Page 45 of Fearless
Ethen laughed, a low chuckle as cold as the promise his stare was making. “I don’t have to steal. Everything you own is mine, remember? As per the agreement you signed when you accepted my contract of ownership.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it!” she spat. “You got me fired! You beat the shit out of me!”
They were almost at the line at the exit gate, but he slammed the brakes and threw the car into park. Hooking his arm over the back of the seat, he twisted far enough around to stab a finger back at her. “You will speak to me with respect—”
Kitty snapped. She grabbed his finger, yanking his arm down behind the seat and punched. He both ducked and flinched, and her knuckles connected with the back of his head. It was the wrong place to hit a person. Pain exploded through her fingers, all the way up through her hand and into her wrist, but it was at once the worst and the best feeling of her life.
Swearing, he yanked his captured arm back out of her grip, but she hit him again. And again, despite the pain. His own temper snapped, but his seatbelt held him hostage and Kitty was already out of hers, slapping and slugging around the back of his headrest, scratching and screaming as months of pent up rage she hadn’t even known she was drowning in came vomiting out of her. If she could have got at him around that blasted headrest, she’d have sunk her teeth into the side of his neck, she was so angry. It was that vicious and terrifying desire more than the pain in her hand that finally stopped her attack.
That and his wallet, which she took out of his inner coat pocket, swiping all the cash he had. She hit him with that too, twice, while he was still fumbling to get out of his seatbelt.
She took his cellphone too, which she beat to death against the dash of his car, right before she kicked her door open and fell out of the back of his car.
Flinging his seatbelt off, Ethen started to follow her, but she wasn’t running. The minute she got her feet under her, she grabbed for his door. Anger gave way to shock. He slapped the locks down before she wrenched it open.
“Come on!” When yanking the handle didn’t work, she switched to kicking his door. She slammed two glorious dents in his perfect, tidy, shiny black car. “Come on!”
She lost her balance when the car took off, nearly falling on her butt.
“Go on and run!” she bellowed after him. “I know where you live, coward!”
She was a little surprised he would run. But then, this was an airport, with plenty of cameras and cops. If he looked back, she didn’t see it through his tinted windows. Ethen got to the exit gate right as the last car in line went through it, but he still had to stop.
“I’m coming after child support!” she shouted.
He barely stopped long enough to tap his credit card to the chip reader, and then he was through. Tires squealing, he took the corner without hitting his brakes.
“You just landed yourself the world’s craziest baby-mama!” she roared from the middle of the exit ramp, haloed in the headlights of half a dozen cars that were keeping a wary distance behind her.
God, that felt good.
Panting, weaving on her feet, Kitty came slowly back to herself in time to see the first car tentatively drive around her. Her head was pounding. Barely aware of the odd looks she was getting from those inside, she was a little surprised airport security wasn’t speeding their way to arrest her.
She looked down, a wad of his money still clutched in one hand, astounded by her own capacity for violence. Her other hand was bleeding, thin rivers of crimson that dribbled down her shaky fingers from where she’d split her knuckles and cut herself smashing his phone.
The faint crunch of tires on pavement pulled up behind her. Kitty startled when a man with entirely the wrong accent asked, “Are you okay? Do you need me to call someone?”
He was the driver of a yellow cab. The light was off, and it was empty.
Flying high on euphoria, but coming down fast, Kitty’s hand shook when she offered him her money. She had no idea how much was even there. She saw twenties and tens and several ones, but she was buzzing too much to count. “C-can I get a ride?”
The look he gave her said he didn’t mind helping, but that letting her into the back of his cab wasn’t his first option. But he also looked at the money in her hand and, unlike her, was fully capable of tallying the sum. “Where are we going?”
She gave him Garreth’s home address, but even as she wrapped her wounded hand in the napkins the driver gave her and crawled into the back of his cab, she realized her mistake. Australia was fourteen hours ahead of D.C. time. “Is it still Friday?”
Switching on the fare light, the cabby glanced back at her. “All day long.”
Fridays Garreth would be at Black Light. He worked there most weekends, but Fridays were different. On the first and third of every month, he was a dungeon monitor and resident EMT. On the second and fourth Fridays, however, he and Hadlee got to play. They wouldn’t be home, not until late. Which meant Kitty had a choice: she could either sit outside Garreth’s apartment until whatever o’clock they came home, or she could go to Black Light and surprise them. Maybe sit in the bar, have a sip of something to calm her rattled nerves, and then figure out what her next step should be.
“Are you sure?” the cabby asked when she changed addresses.
No, she wasn’t sure of anything, but she fed enough money through the slot in the protection barrier to satisfy him, and off they went. At least she was home.
Honestly, she thought it would feel better than this.
Chapter 16
Noah’s arresting officer was a man by the name of Billy Cuthrie, and he was a complete git. But, the airport’s security supervisor was not. He was, in fact, a romantic fellow at heart. He not only let Noah go with a warning, but he looked up Kitty’s flight and even found Noah an alternative.
