Rescue Me (29 page)

“No. What is it?”

“Some cult group or something. Anyway, he
said Salazar and he were both in it. Get this.
The Order
had
something to do with Tommy's disappearance.”

Travis hesitated before saying, “Wait. Are
you saying Tommy didn't wander off?”

“I, uh…”

“You're shitting me right now, right? You
wouldn't keep something like that from me, would you?” When she
didn't answer, he barked out a curse. “Are you kidding me? Kat,
we're a team. You don't keep something like that from your
partner.”

“I'm sorry, Travis. I couldn't tell you.” She
thought about all the times Spencer used those same words on her
and hated the bitter irony.

“Is there anything else you're keeping from
me?”

“Travis, please.”

“Fine,” he growled. “You're telling me some
secret society kidnapped a six-year-old kid for…what? For
money?”

“Power. Martin Miller is also a member of
the Order
and has the power to shift the balance. They had
to find a way to get him to their side. Oh, and get this. Damon
Salazar was behind the whole thing.”

“What in the hell have you been smoking?”

“It's the truth.” Kat exclaimed. “I heard it
all firsthand.”

“Let me make sure I have this all straight.
You've been feeding me a lot of shit—I mean
details
—since
you got back with Spencer. I don't think you've been sleeping much
with all the extracurricular activities going on. Anyway, that
aside…” He cleared his throat for dramatic effect. “Tommy Miller
was kidnapped by a secret society that his grandfather belongs to
in order to get him to vote their way or whatever. We find Tommy
after you grill Damon Salazar, who is also in this secret society
and conspiring against his girlfriend's father. Weeks later we find
a guy also in this secret society who has an explanation for
everything. Am I close?”

Well, when he put it that way it made her
sound like a conspiracy theorist. “That about sums it up.”

“Uh huh.” He clearly didn't believe any of
it.

Screw this. She didn't need to be made fun
of. “You know what? Forget I said anything. I just have too much
time on my hands.”

Travis laughed. “You most certainly do, lady.
Listen, Sheila is calling me to get my ass to dinner. If I don't
those girls will have everything gone before I can get any. It's a
bitch having four kids, you know that?”

“You know what causes that, right?”

“Yeah I do.” He laughed again. “Have a good
night, boss.”

“Bye.” Kat threw all of the papers on her
table as she thought more about this so-called conspiracy theory.
What if Sam Green made it all up? What if there wasn't a group
called
the Order
? She gave up on that line of thought and
settled into another, even more troubling one.

Her love life.

At the beginning of the week, she was
ridiculously happy with her life. But then Tuesday happened. It
started with the call taking Spencer out on that find, only to have
his friend and mentor taken from him. Next had come the call taking
her out to the search that changed everything. She started to
really hate Tuesdays.

It was now Thursday. Had it really only been
two days since her life went to hell in a hand-basket? It seemed
like an eternity, yet still so fresh. Kat shivered and decided to
stop thinking for the rest of the night. Instead, she stared at the
TV, wishing her life's issues could be solved in a thirty minute
sitcom.

A knock sounded at her door and she jumped up
to answer. If Spencer decided to pay her a little visit, she'd slam
the door in his face. Anyone else, she'd be happy to see.

She peeked through the peephole and spotted
Mrs. Shelton, her nosy neighbor. Yep, it must be Thursday. It was
Mrs. Shelton's day to complain about some noise Kat had made at
some time during the week.

“Mrs. Shelton,” she greeted with a warm
smile. They may not be friends, but the woman wasn't Spencer, and
right now that made Kat happy to see her. “Won't you come in?”

Mrs. Shelton shook her head, causing her pile
of gray hair to wobble, and peered at Kat through her horn-rimmed
glasses. The deep red lipstick was a bit brighter than usual. Maybe
she had a date tonight. As short as she was round, Mrs. Shelton
always reminded Kat of who'd be cast as the annoying, elderly
neighbor if her life were a movie. Short, fat, unattractive.
Marinating in nasty perfume.

