Chapter 25

Squatch.

I thought I’d forgiven her for leaving. She’d thought her best chance of maintaining her escape was to leave without a trace, and I understood that she’d die inside if she were captured and held in the ambush for the rest of her life. She’d never have learned to live with it. Never have found a way to be happy. In my head, I’d forgiven her.

And yet, when I found out she didn’t understand, when I saw the anguish on her face at what she’d almost done, I completely forgave her. I’d been holding onto anger and resentment in my heart, and I hadn’t known it.

Her anguish wiped the slate clean, when I thought we already had. I wanted to hold her and kiss her, but Nathan pulled into a parking lot and I needed to pay attention to our surroundings. I was one of her bodyguards tonight, and I had to stay focused.

We parked in front of one of the vampires’ bars. We went in, made our way up a metal spiral staircase to a tiny office, and changed clothes. This particular bar welcomes those who live on the fringes of society. They’d wanted to put me in a wig and a dress, but I’d suggested a better alternative.

So, I was in leather pants and a leather halter with a leather band around my biceps. I shaved my beard, and Kendra’s flunky cut my hair into something a college-aged macho gay guy might choose — clean lines, neat and tidy and someone’s idea of cool, but not mine.

Kitty’s head was shaved and she was in male jeans, complete with boys’ underwear and a fake dick in the right place. She wore a tight, flesh colored shirt that mashed her breasts flat and gave the illusion of a male chest and abs, and a fishnet shirt over it with a tighter weave than most. We topped it off with a leash and collar. Also, heavy boots with lifts on the inside so she was two inches taller. Not even her own father would recognize her unless he could scent her, and Kendra’s flunky vampire had a bottle of something that made my kitten smell like a young bobcat male. The vampire handed me a key ring with a Ford key fob, and gave me directions to the Mustang it would start. A young man about Kitty’s size was waiting for us when we stepped out of the office, and I was handed his leash as well.

I walked out the door with two submissive men, put the unknown one into the backseat and Kitty into the front passenger seat, and drove away without anyone following us. We’d found a tracker her father had somehow inserted into one of Kitty’s pockets. Kendra’s flunky had someone who looked like Kitty put her clothes on, and they had a car pull up to the door, so her father’s men would only see a glimpse of her in the long wig when she got in the car.

Ten minutes after we left, someone called Kitty to let us know her father’s people were following the decoy. I knew no one was following us. I’d gone through a few neighborhoods to make certain.