Obsession (The Plus One Chronicles) (12 page)

“Destroyed.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Then what’s in your closet at your parents’ house?”

She’d done one thing right. An odd combination of pride and embarrassment mixed in with her fury at David, and at herself for being so dumb. “David was so brilliant, I admired him like other girls admire rock stars. I kept his formula because I thought it could be important to another project of his someday.”

Sloane’s gaze locked on her as he closed the distance between them. His intensity sizzled along her nerve endings until it was only the two of them in that room. A smile tilted his mouth while he skimmed his fingers along her jaw, sending tingles running through her. “You’re a hell of a lot smarter than your family or Dickhead ever gave you credit for. No matter what happens now, don’t you forget that.”

He was proud of her. Called her smart.

Loved her.

She held on to that glorious, heady feeling for a few priceless seconds.

Then she stiffened her spine as reality flooded back in. “I have to tell my parents. Warn them. Show them what I have.”

He cupped her face. “You’re better than them. They weren’t there for you.”

Kat latched on to his wrist. “They were in their way. They took care of me when I was hurt. They just didn’t believe me. Couldn’t.” It still hurt. “David was the key to SiriX’s future, while I was their ordinary, troublesome daughter.”

A muscle in his cheek jumped.

She needed him to understand. “We’re not our parents. I won’t ignore the signs that they could be in trouble. Just like you keep your mother protected even though she didn’t protect you or Sara when you were kids. That’s who we are.” But if Olivia came into Kat’s shop again and called Sloane a murderer, the woman’s face was going to have a hard landing on Kat’s glass bakery case.

His face softened, and he leaned his forehead against hers. “I get it. I’m going with you.”

“I know.”

His mouth quirked. “I need to talk to the investigators Liza’s sending over and arrange for Ethan’s security. I’ll get someone to take my car home, and we’ll take yours to your parents’ house.”

* * *

Kat walked through the house with Sloane at her side and her parents trailing her. It’d taken her less than five minutes to realize that words were useless. They didn’t believe her, so she had to show them.

Her dad caught her arm as she headed toward the stairs in her childhood home. “Honey, you were in a car accident only a few days ago. The bruising on your face shows you hit your head again. With your history of concussion-related emotional issues, this obsessing isn’t good for you.” Her dad shot a dark look at Sloane looming next to her.

She ignored the obsessing comment. “This isn’t Sloane’s fault.”

“You were calming down before you met him. He’s having a negative effect on you. Now you’re suddenly secretive and more paranoid.”

She flinched. “Secretive?”

Sloane put his arm around her, a warm, solid presence against her side.

“You didn’t tell us you were in an accident.” Anger sparked in her mother’s gaze. “We had to find out on the news. Then SiriX was connected to his…” she inclined her head toward Sloane, “…doping scandal.”

“I didn’t call you because I was fine. The doctors released me. And the media made the connection, not Sloane.” She straightened her spine. “But I think there is a connection. David’s involved with making designer steroids for the man I told you about, Finn. I showed you the picture. He was there in the hospital. Amelia saw him too.”

Her father pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “Think, Katie. You never once said anything about David and steroids, not until the accident when you found out the driver was on steroids. You’re making wild leaps and connections that aren’t there.”

“Kat’s not brain damaged or delusional, she’s trying to help you.” Sloane’s voice cut deep into the building tension. “But you’re standing here trying to convince her she’s crazy instead of rushing up to her room to see what’s on her files. So I have to wonder, who’s really afraid of the truth here?”

Anger splashed color across her dad’s cheeks. “Don’t you dare—”

“William.” Her mom cut him off. “We’re all tired and stressed. Let’s get this over with.” She stepped in front of Kat. “After this, Kathryn, you and I are going to talk. This nonsense has gone on long enough. You have Marshall half-believing your delusions. It has to end.”

She stared into the same eyes she saw in the mirror every day. The two them looked alike, and yet they were so different. “When I was little, I wanted so much to be just like you. I watched you get ready for work every morning and dreamed that one day I’d do that too.”

Surprise softened the hard edges of her mom’s face into a prettiness Kat hadn’t seen on her in a long time.

“But I wasn’t like you, Mom. And I don’t know who was more disappointed by that, you or me.” Turning, she headed to her room and realized that last part wasn’t true. Kat had learned to like herself, to like the woman she was striving to be. In large part because of seeing herself through Sloane’s eyes, and she loved him for that gift.

Once in her room, Kat set her laptop on the bed then found the box in her closet. Sloane reached over her head, lifting it down for her. Taking off the lid, she was sucker-punched by nostalgia and old grief. She gently lifted out the music box with the pink heart on the top. Once she eased the lid open, the ballerina popped up. A knot formed in her throat.

Sloane pressed his body against hers. “You okay?”

She touched the figurine. “My grandmother gave me this after my first recital at her dance school. Said I was as pretty as this ballerina.” It had meant so much to Kat since her own parents had been too busy to come watch her childish attempts to dance.

He leaned down, studying the tiny dancer. “She’s pretty.” Straightening, he met her eyes. “But you’re beautiful.”

A sensual tension strung out between them, making her skin pebble in response and nearly causing the air around them to hum with it. Her parents hovered in the doorway, probably feeling the burn of the desire that flowed between her and Sloane. “Thanks. Once everything settles down, I’m going to take this to my condo. Put it in my bedroom.”

Sloane touched her hair, skimming his fingers down the length. “Take the music box home with us tonight. Put it in the bedroom or wherever you want. It’ll be safe there.”

Kat couldn’t look away from his eyes. The idea of putting her special things in his house, the place he hadn’t taken his other plus-ones… She was getting in too deep, living on a hope that what they had together now was strong enough to survive the test of whether or not he killed Foster.

“Kathryn, I thought you had something to show us.”

