But trapped where? How far had Godwin been able to get before the alert had gone out? He’d had a healthy head-start in the time it had taken the police to arrive at the scene and the time it had taken the doctors to work on the woman. Even though the DNA they’d found on her body had been fast-tracked, it still took time to process.
“We’ll get him,” Leo said.
The statement was meant to be comforting but Kong had heard it too many times. How many more people would be hurt or killed because of Kong’s failure?
He wanted to question Cleary. He’d bet his left nut that at least one of those calls on a burner phone the general had mentioned had been from Godwin. Cleary likely knew exactly where he was. The man might have even helped him, maybe arranged a pickup. After all, if you found yourself in the shit and needed a way out, you contacted the most powerful person you knew.
There was no way General Davies would authorize an interrogation for the sake of finding one lowlife scum. Stopping a potential war was more important, and Kong going off book would have things blowing up in their faces.
Big picture, he reminded himself, but it was damn hard.
It was early morning, still dark outside, when they arrived back at the base. There’d been nothing more they could do in Miami. It was a waiting game now. Wait for Godwin to fuck up. Wait for Cleary to fuck up. Kong hated to wait. Just like he hated to wait for a more respectable time to visit Katherine. She’d called him twice yesterday, the one bright spot of his day, but he hadn’t had a chance to call her back.
He looked up at her building and the row of dark windows. She was probably sleeping. He should go back to his place and get acouple of hours of shuteye as well. He could bring her breakfast in a little while and they could talk then.
He wanted to see her. Badly. But he also wanted to ask her about her father. He couldn’t tell her why, but he wanted a better picture of the man. Something more than the public face of a weapons manufacturer. Kong could understand the man wanting to start a war – as despicable as it was, there was a profit motive there – but why hire someone like Godwin? He was a thug. A murderer. He couldn’t be trusted. The guy had sold out his family to save his own ass. Why would August Cleary think Terrence Godwin would keep his secrets?
Too many unanswered questions. He hated those almost as much as he hated waiting.
He looked up at those windows again and saw a faint flicker of blue light. Maybe Katherine was up after all and watching TV.
It couldn’t hurt to check. Kong jogged over to Katherine’s building and went inside. Taking the elevator up, he promised himself that after a quick listen at her door, if he didn’t hear any sounds, he’d leave and let her sleep. But he hoped he’d hear something, some indication that she was awake. He’d missed her. How crazy was that? He’d been gone less than twenty-four hours and he hadn’t been able to wait to get back to her.
Approaching her door, he heard the soft sound of what he thought might be a sitcom laugh-track. The tightness in his chest loosened. She was up and watching TV. He didn’t have to wait to see her. He knocked.
Chapter Fifteen
Katherine hadn’t been ableto sleep. After the crappy night’s sleep she’d had the night before, she thought she’d succumb to exhaustion the moment her head hit the pillow. Her wayward brain had other ideas, keeping her awake with worry about Kong. She’d finally given up and decided to check out her new TV. She was pretty sure the thing had every channel known to man, and every streaming service as well. She was three episodes into aFriendsmarathon when she heard a knock on her door.
Kong.Springing up like a Jack-In-The-Box, she bounded for the door and ripped it open. There he was. Big and beautiful and uninjured. She was so relieved she threw herself at him, leaping into his arms to hug him.
Katherine heard his softoofof surprise when he caught her, but the feeling of his arms wrapped around her and holding her close was like heaven. “You’re all right,” she softly uttered, burying her face in his neck and breathing in the slightly salty scent of his warm skin.
“Were you worried about me?”
She nodded against his shoulder as Kong walked them back into her room, closing the door behind him.
“I’m okay,” he told her. “I’m a big guy. It takes a hell of a lot to put me down.”
Even giants could be felled. She pushed the thought away. He was here and he was fine. Raising her head, she found herself eye-to-eye with him since he hadn’t put her down. “When did you get back?”
“Just now.” His eyes moved over her face, lingering a bit longer on her lips, and Katherine held her breath in anticipation only to be disappointed when he set her back on her feet and stepped back.Dammit.
Kong cleared his throat gruffly and looked around the room before zeroing in on the TV. “Couldn’t sleep?”
She shook her head. “Do you want something to drink? Are you hungry? I could make a snack.”
“No. I’m good.”
“Do you want to watch TV? I can find something else…”
He shook his head and cleared his throat again as his eyes took another tour around her room. If she wasn’t mistaken, he looked almost nervous.
“Listen, can we talk?”
Katherine’s stomach took a nosedive. Nothing good ever started with that question. Was he going to tell her that she was coming on too strong? That he wasn’t interested in being anything more than friends?
“Er… sure. Do you want to sit?” She looked around. She wasn’t exactly set up to entertain. Their seating options were the two chairs at the desk – two only because the one Kong had fetched from the breakroom was still there – or her bed.
