Capturing Kate (13 page)

She sat solo in an orange booth with padded brown vinyl seats and licked the cone in a near orgy of enjoyment, stopping every few moments to scan the pavement outside the window for Sloan. The ice cream, fresh and delicious, melted onto her hand, and she cursed. “Shit.” Remembering the coffee and the napkins in the café back home, she had a weird
déjà vu
feeling.

“Here.” This time it was a different man handing her napkins, a burly weathered cowboy with wrinkles and kind eyes.

“Thanks.” She smiled and averted her gaze, nervous. But he just nodded and walked out the door without looking back, holding it for another patron.

The lights in the café were bright and the sounds were loud and clashing, but good. The smell of frying eggs and meatloaf and coffee were a tonic for her soul. She thought that if she could just sit here for a few hours, absorbing the sights and sounds and smells, she’d fill back up with normal and let the panic escape. Nobody here knew her. She was safe. The syrup bottle on the table reminded her of the pancakes her mom made growing up—

Mom.

Being away from Sloan and the cabin, being back in the real world, made the real issues clear and bright. It was like she’d been looking at the world through foggy glasses, and now she could see. She needed to talk to her mom.

Just for a minute. She needed to hear her voice. Her mom could keep a secret! She jumped up and approached the counter, her driving need overriding the voice in her head and all of Sloan’s cautions.

“Do you—do you have a payphone?” she blurted out to the woman behind the counter, a plump redhead in her fifties.

“Oh, honey, those things went out of style twenty-five years ago, even in our small town,” the woman said with a laugh, leaning on her elbows as if to chat, but when she saw the tears in Kate’s eyes, she frowned, leaning closer. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes.” Kate forced out the words, grabbing the worn silver edge with her fingertips, squeezing. “I just—I need to make a call, and I don’t have a phone and—can I borrow yours? It’s not long distance. I swear. I can give you money!” She grappled with the change in her pocket, tossing a wadded up five-dollar bill and some nickels and pennies on the counter. “I’ll give you some money and I’ll just talk for a minute—”

“Honey, do you need me to call Sheriff Parker? If you’re in trouble, they can let you call for free at the station. He’s a real good man, Nate is. My daughter and his son are in high school together over in Greeley.”

“No. I just, please, can I make one call on your cell?”

“On my cell?” The woman’s voice was slow, questioning. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and frowned. Her face was shiny, pink.

Kate wondered if she went home smelling like onions and grease; if she hung her uniform outside so the odor wouldn’t permeate every square inch of her home. It was remarkable—these random thoughts came and went like easy visitors in her brain, floating like dandelion puffs on their own breeze, in the midst of her anxiety. Maybe it was her subconscious trying to keep her sane by sending little SOS’s of normalcy. Letters into the abyss. “Just to my mom. Please.”

“Well, if it’s your mom, I suppose.” The woman fished an iPhone 6 out of her pocket. “Here you go…?”

“Maggie. Thanks.”

Her fingers spasmed on the phone and she had to clench them into stability to push the numbers.

The number rang and rang, and then her mother’s recorded voice sounded. “This is Monica and Peter Klein. Please leave your name and number and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you, and have a great day.” The sound of her mother’s voice made tears rise in her eyes.

At the beep, she started, wanted to speak, but knew she shouldn’t. Suddenly a deep voice beside her cut in. “You can use my phone, sweetheart. No need to go borrowing from anyone.” It was Sloan, holding a bulging brown paper bag in one arm, and he looked pissed. She could tell, even though he had a polite smile pasted on his face. He pressed a kiss to her lips and put his free arm around her, deftly tugging the phone from her grip and handing it back across the counter after pushing a few buttons, looking at it. “Let’s call from the truck, Maggie. I promise we’ll stop and get everything your mom needs. Time to get going.”

His grip on her arm was firm and unyielding, and the look in his eye made her quiver.

The woman behind the counter looked from Kate to Sloan and back again, and an expression of caution grew on her face. Her voice rose along with her eyebrows. “You look familiar to me. Have we met before? What did you say your name was again, honey?”

