Kate & Walker: The Collection

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“What the f**k?” he cried. Even before it registered in his overtired brain, he was moving. The fact was that some i***t had just crashed up his friend’s restaurant—and who knew how many people had been injured? The good-looking broad in the red dress, he feared, was most likely dead. He stepped over broken glass and slipped on something gooey on the floor. In an instant, he assessed the dust and debris. A man on the floor was crawling, a cut on his head, helping up a woman who had lettuce in her hair.

“Are you hurt?” Walker demanded as he touched the man, who looked shocked. Hell, everyone had to be. They had all been out for a nice dinner and then wham—some i***t had driven a car through the front of the restaurant. He guessed no one would be paying their tabs that night.

“I’m okay, just—what the f**k happened…?” the woman screeched, reaching for her purse.

One of the waiters appeared, and then someone else, to help the woman. More waiters and staff raced out from the back, helping people up. Those who could stand began heading around the debris to the door.

“Oh my God, my restaurant!” Jean cried out behind him. He could only imagine her horror.

“Get everyone outside,” he shouted. He could hear the sirens in the distance, coming closer. He stepped around the car, hoping to hell no one was under it. He helped patrons as they staggered from the once fine restaurant, which now resembled a war zone. But he still didn’t see the blonde.

A tabletop shuddered in the corner, and Walker lifted it off a man: oh, yeah, the slick, smiling dude who’d been sitting with the girl in the red dress. “Are you hurt?” Walker asked.

The man was covered in dust and debris as he brushed off his coat and coughed, then struggled to stand. “Holy crap, what the hell?” He was looking around.

Walker heard a cough, then saw the blonde crawling again on her knees from the corner and around an overturned table.

“Kate, are you okay?” the slick dude asked—but Walker got to her first.

She was a mess. Her knee was cut, her dress torn at the shoulder, and she was wearing one shoe.

“Are you all right?” He touched her arm and helped her up, taking in the shock on her face the moment she saw him. Why hadn’t he noticed before how lovely her eyes were, a smoky brown, big and bold? She held on to his arm as if needing support. He could feel how shaky she was.

“What happened? I saw the car…” She stopped and pointed. The way her eyes widened had Walker turning as he heard the squeal of the car door. There was shouting, and others crowded around, helping a woman out of the vehicle. She was dark haired, a little dazed. Walker could feel the woman Slick had called Kate as she dug her fingers into his arm.

“Oh, my dress,” she cried. She grabbed the drooping strap that had slipped to show black lace and the rounded curve of her breast. And a nice breast it was, too—especially in the fancy bra responsible for all that generous cleavage.

He was about to slip off his jacket and offer it when he realized she was with Slick. He should have been shedding his coat and handing it over, but instead he was looking the other way. Walker glanced over to the dude, who was staring open mouthed at the woman getting out of the car.

“Cindy?” he said.

“Ryder, do you know her?” Kate asked, holding up the strap of her dress.

“That would be Cindy, remember? I was just telling you about her.”

“The woman you met online, who was stalking you?” Kate staggered a bit, balancing on one heel. Walker noticed a stain on her dress.

“Excuse me, you know this woman?” he asked. He was starting to wonder what the hell was going on.

“Ryder, is that you?” the woman called out, her hand on the door of the wrecked sedan. She didn’t have a mark on her. She tucked her long dark hair behind her ears and then smiled over at Slick as if this was just an everyday occurrence and they’d simply run into each other. Good God, this was going to be a nightmare.

“Cindy, are you following me?” Slick sounded really pissed. Hell, Walker was pissed, because although people talked about coincidences, he didn’t believe in them. Not at all.

“What? No, what happened?” She put her hand to her head and weaved a bit. Either she was a really good actor or she was hurt. “Oh my God, this is awful,” she cried.

“You have got to be kidding me. Seriously?” Slick said.

Walker didn’t know where to look: at the outrage on Kate’s face or at this Ryder dude she was with, who appeared a little frightened and really annoyed.

“You know her?” Walker asked Kate, who was now shaking her head and still holding up her dress strap.

“I don’t, but it seems my date does. Man, I cannot win with men. What are the odds the woman he picked up on the net for a one nighter is now stalking him and drove a car right through the front of a restaurant where I was sitting with him? I’ll tell you what it is. It’s karma or some bullshit f****d-up nightmare that’s telling me I can’t pick a guy if my life depended on it.”

Walker slipped off his jacket and held it out to Kate as he asked Ryder, “Is that true? She stalking you?”

Kate accepted his jacket and slipped it on. He kind of felt sorry for her.

“Yes, ended my marriage, she did,” Ryder said. “Won’t leave me alone. She just keeps showing up. Holy God, did she try to kill me?” He didn’t move but also made no effort to console his date—a date with killer legs, a tight ass, and the perfect curves poured into an amazing red dress, the kind of dress Walker would have loved to peel off after a night on the town, anticipating what was to come. Something so sweet, sweaty, and satisfying.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Ryder Connelly.” He went to hold out his hand, and Walker looked down at it as he put both hands on his hips, thumbing the gun clipped to his belt. Ryder obviously thought better of reaching out and touching a cop, as he squeezed his fist and lowered his hand. “Oh, and this is Kate—I’m sorry, what was your last name?”

Smooth dude. Walker noticed the way Kate bristled. What was it exactly that she saw in this joker, anyway? She was obviously now seeing him as Walker did. Maybe she was smarter than he’d given her credit for, after all.

“Kate Sikes,” she said a little sharply. “We met online. Evidently, I still can’t pick ’em.”

Ryder gave her a sour look. “Hey, look, it wasn’t as if I was going to ask you out a second time.”

“Yeah, you were just looking for another one nighter. Guess you haven’t learned.” She glanced over to Cindy, who was now pushing away from the waiters and people around her. Two uniformed cops walked in and gestured to Walker. He pointed at Cindy, and they stopped her from taking another step.

“You get a restraining order against her?” he asked Ryder, but he didn’t miss the way Kate rolled her eyes. He was sure she had to be thinking what an i***t this guy was. He hoped she realized guys like this slick were often more talk than action, but then he felt sorry for the dude with a broad stalking him. That was downright creepy.

Ryder was looking truly miserable. “For all the good it’s done. She won’t leave me alone. Not a week goes by that she doesn’t turn up where I am—the coffee shop, the newspaper stand, even my gym. She was suddenly there. I quit the gym and lost the money I paid for the membership. She always just stays that thousand feet from me. No more, no less. I want it to stop!” he shouted. “Get the hell out of my life!”

Walker stepped away from Kate to the uniformed officers, who were talking to the stalker broad. “Take her in for questioning,” he said. “I’m not liking this. I’ll be right in. Have the paramedics check her out, though, too.”

He walked back over to Kate, who was still wearing his jacket, a mess, and was now lifting a chair and part of a table. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“Looking for my shoe so I can go home and try to forget this disaster of a night.”

“Well, that’s the thing. You can’t go home. I need a statement from you. I need both of you to come to the station.”

“For what?” She stood up, lifting one of those sexy black f**k-me heels and leaning against the wall to take off the other. She now stood barefoot, glaring over at Ryder and then him.

“Well, for one, the car she drove through the front window was coming right for you.”

Maybe she hadn’t realized what Walker had already figured out. Her face paled, and those sharp amber eyes that a moment ago had been filled with outrage now shone with fear.