Page 90 of Second First Kiss
“You checked?” Nolan snapped. “By yourself? Jesus, anyone could have been out there.”
Kat ignored this and continued speaking to Tessa. “You were at Gemma’s and it’s hard to talk to you when you’re always locking yourself in your room or storming off. But you’re right, I should have called you and told you this morning. In the future I will tell you everything.”
“Like how he’s moving in,” Tessa said with a face that looked like she’d just bitten into a lemon.
“He’s sleeping on the couch. It’s temporary,” Kat said and, even though she knew that was not the answer Nolan wanted to hear, he didn’t even flinch. “Just until we figure out who was in the backyard and why.”
“It will be like I’m not even here,” Nolan said.
Tessa looked Nolan up and down, took in his enormity, and snorted. “Right. Well, if that’s it, I have homework.”
Tessa stood again and Kat placed her hand on Tessa’s but didn’t say a word. When Tessa lifted a single brow in question, Kat added, “There’s more.” She glanced at Nolan and gave him a look that she hoped he interpreted as an apology. “I met with someone today and it affects both of you.”
“O-kay,” Tessa drawled out.
Nolan remained silent, but she watched as his Sherlock Holmes skills kicked in.
“I met with a woman named Noelle. She’s actually the third woman I’ve met with recently who once dated R. J.”
“What?” they said at the same time.
“Why are you spying on my boyfriend?” Tessa asked at the same time Nolan said, “You promised to leave it alone!”
“One, you told me he wasn’t your boyfriend, and you would stay away from him,” she said to Tessa. She sent Nolan a glare scathing enough to make his balls disappear. “And two, just because you’re sleeping on my couch, Nolan Carmichael, doesn’t give you control over my person. And shouldn’t you guys be asking what I found out? Like how all three girls said he was a bully and emotionally controlling. He never hit them, but he was rough with them. Noelle said he gaslit her all the time, making her feel as if she were always screwing up.”
“For the record,” Tessa said angrily, “he told me about Noelle and she’s a nut job. She totally stalks him on Insta. So if that is the proof you have, then I am out of here.” Tessa stood. “Nice talk. And so much for trust between sisters!”
“Tessa, come back.”
The slamming of the door was her response.
Kat rested her head on her hands. “I am messing everything up.”
“You’re not.” He ran his fingers through the hair at the base of her neck and massaged her spine. “That was just a lot of information to digest at once. And I was a part of that. I’m sorry, I figured you’d already told her or I wouldn’t have come over until later. I should have called first.”
“I should have told her first thing. I just wanted to do it in person.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about meeting with these women?” So much for helping her relax.
“Because then I’d have to tell you how I learned about them,” Kat said with a too-bright smile.
Nolan pressed his palm to his eye socket. “Kitten, please tell me you didn’t hack into the sheriff’s department.”
“Okay, then I won’t tell you.”
He lifted his head, his eyes pleading.
“It’s not my fault they need stronger security walls. If you want, I can hack into their system and show you where their weaknesses are.”
“Did you just confess to an officer that you hacked into a law enforcement database? You could lose your job at the county, which means losing your health care! Or worse.”
“If I don’t convince her that R. J. is trouble, I could lose my sister.” After their morning with Ms. Woods, how was he not seeing the seriousness of the situation?
He ran a hand down his face. “Kitten, you could lose her anyway, doing something like this! Do you have any idea the sentence something like this can carry?”
“I’m too good. They’ll never even know I was there. I might not have graduated, but I was top of my class at MIT. I have the college debt to prove it. And it was also how I found two claims of domestic abuse from R. J.’s exes. After some more digging, I was told that they were paid off by his dad to drop their charges,” Kat said.
“You stole witness information from a sealed case file and reached out to them? Talk about invasion of privacy. I’m not even allowed to do that!”
