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The cashier’s brows narrow.
I pull out a wad of cash, tossing it on the counter. “Keep whatever is extra,” I say to him. He gapes as he sees I’ve given him at least a hundred dollars for twenty bucks or so worth of food.
I take the bag and guide Kate back to the car. “You can’t use your cards.” I try to speak gently, but I’m sure to her, I’m being gruff. “He can track you through them.”
She snatches the bag from me as she gets into the passenger seat. I watch her for a moment, wanting to apologize yet knowing it wouldn’t matter. So, I shut her door and then get in the driver’s seat and finish the trip to the rental.
When we get there, the owner has put a coat over his pajamas and crankily lets us in and tells us the rules. I hand over ten one-hundred-dollar bills, which is at least three times more than what one night’s rental costs. At that point, he becomes downright cheerful.
Once he’s gone, Kate takes her food to the kitchen and prepares a meal for herself of soup and crackers and fruit. As she sits at the table to eat, I take all the precautionary actions to ensure the location is safe, checking it inside and out. I text Robbie to let him know where I am.
He replies asking what the plan is, and I don’t know what to tell him because I don’t have a clue. My goal was to get Kate in a safe place. My desire is to run away, change our names, and live happily ever after. It’s a stupid dream. Maybe I should have played my hand differently. After saving Kate from Fiori and Igor, I could have put her back in Witness Protection and stayed with the FBI. Hell, I could have quit helping Niko, thereby becoming completely legit. I could have given Kate the regular life she wanted.
But I chose the other path. The one that wreaked vengeance on every man who'd dared look sideways at Kate.
I find her still at the dining table once I make my security rounds.
“There’s more soup if you want.” Her tone is vacant, lacking in any affect.
I nod and sit at the table across from her. “Is the baby’s father going to be looking for you?” It seems like a dumb question. Of course, any man Kate was with would be worried about her and the baby. Her saying he’s not in the picture is likely a ruse to keep me away from him.
She purses her lips at me.
“What’s his name?”
“Why? So, you can hunt him down and kill him too?”
Her anger is palpable. I don’t like it, and yet, it’s better than when she’s defeated.
“Does he need to be killed? Has he hurt you?”
She sits back, her eyes boring into me as she gives a derisive laugh. “Yes. He has.”
Then he’s as good as dead, as far as I’m concerned.
She leans forward, and her expression is full of disgust. “You want to know who the baby’s father is?”
I nod even though I’m pretty sure I don’t. I hate the idea that she’s slept with another man. She’s mine, dammit. Even though she doesn’t want me. Even though I can’t have her and still give her what she wants and deserves, she’s mine.
“Then go look in the mirror, Liam. Congratulations. In five months, you’ll have a son. Another person you can abandon.” She rises from her chair, walking away toward one of the rooms, slamming the door.
What did she say?
Words are rattling around in my head, not making any sense. When they start to settle in place, reality hits me hard in the chest. The baby is mine. I’m the father. The news paralyzes me. I’m terrified, and yet… I rub my hand over my chest.
I jump up, my chair knocking backward, but I don’t bother righting it. I stalk to Kate’s room.
I knock, trying not to pound on the door. “Kate.”
“Go away.”
That’s not happening. I open the door and enter her room.
She is lying on the bed but sits up as I enter. “I said go away. I don’t want to talk to you about this.”
I feel like I’m in a whirling vortex, unsure of myself as my world spins around me. “How long have you known?”
“God, you’re so annoying. When I asked you to stay, you vanished, ghosted me. Now I want you to leave, and you won’t.”