“I'm not here to visit.” She peeked in and
scanned the apartment, probably looking for the shenanigans she
always accused Kat of having.

“Was I making too much noise?”

“Besides that.” Mrs. Shelton pursed her lips
and looked inside again.

Kat scratched her forehead in frustration.
“Are you sure you don't want to come in?”

“Where's that man who was here earlier?”

Kat tilted her head to the side. “No one was
here. I've been at work since eleven this morning and just got home
about an hour ago.”

Mrs. Shelton shook her head again, knocking
her glasses down her nose. She pushed them back up and pursed her
lips again while shaking her index finger. “Now, I know he was
here. Have you given your key to someone? I told you not to do
that. Not only is it not safe, but it isn't right to have so many
men coming in and out of your apartment like that. People
talk.”

She stopped herself from telling the woman
what she could do with her accusation. Yes, people talk, like her
nosy neighbor. “Do you know what the guy looked like?”

“Oh, my word.” Mrs. Shelton brought her hand
to her chest in theatrical shock. Kat could just imagine what
picture poor Mrs. Shelton's mind conjured. The image of Kat opening
and closing her door to about a million different men would surely
drive the woman into hysterics.

She raised her brow and waited for Mrs.
Shelton to recover. “He was tall, dressed all in black, and had a
hood on so I couldn't see his hair.”

All black? Her heart lurched. And then she
got pissed. Salazar was in her house? “Anything else?”

“Well, I asked who he was when he came to my
apartment thinking it was yours. He told me to mind my own
business, which I found rather rude.”

“Rather.”

She glared, clearly not amused with Kat's
sense of humor. “You should really find yourself a good man and
settle down.”

Kat's heart pinched. It was never going to
happen. She thought she'd found a good man. Boy did she have a bad
judge of character. “Do you know when the man was here?”

“Right before you came home. The funny thing
is, I waited for him to come out.”

Kat's blood slowed. “And?”

“And he never did.”

Oh shit.
Kat fought to not freak out.
She turned and jerked her attention all around her apartment, fully
expecting to spot Salazar or one of his groupies in black ooze out
of the shadows.

“Kat? Are you all right? You seem a bit more
pale than usual.”

She numbly closed the door on Mrs. Shelton,
barely hearing her protests. She turned and glanced around again,
too scared to move anything but her eyes.

And then she saw it. Her notes on what Sam
Green told TREX were gone.

She grabbed her keys and threw her door open
in one move. Running past Mrs. Shelton, who hadn't quite made it
back to her apartment, she hurried down the stairs. To hell with
this. She wasn't about to stay in her apartment another second.

Kat drove by his house again and cursed
herself for not knowing who else to turn to. Why would she run to
Spencer after everything he'd done? They had nothing left between
them, yet when she saw that he'd made it home, she finally relaxed.
She'd been driving for over an hour now and it had to be close to
midnight. He moved slow, clearly drained from what she assumed to
be the strain of his job.

Would this be considered stalking? She'd
passed his house three times before finally stopping. For some odd
reason, just seeing him made her feel safer.

The irony of her situation dawned on her.
She'd finally given in and fallen completely in love with Spencer
again. He had seemed so receptive this time around, so caring, so
loving and actually into the relationship. He seemed so worth her
love. Damn, how wrong she was. And yet here she sat, watching him
pace the length of the windows, trying to make sense as to why she
ran to him instead of from him.

She pulled her Xterra up to the curb across
the narrow inlet his house faced and slowed to a stop, then turned
off her engine and threw her keys in the passenger seat. He
continued to pace, checking the wall of windows that opened his
house to the rest of the world. He stopped in the kitchen and
poured himself something to drink, then walked to the window and
looked out.

He stiffened suddenly as, without a doubt, he
spotted her. He spun around and sprinted toward his front door.

Busted
.

“Shit.” Kat hurried to turn her engine over.
“Shit!” She reached over to grab her keys. Her hands shook so badly
she couldn't get the key in the ignition. Spencer ran up the street
toward her, yelling her name. She finally stuck the key in the
ignition and turned the engine over.

