With Vengeance (8 page)

He buried the cat in his backyard beside an
aspen tree then lured his own two cats inside with a can of tuna
that had miraculously escaped his bandmates’ notice. He didn’t like
the idea of them outside with a psycho running around. As if to
reassure himself, he reached down and petted both Flea and Geddy,
gratified by their purring.

By the time those tasks had been
accomplished, Cliff and Rod were passed out in their rooms and he
was too exhausted to do anything else but follow suit. The next
morning he headed early to the studio.

Kat pulled up beside him shortly after he got
out of his truck. After last night’s horror, it was a balm on his
soul to see her smile as she exited her little car. He stood a
moment and simply drank her in, admiring the obsidian sheen of her
hair in the morning sunlight, the sparkle of her dark eyes, and how
petite and utterly adorable she was. Funny, he’d only been into
tall chicks before.

“Hey.” He strode over to her, drawn like a
magnet. “How was your night?”

“Boring. I practiced the songs and wrote up a
review on Deity’s latest album for the site.” She shifted back and
forth on the pavement, still looking shy. “How about yours?”

There was no way he was going to freak her
out about Cliff’s disturbing delivery. “Same here. I puttered
around the house and tuned my bass. Are you all packed up to go to
my place?”

She gestured to her car. He saw that the back
was full of suitcases and duffel bags. A lot more than he would
have thought necessary for a four-week stay.

As if sensing his scrutiny, she lifted her
chin defensively. “I like having a lot of clothes.”

“That’s fine. I’m not judging.” He laughed.
There was her spirit. Hopefully she was getting over all shyness
around the band. “You ready to shred today?”

Kat opened her trunk and pulled out her
guitar. “You know I am.”

The session went even better than the last.
Without the distraction of Cliff standing next to her, Kat brought
way more energy and focus to the songs. So much in fact, that
Klement considered having her play yesterday’s songs again and mix
them back in later. Or maybe even ditch the sound style he’d
imagined for those.

Roderick stepped into the recording booth
with doughnuts and coffee, eyeing Kat through the glass as she
played the solo for “Fractured Dreamscape.” He grabbed an extra set
of headphones and listened. “Damn, she
is
getting
better.”

“I told you so.”

Klem couldn’t tear his eyes off of her,
mesmerized by the rapidity of her dancing fingers upon the frets,
her poise like a goddess raining down divine justice on those who
dared oppose her will. His cock twitched in his pants. Taking a
shuddering breath, he turned to Frank, the sound engineer, to see
the guy staring at him like he’d grown an extra head.

“What?”

Frank inclined his head toward the mixing
board. “She’s been playing for two whole minutes and you haven’t
nagged me about my levels yet.”

Klement blinked. Was he so distracted that
he’d missed something? He gave Frank an indifferent shrug and
picked at a fraying hole in his jeans. “Well, you have them right
for now, and she’s staying on cue and hasn’t missed a single riff
yet. It’s a lucky take, don’t jinx it.”

Still, he willed himself to focus on her
sound alone and even fiddled with the equalizer knob just a hair on
a few parts so he felt like he was on the ball. He even had her do
a few more takes on the next song, though he wasn’t sure they were
needed.

When she rode off with Roderick to go pick up
lunch, he couldn’t seem to concentrate on Cliff’s rhythm sections.
Frank actually caught more mistakes than he did. Only through sheer
force of will did he make it through the takes with any hope of
something worth going through mastering.

Kat and Rod returned, and he found himself
examining their faces for signs that anything had gone on between
them. All he could see was her smile as she handed him a
sandwich.

The rest of the day was a success. They made
it through two lead guitar tracks and three rhythm sections before
Cliff started moaning about his fingers and Kat’s eyes glazed over,
despite her apparent determination to keep working. After they
unhooked their guitars and packed up the gear, Klement headed over
to Kat.

“Why don’t you follow me up to my place, and
then you can unpack while I go grocery shopping?”

“Sounds good.” She hefted her guitar case and
followed him out of the studio.

He climbed into his Suburban and drove to the
exit of the parking lot, waiting for her to pull up behind him.

