A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1)(95)

“And what the hell would you know?” Kat’s voice burst from her louder than she intended.

“I know a damn sight more than you,” Beth replied tellingly.

“Then why don’t you enlighten me, huh?”

“Everything okay here?” Adam’s concerned voice came from the top of the stairs.

“No,” Kat retorted.

Adam glanced nervously at his fiancée, who looked back with a tiny shake of her head.

Kat’s hands rested firmly on her hips while her eyes flicked between them. “It seems I’m a little out of the loop here. Is someone gonna tell me what the hell’s going on?”

Adam placed his hand in Beth’s. His eyes were determined yet cautious as he took a deep breath and said, “He’s my cousin.”

Kat saw Beth’s stare drop to the floor. “Who’s your cousin?” she asked impatiently.

As Adam opened his mouth to answer, Kat’s phone began singing in her hand. She grimaced and glanced at the screen.

Carter.

Adam reached out to tap her cell phone with his finger. “He is my cousin.”

Kat slowly pressed decline as Adam’s words buzzed in her head, her brain trying to make sense of them, to put them in an order that she could understand.

Carter was Adam’s cousin.

They were related.

But that would mean …

“Oh, God.” Kat swayed and grabbed on to the doorframe.

Austin.

Beth reached for her, but Kat pulled her arm out of her grasp.

Beth immediately appeared contrite. “I wanted to tell you, but—”

“You knew,” Kat whispered. Her head throbbed with an emotion so heavy it almost brought her to her knees. “When I told you about kissing Carter. You knew.”

Adam nearly choked. “You kissed him?”

“Yes,” Beth answered resolutely. She placed a hand on Adam’s chest but kept her eyes on Kat. “I did know. Adam told me. But, Kat, it wasn’t my place.”

“Bullshit!” Kat’s palm slapped the door of the bathroom. All the pieces began to fall into place: the distance between her and Beth, the loaded looks between Adam and Austin when she told them where she worked and about Carter’s parole. Their deceitfulness screamed through her.

“You could have told me at any time; you both could have,” Kat seethed. “And Austin! But you all chose not to because, like every other person in my life, you treat me like a kid who doesn’t know any better.”


“I thought you’d get over it,” Beth protested. “I thought you’d move on before you got in too deep. We all thought if you gave Austin a chance—”

“Wait. ‘We’?”

“Adam told me Carter’s done some serious shit. He’s bad news and he’s your student, Kat. Do you not understand the ramifications of that? You kissed your student!”

“Yeah, I did. Twice,” Kat exploded. “And I f*cking enjoyed it.”

“Katherine!”

All three of them turned to see Eva standing with a look of disgust directed straight at Kat. “You—you kissed that … that man?” she asked, her voice dangerously quiet.

Breathless and trying to numb out the shame of what she was about to do, Kat pushed past Beth and Adam, and headed to her bedroom. The smothering was reaching epic proportions, and the hammering in her brain was sending her almost hysterical. We? They’d all known, all tried to keep her away from Carter. The new friendship between her mother and Beth, the persistence of Austin. It all made sense now. She suddenly felt sick.