“Kathryn! Stop!” He'd almost caught up to her
by the time she pulled away from the curb and peeled away. With a
hard swallow, she finally let out a breath. She looked in her
rearview mirror to see him with his hands on his hips, shaking his
head.

Knowing he would call her as soon as he went
back inside his house, she debated turning off her phone. But then
he'd just come over to her apartment and wait for her, which would
be a waste of his time since she wouldn't be going back there
tonight.

She grabbed her phone and waited for the
inevitable. This had to be up there with one of the dumber things
she'd done, and she'd done some pretty stupid things in her life.
She knew better than to park where he'd see her.

How embarrassing. It wasn't bad enough her
love life had hit rock bottom, but now Spencer knew how much she
needed him. And she hated that.

Her phone rang and she brought her phone to
her ear. Screw the ticket if she got caught on her cell. “Hi.”

“Kathryn? Baby, where are you? What's
wrong?”

“Hello to you too,” she snapped, fresh pain
tearing into her heart at the sound of his voice.

“Would you please come back here? I know it
was you.”

“Well of course it was me, Spencer. How many
people do you know drive a bright yellow Xterra?” She didn't even
try to hide the crabby tone.

“You won't take my calls or return them. You
don't want me to visit you at your apartment or at K-SAR. You've
made it perfectly clear you don't want to talk to me, but then I
see you sitting outside my house at midnight. So what's going on?
Are you in some sort of trouble?”

You could say that
. She debated
whether to tell him about the guy in her apartment, but then he'd
insist she stay with him in his house and pretend everything was
fine.

She couldn't do that. Too much had changed
between them.

“I'm sorry to have bothered you.” She rushed
her words and then ended the call. Of course the phone rang again.
She and Spencer could play this game all night. Or, knowing him,
he'd end up doing something stupid like deploying TREX agents to
find her and get them both in trouble.

“What!”

“What's going on with you?” His voice no
longer held an agitated tone. It was soft, caring, and hurt to
hear. He could be so tender when he wanted to be. It weakened her
resolve to hate him forever. “Kathryn, what's wrong? Talk to me,
damn it.”

She hated how well he knew her. A lump shot
into her throat and she had to swallow several times before finding
her voice.

“Nothing,” she whimpered, cursing herself for
not having a stronger front against him.

“I'm not buying it. Tell me where you are.
I'll be there in a heartbeat.”

“No.” She drew a sharp breath to regain her
composure. She wanted to see him so bad she ached. But she also
knew if she saw him right now, she wouldn't have the strength to
stand up to him.

“Then at least tell me what the hell is going
on.” His voice grew stronger as he growled into the phone. “Are you
going to talk to me?”

“No.”

“Great, so we just sit here and listen to
each other breathe.”

“You could stop calling me.”

“I could also triangulate your signal and
find you that way.”

Kat wouldn't put that past him, either.
“Just…” She didn't know what to say. “Do me a favor. Stop trying to
make everything that's happened between us okay. It's not okay,
Spencer. It will never be okay.”

He remained silent for several seconds. “Then
we bury it and move on.”

“It's not that easy.” God how she wished they
really could simply move on.

“Goddamn it. I know you, Kathryn. You're
upset.”

“You think?” She let out a breath to calm
down. She knew exactly why she'd parked where she did. She wanted
Spencer to see her. She wanted him to do something to piss her off.
That way she could redirect the fear coursing through her at him
and turn it into anger. She didn't want to be scared. Being pissed,
however, came second nature. It had to go with the hair.

“I miss you.” The warmth of his velvety voice
sank into her, leaving her fighting to keep her emotions in check.
She briefly closed her eyes to keep his words from fracturing the
ice barrier she'd built around her heart. It was hard, but it
worked.

“Please don't say that.”

“Where are you?”

She had no idea. Looking around, she
collected her bearings and turned toward her office. K-SAR kept the
Com Van in a shop on the property. She'd stay there tonight.
Tomorrow she'll go back to her apartment with someone and take a
look around.