Sloan’s grip on her arm tightened, and she sucked in air. “No, I don’t think we’ve met. My name’s… Maggie. Margaret, you know, but Maggie for short. Mags, they call me in my family.” She forced herself to smile, and after a beat, the woman’s expression relaxed. “Sorry about the phone thing. I was just so eager to call, you know? I’m introducing my boyfriend to my mom for the first time and I wanted to make sure she’s expecting us. I really want her to like him. I apologize if I made you worry or anything.” She tugged Sloan’s arm, and he smiled at the woman.

“Well, have a nice visit.” The woman’s face still showed some hesitation, but Kate figured that talking more might things worse, so she pulled at Sloan. “Let’s go, babe.”

“Anything you say, Mags.”

He helped her up into the truck with grace and an expression that was ice cold, and when they started driving he exploded. “What the fuck were you thinking, Kate? You can’t call anyone! You can’t let them see you. What part of that did you not understand?”

“I wanted to hear my mom’s voice. I know she’d keep it a secret if I told her what was going on. She’s trustworthy and awesome.” She touched her lips.

Sloan’s voice was a mix of sympathy and anger. “I’m sure she’s awesome. And any awesome mother would immediately call the police when she got a call from her missing and kidnapped daughter who just called to say hi. The line is probably already recording any calls—Mancini’s team would have put a trace, just in case. Jesus. I don’t know if we can get out of this.”

She shook her head. “I didn’t mean to make trouble. I didn’t think.”

“If that woman recognized you and called the police? I’d have been arrested and you’d have been brought home as the prodigal child, all over every news program in the country. And by the time my FBI status got sorted out and I was released, who knows where you’d be.”

“You said nobody knows I’m missing.”

“Yet.” He emphasized the word. “Next week will be different. And guess who’s going to remember a panicky young woman in tears, begging for a phone, who’s ushered away by a man, once she sees your picture all over the five o’clock news? Kate.”

She slumped in her seat. “I didn’t think of that.”

“Damn. I’m going to have to see if my partner can get that erased. Kate, do you even know what you just did?”

He pulled off the side of the road and got onto his phone. “Derrick. I need you to get into the voicemail for Kate’s mom and erase a hang-up. Then you need to get into the phone company and get rid of the call from a Mrs. Louise Buckenheimer. No trace, it never happened. Immediately. They do? Then you reroute the phone data to show that the hang-up came from a local telemarketer. Right now. I’m waiting. Okay?” He hung up.

He ran a hand through his hair, and drove faster, seventy, eighty, higher. She sat motionless, small. “I’m sorry.”

“When we get back to the cabin, I’m going to punish you,” he said, his voice low and firm, and her heart sank.

“Sloan, you don’t have to. I promise, I won’t run away again or cause trouble. This time I really get it, I do. Punishment isn’t necessary.”

He swallowed and his hands tightened on the wheel. “It’s absolutely necessary, Kate, and this time I’m going to make sure you learn a lesson about obedience.”

He ignored her when they arrived at the cabin and immediately got on his computer, furiously typing. His face was taut; his shoulders tense. When he got on the phone with his partner, his clipped words made her shudder. “Are you sure? Good. It was a close call. It won’t happen again. I’ll keep a better watch on her.”

Kate shifted uneasily as he turned his eyes on her. “Is it okay?” She bit her lip.

He hung up, let out a deep sigh. “We got lucky. He was able to hack into the Verizon database and changed the call records to indicate that the hang-up came from a local telemarketer. He got in before the data was examined or downloaded. Then he erased the call from the café woman’s—Louise’s—phone records. If she checks, she may wonder why it’s gone, but if she asks, they’ll tell her it was probably a glitch. Once in a while these things happen.”

“Thank God. I’m sorry.” She breathed out. “I just wanted to hear her voice. It’s like everything else stopped mattering at that moment. I don’t know. It just came over me.”

“Kate. I know. But you can’t do things like that.” His voice was low, angry, frustrated. “I understand how bad you feel, but you know that you can’t let the outside world know you’re alive. It’s hard, it’s terrible, and it’s critical.”

She just shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

“You will be.” The menacing note in his voice made her jump.

She swallowed. “Sloan, no.”

“Last time wasn’t enough for you?” His hands moved to his belt and she sucked in her breath.

“It was enough! Sloan. Please.”

