Page 47 of Some Like It Deadly
Impatience mixed with arrogance cooled his dark eyes. “You let me worry about the choices I make. Now, did you have a preference about dinner?”
Frost hung off his every word and she nearly shivered, suddenly aware that she wore only her bathing suit with a towel wrapped around her waist. “So you’re done discussing this?”
“Yes, I am. I’m sorry you’re upset,” he said, cool dismissal in each syllable. “But you were safe here and that’s what mattered. And like I said, it’s not my problem the so-called bodyguards can’t figure out how I’m leaving…” Whatever else he said faded as her temper spiked.
He was absolutely right. It wasn’t their fault they didn’t know how he did it. She hadn’t reported his absences. With that thought riding her, she spun away from him again and headed for the stairs.
“Kate?”
She ignored him for the second time in as many minutes and took the stairs two at a time. Her shoulder still ached, but it had nothing on the sick feeling in her stomach. If Richard got himself killed on her watch… She couldn’t complete that thought.
It mattered to her.
Hemattered.
In his office, she picked up the keys and looked at them. There were three—and one was for a vehicle. She ducked aroundhim and checked the garage, neither of the cars responded to it. When he went to block her path, she eluded him again.
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded and followed her as she went out the back door to the deck and the pool. No way he left via the front with the guards. They would know. So that left somewhere from the deck—which meant he’d slipped out either while she was swimming laps or while she’d changed.
The deck overlooked the beach, and the rock face was pretty sheer, but that didn’t mean it wasallsheer.
“Kate,” Richard repeated, standing at her elbow now. “What are you doing?”
“Figuring out how you do it.” She told him bluntly. “If you want to endanger yourself, then I need to know not only when, but how.” If that meant following him next time she would.
Scrubbing a hand over his face, Richard eyed her. “You don’t have to do that.”
Oh the hell I don’t.But she kept that sentiment to herself as she studied the lay of the land.
The pool area was gated, and boasted a significant fence, not that it needed one—nothing about it was visible from the road or the beach and his nearest neighbor was more than a half mile away.
Prowling past him, she walked the perimeter and if she hadn’t been looking for it, she wouldn’t have seen the difference in the boards.
A gate blended into the fence line—it had no actual handle, just a different seam for the wood. Across the pool, nestled against the rocks was another more obvious gate, but those were for the pool cleaner and pump. Richard stopped a pace behind her and she glanced at him once, then pushed the slightly off-sized wooden panel and heard the distinct pop and lock as the gate opened.
The sun slid down the western sky, but there was still plenty of light to see the slightly worn track that led from the gate over the hill. She made it three steps before Richard said, “Wait—please.”
The trail was nestled right against the hill. She couldn’t see the road or the beach. The house blocked it from view. “Are you going to tell me now?”
“Kate, you have bare feet.”
That wasn’t an answer, so she plunged onward intent on following the trail.
“For the love of God, you’re stubborn.” He all but growled the words. Aww, had she pissed him off?
Good.
“I’m sorry pot, what did you call the kettle?” But her temper had cooled, because she could see the trail went for a ways and if it continued down the side of the hill, it likely let out in one of the other neighborhoods.
She glanced at the keys in her hand. It wouldn’t be hard to park a car there or rent a garage.
“Stop. Seriously, stop.” Richard caught up to her. When he took her arm and tugged her around, she let him. Worry furrowed his brow. “If you don’t know the way, you could get hurt.”
“I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself, remember?” But it wasn’t his words that halted her but the bleak expression on his face.
“I remember you getting shot because you were with me,” he said quietly. “Come back inside.Trustme.” When she didn’t move immediately, he cupped her chin and brought his forehead to hers. “I promise the next time I go, I’ll tell you.”
“Take me with you,” she countered.
