I held back a roll of my eyes. I’d worked my way to the top, just like your average mortal. I suspected Kellen wouldn’t degrade himself by such behaviour and probably just mind warped his way in.
“They’ve got McKinney set up down the hall, continuing their interrogation on him,”
Mike said, ignoring my shock again to keep us on the right track. “I think it’s about time we go and take a look at him. See what we’re up against here.”
This didn’t surprise me. It was protocol to sit in and watch the interrogation of the current men handling the case. To look for flaws in their work and see minute details they couldn’t. But right now, I could care less about this McKinney—my thoughts were too selfish to think of others.
The chairs all slid out and snapped me away from my internal hell. One chair however, remained frozen.
Chase sat head bowed to the table. I reached out to touch his arm as tenderly as I could.
“Chase.”
My hand was only inches from his arm when he pulled away and stood. When he met my gaze, my stomach clenched with dread. I never wanted to see that hatred burn in his eyes. I was the enemy and his rage for me was clear. Without a word, he walked past me.
At the same moment, Kellen took my hand. Instantly, I yanked it away. “Don’t touch me.” Seeing that look in Chase’s eyes pulled me into a hole of despair. When Kellen touched me, all I felt was anger.
If he hadn’t come, Chase wouldn’t be feeling the way he was. This was all Kellen’s fault.
Kellen grinned, calm and collected as he always was. “Is that any way to speak to your husband?”
I couldn’t do a thing, say anything—all I could do was swim in my own sadness. I controlled nothing and my mind wouldn’t allow me the right to make sense out of anything. My only thought was the look in Chase’s eyes, the raw pain there. I was a bitch. A cold, hard and nasty bitch. Shame engulfed my mind.
Mike opened the door to the meeting room and glanced back at me. “Go take a ride with Kellen, Hadley. Cool off and sort this out. I need your mind focused.”
“No—I—” I sputtered.
He raised his hand, stopping my jumbled speech, and my mouth closed accordingly.
“We don’t need distractions now. Sort this out so you can get your mind back in the game. Don’t return until you have. That is an order.”
Dammit, an order was an order. What could I say? No? Not likely. Resolved, I did the only thing I could and nodded. I didn’t really have a choice here. But this went so much deeper than Mike assumed.
Would I return? I wasn’t sure. Even if I did, I needed time alone with Chase to explain. Until I could, I doubted I’d be of any help here.
As Mike and Nick exited the room, Kellen took my chin between his fingers and brought my gaze back to his. “I’ve missed you.”
I tore away from his grip, outright angry at the way he went about this. “I haven’t missed you.”
He gave me a grin I had seen a thousand times over, the one that said he knew better.
“Now you are resorting to lies.” He took my hand again and this time I let him, despite my annoyance with him. His touch felt good in the midst of all this confusion.
“I must do something about this unruly behaviour you have learned.” His gaze was as penetrating as it was calculating and I felt it heat my body. No matter how angry I was or how annoyed I felt—that look levelled me and he knew it. “Let’s go sort this out, shall we?”
Chapter Three
Outside police headquarters, Kellen stood on Main Street and held the passenger side door of his black Mercedes sedan open, grinning. “In you go.”
I forced my annoyance to remain at bay. I may be pissed, but it didn’t hamper the appreciation I felt for his display of manners. Kellen was born at a time when women were adored and treasured. Such niceties just didn’t exist anymore in the world today and I had missed being handled in such a way. Not that Chase wasn’t loving and thoughtful, just modern men didn’t do things like that. And I’d missed it.
“Thank you.” I slid into the leather seat, then he closed the door behind me, trotted over to the driver’s side and quickly got in. Once settled, he started the engine, put the car in gear and with a squeal of his tires, drove off.
I sat in silence—torn. The feelings surrounding Chase were sending a horrible gut wrenching pain to pool in the pit of my stomach. I loved him, but I had hurt him and nothing about that felt good. I couldn’t imagine what he was thinking now, and in truth, I didn’t want to.
