PARIS'S POV

It was well after midnight when we got home and I expected everyone to be sleeping since all of the lights were off,


"Do you need anything, sire?" Jackson asked when he followed me into the house, and I shook my head,

"Aside from food that is not that hospital's food and a good night's rest, there isn't really much of anything that I need ."

"Alright then. I'm somewhat in need of some rest of my own. So, I'll see you in the morning. Any meetings with our new partner." by our new partner, I knew he referred to Jean and I shook my head,


"nor tomorrow. I think I need a day off from all gory things." I said, and he nodded in understanding,

"All right then sire. Have a good night."


"good night," I said and headed straight for the kitchen when he left.

There was still a good portion of food that had been left, as though the chief chef had kept it for me, and after helping myself with some of it, I finally took myself to my room.

I was inches away from the door when I heard a voice speaking in low tines from within the room, but I was still able to make out the fact that the voice belonged to a woman, and to Kate for that matter,

"how am I supposed to pay you? You didn't do what you were supposed to do, and now she believes I'm responsible!" I heard her say into the phone and frowned. That was an odd thing to say. Especially for Kate to say. Who was she paying? And who thought she was responsible for anything?

I listened some more and heard her groan in frustration, "I won't tolerate your bull crap. If you know you want to get paid, at least try to get a clean job done, not doing a half-assed thing and coming to my phone to make demands. Who was it that told you that was how things were done? I can assure you, that person lied to you."

"Try again. When you actually do it right, then we can talk about payment. And don't try to blackmail me, you'll be completely sorry for trying to double-cross me. I can make that happen," she said coldly, and for the longest time after that, she said nothing else.

I wasn't surprised though. I had never really seen Kate as above doing wrong. Well, at least, lately, I have not. But she was confirming was beginning to know in the most abhorrent ways. For instance, who was she speaking to on that call, and why was she talking about the possibility of blackmail? The whole thing was unclear and I could not help but be concerned about it.

Without waiting anymore, I opened the door to the room and watched as she turned to me in surprise,

"Paris." she said and plastered a smile on her face, "You're finally home, I didn't expect you would come home this late though. But I'm glad you're here," she said and tried moving toward me, but I put a hand on her shoulder to keep her from hugging me,

"Some men come home to find their women asleep when it's late at night. I'm not exactly calling you my woman, but is there a reason why you're having the conversations you are having this late at night? I asked and she looked down at the phone in her hand, before looking at me, then smiled at it coyly,

"Now, now, Paris. Don't tell me you're jealous," she said and I narrowed my eyes at her,

"you're really going to delude yourself that I'm asking what I'm asking out of jealousy? Kate, you were literally just on a call with a bloke and asked them not to try to blackmail you. I want to know who it is, and I want to know what it is he feels he can blackmail you about. This has absolutely nothing to do with jealousy." I said in my Alpha voice, and she pressed her lips together, obviously stalling. Thinking of the perfect lie, I waited for it.

"It's no one, Paris. You should not worry about yourself about the calls I make," she said quietly,

"But you know what, Kate? I want to. I want to worry about the calls you make. I want to know who it was you were talking to and what you were talking to them about. It seemed quite interesting from where I was standing." I said and she chewed on her lower lip, "is that the person you assigned to stalk me? The one who gave you the information about me being in the hospital?"

The way her eyes widened was the answer I was looking for, and I balled my hands in fists to keep from using them around her neck,

"What did I say about this, Kate?"

"Come on, Paris. I haven't even said anything yet, you are the one jumping to various conclusions, and besides, you only just made things clear with me. Give me the chance to make things right."

"and your idea of making things right is asking him to do a better job next time if he wants to be paid? Who the hell do you think you're talking to, Kate? A five-year-old?"

"I never said I was talking to that person."

"Then who?"

"It could be family, have you considered that? It could be Uncle Sebastian's other son."

"And is it?" I asked and she slowly nodded,

"They still blame me for what happened to my cousin and uncle. Since then I've been doing my best to support Uncle Sebastian's wife and last son, by helping the boy with odd jobs here and there just to give him a sense of responsibility. It does not always work because the boy is a bit adamant and somewhat irresponsible. But I've promised I'm going to help the best I can." she said sadly, but I had a hard time believing the story I felt was cock and bull,

"I'm supposed to believe this unlikely tale?" I asked her and she slowly nodded,

"I have no reason to lie to you."

"quite on the contrary Kate. You have every reason to lie to me. And if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were lying to me just about now. But keep covering your tracks very well." I said and went to the closet to change out of my work clothes, too tired to do anything else, I simply went straight to bed,

"I'm not lying to you," she said and sat at the edge of the bed, but I was already slowly drifting away.

"Just keep hiding those tracks." I heard myself say, "Until I can't tolerate them anymore."

~~~~~

When morning came, it was the sound of my phone that woke me up and I wondered why I simply had not put it on silent. But it was Jackson, and it did not exactly matter how tired I was, I always did my best to pick up Jackson's calls.

But considering how tired I was, he was sure as hell going to have a bloody good reason for waking me up,

"what is it, Jackson?" I said with a groggy mooring voice,

"Where is Kate?" he asked and I narrowed my brows, before slowly opening my eyes to see if she was in bed with me. She wasn't.

"I haven't the faintest. Why?"

"Why, is that we got footage from Ember's company-"

"already?" I said cutting in,

"Yes, already. It turns out the person who planted the heavy metal that fell over you was actually her cousin."

My eyes popped right back open and this time around I didn't search for sleep,

"Is this cousin by chance, related to the one who was imprisoned along with his father?"

"that's the one," he said and I cursed,

"What's up? Do you know something?"

I looked around the room to make sure she wasn't in, but to hell with it, it didn't matter what she heard or didn't. but when I bloody got my hands on that girl, she was done for,

" a thing or two. I came back earlier and heard her speaking on the phone about doing the correct job and being blackmailed and paying the person for it." I said, sitting up, "When I asked her about it, she sputtered bull crap about taking responsibility for her cousin and helping him earn money. I guess this was how she paid the son of a gun."

Jackson sighed, "I guess. I also guess that that metal was actually indeed for Ember, and not for you."

"What does it matter? She knows how I feel about Ember."

"That's probably why she wants her out of the way. "

"Well, she's going to have to go through me." I said, and got out of bed, "Give me a location for that bloody cousin, will you?"

"I'm working on it. I'll get back to you, I just thought to let you know about this first."

"thanks. I'll talk to you later. Just let me get my hands on Kate first."

"send my regards," he said dryly, and I ground my teeth,

"Be sure that I will, Jackson. Be sure that I will."