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“How do you want to play this?” Fenn asked her, his voice soft with compassion.
Tears stung her eyes. She blinked them back furiously and cleared her throat, her voice steady despite the turmoil raging inside her. “Mind if we sit?” she asked Hawk. “Then you can start from the beginning.”
“Give me a sec.” Hawk strode to the front door, his movements quick and efficient as he secured the lock and activated an alarm system. The beeping echoed in the vast space.
Fenn gestured at the blinking lights. “Something we should know, dude?”
Hawk grunted. “All will be revealed.”
“It better be.” Fenn did nothing to soften his tone.
Apparently satisfied that they were safe, at least for the moment, Hawk led them deeper into the warehouse, his footsteps echoing on the concrete floor. Kate followed, Fenn close by her side, as they made their way to a small office in the back corner. At least it was warm, a small heater humming by the plain desk.
Hawk moved behind the desk and pulled a chair close, patting it. “Here you go, Kitty Cat.”
The old nickname grated on her nerves, a painful reminder of the past she’d left behind. She dragged the chair back to its original position, next to Fenn, and sat down, her eyes fixed on the man she thought she’d left for dead twelve years ago. “Start talking.”
26
Kate had a fiancé?
Fenn’s mind reeled as he sat next to Kate, trying to process the bombshell that had just been dropped. Of all the reasons he could think of why she’d turn him down if he asked her out, having a fiancé she thought she’d helped get killed would never have made the list.
Bad breakup? Check.
Fear of intimacy? Possibly.
Living, breathing man with a really stupid name that she was already promised to? Not even.
What that meant for his own, non-existent future with Kate, he’d…not think about.
Just…not.
The tiny room was overheated, but Fenn couldn’t blame the temperature for the sweat beading along his hairline. He breathed in the faint smell of diesel exhaust coming from the main warehouse. Great. Now he’d forever associate that smell with the day his world blew apart.
His mind whirled, but he leaned into his decade of training. Outwardly he slipped into the poised, neutral interrogatormode. Inside, he was a ball of fury. But he could deal with that later.
Underneath the disguise, the man was way more handsome than the beat-up dude from the tavern. Tall, with hefty muscles and piercing eyes, Steele was the perfect Hollywood approximation of a special forces operative. He and Kate would have made a movie-star-quality couple.
Fenn studied him, trying to get a read on the man. He appeared calm, straightforward. But lots of deep cover operatives got coaching in how to suppress their emotions and lie well. The man’s rational, reasonable demeanor didn’t really tell Fenn anything.
Fenn leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, the casual teammate asking casual questions. For her part, Kate looked like she was about to throw up.
He sucked in a breath of overheated air and started the interrogation. “So, let me get this straight. You faked your death, left Kate to mourn you for over a decade, and now you’re back because you need her help?”
Steele had the decency to look uncomfortable. “It’s not like that.”
“Huh. ‘Cause it looks exactly like that. How about you enlighten us?” He aimed for calm, but there was an edge to his voice he couldn’t quite hide.
Steele sighed, a deep, heartfelt sound. Exactly what a script would call for right now. “I was recruited for a deep cover mission. I couldn’t tell anyone. Not even Kate. It was too dangerous for her.”
Fenn’s eyes narrowed. “And over the past ten years you couldn’t find a way to let her know you were alive? To spare her the grief?”
Kate reached out, placing a hand on his arm. “Fenn, it’s okay.”
He turned to her, his expression softening. “No, it’s not okay. What he did to you… It’s not right.”
“You’re right about that,” the other man acknowledged, but he didn’t offer anything else.