Her car didn’t move.

***

Kat cursed and turned the key again. The
starter cranked, but the engine sputtered and wouldn’t fire up.
Dread pooled in her belly.

No, not another problem,
she ranted
inwardly.
Not right now
.
Not when everything is going so
well.

Klement backed up beside her and called out
through his window, “You all right?”

“My fucking car won’t start,” she said.

He turned off his engine and hopped out. “Let
me see.”

She got out of her car and scooted the
driver’s seat back as far as it would go. He slid in, looking like
a giant in a clown car. It would have made her laugh under
different circumstances.

He cranked the engine, listened and frowned.
“The battery seems to have enough juice. Starter’s cranking fine.
Is your gas gauge accurate?”

The back of her neck prickled at his
inquisitive tone, though she didn’t know why. There was just this
sense of familiarity, of
déjà vu
. “It was working this
morning.”

Twisting like a contortionist, Klem reached
down and popped the hood. When he got out of the car, he absently
rubbed his lower back.

Kat lifted the hood and propped it up, eager
to do anything but stand there like a dork. Her lungs tightened
with helpless anxiety. Klement leaned over her shoulder, and her
spine tingled with heat at his proximity. The tension within her
abated for a moment.

“Try to fire it up again,” Klem said.

His long hair fell to caress his cheek. It
looked so soft that Kat’s fingers itched to touch it, to brush the
silken lock out of his face. Instead, she got back in her car,
scooting the seat back up so she could reach the clutch pedal.
Making sure she was in neutral, so if it did start, she wouldn’t
run him over, she held her breath and turned the key. Her little
Subaru made that same sickly sputtering noise, only now it cranked
slower due to the continued use of the starter draining the
battery.

Panic clawed at Kat’s chest once more. What
was wrong with her car? Could it be fixed? What was she going to do
without a vehicle? As if confirming her trepidation, the sunlight
dimmed as clouds gathered in the sky.

Klement’s voice pulled her back to shore.
“For some reason, you’re not getting any fuel. Your throttle body
is bone dry.” His gaze met hers through the windshield. “Are you
sure you’re not out of gas?”

Her eyes narrowed. Did he think she was a
moron? “I filled her up the day before yesterday and barely drove
her anywhere.”

He nodded and continued inspecting the car.
“Your fuel filter looks like it’s clogged.”

He walked back to his Suburban, opened the
back then immediately slammed it shut. “Fuck, I left my portable
toolbox in my Fury. Oh well, it looks like this one needs metric
tools anyway.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I’m going to
have it towed to my place and then we’ll be able to figure out
what’s going on.”

Kat cringed. Tow trucks were expensive. “Can
you take it out of my pay?”

“Don’t worry about it. I have Triple A.” He
gave her a warm smile and dialed. “We want to get it in the garage
before it rains.”

As they waited for the tow truck, Kat warmed
further at Klement’s kindness. After all the hard work he’d done at
the studio, doubtless he was anxious to go home and relax. Instead,
he was stuck here with her and her broken-down car. But rather than
being grumpy with her and cussing like Richard had whenever she
needed his help, Klement was handling the situation with competence
and an easy nature that acted like a balm on her panic.

Still, her anxiety must be showing, because
he patted her shoulder.

“Relax, it’s going to be okay.”

His light touch electrified her whole
body.

“Thanks.” She got her purse out of her car
and took a half a Xanax.

Klement called Roderick and explained what
had happened. “Can you do me a favor and pick up some groceries
while we’re dealing with it?” He paused a moment and nodded. “Yeah,
that sounds like a great idea. Thanks, man.”

He hung up and turned to Kat. “Rod’s going to
get some pizza from Angelo’s on his way back. They’re a little
mom-’n’-pop place that’s amazing.”

Although food was the last thing on her mind,
Kat was eternally grateful for the effort to make everything okay.
“Pizza sounds great. Why does Roderick always get the food?”

“Because Cliff always forgets something and
Rod likes to drive.” Klement shrugged. “Honestly, this time I meant
to do the shopping.”