Her mother’s condescending voice shattered the moment. Kat opened the little drawer on the bottom of the music box and took out the flash drive. After carefully storing her music box, she plugged the flash drive into her computer and focused on scanning the list of names of the data and formulas she’d copied.

Ah, there it was. “AAS Blocker.”

“Anabolic-androgenic steroids.” Her mother pushed the box aside and sat next to Kat. “What about it?”

“One of the experiments I worked on. David was part of the studies showing that long-term use of anabolic steroids can speed up Alzheimer’s progression.”

“SiriX did some of those, yes.”

Kat had her mother’s attention. Even her dad moved in closer. Hope swelled in tiny, fragile bubbles. Maybe they would listen to her. “David tested ways to block the progression of brain damage caused by anabolic steroids, theorizing that might lead to finding a way to block the destruction of brain cells caused by Alzheimer’s.”

Diana’s eyes narrowed, causing lines to dig in around her eyes. “He never mentioned this to me. That doesn’t sound like David’s theories.”

“I believed him.” Hook, line and sinker. “We ran the testing using his formulation, but it failed. However, we discovered a side effect that the blocking agent kept the steroids from showing in urine.” Kat clicked on the file, opening the formula. She slid the computer to her mom’s lap. “If I give this to the lab Sloane is using to test Ethan’s steroid kit, I’m betting one of the products will match it.”

As her mother started reading, Kat got up, pacing to the door. “David sold that formula, or he’s making it.”

“You’re making more of this than it is.”

Her dad’s dismissal hit a nerve, the one that had endured a lifetime of not being taken seriously. Kat pivoted and faced her father with half the room between them.

It felt like miles rather than feet. She pulled in a calming breath. “What if I’m right? This whole thing is unraveling. David’s been lying for years, and not only to me.” Renewed anger pumped through her. “He’s risking all your work and everyone at SiriX. Even worse, Finn had thugs beat me with a baseball bat, then he showed up in my hospital room. Who says he won’t hurt you or someone else out of desperation?” She loved her parents. It would kill her for either of them to be hurt.

“Or go after Kat again. He knows she remembers him now.” Sloane’s arms bulged beneath his dress shirt. “No one is hurting you again.”

From across the room, the touch of his eyes and the feel of his words wrapped around her like a caress.

“I can’t believe this.” Her mom’s face paled. “It’s a mistake. David wouldn’t do this. He’s committed to improving the quality of human life with therapeutics.” She stood up, color splotching over her pale cheeks. “Why are you doing this? We’re so close to our goal with SiriX, and you want to destroy it all—decades of my and David’s work, the family—why? What makes you hate us all so much?”

Kat froze beneath her mother’s bitterness. “I don’t hate you.” The words clogged in her throat.

“David’s a good man. He’s put his life’s blood into SiriX, trying to help people, while you quit so you could sell people heart disease and diabetes in a pretty package.”

She stumbled back, desperate to escape the pain lancing her with every word.

“Diana, stop it.” Her father tugged on her mother’s arm. “Katie—”

“Is that what you believe too? That my bakery is nothing? That I’m nothing?” A black void opened up, and Kat shied away. She didn’t want to feel this desolation. Couldn’t do it. It was easier to emotionally retreat, let the gray numbness envelop her.

“I didn’t say that. Calm down—”

“This is bullshit.” Sloane reached Kat in a couple strides. Laying his hands on her shoulders, he leaned down until his image filled her sight. His brutally square face dominated her vision, his gaze commanding hers. “Are you nothing, Kat? The woman who fought back from a devastating injury, is overcoming panic attacks and building Sugar Dancer, is she nothing? What about the woman who saved the terrified kids from death or more serious injury in a car accident, is she nothing? Or the woman who threw herself in my arms to comfort me?”

His demands chased the grayness back, uncovering her resilience. It still hurt, and Kat suspected it would always hurt to know her parents thought she was worthless. But she was building her own life, filling her world with people who cared about her and who she loved. “I’m not nothing.”

His eyes that had only seconds ago glittered with barely controlled rage now warmed until she swore she could see specks of pure sunlight dancing in the light brown depths. “You’re my goddamned everything. And anyone who tells you differently is a pathetic fool.”

In the reflection of his gaze, she saw herself. She’d given it her best shot to reach her parents, but she didn’t have to stand there and be told she was worthless. “Let’s go home.” In Sloane’s home, Kat felt valued. That was where she wanted to be.

But she had one more thing to do and turned to her parents. “I guess I always knew that if it came to a choice between David and me, you’d choose David because he has more to contribute to the true child of your heart—SiriX.”

“That’s ridiculous. We raised you, love you—”

She held up her hand, cutting off her dad. They were going to listen to what she had to say. “I hope you’ll hear this. David is a threat to SiriX. Find out what he’s doing and protect what you can of SiriX, as well as all the people who work for the company and those who rely on the therapeutics discovered and produced by it.” She was done. Kat took Sloane’s hand, heading down the stairs and outside to the huge, curved driveway.

Halfway to her car, she grimaced. “Crap, I walked out without my computer. I suck at dramatic exits.”

Sloane halted, handing her the keys. “Get in the car, I’ll retrieve your computer.”

She tried to catch his arm, but he was already out of her reach. “Sloane, no.” Nothing good would happen if he went back into that house with her parents.

Too late, he’d vanished through the front door, not bothering to knock.

Should she go after him? Stop him? A few seconds ticked by while she remained in place clutching the car keys. Sloane wouldn’t lose his temper with her parents no matter how much they baited him. His self-control was formidable.

Yet he had lost his temper with her, yelling at her when he’d walked in to find her helping Drake after he’d gotten sick. Her lips curved at the memory of his ranting and her getting right back in his face. Because she’d trusted him then.