My Addiction (Club Desire #2)(23)
Tanner studied Dex, as if he were an open book. The man knew him well. “You like her.”
Dex nodded. “She’s not what I expected after Shapiro told me she was a sub to several of the rich and famous. Granted, she has been, but I have a hard time seeing her willingly involved in something like this. But it’s just as hard for me to see her unwittingly involved.”
Tanner’s expression remained unchanged, not giving Dex any clues as to what his boss was thinking.
Jason cracked his knuckles, the pops sounding loud over their video connection. “Understood. I have confidence that you’ll get to the bottom of this, and sort it out quickly. Time is of the essence.”
Tanner pinned Dex with an intense look. “With any other agent I would leave much more time for them to get caught up, but I know that computer of a brain you have will have retained every word for later retrieval.” He tapped his temple with his index finger.
Dex shook his head. He’d tried to tell Jason several times he didn’t have an eidetic memory, or photographic memory, as the man still insisted on calling it. Details had always fascinated Dex, so he tended to soak them up more easily than most people. But if he were ever pressed to reproduce an entire page of information he’d been shown, he’d be screwed.
The important details stuck with him, but the rest seemed to leave only enough of an impression to help him solve problems and correctly read situations, which was fine with him.
“Jason.” Dex met Tanner’s gaze squarely. “Thanks for going to bat for me on this. I won’t let you down.”
Tanner smiled. “I know. Now get out there and save the world.”
Chapter 7
Kate winced at the sound of the dreaded ring tone that heralded a call from her father. The conversation was always the same, and it left her feeling drained and angry. She had been dodging his calls for a week, and a small niggle of guilt had begun to accost her. If her mother were still alive, she would be horrified at what the relationship between father and daughter had become.
For that reason, Kate reached for her cell, still remembering the discussion she and Dex had in the VIP lounge about their respective parents.
At the thought of Dex, the stings and aches left in her body from the amazing scene they’d played together reminded her of the intense pleasure he had repeatedly plunged her into.
Another ring pulled her back to the impending discussion. It was already almost eleven p.m., so her father was probably trying for a time he thought she would most likely be home and willing to answer. She had always been a night owl.
After taking a deep breath and saying a quick prayer for patience, she picked up her phone and touched the screen to answer. She tried for a neutral, casual tone to start the inevitable. “Hello.”
“Kathryne,” came her father’s clipped reply.
She clenched her jaw until it ached. She hated to be called Kathryne, and he damn well knew it. No doubt he did it to set her on edge.
“Dad.” She bit her tongue against reminding him she was an adult and could choose what name to go by. After all, his name was Richard, but for some reason still unknown to her, he went by Dick. It had become something of a joke to everyone who knew him since he seemed to revel in living up to that moniker.
He cleared his throat, and she heard him take a deep breath and blow it out. A sign he was angry and trying to contain his temper. It was no surprise when he snapped, “Why haven’t you returned my calls? I’ve been leaving messages for well over a week.”
She took a sip of Diet Pepsi and tried to ignore the acidic comments that popped into her mind. “It’s only been a week, Dad, and I’ve been busy working. You should know all about that.”
A terse grunt sounded over the line. Before he could start his familiar tirade, she forged on. “After all, I learned my dedicated work ethic from you.”
Silence.
She was proud of herself for keeping her tone civil and slipping in the backhanded compliment, since he’d always bragged about his long hours spent working and his “sacrifices” for the sake of providing for his family. She had spent her entire life hearing about them.
After a long moment of only the sound of shuffling papers and the soft creak of his office chair, it began.
“Kathryne, if you would have stayed in medical school, your long hours and dedication would have counted for something. But dropping out of school to play with websites is beneath your potential.”
She stiffened. He was needling her. While she would never match her father’s net worth, she made enough to sustain a comfortable L.A. lifestyle without dipping too often into the trust fund her grandmother had left her. Especially since the first thing she had done with that trust fund was buy this penthouse.
Her father knew all that, but it still wasn’t good enough. Ever since she was a child, he had pointedly ignored anything she excelled at that didn’t meet with his expectations. He’d decided before she was born that she would go into medicine, and by the laws of the great Richard Fretwell III, she was supposed to fall in line with that plan.
She massaged her temple with her free hand, trying to stave off the beginnings of a father-induced headache. They tended to be worse and longer-lasting than any migraine she had ever experienced.
He continued, reciting well-memorized lines. “You should be back in school studying to be a surgeon, or a neurologist, at the very least.” He cleared his throat again, which sounded almost like a growl. “When are you going to give up this nonsense and get back to school?”