Page 18 of Black Bay Enforcer (Beasts of Black Bay #3)

Katherine hadn’t been able to sleep. After the crappy night’s sleep she’d had the night before, she thought she’d succumb to exhaustion the moment her head hit the pillow.

Her wayward brain had other ideas, keeping her awake with worry about Kong.

She’d finally given up and decided to check out her new TV.

She was pretty sure the thing had every channel known to man, and every streaming service as well.

She was three episodes into a Friends marathon when she heard a knock on her door.

Kong. Springing up like a Jack-In-The-Box, she bounded for the door and ripped it open. There he was. Big and beautiful and uninjured. She was so relieved she threw herself at him, leaping into his arms to hug him.

Katherine heard his soft oof of surprise when he caught her, but the feeling of his arms wrapped around her and holding her close was like heaven. “You’re all right,” she softly uttered, burying her face in his neck and breathing in the slightly salty scent of his warm skin.

“Were you worried about me?”

She nodded against his shoulder as Kong walked them back into her room, closing the door behind him.

“I’m okay,” he told her. “I’m a big guy. It takes a hell of a lot to put me down.”

Even giants could be felled . She pushed the thought away. He was here and he was fine. Raising her head, she found herself eye-to-eye with him since he hadn’t put her down. “When did you get back?”

“Just now.” His eyes moved over her face, lingering a bit longer on her lips, and Katherine held her breath in anticipation only to be disappointed when he set her back on her feet and stepped back. Dammit .

Kong cleared his throat gruffly and looked around the room before zeroing in on the TV. “Couldn’t sleep?”

She shook her head. “Do you want something to drink? Are you hungry? I could make a snack.”

“No. I’m good.”

“Do you want to watch TV? I can find something else…”

He shook his head and cleared his throat again as his eyes took another tour around her room. If she wasn’t mistaken, he looked almost nervous.

“Listen, can we talk?”

Katherine’s stomach took a nosedive. Nothing good ever started with that question. Was he going to tell her that she was coming on too strong? That he wasn’t interested in being anything more than friends?

“Er… sure. Do you want to sit?” She looked around. She wasn’t exactly set up to entertain. Their seating options were the two chairs at the desk – two only because the one Kong had fetched from the breakroom was still there – or her bed.

Kong headed for one of the chairs, swung it around, and straddled it. Not wanting to be on the bed for whatever this was, Katherine took the other chair.

“What’s up?” She braced herself, bolstering her courage by telling herself that if he was going to give her the just friends speech, it was better she heard it now before she fell too deep.

Because she could fall so easily for him…

A thickness built up in her throat as she waited for him to speak and she realized that though she barely knew him, she already felt too much. This was going to sting.

“Tell me about your father.”

Wait. What? Her father? That was so not what she’d been expecting. Thrown off, she stared at Kong in confusion. “My father?”

He nodded. “Please.”

She made a face. “What do you want to know?”

“Anything. Everything. What was it like growing up with him?”

He looked so serious. What was this about? “Why?” Did her father have something to do with the mission Kong had gone on?

Kong let out a sigh of frustration. “I wish I could tell you, and I will, once I can. I just can’t tell you right now. But please believe me it’s important or I wouldn’t ask.”

God, there were so many questions she wanted to ask, her thoughts flying this way and that at such a rapid pace that it took a moment to collect them so she could focus on what Kong had asked. What had it been like growing up with August Cleary?

“I didn’t grow up with him. I grew up with my mom.”

“Your parents weren’t married?”

A scoffing sound escaped her before she could get things under control. “God, no.” The old bitterness crept into her voice as she added, “My mom wasn’t good enough for the golden boy heir to the Cleary empire.”

Her mom had never said anything. Harper Knox had never once disparaged her father in front of Katherine.

Aunt Meg – who wasn’t really an aunt but her mother’s long-time best friend – had no such qualms. When Katherine was old enough, Aunt Meg had told her the story.

Of how Harper had met August at a football game in high school.

Their two teams had been playing against each other but they’d hit it off and begun dating.

He’d told Harper he loved her more than anything and wanted to run away with her so they could be together forever.

Until Harper got pregnant and then all those declarations and promises went out the window.

There’d been an ugly confrontation between Harper and August’s parents.

They’d called her trash, a gold digger, a social climber.

They’d told her point-blank that she wasn’t good enough for their son, wasn’t good enough to wear the Cleary name, and insisted there be a paternity test before Harper saw a single penny of their money.

Worse, according to Aunt Meg, August Cleary had stood there through the whole thing, acting like a victim. He’d never once stood up for Harper.

The truth was, that August Cleary wasn’t good enough for her mother.

Katherine just wished she’d figured that out sooner.

She’d spent so much of her childhood trying to please her father, thinking that if she just did better or worked harder, he’d love her and want to spend time with her.

She still found herself doing it more often than not. Old habits really did die hard.