We drove a while in silence as I watched out the window. The dark night surrounded us and the streets were not like Washington. Quite empty.
Finally, sick of the silence, I turned my attention to Kellen. “Nothing like making an entrance.” I gave him a little glare. “Was that really necessary?” I could only imagine what my team thought. I kept my husband a secret then he suddenly appears and plants a big wet one on me.
Kellen laughed, quite pleased with himself. “You know how I like to make a scene.”
I did know that of him. The man lived to shock people and I’d witnessed it happen on hundreds of occasions. I leaned my head back against the headrest and released an exasperated breath. “So my time is up, is it?”
Kellen’s gave me a sideways glance that showed his unhappiness. “You make that sound so horrible.”
Instantly, I regretted my word choice and for reacting like a cold, hard bitch. He deserved better.
I closed my eyes for a moment and breathed deeply trying to regain myself. “I’m sorry,” I finally said, opening my eyes to look at him. “It’s just complicated.”
Kellen studied me a moment then said, “Explain your relationship with the mortal.”
“I love him,” I responded without hesitation.
Kellen slammed on the brakes, which caused a horn to blast behind us. “You are in love with a mortal?” His eyes were wide with bewilderment.
I nodded, almost laughing at the disgust on his face, but couldn’t find it within me to let it out.
“Have been for years now.”
Kellen stared for many seconds before he clucked, shook his head and began to drive again.
I watched Kellen as he was clearly deep in thought. I knew him almost as well as I knew myself.
And that furrow of his brows meant he was trying to sort things out in his mind. Still, I couldn’t decipher what he was thinking.
Is he mad? Will he leave me too?
We travelled in silence for a while. Kellen’s gaze focused on the road then he blessedly broke the quiet that threatened to kill me. “You’re not willing to give him up?”
I suspected my expression came across as pleading almost to the point of begging. “I don’t want to.” And I didn’t.
Not one fibre of my being wanted that, but I doubted I had a choice here. Chase would want nothing to do with me now. I couldn’t blame him either. If the roles were reversed I would feel the same. It wasn’t that I’d set out to lie to him, but he just didn’t understand my world.
Kellen let out a deep breath then took a quick turn to head into an old abandoned car garage.
He pulled in behind the old rickety building, turned off the car and shifted in his seat to face me. “It has been thirty years since I have laid my eyes on you. Never once did I expect to be united with you and hear that you are in love with some mortal.”
I shrugged away his contempt. “Well…I never expected you to come here as a part of the FBI.”
Kellen snorted, leaned forward and took my face in his hands. His eyes and even the set of his mouth were soft and loving. “I will not waste more time with this. Does this life make you happy?”
I didn’t even hesitate. “It does. I’m very happy.”
“So you want to continue on here?”
I nodded as much as I could with his grip tight around my cheeks. “I love my job, the people, the life I have here.” I sighed softly. “I don’t want to leave, Kellen.”
Kellen lowered his hands, glanced away for a moment, focused on the steering wheel. After a few minutes, he drew in a slow breath before his gaze met mine again. I saw a depth of sadness I’d never seen in him before. “Do you want me to leave you?”
I was torn, desperately. I knew if Kellen stayed, Chase would be gone and I didn’t want that.
Having Kellen gone didn’t sound good to me either. I missed his smell, the certainty he possessed and the love he had for me…no one loved me like Kellen, not even Chase. I knew if I asked him to go, he would because that was just Kellen. He’d put his wants aside time and time again to see me happy. I couldn’t ignore any of that. Not now. Not ever.
Having him back, reminded me of all these things and that I had missed him terribly.
For thirty years, a part of me was missing and now it had returned. I sank deeper into his gaze and slowly shook my head. “No, I don’t want you to go.”
A sweet smile swept across his face as he began to lean in. “That is all I need to hear.” Then, he laid his lips against mine.