The tow truck pulled in, and he strode off to
talk with the guy. As Kat’s car was loaded onto the bed, he nodded
in satisfaction.

“Go ahead and climb in.” He pointed at his
giant Suburban. “He’s going to follow us up there.”

Climb was an apt term. Kat headed over to the
passenger side of the hulking vehicle. She could barely reach the
door handle, and once she got the door open, it still took a big
jump to get up to the seat. Laughing, Klement grabbed her hand and
pulled her up.

“I didn’t think it was that high up.”

“Just for a short person.” She grinned. “It’s
not a monster truck or anything. Thank you so much for helping me
with my car.”

His long fingers curled around the shifter
knob, and the engine fired up with the roar that only came from
Fifties classics. “I told you, it’s no big deal. It’s probably just
a clogged fuel filter. Only four or five bucks. Or it might be that
you need to adjust the air/fuel mixture. Old cars like this don’t
like the elevation up here.”

As he rattled off his theories, Kat felt
another pulse in her core. She was wet again. Jerking her face to
the window so he wouldn’t see her blush, she realized that,
whatever this was, it had only to do with him. She remained in
stunned silence the rest of the way to his house.

Klement had the tow-truck guy lower the car
in a spot by his massive garage then opened one of the doors to
reveal a collection of classic vehicles. Kat wasn’t as much into
cars as Kinley, but she still found herself standing there, gaping
in awe as Klem backed a big Fifties-looking car out onto the
driveway. Long and sleek and black, it reminded her of the old
Batmobile. She also caught glimpses of an old Volkswagen, some
muscle car that looked kinda like Kinley’s Plymouth Duster, and a
pickup that looked older than all of them.

Klement got out of the big black car, and she
helped him push her Subaru into the garage, unable to stop staring
at the enormous toolbox and plethora of shop equipment in the back.
Klement yawned and stretched his arms high in the air. His tee
shirt lifted so she could see a glimpse of his belly and hip-bone
muscles.

“I’m going to have some coffee and smoke a
bowl before I pull the filter, okay?”

Kat swallowed, mouth dry at the teasing view.
“Okay.” She grabbed a few of her bags and so did he.

Cliff came out of the house, shirtless and
hair wet from a shower. “You made it. Anything I can do?” He gave
Kat a deliberate look and actually flexed his pecs.

She bit her lip to avoid laughing. After all
the years of mooning over her poster of him, his body, impressive
as it was, had no effect on her, except to notice that his abs were
slightly diminished, likely from all the beer. No, instead she was
still picturing that brief line of flesh Klement had exposed.

“You can grab the rest of Kat’s bags from
that little green wagon.” Klem pointed back at the garage. “I’m
going to get her settled in her room.”

When they entered the house, Kat bit back a
gasp. The hardwood floors gleamed and the countertops sparkled.
He’d cleaned the place! Had he done it for her? Warmth prickled
through her at the thought.

Her room was also pristine, with a
queen-sized bed adorned with a fluffy blue comforter, a rich
cherry-wood dresser and matching desk and end table.

“Will this do?”

He actually looked like he was worried she
wouldn’t approve. His glittering blue eyes made her suck in another
breath.

“Oh yes, it’s beautiful. Thank you.”

He set her bags on the bed. “I’ll let you get
settled while Cliff and I go puff. Let me know if you need
anything.”

When the guys went upstairs to smoke weed,
Kat went out on the deck and called Kinley. Her friend was the only
woman she could trust to talk about whatever was going on with her
body.

Just as she was about to hang up, thinking
Kin was unavailable, her friend answered.

“Hey, Kat.”

Even though she was alone, Kat spoke quietly.
“Hey, are you somewhere private?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Something really weird is going on.” She
took a deep breath and described how she’d been talking with
Klement in the studio last night and got wet out of nowhere. “He
wasn’t even flirting with me or anything. Then, when I was riding
with him to follow the tow truck, he was speculating about what’s
wrong with my car and it happened again.”

The line was silent for a long time.

“Kinley?”

“OH MY GOD!” Kinley burst out so loud Kat had
to pull the phone away from her ear. “You
want
him!”