Knight and Day

Chapter Thirty-Five

Kara and Dylan made their way home in the Mustang a couple of hours later. He slung his arm around her waist, her sandals hanging from his fingers as they walked slowly along the beach towards the Love Tug, close enough to the water’s edge for the sea to wash over Kara’s bare feet.

"That was, hands down, the best wedding I've ever been to," she said, winding both of her arms around Dylan's midriff. It had been the most impossibly romantic of days, and she was ready now to tell the man at her side that she loved him.

He kissed the top of her head. "Starry-eyed fool."

Kara wriggled her toes in the shallow water. "I used to be." She stilled, smooched him a little. Warm mouths, soft sighs. "Still starry-eyed. But not a fool anymore," she said. "I picked you."

Dylan's conviction to tell her the truth dissolved in her kiss. He let himself roll the dice one last time. It had been the best of days. Let tonight be the best of nights, and come morning he’d tell Kara everything.

They were good plans. Great, even. Brave courses set for the best of reasons. But what neither of them had factored in was the vulnerability of their plans to outside interference. As they strolled up the beach, both spotted the lone figure ahead at the same moment.

For Kara, there was no moment of instant horror and panic, but for Dylan there most definitely was as the man drew himself up to standing as they approached the pathway.

Dylan’s fingers bit suddenly into Kara’s waist, her first warning that something was amiss.

“About time too,” the man said, a triumphant grin on his face as his sly gaze moved between Kara and Dylan.

“What the fuck…?” Dylan ground out. Kara felt her world tip a little at his expression, at the rage in his voice.

“I told you never to come back here,” Dylan said, his voice low and full of menace as he stepped protectively in front of Kara.

“Extenuating circumstances, bro.” Justin shrugged his shoulders with the look of a man who knows he’s holding an ace.

Fear spiked through Dylan’s heart as he remembered turning off his phone earlier that day. Had Justin been trying to reach him? Had something happened to their mother?

Kara stood stock still, her mind reeling. Bro? This was Justin? This was Dylan’s surviving brother? There was little to link them, aside from their familiar accents and maybe their eyes. She made up her mind within seconds that Justin was a man with none of his brother’s virtues.

She placed her hand on Dylan’s arm as he moved threateningly towards the other man.

“Dylan…” she murmured, and Justin looked her straight in the eyes and laughed.

“Dylan?” He rolled his eyes. “Fuck, man!”

Dylan had his brother by the scruff of the neck within a second and had him pinned against the rocks.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” he growled. “Not like this.”

Kara’s world tilted even more queasily to the side. There was something very, very wrong. Dylan drew his fist back, but it stilled in mid air as Justin inclined his head towards someone new approaching the tense gathering. Kara swung around too, and they all watched as a woman headed towards them, stumbling awkwardly as she dragged a pushchair through the deep sand. Tall and skinny, her dark hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, her cotton dress was rumpled, and the tight, resentful look on her face spelled even more trouble.

“So you finally decided to show up,” she drawled, her eyes on Dylan as she came close to them.

Kara wrapped her arms around her midriff, an instinctively protective stance. She couldn’t speak. The look on Dylan’s face had again taken her breath. Whoever this woman was, she was no stranger to him.

Silence reigned for a few long seconds as the woman’s gaze shifted from Dylan to Kara.

“Looks like it’s down to me to make the introductions, darlin’,” she said, her eyebrows raised over her bitterly triumphant eyes.

Dylan let Justin go with a shove and turned to Kara. The look on his face broke her heart clean in two. Her world was about to turn upside down. She knew it in that split second as she waited mutely to hear what Dylan – or the woman - would say.

“Kara, please…”

“Oh, this is gonna be fuckin’ priceless,” Justin laughed. Without a second’s hesitation, Dylan swung around and punched him so hard on the jaw that he fell to his knees. Kara flinched, as much for the anguished, animal sound that left Dylan’s body when the blow struck its target as for the sound of knuckles smashing against bone.

“Some things never change, Matthew,” the woman said coolly, watching with apparent disinterest as Justin staggered to his feet, swiping blood from his mouth on the back of his hand.

Dylan’s heart was beating hard enough to give him a coronary. It wasn’t supposed to end like this.

“Kara…” he said, hating the hunted look in her eyes and wanting like hell to hold her.

“She called you Matthew,” Kara whispered, her face ashen even in the moonlight. “Why did she call you Matthew?”

The woman’s eyes widened and a small laugh escaped her throat.

“Oh my God,” she said, amused, furious, dangerous beyond reason. “She doesn’t even know your fucking name.”

“Shut the fuck up, Suzie,” Dylan said, never taking his eyes off Kara. He reached for her hands but she stepped backwards, out of his reach.

“Who is she?” Kara demanded, terrified of hearing his answer.

Suzie didn’t shut the fuck up. She stepped up alongside Dylan instead and stuck her hand out. Kara stared at it dumbly.

“I’m Suzie, honey,” she said, retracting her hand with a shrug, laying it on Dylan’s bicep instead. “His wife.” She glanced sideways and waved her other hand towards the pushchair. “And that’s his son.”