The Consequence (4 page)

er heart lurched against her chest. Katy closed her eyes fortifying herself against Simon’s potent persuasion. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t use words like that to get under my skin.”

“I mean them. Now buzz me up or I’ll kick this damn door in.”

He would too. She buzzed him up.

She couldn’t remember if she locked her front door or not. Just as she walked toward it, Simon strode in with a garment bag over his shoulder and a small leather duffel in his right hand. He tossed both onto the Dante divan, shut the door soundly behind him, locked it then turned cagey eyes on her. “When I tell you to stay put, you stay put.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

He stalked closer, like a panther watching, taunting, anticipating his prey to bolt so that he could chase it down and ravish it.

“I can. You know why? You like it.”

“Not in everything.”

“No, just everywhere that counts.”

Warmth infused her nether parts. “Don’t touch me, Simon,” she cautioned as she backed up. She needed to know she could control him and herself.

“I’m not going to lay a finger on you.”

Her chest rose and fell in shallow heaves. She swallowed. “You’re not?”

“No.”

She swallowed hard again. “Good, because I have work to do.”

He looked past her to the laptop. “You’re breaking the law by having that.”

“So arrest me,” she challenged.

His green eyes blazed. “I should.”

She held out her arms, wrists together. “I dare you.”

“Do you want me to cuff you and take you in?”

“Cuff me, maybe...” She hid her smile when Simon’s eyes dilated at her words. She didn’t know why she taunted him except that she never had a real say in what happened between them. Even sadder, she wasn’t sure she even wanted one and that couldn’t be healthy.

“Taunt me with one and I’ll do both.”

She shook her head and dropped her arms, disappointed that he didn’t turn her around, hook her up, bend her over the sofa and have his way with her. The image her mind conjured, of him roughly taking her from behind as she dug her nails into the sofa fabric, shook her. Breathless she said, “No you won’t.” If he did, it would only prove that when it came to sex with Simon West, Katy was powerless to resist him. Did it matter that she was angry or hurt? Apparently not.

“When it comes to you, Cinderella, I never know what I’m going to do until I do it.”

“Me either.” Sucking in a deep breath she exhaled in a slow measured breath.

He smiled his wickedest smile. “It seems like we have the same problem when it comes to keeping our hands off each other.”

“I hate that even when I want to smack you, I want you to pin me up against the wall and…” Her cheeks heated.

He moved in so close the warmth of his body cocooned her. But he didn’t touch her. “And what?”

Digging her fingers through her hair, Katy moved away from him. “Everything, damn it!” she cried. Then softly, “Everything.” Feeling vulnerable by her addict-grade attraction to him, she whirled around and heatedly said, “I don’t want to end up like Amanda!” Oh, my God, she’d actually said that.

He scowled. “If you mean a widow, I’m not planning on dying any time soon.”

“Oh, my God Simon, that’s not what I meant! I don’t want you to drop me like yesterday’s news.
Ever!
I don’t want to grovel or become a pathetic excuse for a woman when you do.”

His eyes darkened to a stormy jade. “I didn’t
drop
Amanda because we were never a thing to start with.”

“What were you then?”

“She was a one night stand that turned into a two night stand. I never made her one single promise. She knew from the start I wasn’t looking for a relationship.”

“Just a hook up?”

“Yes.”

“You seem to hook up with a lot of women who can’t accept that you’ve moved on, Simon. I don’t want to be part of that club.”

“So you think you’re going to cut me loose before I do it to you?”

She cringed at his abrupt words. But she made a spur of the moment decision and nodded. “Yes.” She did not want to become an Amanda clone. And she would, hell, she already was one. Ha, and here she’d thought she had come so far in the self-respect department. She’d regressed.

He grabbed her by the arm and yanked her hard against his chest. “The hell you are. We’re going to ride this one out together, princess, and if that ride takes us around the world and we’re still crazy about each other then we’ll go again and again until we both want off.”

“What if I never want off?”

He stared at her. When he didn’t respond, she put it all on the line.

“I want a family, Simon, not an E ticket ride at Disneyland.”

Slowly he grinned. “Stick with me, kid, and maybe I’ll give you both.”

Katy’s belly plummeted. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, I want what you want and I’m willing to give it a shot, but I don’t want to rush things.”

“But what if someone better than me comes along?” Ugh, did she just say that? How embarrassing.

“There’s no one better for me than you.” His grip loosened and his big hands slid down her back to rest on her ass cheeks. “Now, if you don’t back up and crack open that laptop, I
am
going to pin you against that wall and do
everything
to you.”

She returned his smile. “Maybe that’s what I want you to do.”

“Maybe I do, too, but right now, I want to help you put together the information you promised Veronica.”

