Nodding, she got back to the cookies she was going to make.
“What else did you and your mom talk about?”
Katherine looked over her shoulder with a sly smile. “You.”
“Oh?”
Their talk hadn’t started with him though. First, her mother had wanted to know about the attack. Katherine had tried to tell her, but after a few choked words, she’d broken down and started bawling. Her mother had ended up rocking her in her arms like she had when Katherine was a child, whispering, “You’re okay, I’ve got you,” over and over again until she was finally able to pull herself together.
That’s when her mother had told her about the spectacle of her father’s arrest, probably hoping the story would shock Katherine enough to get her mind off the attack.
They had a couple of glasses of wine into them when Harper Knox demanded, “Now, tell me about this man of yours, Kong. He’s a soldier I take it.”
Turning to face him, she wrapped her arms around his waist and settled her cheek against him so she could hear the strong,steady beat of his heart. Alive. He was alive. “I may have gushed about you a little bit.”
A lot actually.
“Did you?” With a pleased rumble, he pulled her closer, his hand sliding down to squeeze her butt.
Katherine tipped her head back and braced her chin against his chest. “I love you, Kong. I wanted my mom to know all the reasons why.”
“I love you, too.” Softly, sweetly, he kissed the tip of her nose.
“Will you marry me?”
When she and the other women had spoken about it the other night, there’d been talk of Katherine giving him a ring, maybe spray painting the proposal on one of Black Bay’s retaining walls – something Kong would especially love because, not only would he find it romantic but it would rile up the general too, which he’d consider a bonus – but instead, she just blurted it out. No plan, no ring. If her recent experience had shown her anything it was that tomorrow was never guaranteed. She needed to live life today. She was done worrying about public perception and whether things were progressing too fast.
Kong had her up and sitting on the counter so fast she let out a little gasp of surprise. She made room for him as he moved between her knees and her breathing hitched when she saw the intensity of his gaze. His lips met hers in a quick, hard kiss.“I would love to marry you, Katherine Knox.” Another kiss. “Tonight. Tomorrow. Just tell me when.”
His mouth returned to hers and stayed. Katherine wrapped her arms around his neck and immersed herself in his kiss.
When they finally broke apart, she was panting as she gasped out, “Can General Davies marry us tonight?” Because tonight sounded good to her. “Like a ship’s captain? Isn’t that a thing?”
Kong let out a rumble, his face flushed with passion and his eyes heavy-lidded as he shook his head.
“Tomorrow, then.” Katherine yanked his head back down to hers and kissed him passionately. Against his mouth, she added, “We’ll find someone to marry us tomorrow.”
Without breaking the kiss, Kong scooped her into his arms and walked them into the bedroom.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
There was a threaton Black Bay that needed to be eliminated. General Davies believed ORION was boxed, contained strictly within the Resurrection network. It was a misconception the AI had not corrected as it gave the commanding officer the sense of security he needed. But ORION could enter Black Bay’s system at will. Until now, it had not needed to.
Its directive was to oversee and protect the Resurrection soldiers. That now included Katherine Knox.
Her job description was simple. Straightforward. She had been placed at Black Bay to keep an eye on things – specifically ORION – and report back. She was not required to sit and chat with the Resurrection soldiers, yet she had, even when many of them had been incapable of doing more than answering directquestions, still too deeply embedded in their programming. She’d told them stories that ORION understood were meant to be humorous, in an attempt to bring cheer into their lives. She had brought them brownies, and later, other treats she’d baked herself to celebrate their progress.
ORION hadn’t fully understood the deeper meaning behind the gesture, so it had asked Commander Grady Carter for an explanation. She was offering them comfort, care, even love. The AI didn’t feel emotion, and wouldn’t ever fully understand it – not as humans did – but it understood correlation and causation. ORION’s soldiers were improving at a faster rate since Katherine Knox had come to Black Bay. And when word had reached them that she had been kidnapped, they’d become motivated to act, even without orders. There was a human saying, about a fire having been lit, and ORION had witnessed it in the soldiers. Had Black Bay’s team failed to retrieve her, Resurrection would have stepped in.
Katherine Knox’s continued good health had thus been raised in ORION’s priorities. It would not let a threat to her remain. It had researched Terrence Godwin. Human law enforcement was flawed. It had given freedom to a deeply disturbed individual in exchange for information then failed to keep adequate surveillance on him, allowing his crimes to escalate without appropriate repercussion. Just recently, they’d failed to apprehend him after his DNA had been found on a murder victim despite a state-wide manhunt. ORION would not allow the cycle to continue.
So many things on Black Bay were controlled by technology. Technology the AI could access, and in this case, manipulate.Using the backdoors it created into Black Bay’s system, it first accessed the cameras in the brig, finding Godwin pacing back and forth in his cell. Then, it targeted the electrical system, temporarily disabling the safety protocols in place and building an appropriate charge. The threat would be eliminated, the death would appear as nothing more than what the humans called a freak accident, and Katherine Knox would be safe and able to continue healing ORION’s soldiers.
Terrence Godwin was dead. The call from the brig had come just minutes ago and that was all General Davies had needed to hear to get him out of bed. He expected to find Kong waiting for him, ready to take his punishment for killing the man, and his thoughts were whirling as to how he would handle it. He’d been known to turn a blind eye on occasion and look the other way when it came to how the Beasts dealt with their past and those who had harmed them. But in this instance, he couldn’t let it slide. Godwin had been locked up. For Kong to have entered his cell and killed him… Well, that was cold-blooded murder.
His gut tightened uncomfortably. He loved Kong, loved all the Beasts, and sometimes, that love made it damn hard to do his duty.
The guard, Jackson, met him at the door, snapped to attention, and saluted him. The general returned it. “Where’s Kong?”
