just needs convincing,” he’d told Kai, the tequila making his logic even less sensible. “I’ll just have to show her how good I can be to her.”
“I thought you said she’s seeing that guy…” Pérez had told the man, head shaking when Wilson waved him off.
“He’s nothing. Me and Cat…we got history.”
“He’s…something,” she said, hands on her hips like she was gathering a list of chemo units and children’s wards in her head. “This is getting ridiculous.” She moved her hand to the back of her neck, eyes narrowing over the flowers before she turned to face Kai. “My apartment is a hundred times worse. I think the Super is going to start charging me for all the times she’s had to let the delivery people in.”
“So, you want this to stop?” he asked, pointing to the overflowing bouquets.
“Of course I do.”
Kai nodded, fishing out his cell, thumb moving across the screen. He knew she watched him, knew that look on her face; the glance was full of doubt and suspicion. But Kai had an in that Cat couldn’t expect. He had skills that had nothing to do with what she’d saw between him and Gia.
“Puk!” Wilson said, his tone elevated, his mood chipper. “What’s up, man?”
“You know that favor you owe me?” Kai said, smiling when he heard the low groan his friend made.
“Yeah. I owe you. That kid is not mine. Thank you for getting that bouncer to fess up to it.”
“I’m calling it in…for a friend.”
Cat squinted, her mouth pursing as though she wasn’t sure what Kai’s plan was or why Kenya owed him a favor. He hoped she didn’t ask for details.
“What friend?” Wilson asked, that amused quality in his voice shifting into something that sounded like worry.
“The flowers?” Wilson sighed, not answering, and Kai knew he understood him. “Lay off.”
“For how long?”
“Indefinitely.”
Wilson coughed, like he’d taken a sip of something and Kai’s one-word answer had him choking on whatever he drank. “I can’t do that. It’s…working. Cat’s gonna…”
“Believe me when I tell you, man, it’s not working. It’s not working even a little bit.” Kai slipped his freehand in his pocket, shrugging when Cat nodded. “In fact, I’d say you’re getting the opposite reaction.”
Wilson’s breath fanned across the receiver and to Kai it sounded like the man was gearing up for another argument but then Kai cleared his throat, sending his teammate a silent warning he hoped he got and Kenya sighed. “What do I do?”
“Not this. You feel me?”
“Yeah,” Wilson said. Kai hated hearing that defeated tone in his voice, but knew this approach was the right one. “Yeah, I feel you.”
When Kai ended the call Cat rounded the desk, grabbing his hand to squeeze it. “You think that will be enough?”
“Kenya Wilson has a lot of vices, but he doesn’t go back on his word. I did him a solid. He knows it. I know it. He won’t bother you.” Kai glanced at the flowers, then back at Cat’s unsure frown. She was beautiful. Tall and elegant. Thin, but curvy. And there was something about her that Kai knew would make her attractive to any guy with a pulse. “Now, I can’t promise he won’t try something else…but don’t worry about the flowers.”
“Thanks,” she said, watching Kai long enough to make some internal decision that moved a small grin onto her lips. “Okay…” she continued, glancing around the office and into the hallway outside it before she finished. “Gia…she…moved out of your building.”
Kai felt sick and angry and a little lost. He watched Cat for a full minute, spotting her neutral expression, how she didn’t smile or laugh, as though she’d told him a bad joke no one would find funny. Then, he fell into one of the chairs across from Cat’s desk, rubbing the back of his head as he watched her.
“I…when?” Eyes closed, Kai ignored the imagined scenarios of Gia ushering movers down their hallway in the dead of night so he wouldn’t have a clue what she was up to. Or, worse, paying the building manager to have her stuff moved out when she knew Kai wouldn’t be around. He was glad his sister had taken Keola to see some of Keeana’s cousins in San Francisco. He’d hate to think of his girl’s reaction if she’d come across Gia sneaking out of the building like a rebellious teenager.
“Two days ago,” Cat said, sitting in the chair next to him. “You had that meeting with your manager, I think. About the