“Won’t you get in trouble?”

“Let me see what you have and then I can answer that.”

As she finished unwrapping her laptop, hugely relieved to see her flash drive still inserted, Simon said, “I could eat a horse, Kat, how about we order some of that great pizza?”

“Mmm, that sounds good. The number’s on the menu in the drawer to the right of the sink.”

As he ordered enough pizza to feed an army, Katy booted up her laptop. As she waited for it to load, she said to Simon, “I um, managed to get a copy of Evan’s texts.”

“I don’t want to know how.”

“I couldn’t tell you anyway.”

He raised a dark brow as he sat down beside her at the kitchen table. “Kaaat?”

She shrugged and brought up the flash drive files with the copied texts and turned the screen toward him. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

Scooting her chair around beside his, she pointed to the cypher-text. “I haven’t figured out what he’s based his code on, but once I do it’ll be simple enough to crack.”

Simon expanded the first line. “What was that douche into?”

“Like a hobby?”

“Hobby, work, personal.”

“Evan was a total geek with expensive taste.”

“What did he bring to the lab?”

“Chemistry.”

Simon smiled at her. “Aren’t all of you scientists chemists?”

“Yes, but Evan was a molecular chemist.”

“Which means?”

“He worked on genotyping. It’s the process of determining the variations in an individual’s DNA by comparing it to a DNA reference sequence.”

“How did that tie in with what you were doing?”

“It plays an important part in the study of viruses and bacteria which can either improve treatments or develop better ones.”

“But you were working on cancer gene research not viruses or bacteria.”

“He was fascinated with my sequencing research and we were good sounding boards for each other.”

Simon scowled. “Yeah he was fascinated with more than your sequencing.”

Katy warmed. She knew jealousy was a new emotion for Simon. And while he didn’t like to feel it, she was kind of glad he did. “Are you jealous, Simon?”

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them the green flared. “Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to leave you with him in that hotel room that night?”

Her heart jumped hard against her chest. “I didn’t want you to leave.”

“I stood outside your door for almost a half hour making sure you were okay.”

“You did?” Her heart fluttered. “That was so sweet.”

“I’m hardly sweet, Kat. When it got quiet, I left. Pissed I wasn’t the one in there with you.”

Smiling she stood up and moved behind him. Wrapping her arms around his rigid shoulders she snuggled up against his back. “Trust me, you were still in there with me. And Evan knew it. Totally infuriated him.”

Simon pulled her arms down as he turned in the chair bringing her onto his lap. Clasping the back of her head with his big hand he brought her lips to his. “If I ever see him again, I’m going to hurt him.”

“Oh, Simon,” she purred, sliding her lips across his. “He’s not worth the trouble.”

His lips opened possessively, taking control of hers. His arms tightened around her, as his kiss deepened. She loved this side of him. Possessive. Strong.

His hand slid down her waist to her hips then beneath the little cammie top she was wearing. Her sensitive skin flushed warmly beneath his touch. Softly she moaned, tightening her arms around his neck.

As his fingers traced across her hard nipples, Katy moaned again and arched, giving him greater access. Just as he slid his hand beneath her bra, his cell phone rang. It was a new ring tone, a caustic beep beep, and by the stiffening of his body, she knew it wasn’t a call he wanted to take.

He ignored it. But Katy couldn’t.

“Simon.”

“It’s Amanda.”

xhaling loudly, Katy pushed off Simon, grabbed the phone and answered, “Simon can’t come to the phone at the moment.”

“Uncle?” a little girl’s voice excitedly said.

Katy’s belly dropped. How was she supposed to compete with an innocent five year old? “Hold on, sweetie, I’ll get him for you,” she carefully said and handed the phone to a baffled Simon.

“What?” he said, exasperated, expecting Amanda. “Oh, Livy!” he excitedly said. Katy’s heart melted as she watched Simon’s features go from hard to soft and loving in the space of one heartbeat. Her womb did a funny little hippity hop.

The sudden and unexpected urge to make a baby with Simon caught her off guard.

She wanted a family, she had told Simon as much earlier, but she hadn’t meant anytime soon…or had she? Kids had always been one of the things she had hoped to have but never with a specific man in mind. Until now. As she watched and listened to Simon speak so animatedly to a little girl who loved him like she loved her daddy, Katy realized no matter how long she was with Simon, Amanda would always be a part of their lives. Good or bad, she was Olivia’s mother and they were a package deal.

“I want to see you too, pumpkin,” he softly said. “How about if I pick you up from school tomorrow and we have lunch at CoCo’s?”

Delighted squeals erupted from the phone. Simon grinned at Katy. She got all gooey inside when he said, “I have a friend I want you meet. You’ll like her as much as I do.”

