her bakery kitchen was as familiar and comforting as Kellen. In seconds, her pulse settled and she calmed. Her thoughts cleared. “It was before the supposed mugging. Not sure how long before, maybe a week or so.” It had been years, her timeline could be off. “David worked late. I took him dinner at SiriX and walked in on some kind of argument between David and this guy in the picture. David lost it, dragging me out and nearly shaking me in fury. Telling me to never walk in on him like that again.”

Kellen nodded. “With you so far. You’d never seen this guy before that?”

“No. And David wouldn’t tell me his name. Just said he knew him from college and the guy wanted to borrow money.” Memories danced just out of reach. “I didn’t hear what they were saying, but his voice…”

Consequences, Dr. Burke.

Kat snapped up straight. “Oh my God, his voice!” She grabbed the edge of the table, hearing that phrase over and over in her head just like in her flashbacks. It was the one clear thing she remembered.

Kellen took her hands. “What about his voice?”

“He was there the night of the mugging. He held David’s arms and told him, “Consequences, Dr. Burke.”

“Are you sure?”

That voice rang through her head again. In all her flashbacks, that voice had nagged at her, but she hadn’t known why. Now she did. “Completely.” Relief flowed through years of self-doubt, of wondering if she was as damaged and broken as David made her out to be. Looking at Kellen, she squeezed his hands. “I’m not crazy. David lied.”

“I always believed you. Now you have something concrete.” Kellen frowned thoughtfully. “But how do we find out who the guy is?”

“A drug dealer?” She’d told Kellen her and Sloane’s possible theory.

Kellen opened the laptop and woke the screen. “Could be.”

“Kat?” Whitney popped her head in. “You have a customer. She doesn’t appear to be with any media.”

“Thanks.” Still feeling stunned, she stood up.

“Want me to take the customer for you?” Kel asked.

“No, thanks.” She’d spent enough years trapped by fear. Now she was breaking out. Finding answers. “While I do it, can you look through the other pics and see if that guy shows up again?”

“What are you going to do? Any ideas?”

“Talk to Marshall. Maybe he knows something.” No telling with her brother. “Thanks, Kel.”

She walked out and found the customer waiting by the glass display cases. The woman’s black hair fell in an expensive cut around her face. Shorter than Kat, she wore cream linen slacks and a silk shirt. Her brown eyes tugged a sense of familiarity.

“Hi, what can I do for you today?” Had she seen her at an event she delivered a cake to? She ended up getting a fair amount of new business that way.

Setting her coach purse on the counter, the woman said, “You’re Kat Thayne?”

Okay, maybe that man in the picture had rocked her more than she thought, because unease slithered down her spine.
Don’t overreact
. She glanced at Whitney. The bodyguard looked up from the book she was reading, her eyes narrowing. Not overreacting then.

Returning her attention to the woman, Kat judged her to be around fifty. That annoying sense of familiarity kept nagging. Her day seemed to have boarded the weird train. “Is there something you need?”

“Yes.” The woman leaned forward, pressing her hips against the counter. “I need you to stay out of my son’s way.”

A ping like a tuning fork sounded in Kat’s head and began spreading. Her eyes… Oh yeah, she knew who she was looking at now. Kat walked around the cases and faced the woman. “Who is your son?”

“Sloane Michaels.”

Whitney shot to her feet.

Kat shook her head at the bodyguard. She wanted to know what brought Sloane’s mother, who lived in Florida, to her shop. Facing the woman, she had to cross her arms to keep from slapping her on principle. “Does Sloane know you’re here, Olivia?”

She flinched slightly. “You know my name.”

“Sloane mentioned you.” Which was why she wanted to slap the woman. But what was she doing there? Why had she come to see Kat? It didn’t make sense.

The woman shook her head. “If Sloane knew, he would try to stop me from telling you the truth about him.” She sighed, her thin shoulders sagging. “I did the right thing keeping those kids, trying to raise them alone as a single mother. Sara was a good girl, but Sloane was ungrateful. He destroyed everything.” She lifted her chin and glared at Kat. “It’s time he fixed this. Once that charity fight is over, I can live in peace.”

The need to hurt Olivia snaked up her belly. Kat dug her fingers into her arms. “What do you want?” And what did the charity fight have to do with it?

Olivia raised her eyebrows. “You must be after his money. How much will it take to get rid of you?”

That’s what she wanted? Kat out of Sloane’s life? Why? Never mind, it didn’t matter. “I’m not for sale, unlike you.” Catty yes, but true. “Sloane pays you to keep quiet, so I suggest you do exactly that. Shut up and leave.”

