‘Don’t get your hopes up, it won’t be for long,’ Mark responded in his usual gruff tone.
‘Oh?’
‘I told Kat the guy’s vanished, but she won’t have it. Wants to check for herself.’ He gave Zac a cutting glance. ‘Make doubly certain to protect your pretty arse.’
Zac gave him a tight smile. ‘My arse thanks you for the compliment.’
After that, and Mark’s answering grunt, they waited in silence, only interrupted by Mark’s occasional mutterings into his comms.
It was twenty minutes before Kat returned, frustration etched across her face. ‘I can’t believe we didn’t find him.’
Unbelievably relieved to see her back, Zac ached to kiss the annoyance right out of her, yet he wasn’t sure how well that display of affection would go down while she was on duty. Even though he was the duty.
‘My guess, for what it’s worth, is he took a look into the ballroom, saw you were still with Zac, and decided it was too risky,’ Mark stated matter of factly.
‘What about the theory that he was a fan, looking for an autograph?’ Zac pointed out. ‘Or hey, maybe he worked here?’
Mark’s lip actually curled. ‘You don’t believe the first, and if you really think we haven’t shown his photo to the hotel staff, what are you doing continuing to trust your safety to the care of such numpties?’
While Zac wracked his frazzled brain for a suitably cutting response, Kat cut in. ‘Gee, enough testosterone, the pair of you. At least now we have a photo of a suspect. It’s one step closer than we were four hours ago.’ She gave them both a sharp teacher-to-unruly-pupil look and nodded to the door. ‘Now let’s get out of here.’
As Mark marched out ahead, Zac took a moment to capture Kat’s hand, and pull her towards him. ‘I believe we were discussing you getting me into bed.’ He touched his lips to hers for one too-short kiss. ‘Are we still on?’
He’d hoped for a smile, but instead he got a weary sigh, her intense disappointment at not catching the guy still blindingly clear. ‘If we can keep you alive long enough to get you into bed then yes, sure.’
He didn’t care that Mark was no doubt pacing outside. He didn’t care that Kat was itching to get her ‘job’ finished tonight. He took his time giving her another kiss, hoping she would feel his love for her in the tender press of his mouth on hers. ‘Have faith,’ he whispered as he drew back. ‘My bodyguard is Kat Parker. No way am I getting shot.’
She raised her eyes to the ceiling, but when she looked back at him there was a slight flush to her cheeks, and when he smiled at her, she smiled back.
Chapter 32
Kat would never forget where she was when she received that phone call. The day was Monday, the clock on the bedside table read 12.24 p.m.
And she was rolling around in tangled, sweaty sheets with Zac Edwards, making the most of his rare morning off filming.
Self-disgust would come later, because it was the blood-curdling fear that blotted out every other feeling as she breathlessly answered the call from her niece.
‘Hey, Debs, is everything okay?’
The lengthy silence kicked Kat’s pulse into overdrive.
The reply, when it came in a cold male voice, sent her heart into freefall.
‘I’ve got your niece.’
Terror hurtled through her as Kat instinctively gripped at the sheets, as if the man could see her naked body. ‘Who is this?’
She was dimly aware of Zac, who’d been lying down beside her, jolting upright but she couldn’t look at him. All she could do was focus on trying to remain calm when her stomach was pitching violently and her heart was pounding so hard she could hear it vibrating through her body.
‘The name doesn’t matter. Bring Zac Edwards to the location I’m sending through to you, and you’ll get her back.’
Breathe. Breathe. ‘I need to know she’s okay.’
There was the sound of shuffling, then a muffled ‘Kat.’
‘Oh my God, Debs—’
‘That’s all your getting.’ The male voice was back.
‘She’s done nothing,’ Kat pleaded, knowing it was a waste of time but needing to try anyway because she’d never felt so desperate, so utterly frantic.
‘True, but she’s your niece and you’re the one who’s stopping me from doing what my client is prepared to pay a considerable sum for.’
Involuntarily her eyes found Zac’s, and he must have guessed what was happening because he looked as unhinged as she felt.
‘Midnight, at the park. No cops, or your pretty young niece takes the bullet instead.’
Abruptly the line went dead and as Kat clutched the phone to her chest, her only connection to Debs, a sob wrenched from her.
‘He’s got her, hasn’t he?’
Zac’s words didn’t penetrate. She felt numb, paralysed with fear like she’d never known. Entering a terrorist stronghold in Afghan had nothing on this, nothing. At least then she’d felt in control.
Here, sitting on this bed, she felt utterly helpless.
‘Kat.’ Zac gripped her arms, forcing her to look at him. ‘Has he got Debs?’
‘Yes.’ Who was this woman with the weak, trembling voice? She pushed herself out of his grip and off the bed, wrapping the sheet tightly around her. ‘While we were having sex, my niece was being kidnapped.’
He blanched, whether at her crude description, or the disgust in her voice, she didn’t know, though she knew one thing. She’d never forgive herself for this, ever.
‘How do we get her back? What does he want?’
‘You.’
He nodded, as if she’d just asked him if he wanted a cup of tea. ‘No problem, he can have me.’
‘Just like that?’
His face contorted with anguish. ‘Of course just like that. She should never have got involved in my shit.’ His eyes, when they met hers, looked tortured. ‘And that’s on me, but I’ll make this right, Kat. You have my promise. Whatever he wants, he gets.’
His agony was too much for her to watch, especially when she had her own guilt, her own self-loathing going on. ‘I need to see Mark.’
‘Of course.’
Clearly suddenly aware he was inappropriately naked, Zac reached for a pillow and held it over his crotch. The action made her laugh bitterly. ‘Bit late for that, isn’t it? I’ve spent all morning with it, when I should have been taking care of Debs.’
She knew she was being irrational – it wasn’t his fault, it was hers – but the words wouldn’t stop. At least when she was yelling at him, at herself, she wasn’t thinking of Debs, and how terrified she must be.
Bile rose in her stomach and Kat rushed to the toilet, where she emptied the tea and toast Zac had made her earlier.
After that she turned the shower up to maximum heat and stood under it, hoping it would take some of the chill out this crippling cold dread. Yet when she stepped out of it, everything was the same. She was still the woman who’d irresponsibly brought Zac into her home. Who’d put his safety before that of her niece.
The woman whose stupidity, blindness, naivety, ignorance … she deserved every word that would be hurled at her. She was the one who’d put her niece’s life in danger.