“Do you know who yet?” Zoey asks me, and I shake my head with a grimace as I sit down next to Kat, making sure my thigh brushes against hers. I don’t fail to notice that she squeezes her legs together, and it makes me have some kind of fucking hope that I really do affect her as she affects me.
“Well, I’d like to get to know you better, Kat, so what about you coming and helping me at the club a couple of nights a week?” Zoey says, and I fix my sister with my stare.
“Absolutely fucking not,” I reply before Kat can utter a word.
“And why not?” Zoey retorts.
“Because I said no.”
“Pfft, you think that shit is gonna work on me? Think again, bro,” she says with a scoff, and I see Kat grin out of the corner of my eye.
Give me fucking strength.
“She’s not leaving my side,” I say as I clench my jaw.
“And what exactly do you think is going to happen, hmm?” Zoey continues, not giving up––as I knew she wouldn’t. “There are God knows how many security, there’s always at least six of your men prowling inside the place, and I’m there goddammit, or did you forget that you taught me how to slit someone’s throat?”
Huh. Well. Fuck. Maybe I got my baby sister wrong with the feeling remorse and all that shit. I haven’t really seen her much over the last six months, what with the whole Kat thing going on. I guess I missed something, because now that I look at her properly, there’s a new glint in her eye, a determination, and something else that I can’t quite put my finger on…
“You want a night off from this asshole, don’t you, Kat?” Zoey says with a smirk on her face. If she wasn’t my bloody sister, I swear I would have thrown her out of here by now, and she damn well knows it.
“Hell yes,” Kat replies, making my sister burst out into laughter.
“Pissing you off already, is he?” Zoey asks.
“You have no idea.”
“Fuck’s sake, I am sat right here, you know?” I interrupt, to which they both reply in unison with, “We know.”
Oh my God, they’re going to be like two peas in a goddamn pod. Ordinarily, that would thrill me, but with Kat not fully on my side yet, I have no idea how this is going to play out. I shouldn’t give a fuck, and to anyone else, I wouldn’t, but when it’s my sister, I care. I don’t want my sister’s view of me tarnished. She accepts this world, this life, what I do, but she separates that from the brother she sees before her. She knows I have a role to play here, one I took on after our father died, so she gets it, and she loves me regardless. But would she still love me if she knew I had threatened Kat with her life in order to marry me? I’m not willing to take that chance.
“So, how about tonight?” Zoey says to Kat, and I watch as Kat’s eyes sparkle.
“No,” I say before Kat can answer.
“Stop it, Nate, I can speak for myself,” Kat says as she turns and narrows her gaze on me.
“You’re not going,” I say quietly, deadly, so that she knows that she is on dangerous ground.
“You may be my husband but you’re not my fucking keeper,” she growls, and damn if it doesn’t make my dick twitch.
“Watch it,” I warn her, but she just smirks. “Fine,” I say as I turn away from her and fix my eyes back on Zoey.
“Great, I’ll pick you up at six,” Zoey says excitedly.
“No need. I’ll be driving,” I tell them both with a smile.
“Nate, no,” Zoey says, but I ignore her.
“Either I go or neither of us do,” I respond, feeling all kinds of smug.
“Christ, why are you so bloody difficult?” Zoey moans, but I don’t care to answer. I’m difficult because I can be, and until I am sure that Kat isn’t in any grave danger from whoever is watching her, I will be going where she goes and vice versa––and maybe even after that because I am nothing if not a possessive bastard when I want to be.
“It’s fine,” Kat says with a wave of her hand and defeat in her voice. “He’s not going to change his mind. It was a nice thought though, Zoey, thank you.” Kat stands from her stool and makes her way across the kitchen. “It was nice seeing you, Zoey,” she says before she disappears from sight––and I presume goes to another room rather than hanging around in the hallway.
Oh my God, what is that? A lump in my throat? A tightness of my chest? Fuck. No. It can’t be. I don’t feel guilty… do I?
“Well done, Nate,” Zoey scolds me before she gets up and takes her cup over to the sink, throwing it in there with more attitude than is necessary.
