Page 57 of After The Storm

And he knew all too well as he lay there with her curled up on his chest loving the feel of her body next to his that he should have goddamned thought about that before taking her to bed.

While he turned that thought over in his mind, he heard a buzzing sound somewhere in the room. Kate lifted her head off his chest and leaned over the bed toward where it came from.

“That’s my phone,” she said sweetly as she slid off him to grab her pants.

Still lost in thought, he only heard her speak but didn’t process what she said. “What?”

Holding her phone up in front of her, she swiped her finger across the screen and explained, “It’s just Eve. She must have forgotten to tell me something when we talked.”

Now fully understanding her words, Roman sat up in bed and looked down at her. “Forgot to mention? When?”

Kate reached up to run her hands over his chest and kissed him. “When I called her while you were sleeping.”

He pushed her hands away in horror and jumped out of bed to get dressed. “Jesus Christ, Kate! You called the person who told the police where you were? We have to leave! Now!”

How could she have been so careless? Furious, he didn’t know what to say, even though he wanted to yell at her for how stupid she’d been.

Storming through the house as he slid his shirt over his head, he made a beeline to the kitchen to find his watch he’d taken off when he returned to the house earlier. Fuck! She had no idea what she’d done to everything they had there.

He returned to the bedroom to find Kate nearly dressed and began pacing back and forth in front of the window watching to see if anyone had arrived yet. Grabbing her cell from on the bed, he turned it off and stuffed it into his pocket.

“I’ll keep this. You’ll get it back if we make it out of this alive.”

She followed him as he stormed around the bedroom to grab the laptop. “It’s okay, Roman. Eve knows better than to tell the cops again. We can trust her.”

He spun around, so angry he could barely speak. “What were you thinking calling her? If someone’s after you, they’ve been waiting for that so they can trace the call. They’re probably on their way right now. We need to get the hell out of here!”

She started to say something, but he pushed past her to grab his stuff from his room and walk out toward the front door. “Let’s go.”

“I swear, it’s okay. She’s good. I promise,” she pleaded behind him.

“Stop talking, Kate. We need to leave.”

She grabbed his sleeve and tried to stop him as they rushed down the stairs toward the old car. “Please, stop. We’re okay. We don’t have to freak out about this. Talk to me.”

He turned around at the bottom of the steps and glared at her. “This isn’t freaking out, Kate. This is us having to go because you just called someone on your phone and likely let anyone who wants to find you know exactly where you are.”

Climbing into the car, he leaned down and hotwired it once again to get it started. Kate sat down in the passenger seat and started to say something, but he didn’t want to hear it.

“Roman, it’s the middle of the night.”

His frustration with the mess she’d created threatened to explode out of him, so before he said anything, he reminded himself she hadn’t intended to completely screw up everything.

Hanging his head, he pressed his face against the steering wheel. The coolness of the metal felt good on his skin and calmed him just enough to be able to speak to her without barking what he wanted to say.

“You don’t seem to understand. The people who are likely looking for you at this very moment also likely have the ability to know when you make a call on your cell phone and where that call was made. When you called your friend, you helped them to find you. I’m trying to keep you safe, so now we have to leave this house and go somewhere else.”

Finally, his words seemed to sink in, and she asked in a worried voice, “Somewhere else? Like where?”

Roman looked over at her and hated the answer to that question. “Like the place I found you at probably.”

Her disappointment at hearing that showed on her face. Frowning, she began to speak, but he stopped her. “I just need to get this car to somewhere out of the way for now, okay? Don’t say anything more. That’s all I ask.”

For one of the first times, she did as he asked without asking any questions or arguing with him. At least there was that saving grace. As he drove, he tried to find some upside to their having to leave Butcher’s gorgeous home with every amenity they could want.

But he couldn’t think of a single thing. Now they’d have to hide out in some shithole motel on the outskirts of town because there was no way they could risk trying to find a room in any of the nicer ones in New Orleans.

“Put your head down and pretend like you’re looking in your purse for something.”

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