He visibly paled beneath his tan but she hardened her heart. His safety was her priority. Not his feelings. Not making him comfortable.
‘Obviously you can’t stay here tonight.’ Kat rose to her feet. ‘Gather your things while I make a few calls.’
He inclined his head in acceptance, the weary nod of a man who’d been blindsided. It took all of her effort not to fling her arms around him and hug him tight.
While Zac packed, Kat phoned Mark. He answered on the second ring and swore like a trooper when she told him about the note. ‘I could have cocked up. I could have been followed,’ she admitted.
‘Do you think you made a mistake?’ Instantly her mind flashed back to another time, when she’d asked herself that question over and over again. ‘Kat?’
She swallowed, shaking off the memory. ‘No, I don’t.’
‘Then you didn’t. This person must have paid someone off in the hotel. Hopefully we’ll get a good look at them on the CCTV.’
The certainty in his voice helped to settle her stomach. ‘Thanks for the show of confidence, boss.’ She glanced again at Zac, who’d finished packing his case and was now watching her from the bedroom doorway. ‘Do the police still think it’s the waitress from the party?’
‘They do, but she gave a false name and address. They’ve had to get a photofit drawn up from the staff who worked with her. Her long hair fits the description of the driver who turned up at the Edwards function. They’re sending me a copy tomorrow so you can keep an eye out and show Zac. See if it sparks any memory. Meanwhile we’ll get the hotel CCTV reviewed.’
‘Okay.’ It was progress, she guessed. ‘Any suggestions for where I should take Zac tonight?’
Mark sighed down the phone. ‘The flats are both occupied. Guess it will have to be another hotel.’
Kat’s eyes flicked over to Zac. His shoulders, usually so straight, sloped a little, and the film-star face staring back at her was etched with tension. The last thing he needed was being bundled off to another faceless hotel. ‘I’ve got a better idea. I’ll take him back to mine tonight.’
Zac’s eyes widened in shock, the look almost comical. Ignoring him, she focused on what Mark was saying.
‘Are you sure that’s wise?’
‘It’s only one night. We’ll sort something else out tomorrow.’
‘What’s wrong with a hotel?’
She read the subtext from Mark’s question, and it annoyed her. With Zac listening, though, she could hardly blast back with the answer he was looking for. Just because she’d offered to put Zac up in her home, didn’t mean she was becoming attached. Didn’t mean she was doing anything as stupid as falling for him. ‘He’s been staying in a hotel,’ she answered evenly, ‘and look how well that turned out.’
Mark let out a heavy sound of annoyance. ‘Fine. As long as you know what you’re doing.’
‘Of course I do.’ As she ended the call, she realised it was the first time she’d ever lied to him.
***
Zac stepped warily through the front door of Kat’s house. The second time he’d been here in the space of a few days. The first had just been a stop off, but this? He really wasn’t sure why he was here.
‘Mark isn’t happy with this arrangement, is he?’
Kat, busy clicking switches to turn off the alarm and whatever other security feature she had set up on a state-of-the-art-looking panel, gave him a cool look. ‘Your safety is my responsibility. It’s my decision.’
‘He’s the boss though, isn’t he?’ Zac paused, perfectly aware it was none of his business. Damn it though, he needed to know. ‘Unless he’s something more?’
She stopped fiddling with the switches and stared up at him. ‘Did you really just ask if I’m shagging my boss?’
‘No.’ Feeling acutely uncomfortable, he shifted on his feet. ‘At least not in so many words.’
‘Unbelievable.’ Muttering under her breath, she marched into the living area, throwing her handbag onto the coffee table again, just as she had the other night. Given the table’s appearance, it clearly had a function beyond that of a resting place for hot drinks. ‘So you think I got this job because I agreed to sleep with him?’
‘Good God, no.’ Annoyed with himself, Zac dropped his holdall on the floor. ‘You appear to get on well. That’s all I meant.’
‘We do.’ She busied herself flicking through the mail she’d picked up when she’d come in, then checking her phone.
Zac stood like a lemon watching her, wondering how to ease the tension he’d just created. ‘Sorry, it was a crass comment.’ He paused, raking a hand through his hair. ‘I made it because I was jealous.’
‘Jealous?’ Incredulity spread across her face. ‘We’re not … I mean, you and I aren’t … Holy Moses, Mark and I aren’t, either.’ He’d never seen her so lost for words. ‘You have to be with someone to be jealous,’ she said finally.
‘Clearly not.’ His eyes tracked hers as she walked into the kitchen and went to open the fridge.
She paused, staring into it, clearly trying to gather herself – maybe to rein in her temper – before turning back to him. ‘Don’t do this.’
‘Do what? Check out my competition?’ He was out of order, he knew it, but he was tired, scared, and angry that his life had come to him having to spend the night in another place that wasn’t his home. Worse. In a place where he wasn’t wanted, but was staying because he was the owner’s responsibility.
She huffed, pulling various things out of the fridge and thumping them down on the worktop. ‘There is no flaming competition, because you and I aren’t doing this.’
He dragged in a breath, forcing himself to calm. None of this was Kat’s fault. Not the fact the stalker had found him again, nor the searing jealousy he’d felt when he’d seen her speak to Mark on the phone. The fond way she’d called him boss.
‘Okay, message received.’ Zac’s gaze skimmed over the ingredients she was wrestling with: pasta, bacon, cheese and green beans. ‘Look, you don’t need to cook for me. Let’s get a takeaway. My shout. The least I can do for inconveniencing you like this.’
Slowly she closed the fridge door. ‘You’re not an inconvenience.’
‘Sure, I’m not. Babysitting your client in your own home is exactly how you want to spend your evening.’
Finally, her face lost its anger and she gave him a wry smile. ‘I guess I deserved that.’ With a sigh, she began to chuck the ingredients haphazardly back into the fridge. He itched to point out the cheese should go on the top shelf, and vegetables on the bottom, but he needed to mend fences, not build them, so he shut up.
‘Okay.’ Pushing the door closed, she folded her arms and leant up against it. ‘First, thank you, we’ll go for the takeaway option. Debs will be delighted, but I’m paying.’ When he baulked, she put up her hand. ‘I’ll claim it back on expenses.’
He nodded, happy to concede that one. ‘Second?’
‘Second, Mark and I have never been, nor ever will be, in a relationship.’ She looked him square in the face. ‘He was my CO in the army and helped me through some tough personal stuff while I was in Afghanistan. When I left to join life as a civilian, I couldn’t settle.’ She shrugged. ‘Funny fact, I’m not cut out to spend my days monitoring bloody CCTV. Mark heard how unhappy I was, and when he offered me this gig I snapped his hand off. So, if we sound close, it’s because we are. Fighting alongside someone does that.’