Own (Command Force Alpha #1) (10 page)

Something was off. Way off. The Bokuns were powerful within their sphere, but Evan doubted they were the only performers in this play.

Not that his doubts mattered at the moment. He got regular reports and nursed his suspicions, but he was a field guy and not much help at parsing intelligence—though he did get the frustration of waiting.

“We both made promises to your father,” he said. “So no. Not yet.”

She muttered something. “I’m going to miss my second interview. Goddamn it.”

“Second interview?”

“With the Department of Commerce.” She groaned with disgust. “Of course. That’s just perfect. The best chance I’ve had at a real job in months, and now I’m out of the running by default. My apartment’s a mess, and I’m a walking train wreck who trolls pool halls for easy marks, but that’s not what I want. Do you even know that? You have a key to my place, but not a single clue about what I want from life and how badly this is screwing up what I thought was a chance to be normal. For once.”

Evan could process a hundred pieces of data in a minute, able to make decisions in the blink of an eye, but Kat’s unrestrained admissions would take him time to sort through. She was half what he expected and half what he hoped she’d be. That the Bokuns, or whoever these bastards were, impinged on the smallest details of Kat’s life filled Evan with anger he should’ve been able to control.

That made him madder and more determined to find the assholes who had killed Laurie and threatened the colonel’s life. Why was safeguarding the details of her life almost as important as keeping her physically sound? Because she wanted to get her life on track? Or because she might finally find some of the peace and happiness she’d been denied so long?

“Get in the car.”

“Do I get to know where we’re going next? Or am I a huge security breach?”

“You were. You still are. You will continue to be. But to get to you, people will have to get through me first.” His voice had hardened, to the point where he barely recognized its timbre. Low. Possessive. Animalistic. Kat only stared at him, lips temptingly parted. “That won’t happen.
Ever.
That’s a promise I can keep, Katsu-kun.”

Where the hell had that come from? It was practically an endearment in Japanese, a language notorious for its lack of overly affectionate phrases. The colonel called her “Katsu-chan,” which was more appropriate between school friends or parents to their children. Using Katsu’s given name and the suffix
kun
was somewhere between friendship and respect. Part of him hoped that was true, despite their constant differences.

“I get the feeling you don’t make many of them,” she said quietly.

He tightened his hands on the steering wheel. Questions he hadn’t consciously prepared popped out. “Did what happened four years ago really make you hate me so much that you think so little of me?”

For a long time, Kat didn’t answer. It got to the point where Evan gave up and started the car. His gut was still tight from the day’s tensions, and
now
he thought to resurrect old hurts?

Only when she cleared her throat did he exhale with relief. He needed to know.

“You broke my heart, Evan.”

“I’m sorry,” he replied. “I am. But maybe I saved you four years of wondering where I’d run off to. You only had your father to worry about.”

“That’s not true.”

The words were so quiet over the idling engine that Evan thought he’d imagined them. A glance revealed the truth in her tense profile—the hard set of her stubborn jaw and the narrowed severity of her eyes. She’d said those words, and they rocked Evan to the core. She’d worried the whole time? Then why avoid him as if he were a mortal enemy…?

“Self-defense can be a bitch,” he said.

“Yes. It can make smart but otherwise naïve, worried girls break into safes and learn secrets they shouldn’t.” She placed her hand over his on the gearshift and gave it a squeeze. “I’m sorry too, Evan. I’ll do whatever you say to make it right.”

“That’s where you have it wrong, Kat.” He smiled tightly to himself, then returned the squeeze to her trembling hand. “You’ll do whatever I say because we both like it when you do.”

Chapter Nine

Kat kept her silence as long as she could manage, turning her face toward the passing traffic. It might seem safer out there, but it wasn’t. The world was filled with dark shadows and people who were up to no good and organizations that would gladly take down the United States. Maybe it made her a bad patriot, but it wasn’t the destruction of her country that she worried about. To Kat, it had always been about people. She worried about the soldiers and Marines and sailors those other nations and terrorists would have to blast through to get to the U.S.

She worried about her friends and the family she’d glommed onto after losing her own.

That didn’t make her wrong. Or bad. It made her human. If Evan couldn’t understand that, maybe they had a fundamentally different worldview.

“I have to go back to my place,” she said when they reached an interchange. It was either head back to Evan’s place, or return to Southie.

“Is this necessary?”

“You could take me to Target to buy tampons.”

He clenched the steering wheel and shifted in his seat. “If that’s all it is, I’ll pick them up myself.”

“What if I said it was my birth control?”

“I’d know you’re lying. I saw that fall out of your duffle bag.”

“Of course you did. God, men have it so easy not having to take a pill every day.”

The huffing laugh that dropped from him sounded almost involuntary. “If you think the quarterly STI testing that Bascombe puts us through is a cake walk, you’re crazy.”

Her sigh smeared condensation across the window. “Okay fine, it was never about tampons. I need some more files if I have any chance of keeping my clients pacified. I passed off some projects that were immediately due, but I can at least work on the long-term things. Really, Evan, I need the work, and it’ll keep my mind off Dad when I’m at your place.”

Although he made a grunt of displeasure, he angled the car back toward the city.

“My period’s not due for another two weeks,” she added. “Just for the record.”

“No one’s counting.” Except Kat thought maybe he lied. He didn’t do it often, not to her, but there was something funny in the twisted tone of his voice, like a cat being strangled when normally he purred.

“So is any of that obeying-because-we-like-it going to be sexual?” She looked at him then, holding thumb and forefinger up before her. “Maybe a wee little bit?”

“Katsu,” he ground out, and that cat-strangling thing became even more apparent. “So help me God…”

“You didn’t finish that threat.” It was hard to keep her voice level. She wanted to crawl over the car and wedge herself down in his lap, driving be damned. When she was sitting with him, she knew where she was and how all these stupid pieces lined up.