“The hell I will. That boy ruined my life. He owes me this, and I won’t let a gold-digging baker stop him from fixing it.”

She’d been ready to give Whitney a nod and let her shove the woman out the door. But a dark, chilling curiosity bubbled in her gut at the way Olivia repeated for the second time that Sloane had to
fix it.
“Fix what? And how will he do that exactly?”

“Sloane put a target on my back by testifying against that animal who killed my baby. I told him not to. He’d already done enough. The police looked at me like I was neglecting my kids when I was trying to give them a better life.”

The need to hurt her rocked Kat on her toes. Never had she felt this level of violent rage flaying her nerves until she actually twitched. Forcing her voice to be calm, she said, “By putting them in a foster home?”

She looked down her nose. “I was a single mother of two teenagers. Sara was quiet, but Sloane was a hellion and completely out of control. It was him I was trying to save by finding a strong male influence.”

“I’m not a single mom, so clarify this for me.” Oh look, her voice went deadly soft like Sloane’s did when he was furious. “To get a better life for your teenage kids, you tossed them out like trash and moved the man in. Is that correct?”

Olivia’s eyes narrowed to hatred. “I see Sloane has been twisting the truth again. I suppose he didn’t tell you how he couldn’t be bothered to check on his sister because all he ever cared about was himself?”

Kat had held Sloane as he told her about finding Sara. His torment, guilt and grief had been so real and vivid, it had cut her to her soul.

This woman refused all responsibility, while twisting Sloane’s guilt into something frightening. Something that made Kat want to run and hide from it.

She didn’t want to know. But she’d been with a man who kept secrets once before. That secret had nearly killed her, and left her with a permanent limp and pain.

She had to know.

Moving with cold precision, making damn sure her leg didn’t fail her now, Kat got right in the woman’s face. “What is Sloane supposed to do to fix this?”

Olivia looked around at the shop, empty except for Whitney. Facing Kat, she dropped her voice. “Kill Lee Foster. Then I’ll be safe and the world will know the truth.”

No.
The word punched her brain over and over until she wanted to scream in agony.

“Every year, I go to Sara’s grave to mourn her. To tell her how sorry I am that her brother let her down. And to promise her he’ll make it right. This year, I’ll be able to tell her it’s done.”

“You’re insane. You can’t let him do this. You have to stop him.”

The woman’s nostrils flared. “He owes me. He told those cops that I threw them away. My own kids. Then he testified, like he was the hero, not caring that he put me in danger.”

Kat fought to stay on her feet, but her shop began to tilt and spin.

Olivia grabbed her purse. “He’s not capable of love. But he’s fully capable of murder. Stay away from my son.” Then she walked out.

Kat’s stomach lurched, and Sloane’s voice exploded in her head.
But here’s what I know. I’m going to fuck this up and lose you. Because as much as I want to deny it, I’m my mother’s son.

Kat opened her eyes and saw nothing but the truth.

Sloane intended to kill Lee Foster.

Chapter Fifteen

In the conference room, Sloane listened to the pitch for SLAM Vodka with growing interest when his personal cellphone vibrated on the table. A flare of concern for Drake hit his stomach. He glanced at the screen.

Not Drake, but Whitney, one of Kat’s bodyguards.

He surged to his feet and strode from the room, ignoring the stunned silence in the boardroom. Once in the hallway, he answered, “Sloane Michaels.”

Subzero frost blasted his veins as he listened. Rage pounded his head.
Olivia
. That fucking bitch. Goddammit. He’d been so focused on protecting Kat from Foster, he hadn’t foreseen this. He should have realized that once the news clip of him and Kat got out, his mother would destroy the one good thing in his life.

Kat.

He couldn’t lose her. “On my way, tell—” He cut off his words at the sound of a brief struggle.

“Is it true?” Kat demanded.

Hearing her voice tripped him into unfamiliar panic mode. “Don’t. Don’t do this. It has nothing to do with us, with what we have.” She was everything to him.

“Answer me. All this time, while you were convincing me to trust you, to love you—” Her voice cracked.

Her pain ripped open his chest and burned his heart like a branding iron. He never wanted to hurt her, he just wanted to love her.

“All this time you had this secret plan that you knew would destroy us.” She drew in a shaky, tortured breath. “Is it true?”

Memories attacked him, rolling fast and furious through his mind. The first time he saw her in that ballroom, the first kiss, the way she trusted him with her body, and then her heart. She’d freely given him a priceless gift of her love.