I swallowed hard. “She met a guy? You said she had breakfast with him?”
She smirked and shook her head as she pulled out some pictures. “They had more than breakfast.”
Placing the pictures on the counter, my heart leapt to my throat and I instantly felt sick to my stomach. The pictures showed Paislie on top of the guy in a car.
“Did they . . . were they having sex?” I asked clearing my throat.
Kathleen shook her head. “He said it looked more like foreplay, but at one point the guy had a condom in his mouth and your girl crawled off of him. Finished the job with her hand.”
Turning away before Kathleen could see the rage on my face, I closed my eyes and counted to ten.
I drew in a deep breath and slowly blew it out. “What about after that?”
“He went up to her apartment. My guy had to leave because Paislie looked directly at him so he took off.”
Both hands went up to my head as I pushed my fingers through my hair and cursed under my breath.
“I’m going to safely guess you still have feelings for the girl since you’re paying me to keep tabs on her.”
My arms dropped to my sides. Paislie had moved on. “I don’t need you to watch her anymore, Kath. Let me know what I owe you and I’ll have Janet get it over to you as soon as possible.”
“Okay. You’re the boss.” I could hear her gathering up the pictures and sliding them back into the envelope. “Do you want the pictures?”
As much as I wanted to tell her to find out whatever she could on the asshole Paislie was fucking, I didn’t. With a slow shake of my head, I turned back to her. “Burn them.”
With a quick nod, she walked over to the small stove. She turned it on, lit the corner of the envelope and dropped it into the sink.
“Malcolm, I know you’re not asking, but may I offer you a bit of advice?”
Kathleen had been a family friend for as long I could remember. I had her investigate the guy who hit me, resulting in Casey dying. She also did a background check on Janet before she came to work for me.
With a weak smile, I said, “I’m all ears.”
“Instead of having her followed around to make sure she’s okay, why don’t you find out yourself? She obviously is hurting from what ever happened between the two of you and you care enough about her to see what she’s doing.”
Letting out a gruff laugh, I said, “She must not be that upset if she’s fucking some guy in a car for a little afternoon delight.”
She shot me a dirty look. “I don’t think she had sex with the guy. My thoughts are she was going to, decided not to and finished him off to lessen the blow.”
I stared at her like she was insane. “He went up to her apartment with her. Maybe they decided they weren’t into the public sex thing after all.”
She shrugged. “You’ll never know unless you go to her.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
My heart was pounding in my chest as I clenched my fists together. I was so angry for what I did to Paislie I wanted to punch myself. “I promised her I wouldn’t hurt her and I did. She’ll never trust me again.”
Kathleen looked at me before turning and heading to the door. She opened it and was about to step out when she said, “That’s the crazy thing about love.”
I waited for her to finish her sentence but she didn’t, causing me to ask, “What’s the crazy thing about love?”
“If she truly loves you, she’ll risk it all for you.”
With that, she was out the door and gone as I glanced at the burning pictures in my sink. I brought my beer up to my lips and finished it off as I turned the water on and put out the small fire.
With a frustrated moan, I glanced up and saw Deuce lying on the sofa. “You still mad at me?”
He lifted his brows but never moved. “I know, boy. I miss her too.”
The rest of the week flew by with meetings, strategizing about the race, practice runs and interviews. My mind wasn’t focused and I knew Dalton and everyone else could see it. When the knock on my bus came, I knew exactly who it was going to be from.
Opening the door, I grinned and motioned for him to come in.
Emmit walked in and took a look around before heading over and sitting down next to my damn dog. “Hey boy, how’s it going?”
The traitor gave him a few licks before looking at me and barking.
“Little fucker. He’s two seconds from being taken to the pound.”
Emmit laughed and gave Deuce a rub down before looking back at me. “So, how did the first race feel after being gone so long?”
With a cocky smile, I shrugged. “It’s like riding a bike.”
“How’s your leg?”
“Hurts like a son-of-a-bitch.” There was no sense in lying to him. I knew he would see right through it.
“Taking anything?”
I shook my head.
Emmit nodded and took a look around. “Do you miss it?”
With a smile, he glanced back my way. “Ya know, I thought for sure I would. That thrill you get from racing around the track. God how I’ve loved that feeling for so damn long.”
I chuckled. “Tell me about it.”