Blood drained from his face as he stepped back. “Dude, I wasn’t doing anything. Overprotective, much?”
“I thought we had an understanding. You’re here because we don’t have a choice,” I reminded him. “You’re still alive because she is better than me. You’re not here to comfort her. Got that?”
Blake’s jaw popped as he stalked around us. “Whatever. I’ll see you guys later.”
“That was a little overprotective,” Kat said, peering up at me.
“I don’t like him touching you. I don’t like him even being in the same time zone as you. I don’t trust him.”
Stretching up, she kissed my cheek. “No one trusts him, but you can’t threaten him every five seconds.”
I snorted. “Yes, I can.”
Kat laughed as she stepped in, wrapping her arms around my waist. She rested her cheek against my chest, above my heart. My hands slid down her back, and we stood there for a few minutes. “Do you really want to do more days like this? An endless stretch of days filled with pain?”
“It serves as a pretty good distraction, and I need that right now.”
This was a good distraction? Jesus. This was what our lives had come down to. Almost laughable. My gaze flickered to where the moonlight filtered through the bare limbs. Except nothing about any of this was funny.
My hand curled around her thick hair. “We need a date night soon.”
She snuggled in closer. “I don’t think we have time for that.”
“There is always time for date night.” I lowered my gaze. She was peering up at me now. “Remember? Time management?”
Kat smiled a little, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I do.”
“Tomorrow night, we’re supposed to head into Martinsburg to see Luc. That doesn’t really count as a date night.”
“It doesn’t?”
“Hanging out with the preteen mafia leader? Uh, no.” I grinned when she laughed. “But there is no excuse for us to not make time to do the normal stuff. Right?”
“Right,” she murmured. “It doesn’t…feel wrong, though? Like we’re being selfish?”
“If wanting to enjoy you and the time I have with you makes me selfish, so be it.” I lifted my other hand, cupping her other cheek. “Look,” I said after a moment. “Who knows what is waiting for us tomorrow or next week.”
She wrapped her hand around my wrist. “We don’t know.”
“We need a couple of hours here and there.”
“You’re right.” She stretched up again and kissed me. “I hate it when you’re right.”
Laughing, I stepped to the side and draped my arm over her shoulders. She leaned into me as we started back to the house, the moonlight lighting our paths. For a…a normal couple, this would be a romantic walk, but for us it seemed like that moonlit path was foreshadowing that there was more darkness than light in store for us.
Chapter 18
Wednesday night, while everyone was down at the lake playing with onyx, Kat and I were on the way back to Martinsburg. There was a chance that Luc wouldn’t see us. Hell, the kid might not even be there, but since Kat was wearing this sweater that was like a second skin, I considered it a win no matter what.
Getting to Martinsburg was a lot easier this time around without any of the snow or Blake running his mouth nonstop.
Kat wasn’t smiling a lot, though, and I couldn’t blame her. After school, we’d joined the hastily-thrown-together search party for Carissa. Even though both of us knew there would be no finding Carissa, it was cathartic for Kat, I thought, for her to take part. To distract her, we started to play I Spy, and although she claimed that I cheated, she was smiling and laughing.
When we finally reached the door leading up to the club, cars lined the field like they had last time. I couldn’t understand how this place stayed off the map with this kind of traffic.
Kat shed the loose sweater she’d worn over the tighter one as soon as I parked the SUV. We climbed out and started around the rows of cars. She stopped in the first row, bent over, and tossed her hair over her head, shaking it out, and that was an instant turn-on.
“This reminds me of a Whitesnake video,” I said.
“Huh?” She straightened, running her hands over her hair. The waves fell in a sexy tousle down her back.
I swallowed a groan. “If you start climbing on car hoods, I think I might marry you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Done.”
Staring at her, I felt pressure in my chest. A good kind. Also a frightening kind. “You’re cute.”
“You’re weird.” She stretched up and kissed my cheek, and then I watched her teeter through the high grass that hadn’t been there the last time we’d been there.
Mountain Man, the bouncer I was sure really liked me, like really liked me, appeared out of the shadows, blocking the door. He folded massive arms over his chest. “I thought I told ya two to forget this place?”
I stepped in front of Kat. “We need to see Luc.”
“I need a lot of things in life. Like I wish I could find a decent stock trader who wouldn’t lose half of my money.”