Chapter 181
1053 Words
When Kat opened her eyes again, the sun was too low in the sky for it to still be morning. She squinted at her clock and sighed when she saw that it was well past three o’clock in the afternoon. Carefully, she sat up, wincing at the pain in her head. But at least she didn’t feel like throwing up anymore.
She sat and listened, but the tiny apartment was quiet. She hoped that Jim had left, but she wasn’t betting the farm on it. More likely the man was sitting out there on the sofa, silent and lethal and motionless, waiting for her to set toe in the living room so he could pounce, like some sleek jungle cat. Kat could just imagine the look he’d give her with those golden eyes: sharp and suspicious. And he’d be right to do it, too.
“I can hear you,” he called from the living room, and she jumped. “I heard your breathing change. Come on out, sweetheart. It’s time to talk.”
She closed her eyes and whimpered.
“Stop whining,” he said. “I’ve made you a coffee.”
Resigning herself to the inevitable, Kat dragged herself out of bed and then noticed that she was in her underwear.
Holy Lord… how did that little detail escape my attention this morning?
She found her pj bottoms and ran her fingers through her short hair. Nothing to do about the shadows circling her eyes, or her pallor, but a coffee might make her feel semi-human, at least. She walked out to the living room slowly, afraid of what was coming next.
Jim was sitting there, a book on the table in front of him. A steaming cup of coffee caught her attention, and she sniffed the air with appreciation.
“Thanks for the coffee,” she said.
“Uh-huh.” His eyes were nailing her to the spot. “Come sit.”
Kat lowered her aching body into the chair across from him, and lifted the coffee to her lips. She sighed.
“God, that’s good.”
“You hungry?’ he said.
She shuddered. “Oh, man. No. Thank you.”
“OK.” He leaned back, his body open, his face closed. “So. Where the f**k have you been for the past week?”
She almost laughed.
God. This is just so – so Jim.
“Here, mostly.” She took another sip of coffee. “Just hanging out here.”
“That’s interesting, ‘cause your neighbor said she hadn’t seen you in days.”
“Sure. Because I was here. Like, in this chair. I didn’t leave this apartment until five nights ago.”
“Food?”
“I ordered in. Slept late. Let the mail pile up downstairs.”
Jim regarded her. “Why?”
She shrugged, looked away from that intense golden stare. “I just – I needed some time on my own.”
“Why did you turn off your phone?”
“Same reason.”
“The girls have been worried sick. Why’d you do that to them?”
She shrugged again.
“That’s not an answer, babe.” His voice was a rasp.
“It’s the only answer you’re going to get,” she retorted.
“Like hell it is,” he growled at her. “You just f****d off on every single person in your life who cares about you, and now you think you can just swan on in, act like nothing happened? Like you didn’t scare us all to death? No way, Kat. No goddamn way. You tell me what’s going on with you, and I mean right the f**k now.”
She started to get angry. “It’s none of your business.”
“Oh, you think?” Jim leaned forward, his upper body somehow appearing even larger. “It is my damn business! You want to know why?”
“Why?”
“Because I'm the one who got a phone call at two o’clock in the morning to come and get your drunk ass from a pick-up bar out on the highway. You were surrounded by ex-cons eyeing you up and down, and if Jax hadn’t done the decent thing and helped you out, where do you think you could be right now?”
She stared at her hands.
“You know what happened to Jenny, right, when a bunch of drunk assholes got ahold of her?” he said. “You lookin' for something like that to happen to you?”
Enraged, Kat got to her feet. “Don’t you dare imply that what happened to Jenny was her fault, like she went looking for it!”
“Oh, I know she didn’t, sweetheart. But there you were – alone and wasted in a bad place. Were you looking to get yourself hurt for some reason? You punishing yourself for something?”
Kat opened her mouth again, and was stunned and horrified when a sob burst out. She covered her mouth and turned away from Jim, trying to hide her tears.
Right away, he was there, holding her. He ran his fingers through her hair as she cried, her legs weak and trembling under her. Kat just rested her head on his broad chest and let it happen, she just let herself be comforted.
“Shhhh. Sweetheart, it’s OK.” He felt her shaking get worse and he held on tighter. “Kat, please. Tell me what’s going on so I can help you.”
“I – I can’t.”
“Kat –”
“I can’t!” She shoved him away from her as she screamed, she shoved hard, and he backed up. “Stop asking me, Jim. I just – I can’t talk about it.”
They stood staring at each other.
“Kat.” His voice was as soft as she’d ever heard it. “I know what a person on self-destruct looks like, OK? And baby, that is all that I see when I look at you. You carry on the way you have been? You’re going to get hurt. Bad. I’m not going to let that happen.”
“Jim. Just leave it alone. Just – let me go.”
“Go where?”
- Writer