“So help me God, if you don’t give it a rest, I’ll pull this car over, push you down over the hood in the view of everybody sitting in rush-hour traffic, pull your skirt up and spank you until your skin is red enough to see from three lanes away.”

The bottom fell out of her stomach.
Whoosh.
She licked her lips, but they were as dry as petrified wood. “Police.” She coughed and tried again. “There would be indecent-exposure charges.”

He tipped her a sideways glance. There was no smile to go with it, but the corners of his mouth tightened. “Not if I kept your panties up. Maybe something about disturbing traffic.”

Time passed in such a haze that she barely noticed when he dropped off I-93 at Rutherford, until they were pulling in front of her building. Some part of her mind had simply stayed with the image of him ordering her out of the car and spanking her. He wouldn’t really risk charges like that, would he? He was supposed to be a covert agent. The Marine Corps would hang him up to dry for shit like that. Well, if any of the branches still bothered to claim any of the members of CFA once they signed on with Dad.

And she still resented him.

Right?

Her apartment building wasn’t big, but it housed a guy who sat at the front desk and pretended to be security. Paddy went off duty at seven p.m., so it wasn’t like the guard was anything impressive. He was really nice, though, and she liked the familiarity of seeing him every day. She’d been trying to pull things together since graduating, but it was like walking through a nightmare where she was up to her ankles in molasses. The struggle was lonely.

“Heya, Ms. Stafford. Haven’t seen you for a while.”

She hooked a thumb over her shoulder at Evan. “New boyfriend. Haven’t been out of his place for days.” She blew Paddy a kiss. “Don’t wait up for me tonight, either. Just picking some stuff up and going.”

Paddy had put up with her inappropriate jokes longer than he deserved. He didn’t even blush anymore, only smiled. “I’m sorry you missed your cousin, Ms. Stafford. Family oughta be higher priority than a new boy.”

“Pardon?” All the teasing dropped at her feet. Evan stepped in front of her, blocking her view of Paddy. The length and strength of Evan’s neck was enough to make her want to hide behind him forever, independence be damned, but the way his back arrowed from wide shoulders to his narrow waist was unfair. She didn’t
really
want to hide. She wasn’t that kind of girl. She only wanted to put her face against that sharp line of man.

“What cousin?” Evan asked, voice dead calm.

“Well, he had the outside key. And he had a note from Ms. Stafford here.” Paddy leaned to the side, around Evan. “It looked like your writing, miss, from when you sign for packages. I just thought you’d given him the outside key by accident. So I lent him the super’s.”

“Is he still there?” Evan was every bit of business and nothing more. Shivers etched down Kat’s back at his serious tone.

Paddy shook his head. He was graying to a snow white at the temples. Kat hoped Evan didn’t get him fired or anything awful. “No. He brought the key back an hour ago and left.”

Evan pointed to the camera lens in the corner. “What would it take to get footage from there?”

Paddy’s ruddy cheeks and nose went redder. “A miracle, near about? The system went down this afternoon. We won’t have techs until morning. I told the boss not to go all digital, but did he listen to me? No sirree.”

Evan cussed under his breath. Whoever had broken into her apartment had also disabled her building’s security system.

“Should we even go up?” she asked.

“Might as well see the damage. Odds are low they’re still there. Snatch and grab for intel, or to scout the place and confirm your identity.”

“How reassuring,” she said past the bile rising in her throat.

They were talking to each other in low voices. Kat was so close that a lock of his hair brushed her forehead. He was so much bigger than her, but he had curled his shoulders around her like a shelter. She shivered, likely from the danger of the situation—and knowing Evan could handle just about anything.

Paddy shook his head. “Is something wrong?”

Kat sent him her kindest smile. It wasn’t plausible that a pro would’ve allowed some poor schlub like Paddy to see what he was really after. “Thanks, no. I’m sure it’s fine.”

The elevator ride to her floor was tense. She followed in his footsteps to her door. Evan ordered her to stay in the hallway, crouched low against the wall beside her front door. She obeyed gladly. He pulled the Glock from the holster at the small of his back and entered, though he held it loosely at his side. She’d always known the weapon was there, of course, but that was different from seeing the matte-black, squared-off muzzle pointed at the ceiling of her entryway. Her stomach was flipping, and her blood was pounding hard enough to burst her eardrums. When she put a clammy hand flat on the hallway wall, she realized it was shaking.

He cleared the entryway first, then hauled her inside and locked the door. She knelt against the living room wall, half concealed by the couch, while he continued searching.

Minutes passed. She wanted to shrink until she disappeared.

“All clear,” he finally said. “Though I don’t know if they might have planted some bugs, so be careful what you say.”

She was embarrassed as all hell that he had to help her to her feet. Her knees were shaking too badly to stand on her own.

Gathering her strength, Kat walked into her apartment, expecting to see the worst. Nothing looked disturbed. They hadn’t needed to toss things over or empty drawers. Pros never did. She’d been scared silly for days after hearing that, but she never forgot it. She collected information from her dad like some people collected jewels.

Evan stood in the middle of her living room, his eyes still intense and his Glock gripped in both hands. “Is anything missing?”

She pointed toward the couch. “Some of my files.” She lifted her hands to her temples, squeezing tight. “God, I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to my clients. Crap. They were
good
clients too. Reliable. Liked my work. As if it’s not enough that I’m going to miss that interview.”

“Any electronics other than the laptop you took to my place?”

“I have a second, an old one I use for entertainment.” She pushed into her bedroom, and sure enough, “Gone.” She’d left it on her bed by the pillows, opting to take her tablet to Evan’s for amusement. “They won’t get much from it, though. Just a half a dozen James Deen videos and a browser history full of Reddit.”