A split second later, Amanda’s shrill voice blasted from his cell phone, “Absolutely not! I forbid you to bring that woman anywhere near, Olivia!”

Gentle Simon morphed instantly into Don’t-Fuck-With-Me Man. “Go there with me, Amanda, and I’ll sic Veronica on you.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“Try me.” Simon stood and walked into the living room. “I promised Livy I’d pick her up from school tomorrow, and that is exactly what I’m going to do. I’ll bring her by HQ at 4 when you get off.”

HQ?

She must have acquiesced because Simon said, “Thank you.” He hung up and tossed his phone onto the sofa. For a long moment he stood rigidly still, staring out the window at the setting sun.

“It’s Morse code,” he said.

“What?” Katy said standing up. She wanted to know what Amanda had said and what HQ was.

Simon turned around and strode toward her. “The cypher is in Morse code.”

“Slow down, cowboy, first tell me what’s going on tomorrow.”

“I’m taking a half day off, and picking my niece up from school at one, taking her out to lunch at her favorite place and then probably taking her shopping for more dolls.”

“That sounds like a lovely day.” And Katy would love to join them.

“I’d like you to come with me, Kat, and meet the other woman in my life.”

Katy smiled so big her cheeks hurt. “I’d love to.”

“Good. Now, let’s see about cracking duffus’s Morse code texts.”

As they sat back down at the kitchen table, Katy asked, “What’s HQ?”

“Headquarters.”

“Like in your police headquarters?”

Simon looked up from the laptop screen. “Yes, Amanda is the county’s task force liaison between other county, state and federal agencies.”

Jealousy dug its nasty claws into her. So Amanda knew the ins and outs of Simon’s job, and was probably considered one of the ‘guys,’ while she, Katy was a complete outsider.

“So she’s not only your ex-lover and your sister-in-law, but she’s also a coworker.”

Simon’s jaw tightened. “Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because it’s irrelevant to how I feel about you.”

“But what if—”

“—things were reversed?” he abruptly interrupted. “Yeah, it would bug me. No, it would piss me the hell off, but then I’d have to get over it and trust you when you say that you’re over it.” He leaned into her. “Because if I kept obsessing about you working with an old flame who wanted back into your panties, it would drive me crazy and fuck up what I had with you because you would get tired of reassuring me that I had nothing to worry about.”

Katy’s lips parted as she was about to throw a sarcastic rejoinder at him but she bit her tongue. He was right of course. And she felt foolish. Instead she looked at the laptop screen and said, “Morse code is too archaic—too simple. Evan’s self-absorbed brain would have made it much more complicated.”

“Morse code may be archaic but it’s not dead. You’d be surprised how much it’s still used today.”

“Do you know it?”

“Damn straight. My dad used to tap out our chores for the day in code on the table with a spoon to me and my brother every morning. We had to decipher what he told us before we could leave for school. The Army taught it as well.” Simon looked around the kitchen. “Do you have a pen and paper?”

Katy pulled out the drawer next to the sink and took out a pen and a legal pad handing them to Simon.

Quickly he went about writing the message. His brows furrowed. “It’s code but not English.”

“I knew he wouldn’t make it so simple,” Katy said going back to the computer screen. Thinking out loud, she said, “Evan was a chemist, so instead of another language what if he used coding sequences to spell out words then converted them to Morse code?”

“What sequencing has an alpha pattern?”

Katy thought about it. Nothing specific came to mind.

“What about a periodic table?” Simon suggested.

Brilliant! “Yes, the elements!” she sat down and looked at the words Simon had written down. “They’re too short.”

“Maybe he abbreviated?”

“We used shorthand for all of our written notes! I bet that’s it, Simon, he used the periodic table for his letters, but wrote the words in shorthand then converted them to Morse code!”

“Genius.”

Katy smiled smugly and tapped her temple with her index finger. “This is your genius right here, baby. Evan’s IQ is fifteen points below mine.”

Simon smiled and soundly kissed her. “I’m a total sapiosexual.”

“Oh, Simon,” she sighed, batting her eyelashes. “You know just the right words to make a girl swoon.”

They laughed then started when the downstairs door buzzed.

“Pizza!” Simon said, pushing out of his chair and jogging to the front door to buzz the delivery guy up.

Two hours later, stuffed from pizza, and brain drained but smug, Katy and Simon toasted. Evan’s texts had been cracked and oh what a plethora of information they held.

“I can’t believe this, Simon. Evan had us all fooled. I’ll bet this latest transaction of his, selling my research patent, is just the tip of the iceberg.”

When his face tightened, she blinked. “What’s wrong?”

