A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1) (43 page)

Carter cupped her face in an attempt to soothe her.

“It’s not a competition based on who did the worst thing or did the longest time,” she continued, disgusted. “In the eyes of the prejudiced assholes walking around with their judgmental noses in the air, you and my father are the same.” She shook her head. “My mother knew that. That’s why she didn’t say anything.” She moved closer, curling her body around his.

He ran his index finger down the center of her nose, following the outline of her top lip he knew tasted like raspberries. “Are you mad at your dad?”

“No,” she whispered, trailing a finger around his nipple. “How could I be? He made some bad choices when he was a kid. So what? He’s still one of the best men I’ve ever known.” She hesitated. “Like you.”

Carter couldn’t pull his eyes away from her. Her words ruined him. There was no denying it. Christ, she was so damned beautiful, draped across him, with her fervor and fire heating the room around them both.

Unexpectedly, his chest stirred, as though a rope wound tightly around his insides, tugging them hard. He moved, trying to ease the pressure rising within him, up from his stomach, to his throat. Everything inside immediately was too big, as if some unknown force was making his organs swell and push together, overwhelming him. It whipped his breath away and set every nerve ending in his spine alight. His skin erupted in gooseflesh and his toes curled in supplication to whatever the fuck it was.

“What’s wrong?” Kat asked, noticing his alarm.

Carter rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Just indigestion, I think.”

Kat placed a soft kiss below his belly button. “Better?”

Carter grabbed the tops of her arms, pulling her closer, up his body. “No. You’re too far away.” He kissed her, needing her above him, below him, covering him, engulfing him.

He kissed her hard, breathing in the rush of life that came from her lips, the heat, and the color she’d brought into his miserably gray life. She kissed him back, concern evident in the gentle brushes of her lips. She pulled away, her gaze dancing, searchingly, over his face.

Carter swallowed. “I’m fine.”

He tried to keep his voice calm, tried to show in his face that all was peachy fucking keen, but inside, a goddamn festival was taking place, and, for the love of God, Carter had no idea how to stop it, or if he even wanted to.

Kat awoke to the sound of banging that sounded like it was coming from Nana Boo’s front door. Carter moved with a loud sigh, his arm wrapped protectively around her waist. He hadn’t let her go all night. They’d done nothing but cuddle and spoon, even though his hard body had told her he’d wanted a lot more. There was something different. He was different. Something had appeared in his eyes. Something irrevocable and too big to deal with at—

With her face half covered by the pillow, Kat glanced at the clock to see it was a little after ten in the morning. How had that happened? Christ, she didn’t even remember falling asleep.

“Who the fuck is making that noise?” Carter grumbled into the nape of her neck, pressing his delicious morning wood against Kat’s ass. “They need to shut the fuck up and let me get back to sleep.” He yawned. “I was having awesome dreams.”

Kat snorted and rolled over to look at him, smiling at his adorable sleepy eyes and brushing her palm over his crotch. “I can feel how good they were.”

Carter sighed and lifted his hips from the bed, chasing her hand. “Don’t pretend that you don’t love it.”

Kat frowned when the banging stopped abruptly and raised voices, spouting inaudible words, echoed up to the room.

A concerned frown slashed between Carter’s brows. He lifted himself up onto his forearms. “What the hell’s going on?”

Kat shook her head, hating the heavy dread snaking up her back. “I have no idea.”

Carter was swiftly on point, protective and cautious. “I’ll go and check it out.”

“No,” Kat said, touching his shoulder as he pushed back the sheets. “I’ll go.”

“Peaches,” he murmured with an annoyed glint in his eye.

“It’s fine, I’ll—”

“KATHERINE!”

The bubble around herself and Carter burst apocalyptically as the voice pummeled at the bedroom door. Kat’s skin prickled in cold terror, while tears sprang to her eyes, forced to the ducts by fear and absolute fury.

“Mom.”

“What?” Carter coughed, shooting to his feet at the side of the bed, eyes wide. “Your—your mom?”

Kat nodded slowly, robotically, gripping the blankets in her fist.

“Katherine, come out here! I know you’re in there with him!”

Kat closed her eyes, unable to look at Carter for fear that she would fly out of the room and slap her mother senseless.

“Eva, calm down.” Nana Boo’s voice crept under the wood.