He stalked toward her. “Please, what, Kate? Please forget that you nearly cost us this op? Please forget that you’re going to do whatever the hell you want whenever the hell you want to do it, consequences be damned?”

The back of her knees hit the side of the bed, and she sat down abruptly, eyes wide, staring as he approached. “What—what are you doing to do?” Her voice came out small. Her breath was starting to come faster as the panic of the situation rose up in her throat. “I’m freaking out.”

He took a deep breath. “Don’t freak out. I’m going to go outside and calm down. You are going to stand in the corner until I get back, ready to deal with you. Go.” He pointed to the corner of the cabin. “Now.”

“But I don’t want to.” She checked his face, and slowly walked to the corner. “Can’t you please just forgive me?”

“I will forgive you, Kate. This isn’t about that. This is about holding you accountable for your actions and teaching you that disobedience will be dealt with very strictly so you never break my rules again.”

Kate already never wanted to break one of his rules. “But I promise. I promise I won’t break them again.”

“That’s what you said last time. Clearly that lesson didn’t sink in.” His voice was firm. “If you’re not in that corner when I get back…”

Chapter Eleven

The door closed hard behind him and Kate buried her face in her arms, sobbing. She was a grown woman. She shouldn’t be held accountable to someone else’s whims and decisions… even if he was a FBI agent. There was no need for him to spank her! That was backwards. Perverse. Demeaning. Anti-feminine, at the very least. She had a great job, a rising career, and a full life. What the hell was this man thinking, coming in here all high-handed and telling her what to do and not to do?

By the time he got back, she was nearly spitting sparks, she was so worked up, and she turned to face him, ready for battle. “I’m not going to let you punish me.” She crossed her arms over her chest and tried to smooth out a wobble in her voice. “It’s anti-feminist. It’s demeaning. It’s just… wrong. You can’t do it.”

He didn’t say anything, just sat down in a chair and looked at her. She continued, her face red. “It’s mean and cruel and backwards and I don’t consent. You just don’t do that in the real world.”

When he spoke, his voice was low. “We’re not in the real world, here. We’re in a game of cat and mouse and our lives are at stake. I’m sorry, Kate, but you’re going to have to toughen up and get smart here.”

“This isn’t fun.” Her voice trembled and came out in a thin wail.

“No. This isn’t fun. I get it. I don’t like living on the run, holding an unwilling woman captive. It’s not fun for me, either. Okay?”

In the middle of her anger and anxiety, she felt irritation. “What, you’re saying I’m not fun? I’m a lot of fun, Sloan. I’m a ton of fun!” She pointed at him. “You’re lucky to be stuck with me, okay? Don’t say I’m not fun, because dammit all, I’m a fun fucking factory.” She growled at him, eyes flashing. “When I want to be, that is. Which isn’t maybe right this second.”

A smile tugged at his lips. “Kate. You…” He shook his head. “You are something else.”

“You know, you could have it a lot worse.” She scowled. “Just saying. So you don’t need to, you know… do anything. Like… whatever.” Her eyes flickered to his belt and her voice wobbled. “I said I was sorry.”

“I’m doing what I need to keep us alive, and you need to do the same. And if you can’t do it on your own, I will teach you, the hard way.”

She bit her lip. He wasn’t angry anymore, but his calm determination was even scarier. She didn’t like the look in his eye. “What are you going to do to me?”

He stood up and crossed his arms. “Strip.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Do it.”

He didn’t raise his voice, but the tone of command made her heart pound. The problem was that if she was going to strip for him, she didn’t want it to be for punishment. She removed her clothes slowly, and his eyes followed each movement, making her flush hotter as each garment was shed. By the time she was naked, she couldn’t look at him. He came closer and she felt her nipples tingle at his proximity, and she gave out a squeak.

He touched her chin. “Kate. Look at me.”

“Fine. I am.” She felt tears well up in her eyes. The look in his face was angry, concerned, and passionate, all at once.

“Kate, this time is going to be different.”

“What do you mean?”

He paused and put both hands on her shoulders, looking into her eyes. “This time you’re going to give me your consent to punish you.”

“What?” Startled, she tried to pull away, and he let her, putting his hands into his pockets. “I won’t. I won’t ever do that.”

“I want your permission to punish you this time and any future time that it’s necessary,” he told her firmly.