Katherine cleared her throat and addressed Kong’s original question.

“I saw him once a month at visitation. He always spent most of it on his phone. Work calls.” Or so he said.

He never played with her. He barely spoke to her.

“Otherwise, he paid his child support on time, and paid for my education.” He even sent her a birthday card and Christmas card every year with a gift card inside – or rather, his assistant did.

She’d stopped thanking him for them once she realized that he’d had no clue his assistant had even sent them.

She looked at Kong. “I’m sorry if you were looking for something more specific. He’s my father, but I don’t really know him like you’d think a daughter would. You know?”

Kong let out a low rumble and took her hand. “You told me plenty. Thank you.”

“And you can’t tell me what this is about?”

“Sorry.”

He looked apologetic too. She believed him that if he could tell her he would.

While she was curious, honestly, it wouldn’t surprise her to discover that her father was up to some shady shit.

It had taken her a long time to realize it, but she’d concluded that August Cleary only cared about two things: Money and himself.

Other people didn’t matter to him unless they could do something for him.

If you weren’t useful to him, you were beneath his notice.

She had never mattered to him until he’d needed her to do this job.

But she was tired of thinking about her father. “Do you want to hang out and watch Friends ?”

“Sounds good to me.”

She’d fallen asleep on him again. Kong smiled as he looked down at Katherine.

He could get used to this. He liked holding her in his arms and knowing that she felt so safe with him that she could fall asleep.

They’d moved to the bed so they could be more comfortable as they watched TV, sitting up against the headboard, their legs stretched out in front of them.

Her eyes were closed, her mouth slightly open as she snored softly. She was wearing another cute set of pajamas, these were yellow with Minions on them, and her hair was down. He couldn’t resist playing with a lock, rubbing the silky strands between his fingers.

The way she’d greeted him at the door tonight.

That had been especially nice. Like she’d missed him.

Like she’d been counting down the minutes until his return.

While he didn’t like that she’d worried, he couldn’t help but be pleased by her response.

He should have kissed her. If his mind hadn’t been so full with thoughts of Cleary, he would have.

He hadn’t liked questioning her like that, but he had to know.

They had files on August Cleary, but with enough money, someone could make things disappear, and Cleary had plenty of money.

He’d hidden Katherine’s existence after all – buried it so deep it had taken Lark weeks of constant digging to find it – so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he’d hidden a marriage as well.

Katherine had given him more information than she realized.

It wasn’t even in the words she’d said, but in her expressions, as she talked about her father.

The way her lip had curled and her nose had scrunched as if she’d smelled something nasty.

She didn’t like August Cleary. That was clear.

If and when Kong took the man down, she wouldn’t stand against him.

It was a relief and a weight off his shoulders.

He was also now one hundred percent sure that if her father did ask her to spy for him, she’d refuse. There was no loyalty there. Good.

Katherine’s alarm went off with a shrill beeping and her head jerked up nearly clocking him in the chin. He whacked the snooze button to silence it.

“Oh, my God. Did I seriously fall asleep on you again?”

She looked appalled but Kong grinned. “What can I say? I’m like a Serta Perfect Sleeper.”

Grudgingly, he disentangled himself from her. “Why don’t you get ready and I’ll go get us some breakfast?”

“Okay.”

“Any requests?”

She shot him a shy smile. “Surprise me.”

“I can do that.” Leaning in, he kissed her before she knew what he was about. It was brief and chaste for the most part but he pulled back with a wicked grin. “Surprise!”

Katherine laughed, a becoming blush staining her cheeks. “I meant, surprise me with breakfast.” But she was smiling and looked quite pleased with him.

“Oooh. That’s what you meant?” he teased. “Okay. One surprise breakfast coming up.” Kong moved away from her before he gave in to the urge to kiss her again, more deeply this time. That quick taste hadn’t been nearly enough to satisfy his craving. Willpower, man. Willpower. “See you soon.”

“See you soon.”

Kong nearly groaned as he left her room.

The way she’d been looking at him as he left…

There’d been so much emotion in her eyes.

He was done. Gone. Any chance of him staying rational and not getting his hopes up had been blasted out of the water.

He wanted a future with her. He wanted everything with her.

He was whistling as he jogged out of her building, feeling lighter than he had in a long time.

“Kong!”

He halted as Matthew Davies, the general’s son and Black Bay’s head of security jogged over to him. The guy was slightly out of breath when he reached him – too much time in a desk chair monitoring the external camera feeds.

“The general sent me to find you. Cleary’s on the move.”

Kong bit out a curse. He’d shut off his phone so it wouldn’t wake Katherine and then forgotten about it. “How long ago?”

“Roughly twenty minutes.”

“Did our team lose him?”

“No. They’ve still got a tail on him.”

Good. He looked back toward Katherine’s building. Breakfast would have to wait. But he didn’t want to leave Katherine hanging.

“Hey, Matt? Can you do me a favor?”