Page 36 of Undefeated Love
“We’ll need to make it a bedroom. Makeup sex is the best.” Tori leaned over and whispered something in Marcus’s ear. The man actually blushed.
“Nita, do you think Katlin’s TBI has anything to do with the way she reacted to JJ’s note?” Alex asked.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Lei Lu stared at Alex.
She was joined by all the women.
Well, damn. They didn’t know. Kat obviously hadn’t shared with them. “Katlin walked out on me before I even left for the premiere. The short version is, JJ had a designer friend of hers make me a new tuxedo for the event as a thank you gift. The note she put with the tux sounded very salacious. I’d also been an ass to Kat that evening. She yelled at me and ran out of the building.”
Alex turned his attention back to Nita. “You’d mentioned that her decision-making seemed delayed. Her TBI was in the executive function area. Is love located in that same area of the brain? Could that be why she reacted so explosively to everything that happened that evening?”
Nita said nothing for several minutes. “Maybe. If you consider her reaction irrational, then that’s a possibility. I’ve never heard that love was located in the prefrontal cortex. I’ll mention it to Dr. Tobias.”
“Thank you.” Alex took in everyone in the room. “I want Katlin back more than anybody else.” Alex spoke from the heart. “If any of you hear from Katlin, please share what you’ve seen here. Let her know the truth. I’ve never cheated on Katlin. I love her too much to even consider another woman. I just wish she believed me. I wish she trusted me.”
“Trust is a fragile thing. So is love.” Daniel’s words of wisdom didn’t fall on deaf ears. “My sister is tough. It might take her quite a while to come around.”
“Do you know where she is?” Alex asked the question he wanted the answer to more than anything else.
There was a long pause before Daniel answered. “No, I don’t know where she is. But I can assure you, she’s safe. She’ll come back when she’s ready. I won’t even garner a guess if she’ll ever come back to you.”
Daniel’s words hurt more than Alex would have thought. “Thanks. I appreciate your honesty.”
At least she was safe.
The doorbell rang and since Tori was in the kitchen, she let in the catering staff. Top Cooper’s grin was huge as they uncovered dish after dish.
CHAPTER16
Three WeeksLater
Katlin Gone One Month
Four golden dots pulsed at Griffin’s grandparents’ house in Augusta, Georgia on Katlin’s laptop. According to the trackers, her friends had been at the same place for the past forty-eight hours. Mostly. The exceptions were three extravagant bridal showers, all hosted by Adele Mitchell, Griffin’s pretentious mother. Different groups of Grace’s future mother-in-law’s friends and acquaintances were invited to each.
Katlin was so happy to miss those ostentatious events.
Four days ago, Katlin had first driven by the stately Georgian house with its tall columns holding the corners of the two-story porch that wrapped around the entire house on the first and second stories. The third-story windows peeked out above matching curved rooms on each side.
Grace would be staying in the front room, second floor, on the left with the huge, floor-to-ceiling curved windows facing the main street. The other three Ladies each had a bedroom down that side of the house with windows on the tree-lined side street.
Katlin knew this because she’d helped clean those rooms. Disguised in a dark curly wig, wearing padding that made her look as though she was pushing two hundred pounds, no one would have recognized her had any of her friends been there yet. She’d blended seamlessly into the cleaning crew.
Upon arrival, the dozen women had been given a complete tour of the house. The large parlor on the main floor had been designated for use by the bride and bridesmaids the day of the wedding. According to the schedule that Katlin had photographed in the wedding planner’s thick notebook, her friends would sleep in the morning of the wedding. After a formal brunch with the family, they would spend the next several hours in the cheery room being primped and pampered, preparing to walk down the aisle precisely at four o’clock.
The iron fence that surrounded the entire late nineteenth-century home looked newly painted. Down the side street, people and trucks had been delivering through the ornate iron gates over the past two days. Katlin had to admit Martha Ann and Mitch Mitchell’s gardens were showpieces without the wedding enhancements.
The flower-covered arch that stood at the far end under the century-old magnolia trees atop a slightly elevated platform for the wedding party was breathtaking. Worthy of a magazine spread on old Southern charm. Chairs covered in white with huge bows at the back in the colors of bridesmaids’ dresses were scattered in groupings throughout the garden rather than in rows.
Grace and Griffin had picked a perfect time of year. Colorful blooms blanketed the half acre of manicured gardens framed by white magnolia blooms. Their wedding was going to be gorgeous. The pictures would be stunning.
The day before the wedding, Katlin sat across the river in North Augusta, South Carolina and watched the comings and goings through the home’s security system. Of course, it was protected by Guardian. As a company owner, Katlin could easily, and undetected, tap into the audio and video feed.
“Do you think Katlin will show?”
At the mention of her name, her heart raced. She increased the volume and clicked on the camera in the upstairs east hallway where her friends and former teammates were staying. Nita and Lei Lu were walking down the hall toward Grace’s room.
Nita shrugged. “I have no idea and as far as I know, neither does Grace.”
