An Heiress For The Bear (Sarkozy Brothers 2) (4 page)

He jerked himself from his thoughts. "The court date is no longer relevant to Maria's case."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? What's going on here?" Her eyes flashed and suspicion shone from them as they narrowed and focused on his face.

Lukas got to his feet and hurried over to his desk. He tugged open the left hand drawer and retrieved a file that he dropped onto the desk. He didn't need to invite her. She was already on her feet, hurrying to flip the file open.

Her eyes widened at the sight of a handwritten letter protected by a plastic sleeve, dark smudges of fingerprint dust outlining several prints along the edges and face of the paper. "What is this?"

"What it looks like." He'd seen this type of thing before, and it was never pretty.

Kat lifted the letter from the file, her fingers shaking as she read it. "Dear God." Those were the only words she spoke as she let go of the letter as if it were a poisonous snake. "That bastard."

Lukas leaned over to look her in the eye. He pointed a finger at the letter. "It came in the mail this morning. We sent it for testing, and the techs confirmed it's a match for King."

Kat let out a huff and sank onto the armchair in front of his desk. "Can we use this to make him go away?" She looked uncertain as her gaze flicked from the letter to Lukas's face and back again.

Why did she not trust him?

Lukas nodded. "Yes. We've spoke to the lieutenant on Maria's case, and the DA confirmed that we have enough to firm the retraining order even without Maria's testimony, but it's irrelevant."

"Why? We have enough to get him out of her life--"

Lukas leaned forward, placing his hands on the table and meeting her gaze. "Do you really think a restraining order is going to keep a man like King out of her life? He has money, connections, power. He has enough to ensure that even if the cops protected her, he'd find out where she was."

Kat sat back, silent as she chewed her lip. "He won't stop."

"No, he won't. The letter proves his state of mind. He's not insane, but he is crazy. Who threatens the mother of his child this way?" Lukas lifted the letter and began to read. "I will cut you up into tiny little pieces and feed your remains to the sharks. You cannot hide from me, you can't escape. Wherever you go, I will follow you, and I will take my child back. Don't trust the cops or the judge. There is nobody that I can't pay to do my bidding."
 

Kat sighed. "So you made Maria go away?" She met his eyes, her face still pale. "Witness protection?"

Lukas nodded. "Our version of it, anyway."

"What does that mean?" She frowned.

"It means we don't get the cops involved. We procure the paperwork for our clients legally, so that there is never ever an opportunity for failure through documentation. Maria will have dental work and minor plastic surgery. We've found drastic changes are more expensive and sometime unnecessary, unless the client has a defining feature."

"Defining feature?" she asked absently.

"Like those eyes of yours. If we put you into protective relocation, then you'd have to hide those gems behind contact lenses for the rest of your life."

She flushed, but ignored his words. "So this is what you do?"

Lukas straightened and pulled his chair back into position. He sank into it with a sigh. "Yes. It started as pro bono defense, and we realized that some men don't let go. That sometimes restraining orders don't fix things."

"So this is the reason you need the donors?" Kat was sitting stiffly, her spine ramrod straight.

"Yes. Fast-tracking paperwork, relocation, payments for property, applications for schools, school fees, living expenses. There are a lot of expenses involved in seamless relocation."

"How long do you look after them?"

"Just until they're back on their feet. We place them in locations where people we know can keep an eye on their progress from a distance."

"Oh."

Lukas laughed. "No, they don't spy on them. We place our clients in towns and schools and jobs where people within our network also live and work. They simply keep an eye on their activities, and if they consider anything unusual, they report to us and we send someone to investigate."

"Unusual?"

"Sometimes, as successful as the move is, either the client slips up, or the abuser manages to find them."

"I thought you said you moved them permanently."

"Permanently yes, but some of these men are connected and powerful, and they have ways of finding people. Our operation isn't perfect, and admittedly we've had two incidents in which the abuser managed to track down the victim. But both times, we got there in time and managed to move her to safety."

"I suspect you were more particular about the second move?"

"We were. The one discovery occurred before we began to use plastic surgery as a facial recognition intervention. The second abuser was a bit more ruthless. He abducted one of our operative's family members. He was forced to give up the information before his wife was freed."

"Was she?"

Lukas's eyebrows rose. "No."

Kat didn't respond to his words, and Lukas understood the look of horror on her face. Fearing for his wife's life, Greg Driscoll had given up the location of the client and sent a video of himself doing it to Lukas's cousin, Marek. Marek and Lukas had commandeered Delta Ops to retrieve her, but she'd been killed even before Greg had given them the information. The man still had nightmares. He'd insisted on remaining on board, citing his current lack of loved ones, which made him immune.

Kat cleared her throat. "You should've told me."

"I see that now. And now that I know I can trust you, I'm glad you know. Just be aware that at the moment only you, Alana, Sam, and I know about this."

"Sam knows?" Kat asked, but Lukas was sure it wasn't a question.

"Sam's been with us for a year now. We told him after four months."

Kat lifted a hand and gave a thin smile. "You don't have to justify it to me."

