With Vengeance (10 page)

Her casual dismissal of her value infuriated
Klement. “You are
not
a nobody, Katana.” He turned back to
the cops. “If you heard her play, you’d understand why I hired
her.”

Officer Tyson perked up, but his partner
stuck to the matter at hand. “Do you have any sexual or romantic
involvement with Cliff Tracey?”

“Hell, no.” Kat shook her head so vigorously
that Klement couldn’t help but smile. “For one thing, I’m here on
business. For another, he stole my solo.”

Tyson laughed, and even Shaw cracked a smile
before continuing. “The reason I ask is that Mr. Tracey has had
some vindictive exes. Do you have one of those?”

“I haven’t been in a relationship in over six
months, and I haven’t heard from him in four,” Kat answered. “I
highly doubt I meant enough to Richard to follow me over a thousand
miles. I’m sure he’s moved on.” She crossed her arms and finally
met the policeman’s gaze. “I’m more inclined to believe that some
overzealous fan found out about me and got angry.”

Officer Shaw nodded. “The problem with crazed
fans is that there’s so many.” He looked back at Klement and pulled
out his card. “We’ll have a patrol car drive through the
neighborhood and by the studio for the time being. If you can think
of any other suspects, don’t hesitate to call me.”

Before he left, he asked a few more questions
and took the contaminated fuel filter and Kat’s punctured tire as
evidence. When the pair was gone, Kat visibly relaxed.

“You okay?” Klement asked.

“Yeah, I just had a bad experience with cops
a long time ago.”

Without elaborating, she headed back to the
house. Klement followed with a frown. Kat lived in a small town in
Idaho, hardly a place known for police brutality or anything.

She, Klem, Cliff and Roderick all headed up
to the music room and practiced the next day’s songs, and he saw
Kat’s mood improve. She was clearly more confident and relaxed than
the first time, and it brought a wealth of improvement to their
joined music.

For the first time in over a year, they felt
like a band again. The dynamic didn’t feel like it had with Lefty.
It was different but no less powerful, and so, as Cliff sang the
last note of “Reckoning,” Klement made up his mind. Tomorrow, he
would tell Kat about his decision to have her join them for
Thrashfest. His resolve was bittersweet. While he was glad to see
her succeed and wanted her talent to help shape the band, he also
knew the rest of the ramifications of the decision. But he didn’t
want to dwell on them now.

Clearing his throat, he addressed Kat and the
guys. “I want to try ‘Yesterday’s Angst’ with that tune you were
playing during our first talks back in February.”

Her head cocked to the side as she scratched
his cat, Flea, behind the ears. “Which one?”

“I don’t think you named it, but it went like
this.”

Klement played the hypnotic melody on his
bass, and her eyes lit up with comprehension. “Oh! I didn’t
remember playing that one for you.”

A jolt of unease crawled up his spine. Had he
misremembered? What if she’d only played that tune when he was
talking to her as IT Guy? Well, it was too late now.

“Cliff,” he said, “start the rhythm, and Kat,
come in with it in three measures.”

It sounded even better than when he’d toyed
around with it and the rough tracks. From the looks on Cliff and
Rod’s faces, they thought the same.

“Okay,” Klement said. “I want you to do that
tomorrow in the studio.”

Kat gasped and looked at him like he’d just
offered her the moon. “You’re putting one of my riffs on the
album?”

He just nodded and went back to plucking at
his bass before she could see the way he was affected by the wonder
in her eyes.

Rod saluted her with his drumstick.
“Congrats, love.”

Cliff nodded. “It is a killer riff, and it
fits like it was made for this song.” He smirked. “Better than the
one Klement wrote.”

“Yes,” Klement admitted. “It is.”

He smiled at his bandmates’ approval. Kat was
working out better every day. For some reason he felt a burst of
pride, as if she were his own protégé. But she wasn’t. All he’d
done was given her some songs to learn. She’d done the rest on her
own.

Even though he could have kept playing for
hours, the other guys became restless and detached themselves from
their instruments to go downstairs and watch a movie. Klement loved
movies, but right now his massive ADHD was acting up so there was
no way he’d be able to sit still and focus. When he was this way,
if he wasn’t doing something, he got twitchy and his mind raced
like a hamster in a wheel.