“No, I will not calm down. How could you have him in your house? How could you allow this to go on under your roof?”

“Because it is
my
roof, Eva, and I am your mother. I don’t answer to you.”

There was a beat of silence; the acidic tone of Nana Boo’s words fizzled into the air.

“I should go,” Carter muttered, making his way around the end of the bed.

Kat’s heart dropped to her stomach. “NO!” she called out, scrabbling from the bed toward him, catching her foot in the sheet. “No, you don’t have to go anywhere. Please. Don’t go.”

He avoided her eyes, looking past her, alarm making the muscle in his jaw jump. “I can’t be here.”

“Yes, you can,” Kat urged, grabbing at his biceps. “You have as much right to be here as I do.”

“Kat—”

“If you go, then I’m coming with you.”

Before Carter could answer, the door of the bedroom swung open, smacking the back wall of the room with the momentum with which it was forced. Kat turned to see her mother glaring at the two of them: Kat in Carter’s T-shirt, and he, bare but for his ink and a pair of black boxer briefs.

“Get out,” Kat growled.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Eva’s eyes trailed down Kat’s state of undress.

“Eva,” Nana Boo chastised. “That’s enough.”

“Get some clothes on and come downstairs,” Eva insisted through thin lips, ignoring Nana Boo. She shot daggers at Carter, causing Kat to move protectively in front of him. “Alone.”

“I’m not doing a thing—”

“Now, young lady,” Eva interrupted. She whirled like a dervish and marched out of the room, thumping down the stairway.

“What does she want, Nana?” Kat asked, desperate to feel Carter’s arms around her. He didn’t move.

His stillness and silence were terrifying.

“I don’t know,” Nana Boo replied with a despondent shake of her head. “I’m so sorry to both of you. She called asking if I’d spoken to you. I told her you were here together. I had no idea she planned on coming … I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Kat urged. “It’s her, not you.”

Glancing over her shoulder at Carter, Kat’s stomach rolled violently when she saw his face: angry, barricaded, and closed off from everyone around him.

Even her.

“I’ll give you a moment.” Nana Boo sloped out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Kat sniffed and moved toward her suitcase, ignoring the waves of dangerous calm rolling off Carter. When she started talking, the words came out quickly, bumping into one another.

“We’ll go. We’ll get out of here. I don’t want to be here with her. Nana can lend us the car again and I’ll grab my bag; you can grab yours—”

“No,” Carter interrupted.

She stopped, stock-still in the center of the room.

“Go downstairs and see what she has to say.” His voice was intense and direct, but his eyes flitted around the place, searching for a way out.

“But we can leave together,” she insisted.

Carter bent to grab his sweater. “No, you need to speak to her, Kat.”

Hurt gripped Kat’s heart. She folded her arms, holding herself together. “Why? Why do you want me to talk to her?”

“Because it’s time you did.”

She watched him sit and pull on his socks. “You … can’t leave,” she whispered. Her voice broke. “I need you here.”

“Kat.”

“Please, Carter. Don’t listen to her. Everything she says—it’s not true. It’s not. Please.”

Her breathing started to accelerate, as the thought of him walking out of the door grew more vivid in her mind. Unable to move from her spot for fear that she would shatter, she gasped, “Please. I’ll talk to her if you promise you’ll stay.”

They remained silent for an age, staring at each other, neither of them seemingly wanting to speak. The atmosphere around them was charged but uncomfortably different from how it normally was.

“Peaches, I can’t—”

“You can.”

“I’m no good for yo—”

“Don’t you fucking dare say that!” Sadness gave way to anger. “You
are
good enough! Christ, you have to know that!”

Carter didn’t answer and continued to look down at the floor. Kat’s heart fractured painfully. Jesus, they were back at square one.

Kat took a tentative step toward him. “Promise me you’ll stay. Promise me you won’t leave.”

He scrunched his eyes shut and bit his bottom lip, but she didn’t care. She needed to hear the words. At that moment, it was the most important thing. Nothing else mattered.

“Carter.”

“Okay,” he answered in a lifeless voice. “I promise.”

“Promise that you won’t leave. Say it.”

He lifted his head and looked at her, but something deep in Kat’s heart told her he was seeing straight through her, and it hurt. It hurt so much.