Lukas smiled. "I just want you to know that our reasons for not telling you the truth had nothing to do with you." Her head jerked in a short, sharp nod. "And I accept that it would have been better had you not wasted hours of your time preparing for cases when we knew we'd end up spiriting the client away."

Kat shrugged. "I understand that. You'd want the red tape to do its thing, so you don't alert anyone. If we didn't behave as if we were actually fighting the client's case, certain interested parties would begin to ask all the wrong questions."

"I'm glad you understand." Lukas settled against the back of his chair, relieved. She hadn't stormed out and resigned, so that was a good sign.

"I do. And mow that I know what's going on, I can be more helpful."

Lukas smiled and got to his feet. "Right, so we'd better get on with things. If we don't find a benefactor or two soon, a good few of our clients would either be waiting longer than expected, or they will be unable to benefit from relocations."

"How often do you relocate clients? I mean, do you have any stats?" Kat asked as she got to her feet.

"Annually, we relocate about six percent of our clients." Lukas walked behind her, enjoying the view of her ass. When Kat reached the door and spun on her heel, he was unable to curb his momentum.

He bumped into her, pressing her against the door with his upper body.

Kat gasped, and Lukas's heart thudded hard. His hands seemed to have a mind of their own as they moved to her hips and held her firmly.

She was staring up into his eyes, her lips a fraction of an inch from his. If he lowered his head the tiniest bit he'd get to taste her.

Kat was breathing faster now, her breasts straining against his chest, but she hadn't said a word. She just stood there, frozen and staring him, her eyelids slightly lowered.

So she felt it too.

Lukas bent closer.

A knock sounded behind Kat's head, and she stiffened as Lukas took a step back.

Was she hurt by him moving away? He hoped not, but there was no time to make sure she was okay.

Kat seemed to understand, as she took a few steps into the room as Lukas opened the door. Alana stood at the threshold, ice in her eyes.
 

"Did it go off okay?" asked Lukas brusquely. He didn't have time to deal with Alana's emotions.

She nodded, giving Kat a cool glance over his shoulder. "Greg's back. He confirmed she's on the plane. Reed will let us know when he gets there." She met Lukas's eyes, her curiosity clear in her expression, but he ignored it.

"That's good. And can you make sure Kat is clued in on our current relocations?"

Alana's eyes narrowed. "You told her?"

"It was well past time. Had I been around more over the last few months, I would have brought her in earlier."

There was a challenge in his tone, one that she backed down from.

She gave him a tight smile. "You're the boss," she said and peered around him. "Kat, that paperwork for Maria must be processed and filed as if we have no inkling that she's not going to make the trial."

Lukas shifted to watch Kat over his shoulder as she gave Alana a sober smile. He'd dumped a lot on her shoulders, and she'd taken it well. He'd been happy that she was pissed. Pissed he could deal with.

Whining and crying, not a chance.

K
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, her mind spinning.

Lukas had revealed the true nature of what A & L did for its clients, and yet, she was stuck somewhere between being pissed off at him for lying to her, and being frustrated that he hadn't kissed her. Oh, and there was that whole issue with Marek that she needed to get off her chest. But she'd have to leave Marek for another time.

That almost-kiss had taken possession of Kat's brain, and she felt like a caged animal. The need to feel his lips on hers had been so powerful that it had taken all her strength to stop herself from curling her arms around his neck and drawing him to her.

When he'd bent his head closer, she'd been so sure he'd kiss her that she almost moaned. Thank goodness she'd had the sense not to. In the end, he'd taken a step away from her, his face looking like he'd been caught pants down with the help.

And he had been. With the help, not the pants down. Although she kind of liked the thought of him without those pants.

Get a freaking grip, Kat.

She recalled the ice in Alana's eyes when she'd caught sight of Kat inside Lukas's office. Ever since Kat had started at the firm, Alana had given her a hard time. Kat couldn't really understand why. It wasn't as if Kat was any kind of competition.

Alana was slim and confident, where Kat was curvy and booby, not to mention nerdy. Not that Kat needed the glasses. It had all been a joke in the beginning. To wear the glasses like a female Clark Kent, and hide in plain sight. Carson had been certain that just the glasses and makeup would be enough to keep people ignorant of who Kat really was.

Carson hadn't been the type of girl she usually hung with. But college dorms didn't take one's social circle into account. Not that it had mattered to her that her roommate wasn't filthy rich.

They'd been wary of each other until Kat got to hear Carson sing. And then the friendship had blossomed to such strength that after college, they'd moved in together.

Kat wasn't a society page girl, but she did occasionally get caught by the paparazzi, especially when she rubbed shoulders with her old friends. With them, all dressed up, blinged, and baubled, it wasn't hard for people to recognize her.

But she much preferred the quiet life.

Give her Clark any day. Superman could go jump off a building.

She sighed and rubbed her neck as she sent the last of the paperwork to the printer and leaned back. The office was quiet this time of night; most of the lights were off, and here and there, domed lamps lit up desks piled with paperwork. At the far end of the room, Sam Goss sat with his head bent as he studied his printouts. He'd dropped a burger on her desk when he'd walked by two hours ago, and she'd damn near inhaled the thing. He'd sat at his desk grinning like a fool.