Kat went down to put away her clothes and
take a shower. So, to distract himself from imagining hot water
cascading on her naked body, Klement went to his office and checked
out the last night’s security footage, which he’d been meaning to
do for some time. Unfortunately, Cliff was right. It had been too
dark to discern much detail on the delivery guy. And the man had
left his car at the bottom of the driveway, too far from the gate
to get more than a fuzzy image.

Muttering under his breath, Klement pulled up
some video editing software. He wasn’t going to be defeated so
easily.

Two hours and three cups of coffee later,
he’d managed to get a better outline of the guy and the car. The
guy was fairly hopeless. Aside from getting a better perspective on
his height and build, there were no other details to be taken. It
was like the son of a bitch expected cameras and had managed to
avert his face from each. But Klement had better luck with the car.
With a little more sharpening and adjusting the contrast, he was
able to make out an emblem.

A Kia.

Something nagged at his subconscious then
drifted away.

Klement rubbed his eyes. He nearly had a
plate number, and he’d formed a strategy to focus in on it using
another program, but staring at the grainy images was making him
dizzy. No wonder, since it was one in the morning. So, making a few
notes, he closed down his computer and resolved to work on it
tomorrow.

Leaving his office, he walked through his
quiet house. Everyone but the cats had gone to bed, and now they
were rubbing at his ankles, eager for him to lie down with them. He
was happy to comply, but once he was under the covers with the
somnolent rhythm of purring felines, the realization that Kat was
in the next room tugged at his mind, making sleep impossible.
Unable to stop his meandering thoughts, he relived the feel of her
embrace, the sweet smell of her hair.

The memories quickly progressed to fantasies.
Visions of him pulling off her shirt, sinking down to his knees and
nuzzling her breasts tormented him. Visions of them naked and
tangled together had him hard and aching.

Klement threw off the covers, whispering a
quick apology to his irate cats as they jumped off the bed. He’d
drunk too much coffee, that was all. Though he could write code
like no one’s business when he was baked, looking at the security
footage required a different sort of focus, so he’d refrained from
smoking. He’d just have to work off the caffeine.

Padding down to the kitchen, he decided to
bake some cupcakes. The guys loved his secret ingredient. And
licking the batter would help him sleep.

***

Kat woke to a soft knock on her door. She
groaned and buried her face in the soft, clean-smelling pillows.
Flea meowed in protest and thumped his tail on her arm. She vaguely
remembered him following her into her room after she got up to use
the bathroom.

“It’s almost time to head to the studio.”

Klement’s voice made her sit up, and she
blinked and rubbed her eyes. That’s not what he’d been saying to
her in her dream. She much preferred the sweet nothings he’d been
whispering while he—

“How do you like your coffee?” he asked,
cutting off her dangerous reminiscence.

Struggling to get a hold on herself, she
replied, “Half coffee, half hot chocolate—if you have any.”

“Hey, me too!” Klement’s voice rang with
surprise before his footsteps faded off down the hall.

Flea jumped down and scratched at the door.
Kat’s lips curved into a smile. “Aww, Klement has a sweet tooth
like mine.” The realization made a goofy grin spread across her
face. She wondered what else they had in common. At any rate, maybe
she could bake him some cookies for helping her with the car.

Climbing out of the bed, which had felt like
heaven with its fancy Posturepedic mattress, she opened the dresser
to find something to wear—something that would be casual enough for
the studio but flattering to her figure. Settling on a navy blue
peasant top and boot-cut jeans, she then headed to the bathroom,
washed her face and did a light touch of lilac eyeshadow and lip
gloss before emerging.

To her disappointment, Klement wasn’t in the
kitchen with the rest of the guys.

Roderick handed her a mug painted with
cavorting kittens. “Here’s your coffee. Klem will be down to take
you to the studio in a few. He said he had some computer work to
finish up.”

“Computer work?”

Cliff nodded. “Yeah, I told you he has like
six jobs. One of them is a software development company. He also
grows weed for medical dispensaries, fixes up classic cars and
sells them—though these days he seems to be keeping the cars more
often than not—invents crazy shit and makes bank off the patents,
and even still does some computer work on the side.”

