Page 48 of Enforcing the Rules

“He wanted directions.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Utah—

I knew Kate was lying. She’d been standing near the car, but I couldn’t see the driver.

It wasn’t the purple low-rider; that was a relief, but it could have been someone connected to the scumbag who’d had Kate backed against the glass that night we first met.

I didn’t have any proof it wasn’t as she’d claimed, so I let it go. Every instinct pushed me to react like I had since the day my mother walked out on me. The pain deep inside drove me to believe as I’d always believed. Women lied, and women couldn’t be trusted. If you trusted them, they let you down. That wasn’t a pain I exposed myself to any longer. It was better to go into it knowing I wouldn’t get the truth than to let myself believe a word… at least any that really mattered.

In the long run, it was all about watching my own goddamn back.

Secrets and lies. I didn’t get involved enough to let them grow. So, I reminded myself to keep it cool, keep things fun between us.

“Come on.” I headed toward my bike. When I realized she wasn’t following, I turned to see her staring up at the building above the restaurant, her bottom lip between her teeth. “What’s wrong?”

“Come with me.” She held out her hand, and I frowned.

“Come with you where?”

She nodded to her hand, so I took it, and moved with her to a glass door beside the restaurant. I hadn’t even noticed it before. She pushed it open, and we stepped into a small vestibule with a tile floor and a bank of two brass mailboxes on the wall. She pulled out a set of keys and unlocked the door.

“You live here?”

“Yep.”

I lifted a brow and pointed at the ceiling. “We rode all the way out to my place the other night, and the whole time you had a place right on Main Street?”

“You didn’t ask.”

I let out a laugh. “Women, always lyin’.”

“It wasn’t a lie. It was an omission.”

She led me up a long flight of stairs. At the top landing were two doors. She unlocked the one on the right, and I followed her inside. It was a loft style apartment with high ceilings and walls of exposed brick. A bank of windows faced Main Street, and that’s where her living room was set up. A small kitchen ran across the back and a hallway across from the entrance led to what I assumed would be her bedroom and bathroom.

She’d decorated in a minimalist style with gray furniture, a glass coffee table, and pops of color coming from the area rug, throw pillows and modern artwork.

“Nice place.”

“Thanks.”

I glanced at the door. “But the security is crap.”

“What do you mean?”

“The door downstairs is plate-glass”—I gestured to the upstairs door—“and you don’t even have a deadbolt on this one. Besides that, it’s an interior door with a hollow core. I could probably pop that lock with a credit card, and if that didn’t work, I could easily kick the whole thing in.” I wandered to the back of the building and peered out the large window. There was a metal fire escape. “Be easy to break in through this window. At least the ladder is pulled up.”

“Thanks. I’ll sleep so well tonight.”

“Not tryin’ to scare you, Kate. Just layin’ out the facts.”

“I’ll call the landlord.”

“He blows you off, let me know. You want, I could come over and change out that door and put in that deadbolt myself.”

“Thanks, but I’m sure that won’t be necessary.” She moved to the fridge. “You want some wine?”

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