Wicked Need (The Wicked Horse Series Book 3)(72)

I could stand there all afternoon and watch Cat just hugging her father, but she’s the first to pull back. She looks up at her dad, who gently wipes her tears and then turns her gaze to meet mine. “How? How in the world did you find him?”

“I paid your mom a visit,” I say simply, but there’s no way in hell I’ll admit I paid the woman for the information unless Cat asks me point blank.

“She’d never give that information up,” Cat says as she narrows her eyes at me. “How much did you pay her?”

Well, f*ck.

I duck my head, think about lying, and then finally look back at her with a grimace. “A lot, and it was worth every penny. Let’s leave it at that.”

She nods, but I know she’s not letting it go. She’s merely deferring the discussion until she can get me alone, not wanting any unpleasantness to ruin this moment. I take the opportunity to fill her in as succinctly as I can, figuring Allen can do the rest.

“Your mom told me that she dated Allen briefly in 1990 while she lived in Fayetteville, North Carolina with a friend,” I begin.

Cat’s eyebrows jump upward. “She lived in North Carolina?”

I nod. “Briefly. Dated Allen and got pregnant. Left and went back to Vegas without telling him.”

Cat’s gaze swings back to her father’s. “You never knew about me?”

“Never,” he says fiercely. “And if I did, I would have never let you go. Never.”

Fuck… okay, that’s getting to me.

Getting to me even more to see Cat’s eyes fill up with bright, shining tears of joy. Time to lighten the mood just a bit.

“So, okay… how about you two move the party inside and get to know each other?” I say, taking Cat’s arm and turning her toward the door. I clap Allen on the shoulder and pull him along.

Cat opens the front door, steps into the foyer, and turns to welcome us both in. Allen crosses the threshold as she smiles at him with absolute eternal hope on her face. Her eyes slide to me and she motions with her hand to invite me in.

I shake my head. “Uh-uh. You two need alone time. You have lots to talk about.”

She cocks her head at me, but I don’t stick around. I nod at Cat’s father with a smile before turning to jog down the porch steps. Allen and Cat have a lot of catching up to do. I’ve come to learn a lot about this man and his family the last two days, and Cat needs to hear it all from him as well. She also needs to decide how much of her past she wants to share with him, and that’s a private matter that I don’t need to impede on.

As I reach the rental car—my mind suddenly trying to figure out if I should fly to Vegas tomorrow to get my Suburban, which means I’d incur the wrath of Pish if I don’t get my ass back to work—I hear Cat call out, “Hey… Rand… wait up?”

I turn to see her coming down the porch steps, her dad standing in the doorway with his hands tucked in his pockets, watching us carefully. I didn’t hold anything back from Allen. He knows I love the hell out of Cat.

“What’s up?” I say casually, not really knowing where Cat’s head is at. Bridger told me she left my apartment and moved back in the house. He told me all about Cat quitting her job with Callie and the police suspecting Kevin but not able to do a damn thing until they find the attacker.

Cat comes to a stop a few feet from me, looking uncertain. I hate that. I want her to feel free to jump in my arms, but she’s just been given a shock, and things between us are unstable at best. So I give her a friendly smile to encourage her to speak.

“Looks like there wasn’t a will that cut me out,” she tells me as she sticks her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and rocks on her feet nervously. “Richard called me… told me to move back in here and that Kevin was going back to Vegas.”

My gaze flicks to the large house and then back to her. “I get it… who wouldn’t want to live in that?”

She winces slightly but doesn’t engage in the very awkward conversation that would ensue about her moving out of my apartment while I was gone. Instead, she says, “Detective Blanton interviewed Kevin. He thinks he was involved with my attack, but Kevin won’t admit anything.”

I nod. Bridger had kept me in the loop. “Bridger’s buddy, Kyle, came through. Identified the guy who attacked you. It wasn’t sanctioned by the MC, so they’re going to share that info with the police. They’ll put a warrant out for his arrest.”

Cat’s gorgeous mouth forms into an “O” of surprise. “I didn’t know that.”

“Well, hopefully, they’ll find the guy quickly and he’ll roll on Kevin. Then you can put all of this behind you.”

She nods, gaze dropping to the ground… clearly indecisive about what to say. When her face lifts, she turns to look at her dad standing in the doorway waiting for her, and then back to me.

“I can’t believe you went to all that trouble for me,” she says quietly and with such earnest gratitude, I actually feel a little hot under the collar.

My gut says to play it cool with her, but f*ck that… I missed her too much and I want her to know that this isn’t over between us. “I’d do anything for you, Cat. Come find me when you’re ready, but for now… go get to know your dad. He’s a great guy.”