Andrew moved before anyone else, glancing in my direction. “I’ll keep an eye on her.”
“Thank you.” I rubbed my palm along my jaw. “Well, that went wonderful.”
“Did you really expect her or any of us to be okay with it?” Ash asked.
I snorted. “No, but I have a problem with my sister so willing to kill.”
“I can’t…” Kat didn’t finish. She scrubbed her fingers through her hair.
“How do we contact Blake?” Matthew asked, getting the conversation back on track. “It’s not something I can or wish to discuss with him in class.”
“What?” Kat asked when eyes settled on her.
“You have his number, don’t you?” Ash stared at her nails. “Text. Call him. Whatever. And tell him we’re ridiculously stupid and plan to help him.”
Kat wrinkled her nose, but she reached into her bag and grabbed her phone. Her fingers flew over the screen. I could tell he responded quickly, because she sighed. “Saturday evening.” Her voice sounded weak. “He wants to meet tomorrow evening in a public spot—Smoke Hole.”
I nodded.
She sent back a text and then said, “It’s done.”
The two words landed like a ton of cement in the center of the living room. No one was really relieved, but what was done was done. Dee and Andrew hadn’t returned by the time Matthew and Ash left. Dawson had gone upstairs and Kat outside. I followed, walking up behind her, repeating what she had done for me this afternoon. I wrapped my arms around her, and she leaned into me. Several moments passed as neither of us spoke in the silence that was broken only by a distant call of a bird. In those few precious minutes, my thoughts raced over everything that had happened since Kat had moved into the house next door. Regret settled in my chest.
I rested my chin atop her head. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” she asked.
For a shit-ton, but I guessed I should start somewhere recent. “I shouldn’t have flipped out over the whole Dawson thing last weekend. You did the right thing by telling him we’d help. If not, God knows what he would’ve done by now.” I kissed the top of her peach-scented head. “And thank you for everything with Dawson. Even though our Saturday will take a turn into crapsville, Dawson… He’s been different since zombie night. Not the old Dawson, but close.”
There was a pause. “You don’t need to thank me for that. Seriously.”
“I do. And I meant it.”
“Okay.” Several seconds passed. “Do you think we made a mistake? Letting Blake go that night?”
Mulling that over, I tightened my arms around her waist. “I don’t know. I really don’t.”
“We had good intentions, right? We wanted to give him a chance, I guess.” Then she laughed.
“What?”
Her eyes opened. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions. We should’ve blasted his ass.”
I lowered my chin to her shoulder and thought about that. The old me? Yeah, I would’ve taken him out without thinking after what happened to Adam, but now? “Maybe I would’ve done something like that before you.”
Kat turned her head toward mine. “What do you mean?”
“Before you came along, I would’ve killed Blake for what he did and felt like crap afterward, but I would’ve done it.” I pressed a kiss against her neck, right where her pulse beat so strongly. “And in a way, you did convince me. Not the way Dee thinks, but you could’ve taken out Blake, and you didn’t.”
She gave a little shake of her head. “I don’t know.”
“I do.” I smiled against her cheek. “You make me think before I act. You make me want to be a better person—Luxen—whatever.”
Kat twisted around in my arms and stared up at me with an earnest gleam in her eyes. “You are a good person.”
“Kitten, you and I both know that’s incredibly rare.”
“No—”
I placed a finger over her lips. “I make terrible decisions. I can be a dickhead, and I do it on purpose. I tend to bully people into doing what I want. And I let everything that had happened with Dawson amplify those…uh, personality traits. But—” I removed my finger and smiled at her. “But you…you make me want to be different. That’s why I didn’t kill Blake. It’s why I don’t want you making those decisions or for you to be around me if I am choosing those things.”
Then I kissed her, and for a little while, not nearly long enough, there wasn’t need for any words to be spoken.
Chapter 8
After catching one-on-one time with Kat that wasn’t nearly enough time, we headed to the Smoke Hole diner Saturday evening. Kat was like a live wire as we were seated in a booth in the back, near the crackling fire. I knew she expected this to be a trap and for us to be seconds away from the DOD bum-rushing the place.
I wasn’t going to let anything happen to her.
Besides, the DOD wouldn’t come at us in such a public manner, and we hadn’t come to the diner alone. Matthew and crew were hanging back in the parking lot, and some of the staff here were of the extraterrestrial persuasion, including our waitress, Jocelyn.
Quite a bit of the Luxen living in the colony worked outside of it. Obviously the football coach and some of the administrative staff at the high school lived in the colony but were employed in the human world; however, I was kind of surprised to see that Jocelyn was still working here since she just had her babies and had to have her hands full.
Kat was busy making kitten litter out of the napkin she was frantically ripping apart while Jocelyn appeared at our table. “Daemon, how are you doing? Haven’t seen you in ages.”
“Good. How about you, Jocelyn?”
Kat’s fingers stilled as she eyed the redhead curiously.
“I’ve been real good,” Jocelyn said. “I’ve stepped down from managing since the babies. Working part time instead, since they’re a handful, but you and your family should visit soon, especially since…” She looked at Kat and her smile faded just a little. “Since Dawson has come back. Roland would love to see both of you.”
“We’d love to do that.” I winked at Kat. “By the way, Jocelyn, this is my girlfriend, Katy.”
Kat’s lips split in a wide smile as she extended her hand to the Luxen female. “Hi.”
Jocelyn blinked and paled. “Girlfriend?”
“Girlfriend,” I repeated.
She gave a little shake of her head and then shook Kat’s hand before quickly releasing it. “Nice…nice to meet you. Uh, what can I get you two?”
“Two Cokes,” I ordered, and Jocelyn rushed off to place the order.
“Jocelyn…?” Kat asked.
I slid over another napkin for her pile. “Are you jealous, Kitten?”
“Pfft. Whatever,” she said. “Okay, maybe a little until I realized she was in the ARP.”
“ARP?” I stood, moving to her side instead of sitting across from her. “Scoot.”
She wiggled over. “Alien Relocation Program.”
“Ha.” I dropped my arm over the back of the booth and stretched my legs out. “Yeah, she’s good people.”
Jocelyn returned with our drinks, and I placed an order for a meat loaf sandwich. Kat didn’t order anything, and I knew she was too nervous to eat. When Jocelyn left, I angled my body toward hers and lowered my voice. “Nothing’s going to happen. Okay?”
Kat drew in a deep breath and nodded. “I just want to get this over with.”
No sooner did those words come out of her lush little mouth than Blake walked into the restaurant, his gaze zeroing in on where we waited for him. The punk-ass swaggered up to our table like he wasn’t at all concerned with the fact that the last time I’d seen him I wanted to kill him.
Behind Kat’s head, my hand curled into a fist along the back of the booth. “Bart,” I drawled, forcing my hand out of the clench. “It’s been so long.”
“I see you still haven’t figured out my name.” He slid into the seat across from us, frowning at the pile of torn napkins. “Hey, Katy.”