Chapter Fourteen
Kat washed dishes as she stood in the kitchen, swaying to the music that poured through her headphones. Bradley and Olin were outside and Dean was locked in his room working, which left Kat bored.
She’d already spent time painting that morning, working on the large piece she’d started days before. By noon, however, her hands had started to ache from holding the paintbrush so she’d called it quits.
No one expected her to clean up, and each of the men chipped in, but Kat didn’t mind taking care of the kitchen. It felt nice to lose herself in the music and the familiar motions.
At least, that was until her phone started to ring. She sighed and paused the music, then turned off her headphones.
“Hello?” she answered, putting her phone to her ear.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
Kat froze, as if the voice on the line were in the house with her, like he could snatch her through the phone. It was instinctual, and no matter how much she hated it, she couldn’t keep herself from doing it. Even though she told herself she shouldn’t be afraid of him, something about his voice took her back to the helplessness she felt in that hotel room.
“Stunned to silence? Really, Katherine, you should have more respect for me than that. Before you get your hopes up, the phone I’m using to call you from won’t be used again, so there is no reason to try to trace it. You can change numbers as many times as you’d like—I’ll make the effort to find you, always.”
“Why go through the effort?”
“Because you took off. I didn’t expect that, honestly. You seemed so tough before, so I really thought you’d stay put until you gave in.” His tone wasn’t pleased, as if her surprising him annoyed him.
“You thought I’d just stay put and wait for you to do something?” Her voice shook, but she shoved the words out. There was a strength inside her that she was afraid she had lost, one that had grown since the last time he’d spoken to her. Was that a sign she was doing better?
She couldn’t quite believe that, not with how she felt inside, but she clung to the hope.
“I already told you that you’d come to me on your own. I’m a man of my word, Katherine. I told you I’d wait for you, so I will. Those pretty screams of yours are worth waiting for.”
Those words took the floor from beneath her, made her knees weak. Before she could say anything else, before she collapsed, a strong arm came around her and tugged her against a firm chest. A hand plucked the phone from her, but her brain rushed too fast for her to identify who it was.
Until Dean’s familiar, smooth voice spoke into the phone. “Jerry, I presume?”
Kat could just make out Jerry’s side of the conversation as well. “And who exactly are you?”
“Doesn’t matter. What exactly do you think is going to happen if you keep harassing her?”
“She’ll eventually do as I say. She’ll realize there isn’t another option, and she’ll obediently return to me.”
“Over my dead-fucking-body she will.” Dean’s voice made Kat want to pull away, to retreat. It held so much anger, so much violence that it sounded nothing like the man she’d gotten to know.
“Oh, are you getting attached?” Jerry chuckled. “That’s not the best idea. See, I rarely give up on something once I set my sights on it. How do you think I’ve amassed the business I have? It hasn’t been by being afraid, by being unsure. I’ve done it because I saw what I wanted and I stopped at nothing to get it. Let’s not mince words here—I want Katherine. I will stop at nothing to get her. Whatever you think you have with her, whoever you are, I don’t care. It won’t stop me, it won’t even slow me down. She will realize that she has no other options, and she will come to me.”
Kat forced herself to look up and into Dean’s face, his gaze locked on a far wall. When he spoke, his voice was even darker than before, a side of him she’d never expected, never wanted to see.
“You want to be clear? Let me return with the same—you won’t touch her. I don’t give a fuck who you think you are or what you think you want, you’ll never lay another goddamned finger on her.”
“And you think you’ll stop me? Really?”
“Yeah, I will. You think you’d be the first life I’ve ended? You think I’d lose any sleep over adding you to that list? It’s been a long damned time since anyone put me in a position where I even thought about that again, but you’ve fucked up, now. So keep pushing this, keep screwing with her, and I’ll happily wash your blood of me like I have so many others.”
Kat’s chest froze at the icy words, the ones that lacked any of the humor she’d come to expect from him. Dean was always friendly, always smiling, rarely serious. To hear him speak like that chilled her to her core, made her question everything she’d thought she knew.
Dean hit the End button before dropping her phone on the counter, and Kat stared up at him with eyes she knew were wide from shock.
He looked down at her, his gaze still hard and foreign to her. She expected him to pull away, to smile, to apologize and tell her that had all been an act. Instead, he caught her chin between two of his fingers so her eyes remained locked on his. “I wasn’t kidding, Kat. I may not have a lot to offer, but I promise you, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe from him, and I don’t care what it costs me.”
The words, no doubt meant to reassure her, only made her tremble.
This man might be more of a monster than the one chasing her…