Page 40 of Passion and Payback

“I…no. I don’t even know if I’m planning anything. I’m toying with the idea of planning something.”

His eyes drifted to the computer. “Where are you saving the information? A cloud?”

“No, thumb drive. Had to find an encryption program for that, which took half a day to dig up.”

“For encryption software?”

“To find one thatprobablyisn’t full of malware.”

“Ah…sometimes I forget that you were always good with computers. And numbers.”

“And people.”

He snorted. “All three that I struggled with.”

“You weren’t bad on computers,” I said with a chuckle. “You just, uh…have that weird curse.”

For whatever reason, electronic devices went completely crazy whenever Kai operated them. The device could work flawlessly from the moment it was turned on and continued to operate flawlessly. When Kai decided to use it, the chances ofsomething going wrong went up with every use. Over the years, I’d watched computers, tablets, phones, two Game Boys, three Mp3 players, and once a pacemaker go completely to shit around him.

“Which is why I don’t touch them,” he said, then frowned. “Hopefully, I didn’t screw up your computer.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I said, a little uneasy, but I didn’t want to rub it in. “Plus, maybe it’s petering out. Your phone has lasted. It’s the same one you had the last time you were back here.”

He snorted. “I think I just happened to find the one device that’s more stubborn than me.”

“Now, that would be an achievement worth noting.”

“True.”

He continued to stroke Clem, who, for all appearances, was the happiest critter in the world. If Kai thought he would get away with leaving the cat behind when he finally found a place to stay, he had another think coming. I was pretty sure Clem would find a way to break out of here and hunt Kai down. I didn’t know if that was Kai’s normal effect on cats or if this was just the fact that sometimes a cat found a person, and they were the chosen one, and there was nothing anyone could do to change that.

I had to snort as I realized what we’d done. “Jesus.”

“What?” he asked, looking up in confusion.

“We managed to switch from me potentially planning to become fucking John Wick to talking about your bad luck, and I’m over here now thinking about cats and their weird ways,” I said with a shake of my head. If anything, he should be questioning what the hell was wrong with me that I thought this was even remotely a good idea. And I should be asking why he wasn’t trying to talk me out of it or talking about how it was wrong to hunt people down to kill them.

“If it makes you feel any better, I was thinking about that night.”

“I think that’s when all this started.”

He ducked his head slightly and smirked. “I was referring to the kiss. Not anything else.”

“I…oh.”

“And the fact that you said me doing that was something you’d dreamed of doing because you’ve always had a thing for me.”

“I…did I?”

“You did.”

“Oh. Wow…that’s fucked up.”

“How so?”

“It took me brutally killing my twice failed attempted murderer for me to finally find the courage to tell you I’ve been into you since we were like…ten.”

His eyes widened. “Ten?”

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