“I promise I won’t leave.”

He was so crushed, so broken, and Kat hated that she was helpless in putting him back together. “Okay,” she whispered. “Okay.”

Silently, she moved around the room, pulling on a pair of jeans and sneakers. She tied his T-shirt at her right hip and pulled her hair up into a loose ponytail.

“I’ll be right back.” She stood at the doorway with the crumpled brown envelope in her fist. “And then we’re out of here.”

“Kat, I—” She waited for him to continue but, instead, he cracked the knuckles of his right hand and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

With a lead weight in her stomach and a splintering heart, Kat opened the bedroom door. “I’ll be right back.”

* * *

She walked with purpose and dignity into the sitting room, unable to make out any of the words of the obviously heated conversation taking place between Harrison and her mother by a large bay window. The snow had fallen hard overnight, covering the gardens in a winter blanket.

Nana Boo was absent, which pleased Kat. Nana Boo didn’t deserve to see or hear what was about to happen. The fact that her mother had come into Nana Boo’s the way she had, and on Thanksgiving, made Kat’s teeth grind. Seriously, who was the parent here?

Kat stopped with a straight back, arms folded, when Eva caught her eye. “I thought you were at Harrison’s parents’? What are you doing here?”

Eva stared back. “Do not speak to me that way, Katherine.”

“And don’t tell me what to do,” she retorted. “How dare you come into my room, into Nana’s house that way?”

An edge of remorse stole across Eva’s mouth. “Nana is fine. It’s you I’m worried about, furious with, actually.”

“Why?”

“Why? Because my daughter doesn’t speak to me, answer my calls. My daughter, who not only works in a damned prison but is running around town with—with that—”

“Be careful,” Kat warned when Eva waved toward the doorway.

Eva blanched and a flash of hurt lit her eyes. “I am here to put a stop to this.”

Kat scoffed. “Do you know how ridiculous you’re being?”

“What is ridiculous is you’re putting your entire career, your reputation, and maybe even your life on the line for some delinquent waste of space—”

Kat flew toward her mother, stopping only inches away from her. “You do not speak about him that way!”

Kat’s proximity and the ferocity emanating from her every pore made Eva pause.

“Calm down,” Harrison said at her side. He raised his hand toward Kat’s shoulder but dropped it. “Just both of you, please, calm down.”

Eva swallowed. “You may not believe it, but I’m doing this because I love you, Katherine. The prison is no good for you. He’s no good for you.”

“You don’t even know him,” Kat spat. “You never even gave him a chance.”

Eva was incredulous. “And how was I supposed to do that when you carried on behind my back? I had to find out from Beth, from Nana!”

“And it’s such a big mystery why I didn’t tell you!”

“Because you knew it was wrong!” Eva countered. “For God’s sake, you could get into so much trouble.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

Eva’s face grimaced in puzzlement. “Then why are you—?”

“You have done nothing but make me feel like a disappointment ever since I started working at Arthur Kill. Nothing I’ve done since I took that job has been good enough for you; even the man I love is a disappointment in your eyes.”

Eva scoffed. “Oh, please, you don’t love him.”

“With everything that I am,” Kat said imploringly. “You have no idea what I’ve been through these past few months, Mom. How hard it was to face my biggest fears at Kill, to confront what has kept me awake for the past sixteen years.”

Eva’s face pinched.

“But Carter’s been there for me, with me, helping me and caring for me when no one else would.” Kat turned her face toward the ceiling, furious that her mother would even dare to cry. “When I left here that night, it was Carter who took care of me, and never once has he said or done anything to me that warrants such narrow-mindedness from you.”

“He’s a criminal.”

“Like Dad?”

Eva took an unsteady step backward. Her face held an expression of complete shock, but her glistening eyes told Kat it was checkmate. Kat pushed the crumpled envelope against her mother’s chest.

“I wonder,” Kat mused. “Did Grandpa’s hatred make you want to walk away from the man you loved, or did it push you further into his arms?”

Eva stared at the envelope in her hands.

“You should have told me, Mom. It wasn’t Nana’s job to tell me about Dad’s past,” Kat said angrily. “Instead of judging me, instead of judging Carter; you should have been honest with me first.” She willed her tears back. “How could you lie? How could you make me feel so alone?”