The singer ticked off the list on his
fingers, and Kat gaped in astonishment at Klement’s resume. “Why
does he keep so busy? I mean, the band is doing really well.”

Cliff shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe he’s sexually
frustrated.”

The thought came unbidden to Kat.
I’d like
to help him with that.

Roderick leaned his elbows on the counter.
“No, it’s a lot simpler.”

Kat and Cliff looked at him expectantly.

“He’s crazier than a shithouse rat.”

All three of them burst out laughing.

Klement strode into the kitchen, making a
beeline for the coffeepot. “I’m what?”

“Nothing you don’t know already.” Rod set his
nearly empty cereal bowl on the floor so the cats could finish the
milk.

Klem raised his mug in acceptance. “True. I
know everything.” He turned to Kat. “You ready to go?”

On the drive down the hill, her thoughts
chased each other like cats with laser-pointers. All of those side
jobs, and he’d still made time to help her? Warm fuzzies engulfed
her all the way until he pulled into the studio parking lot.

As he grabbed their guitars out of the back
of the truck, he gave her a heart-stopping smile. “We’re only doing
one song, so get your part right and we’ll be able to have a half
day.”

“Oh.” The prospect of spending more off-time
with him gave her a little thrill. “Why?”

“For one thing, I don’t want you guys getting
burnt out. For another, we need to get your car fixed.” Casually he
added, “And I have some news we’ll want to celebrate.”

“Ooh.” She perked up with curiosity.
“What?”

Klement put a finger to his lips. “I want to
wait until we’re done.”

She pouted. “All right.”

Unfortunately, the anticipation had her
almost too distracted to play her riffs right. What was the news
that called for celebration by a workaholic like Klement? Had the
guys gotten a song on the charts? Had their last album gone
platinum? Were they nominated for an award? After Klement made her
start over for the third time, she sucked in a breath and forced
the speculations from her mind. If she didn’t do her job, she
wouldn’t prove herself worthy of continuing with them.

Finally she got her shit together and started
playing better. Another wave of awe nearly overcame her. They were
using something she wrote! Biting her lip, she regained her focus,
and after two more takes Klement nodded in satisfaction and
gestured for her to pack her gear.

“So what’s the news?” She forced herself to
sound casual, even though she was bursting with curiosity.

He laughed. “Not yet.”

They met Cliff and Rod in the little break
room. Both men had conspiratorial grins plastered on their faces.
Kat’s pulse quickened. Whatever it was, they already knew. Dared
she hope—?

“…decided we want you to do Thrashfest with
us.”

Klement was talking. Too late she realized
that she’d been spacing out and hadn’t caught all of what he said.
Thrashfest? Really?

“Wait, what?” she choked out.

His lips curved into an amused grin. “I said,
after observing your performance, we’ve decided we’re definitely
going to do Thrashfest and we want you to join us. It’s in three
weeks, so hopefully we’ll be done with the album by then.”

Truly? His words echoed in her ears, making
her dizzy. She swayed on her feet.

Roderick cocked his head to the side. “You
alright, love?”

“Yeah,” Kat whispered. “I just can’t believe
it. You don’t know how long I’ve dreamed…” She trailed off and
shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t mean to sound like a dork.”

“Yes, we do know.” Cliff’s brown eyes were
full of understanding. “That’s why we’re in this business.”

A sense of belonging washed over her, and Kat
smiled at him. Even though the singer was a solo-stealing
man-whore, he truly wasn’t a bad guy.

He reached out and patted her on the head,
ruining the moment. “Just don’t try to turn us into a chick band,
okay?”

She bristled, about to retort, but Roderick
smacked the singer on the back of the head. “Congratulations, and
welcome to Bleeding Vengeance. We were thinking of going out to The
Hellion to celebrate. It’s a really badass club.”

“I’d love to!”

She resisted the urge to look back at Klement
and ask if he was coming too, but it was as if he sensed she was
thinking about him, and he stepped around to face her. “Now,
Thrashfest is your trial. If you do well there, you’ll be hired as
a full-time band member.”