Mark grunted. ‘Because she’s deranged?’
‘She’s not that unbalanced.’ Kat tried to keep the annoyance out of her voice. ‘We need to find the bullet. Only then can we be certain if it was her or not.’
‘The police have done a search and not been able find it yet.’ Jerry jumped up to his feet, and Kat fleetingly wondered if it was so he could look down on her, and thus bend her to his will. ‘What are you saying, Kat? That we need to keep a bodyguard on him indefinitely, just on the vanishingly remote chance there’s been a second person stalking him?’
When he put it like that, maybe she did sound paranoid. But this was Zac’s safety they were discussing with such cold matter-of-factness. ‘I thought you wanted to protect your asset?’
‘Look, I’m not trying to be callous,’ Jerry countered. ‘I know we’re talking about a human life here, but we’re also talking about a cost, and putting him under a continued restriction he won’t thank us for. If I felt there was still a real threat, I wouldn’t hesitate, you know that. But we have a woman who’s confessed to stalking Zac, turning up in the same car park where a gun was fired the day before. We’ve even found a gun in her house. If the police are satisfied she’s both the stalker and the shooter, then so am I. It all adds up.’
Kat ignored Mark’s warning look. ‘Not all of it. There’s still the matter of why she’d want to kill him. She’s stalked before and not tried to shoot anyone. Why kill Zac when she wanted to meet him?’
‘Why does anyone try to kill another human?’ Jerry pulled his phone out of his pocket and glanced down at it. ‘Look, I’ll have another chat to the police, but for the time being, I’m suspending the contract.’
Kat had always got on with Jerry. She believed they’d built up a level of trust between them, so it frustrated her that he couldn’t see what she could. ‘I think you’re making a mistake.’
Annoyance flashed across his face. ‘Noted.’
Mark gave her a For God’s sake, shut up glare, and as Jerry’s stance had turned from relaxed to rigid, Kat had to concede this was a battle she wasn’t going to win. Reluctantly she followed Mark out.
When they reached the reception area, her boss turned on her. ‘Are you trying to piss off our most valuable customer?’
‘Are you trying to get Zac Edwards killed?’
Mark stilled, his expression hard. ‘What’s got into you? You don’t usually overreact like this.’ A pair of piercing blue eyes stared into hers. ‘What’s going on between you and him?’
‘Nice. If I was a man, would you still be asking me that? Telling me I’m overreacting?’
He swore under his breath. ‘Don’t play the sex card with me. You know I don’t give a toss what gender you are.’ His voice softened. ‘I care about you, Kat. And this isn’t like you.’
‘Looking after the safety of my client isn’t like me?’
‘Come on, you know what I mean.’
‘You know what, I don’t. You’re going to have to spell it out for me.’
‘Okay.’ He thrust his hands in his jeans pocket. ‘I’m worried you’ve become too close to Zac and now you’re trying to cobble together an excuse to keep being his bodyguard.’
She’d known the words were coming, but they still felt like a slap around the face. ‘Well, gee, thanks for your faith in my judgement.’
‘Don’t.’ Mark’s jaw clenched. ‘You know I trust your judgement. It’s why I gave you the assignment in the first place.’
‘And I was right, wasn’t I? I told you I was ready for the step up. I told you to trust me.’ Though maybe he shouldn’t have. The emotion of the last twenty-four hours started to catch up with her and Kat heard the shake in her voice.
‘I did trust you,’ Mark said quietly. ‘I do trust you. So much so that I know you’re wrong in thinking you made a mistake yesterday. Most people wouldn’t have been alert enough to react to the shot at all, never mind have time to push the client out of the way.’
Because she needed to believe him, Kat looked Mark straight in the eye. ‘You mean that? You’re not just saying it to make me feel better?’
‘I mean it,’ he answered firmly. ‘But I also mean it when I say your judgement on Zac’s continued need for a bodyguard is wrong. It’s become clouded by your feelings.’
Tears burnt the back of Kat’s eyes. ‘You really believe I’d let myself fall for another guy, after what you saw me go through?’
Mark’s shoulders slumped, the fight seeming to drain out of him. ‘You can’t control feelings like a tap, Kat. I believe you don’t want to fall for Zac, but that doesn’t mean you won’t. Or that you haven’t already.’
Because she was scared he was right, Kat went on the attack. ‘I’m perfectly capable of maintaining a line between professional and personal, and I’ve not crossed it.’ Or had she? Wasn’t kissing her client crossing the line? Ruthlessly she shoved the thought aside. ‘Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and tell Zac that I believe someone out there is still trying to kill him, but we’ll no longer be providing protection.’
Mark muttered her name, but she ignored it and marched out towards the car park. Maybe Mark was right and she was overreacting, but she couldn’t get the image of the gun firing, and Zac lying on the floor, out of her head. What if it happened again? What if next time, he didn’t get out of the way?
Fear ripped through her and she stumbled, clutching at her chest as she tried to draw breath. She felt terrified for Zac, yet also for herself, because she had no other option left but to defy Mark. She’d take annual leave if she needed to, but she wasn’t leaving Zac’s side until she was convinced he was no longer in danger.
***
Zac waited in the doorway as Kat pushed all the buttons on the security panel. He was relieved to finally be back home – he caught himself – back at Kat’s home. Returning to the studio this morning had been harder than he’d imagined. The moment they’d entered the car park, he’d had a nasty flashback and, like a lunatic, had frantically cast his gaze around the rows of cars, only calming when he’d caught the look of sympathy in Kat’s eyes. Thankfully she hadn’t called him out on it.
‘Are you going to tell me the outcome of your chat with the merry men this afternoon?’ he asked as he watched her tug off her boots and dump them haphazardly in the hallway.
‘In a minute. Just let me sort out what we’re having for tea and check in on Debs.’
‘I thought you said she was having a sleepover at Anna’s. Something about it being her friend’s birthday?’
‘That’s what she told me, yes.’
‘You don’t believe her?’
‘I want to, but I also know how fourteen-year-old girls think.’
Perhaps this was why Kat had been so unusually quiet in the car on the way back. ‘Is there anything I can do to help?’
She gave him a wan smile. ‘I’m going to phone her, but if I hear a loud party going on in the background, or the sound of male voices, I might take you up on that offer.’