You Know I Need You (You Are Mine #4) - Willow Winters Page 0,8
want to check and see if you had anything in there.”
Fuck. My heart hammers as I stand there numb.
I don’t know who it was or what they were looking for. But if she’d been here … Fear is crippling. It’s the resolute tone of her next statement that forces me to move. “Are you going to fix that or should I call someone?” Her voice is flat and completely lacking in any emotion.
“I’ll take care of it, but Kat, please,” I beg her, forcing my legs to follow her back to the kitchen.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she says without even looking at me.
“Kat, I need to know—”
“If you want to talk, then tell me how jail was. How about that?” she spits back.
“Kat, baby, please—”
“Don’t ‘please’ me, don’t touch me, don’t anything me,” she practically hisses, glaring over her shoulders as she opens a cabinet to get a clean glass then slams the door shut. Her eyes are rimmed in red, and she looks paler than usual.
She fills the glass with water and drinks down half of it with her back to me.
I want to reach out and hold her, but I’ve never seen her like this. Closed off and nothing but worn out and angry.
“Kat, I can explain.”
“Oh, thank goodness. I was worried for a minute.” Her voice drips with sarcasm, her back still to me as she turns the tap on and refills the glass.
“Please, if you don’t mind, you could start with … I don’t know,” she says then shrugs and turns to face me, the bitterness in her voice never more apparent than now. “How about why I should give a damn about whatever excuse you have?”
My brow furrows as I take in her stance. She slams the glass down so hard I think it may shatter but it doesn’t. With her arms crossed again, she waits. Her hair falls in front of her face, hiding part of her tired eyes and she doesn’t bother to sweep it away.
“I don’t want you to be mad …”
She reaches behind her to grip the counter, her knuckles turning white, agitation showing in every movement she has. I know right then I can’t tell her what I think about James. I can’t tell her that I think someone was trying to kill me or that I’m bringing more trouble to her.
I have to be the man she wants me to be.
I can do that. Just one last lie, once more. To protect her.
I swear it’ll be the last. And only so I can hold on to her and keep her safe.
“Kat, I don’t know a thing about the coke overdose or James or whatever the hell anyone’s told you.”
“You said you needed an alibi,” Kat states evenly. She blows a few strands of hair away from her face and then folds her arms over her chest once again.
My stomach sinks as I give her just a little bit of the truth. Just enough that she’ll stop questioning me. “This is why. I knew Tony was dead, but I wasn’t involved.” Lie. I can barely stand on my own two feet knowing I just lied to her.
“Why an alibi?”
“To save the company’s image. We couldn’t be associated with it any more than we already were.” It’s only a thinly veiled lie. What I’ve said is mostly true.
Kat nods her head, putting a finger to her lips and letting the words sink in as she stares at the floor.
“So, you gave him the coke?” she asks before lifting her head and her eyes flash to mine.
“No,” I tell her and my voice is hard. Lie. Another lie. I’m digging my own grave deeper. I add in a truth, hoping it sounds believable enough to cover the lies. “I told you I don’t do that shit.”
“They’re going to test you,” Kat says like she doesn’t believe me.
“I’ll have them show you the results if and when they do,” I say, and my words come out bitter.
She turns her back to me again as she fills the glass with more water. I stalk closer to her, careful not to piss her off.
“I mean it. I promise you. It was just a job and I barely drank, Kat. I quit for a reason. It didn’t use to be like this and it’s gotten to me.”
She doesn’t look at me as I come closer, close enough to touch her, but I don’t.
“I did drink with clients, but that’s it. I swear to