“You cannot discuss this with anyone.”

“I won’t. You can have it all.”

“Problem is I can’t use any of this.”

“Now’s a hell of a time to tell me that! Why not?”

“Because I knowingly abetted you.”

“No you didn’t!”

“I didn’t confiscate your subpoenaed laptop, Kat. I should have. In so doing or not doing, for the purpose of using this evidence in a court of law, I can’t.”

“But I gave it to you of my own free will.”

“But you used an illegal app to obtain it, an arrestable offense, and then you knowingly and willfully violated a subpoena.”

“So? I did it, not you, and I’ll take the hit.”

Simon stood up and began pacing the kitchen.

“Absolutely not. You’re staying out of this,” he resoundingly said.

“
What
? Are you crazy? This is my reputation on the line! I’m not going to sit back and wait for it to go away. Why do you think I did what I did in the first place?”

Simon shook his head, and stopped his pacing to look hard at her. “You have no idea the enormity of something like this, Kat.”

A harsh chill rent her body. “Wha-what do you mean?”

“International espionage. Billions of dollars are at stake here. Not to mention national security.” He swiped his hand across his chin. “And innocents like you who know too much are disposed of.”

“You’re scaring me, Simon.”

“Good, I want you scared, especially if it keeps you from doing something stupid like spying on Evan.”

“If I hadn’t done what I did, you wouldn’t know what you know. Now you’re the smart ass cop who’s going to find a way to use this evidence, legally so you can put Evan and his friends away and I can go back to work!”

“I want you to pack up and stay at my place for a few days.”

Ignoring his request, Katy’s mind ran with ways Simon could legally use the information she had illegally obtained. “What if I print these texts out and drop them off at HQ? Then you can say an anonymous source tipped you off, make the arrests, bada bing bada boom, end of case.”

“This is too incriminating not to use but I won’t take a chance of any of this being traced back to you. Now that I know the extent of Evan’s involvement, I’ll need a subpoena, which is going to take a few tricks and some smooth talking. I want this case to go to court and the only way we can use any of this information is if we obtain it legitimately.”

Katy stiffened. “I wasn’t aware that you were that involved in this.”

Simon’s eyes narrowed. “I became involved when you became involved.”

Katy smiled feeling that little nag of trepidation disappear. “That first time I bumped into you, Simon, I knew I wanted something with you. I never imagined it would involve you standing in my kitchen helping me prove I’m not a thief.”

Simon gathered her in his arms. “The first time I bumped into you I wasn’t thinking of the future, I was thinking of the expression that would be on your face when I sunk into you for the first time.”

Her heart thumped as she recalled that moment he took her from behind and she watched him in the mirror. “I relive that moment daily.”

It was Simon’s turn to stiffen. “You still think about him?” he asked, an edge to his voice.

Katy looked up. “About Evan?”

He nodded curtly.

“The only thing I think about is how much I can’t wait to see him go to jail.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know it’s not what you meant, but seriously, Simon, asking me if I think of Evan in any other context than wanting to see him pay is like me asking you if you think of Amanda or Veronica or all of the other hundreds of women you’ve slept with.”

His dark brows shot up to his hairline. “Hundreds?”

She nodded and poked him in the chest. “Thousands then.”

“Neither,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye.

“How many then? Roughly.”

He smiled and shook his head. “That’s like asking me to pour gasoline on a fire.”

“I want to know how many women you’ve slept with.”

“Kat, c’mon.”

“Ballpark.”

He exhaled loudly. “I’m not the man whore you think I am. I don’t just fuck to fuck. Okay, I take that back, I have in the past, but I pick my partners with care. I can count on one hand the women I’ve picked up in bars.”

Her cheeks warmed. “I picked
you
up in a bar.”

“And I have never been so glad to be picked up.”

“Have you ever, um, done it with more than one woman?”

His full lips quirked. She rolled her eyes and tried to get out of his arms, but they tightened around her. “Don’t ask the question, Cinderella if you can’t handle the answer.”

She stopped squirming. “Did you like it?”

His eyes twinkled. “What do you think?”

“That you liked it.
A lot
.”

He kissed her nose. “It was
a lot
of work.”

“Yeah, but someone had to do it.”

“Kitty Kat, why are you so interested in my past?”

She shrugged. “Because it’s part of who you are.”

“So what does my past say about me?”

“That you like women, like to fuck, like the chase, like the adrenaline rush and you like variety and no moss grows under your bed.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Not for you, but from my perspective it makes one a little gun shy. It should be a foregone conclusion that there will be a woman behind me and one after her and so on.”

“But what you have failed to realize is that I never felt for any of those women what I feel for you.”

“Does that mean you trust me?”