Page 79 of Strike Fast

She opened her mouth to tell Shelley to take her unsolicited opinion and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine, but stopped when the door swung open again.

Kai’s huge frame filled the doorway, his expression freezing when he saw Shelley standing there. His surprise and unhappy reaction told Abby he hadn’t been expecting the woman, and for some reason that made her feel better.

Then his gaze slid to Abby and a tired smile broke over his face. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she said, wanting the hell out of here. Shelley’s eyes were shooting daggers at her and Kai, her insecure, suspicious brain conjuring up God only knew what about them. She took a step toward the door, but stopped because Kai hadn’t budged, his stare fixed on Shelley.

“What are you doing here?” he asked her.

“I came to surprise you,” Shelley fired back, her expression all kinds of pissed off. “But instead I found out I’m interrupting.” She threw a lethal glare at Abby.

Kai dropped his duffel on the hardwood floor and put his hands on his hips. He was a freaking big man, and his posture made him damn intimidating. “I told you, we’re done. You were supposed to leave the key while I was gone. Or hell, throw it away, I don’t care which.”

Abby wanted to be anywhere but there. Oh, shit, not in front of me, guys…

Shelley’s eyes widened in outrage, then hurt flooded her expression and the tears started. “Oh, but… Kai, I thought—”

“No,” he snapped, his frustration evident in every line of his face and body. Everything Abby knew about Kai told her that he would never be doing this with an audience if he hadn’t reached his limit. Or been shoved past it. “Done. Leave the damn key and go.”

Abby didn’t like Shelley much, but she couldn’t help but wince inside at witnessing the other woman’s humiliation. Ouch.

For a moment it looked like Shelley would burst into tears, but instead she drew herself up and nailed Abby with a nuclear glare. “You know what? You can fucking have him.” And with that she dug in her purse for the key, flung it into the living room and stormed out.

Abby pressed her lips together as the door slammed hard enough to rattle the pictures hanging on the walls. Kai let out a frustrated groan and dragged a hand over his short, dark hair. Then he sighed and swung his head toward her. “Sorry about that.”

“Hey, no worries. I’m sorry you walked into that.” She studied him for a moment. “You look tired.” And not just because of this recent drama. He’d been tired when he’d walked in.

“Yeah, I’m beat. Been a bitch of a week.” Then he smiled. A soft, proud smile that transformed him from good-looking towow, and made her insides heat up. “But it ended well.”

It had? Even with the whole Shelley thing just now? “Yeah? Well I’m glad. And I’m not sure whether this will make your night or not, but I just put some lasagna and stuff in your fridge.”

His eyes lit up. “You’re seriously an angel. I’m starving.”

“You’re always starving.” He reached down for his duffel and for the first time Abby noticed the bandage on his left forearm. “What happened?”

He followed her gaze, shrugged a shoulder. “Nothing. Just a scratch.”

She didn’t know what he did for a living, other than he worked for the government. And judging from the condition he was in and the way he moved, it was the furthest thing from a desk job. Whatever it was, it was dangerous, and she worried that he was hurting worse than he let on. She’d been around enough alpha males to know how they ticked. They weren’t supposed to show pain or weakness of any sort, because that would be unmanly.

Right now, though, she should get out of his hair and let him unwind. “Goliath’s been fed, and there’s a notice there for a package delivery waiting for you at the post office.”

“All right, thanks. Man, I owe you. Didn’t think we’d be gone this long.”

She wanted so badly to ask him what he did, but if he wanted her to know he would have told her by now, so she had to respect his privacy. “It’s no problem.” She paused a second, then picked up the key that Shelley had chucked onto the living room rug. “Do you, uh, think she has a spare somewhere?”

Kai crossed the room and took it from her. His skin was dark compared to hers, and he was so tall and broad, standing next to him like this made her feel tiny. Having fought body image problems most of her adult life, feeling petite and almost fragile around anyone was startling.

He stared at the key for a long moment. “Doesn’t matter if she does. I won’t be here long enough for her to use it anyway.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

He lifted those deep brown eyes to hers. A mottled blend somewhere between dark chocolate and black coffee that was riveting against his bronze skin and dark lashes. “We had a major security breach at work. Two of us on the team had our personal information compromised. The agency feels it’s in our best interest to leave our places this weekend.”

“Oh…” The news was a shock, but more than that, the wave of sadness hit her hard. If he moved out of the building, she’d likely never see him again. And until that moment, she hadn’t realized how attached she was to having him around. How much she looked forward to seeing him.

The same regret was written in his eyes as he stared down at her. “Yeah. It sucks.”

It really did. She’d never be able to zip across the hall with a plate of something, or share a quick meal together again. He wouldn’t be there to visit with or help her with little things around her apartment. More than that, she liked knowing he was just across the hall if she needed anything. He made her feel safe on an intrinsic level. “But everyone else in the building is considered safe? From the breach you mentioned?”

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