Page 54 of Blood Stone

Kate found the darkest corner of the enclosed yard they dared to call a garden, where lights from the bar didn’t spill out through the fly-spotted windows. She pulled a plastic chair over from the nearest table and sat down with a sigh of relief as her feet throbbed and tingled. She had been on them all day, she realized.

The noise from inside was mildly muted out here and in the way of the dessert, it was one of those nights that had suddenly turned cool for no rhyme or reason. The touch of cold air on her face was refreshing. It was cool enough that she would need to head back inside soon, but for now, solitude was more attractive.

“Kate.”

She sighed and looked toward the door, knowing already who she would see. Garrett stood six paces away from the door.

“You’re fucking lousy at reading signals, Garrett. Everyone else can figure out when I want to be alone. Even Adrian got it.”

“Oh, I got it,” he replied. “But I’ve been waiting for a moment when Adrian wasn’t attached to your hip. This is the first time that’s happened all week, so I’m ruining your meditation moment because I won’t go another week waiting for an opportunity.”

She bit her lip. Had Adrian really been shadowing her that closely? “What have you got to say to me that Adrian couldn’t hear?” she demanded.

“He doesn’t like me.”

She laughed. “It’s a big club.”

Garrett moved forward, until he was immersed in the same shadows as she. “I don’t thinkyoudislike me. Not really.” His voice was a lot closer now. Quieter. Pitched only for her to hear. “You’re just pissed at me.”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

“Don’t you think this temper tantrum has gone on long enough? It’s not like you. I think Adrian is responsible for most of it.”

Kate opened her mouth to speak. Twice. Then shut it again. There was truth in what he said but she couldn’t agree with him, because it would give away her game plan.Theirgame plan. Adrian was a co-conspirator, no argument. But was she pushing the display of temper beyond reason?

“What you did was unforgiveable,” she told him. “You threatened my picture.”

“I used it as leverage. There’s a world of difference and you understand that difference as well as me. You’ve been playing finance with the big boys for years. Why are you insisting on pouting about it? You bluffed. I counter bluffed and you caved. We made a deal. So let’s move on. It’s just business.”

True.But she would go to hell before admitting it aloud to him. Normally, she would be sharpening her financial knives, looking for a vulnerable spot to use for payback, instead of all this posturing and, well, pouting. But the pouting had been serving a purpose. Apparently, that purpose had reached the end of its useful half-life. Garrett was right. Too much more of it would be out of character for her.

Kate gave a half shrug. “Normally, I would agree with you, DoveAngel, but you made this more than business, didn’t you?”

Silence. He stood there in the shadows, not speaking. Kate realized she had caught him by surprise.

He moved over to the nearest table and snagged another chair. He placed it two feet away from hers. “I’m not staying,” he assured her as he sat on it. “I just don’t want to stand over you when I talk.” He leaned forward. Because of his extra few inches of height, he caught the light from the window. It lit his face indirectly, casting shadows across it. His eyes were highlighted, though.

He let out a breath that she could hear quite clearly. “There’s only so many times I can apologize for the Twitter thing and I’ve filled the quota already.”

“I’m not looking for an apology. But you’re expecting me to shrug it off and deal with you like it never happened.”

“I was a faceless person on the internet who couldn’t sleep, just like you.” His voice was low, and just like that day in The Standard, Kate thought she could hear Scottish lilt in his tone. “Are you trying to make me feel guilty by pretending it meant something to you?”

Confusion gripped her. It could only have lasted a second or two, but it seemed to ebb and surge through her in waves as Kate tried to honestly answer – at least in her own mind, first – exactly how she felt about the long distance relationship she had enjoyed with DoveAngel for all those weeks, now she knew who he really was. She hadn’t considered it before now. Garrett’s legal goons and her movie had so thoroughly taken up her attention.

“You really know how to milk Twitter, by the way,” Garrett added. “I’ve never seen anyone get so much PR mileage out of it like you do. If I hadn’t been trying to keep my own Twitter identity private, I would have had my entire Communications department following you as a good example.”

She jumped. A little. “It’s a quick distraction, late at night. I don’t look at it as PR. It’s just talking.”

He grinned. “Like that argument you had with the guy about Constantinople’s main street?”

Kate laughed. “The moron. And he said he was a professor of history!” The so-called professor of history had insisted that the main street in Constantinople had been called Constantine’s Way, when in fact the main street had never been named at all. Kate had been happy to quote references and experts, but the guy had been bombastic in his opinion and blind to the laughter around him.

“There, you’re smiling again,” Garrett said softly.

Her amusement faded. “You really get off on manipulating people, don’t you?”

“It was meant in kindness.”