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Chapter 11

After dinner, there was a knock on our door. Theo was still there, so we had no idea who it would be. I peeked out from behind Jace as Theo opened the door.

I pushed around Jace when I heard a very familiar 'hi' from in front of Theo.

"Where have you been?" I hugged Kat like my life depended on it. "I was worried and making up all kinds of stuff in my mind."

She pulled away from me. She was blinking a lot more than normal. I guess she saw me looking, so she reached up and touched her left eye. "Sorry, I've had some bad allergies since we got down here. All these new plants, and I'm not used to them yet." I gave her a look. "Sorry, Matt and I went on vacation."

"Vacation?" that one word put me on alert, but I couldn't show it. "Without telling anyone?"

"I told Matt he'd upset everyone," she started walking toward the living room. "It's in the same place ours is."

"Something's up with her," Jace grabbed my arm as I walked by. "We'll be in the kitchen."

"I'm not telling her anything, ok?" I whispered then looked at Kat. "Right now, anyone outside the three of us is someone who could give us information. That's how I look at it."

"Good," he kissed me on the forehead. "If you need us, just real loud say the word shovel. That's unusual enough from you, but I know you can work it into a conversation about work. Say that, and I'll come remind you that you need to be up early in the morning for work."

"Thanks," I kissed his cheek and joined Kat in the living room. "So, a vacation?"

I tuned her out in favor of watching her. I knew if there was information to be had from my sister, I wasn't going to get any then. She was too busy gushing over the time she'd had with Matteo. How they were considering it a honeymoon, since they'd just gotten married before we left, and there was no time for any alone time on the trip down. Oh, if she only knew.

After about an hour of nothing but girl talk, she faked a yawn and said she had to get back. I knew from the way she said it, that she hoped I knew what would be going on in her bedroom. My stomach churned, but when I saw Jace walk out of the kitchen to say goodbye to Kat, my stomach churning was over, because I hoped we'd be doing the same thing.

Theo watched from the living room window as she walked away, then just to be safe, we went into the bathroom and turned on the water. We couldn't stay long, because we'd decided they could have a day or two of listening in on us before we swept for the devices again and disabled them.

"I don't trust her, Beatrix," Theo said right away. "I've known her for years, and she's never been allergic to anything."

"Let's give it a few days, then I'll go through her head. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt, ok?" I looked between them. "I've had so much betrayal, I just don't think I can handle Kat being in on it too."

Jace pulled me into his arms. "I think she's right. If Kat was really away, she wasn't around here. Let's give it a couple of days." He pulled back and held me by my shoulders. "But only a couple of days. Given everything else, we can't let some things go on too long. Like being in here."

Theo turned off the water when he agreed to the few days thing, then we walked him to the door.

Jace now had a device to sweep for the listening devices. We left them in other rooms, but we made sure our bedroom was free. I had to laugh at the thought of my father turning green at the thought of what was happening in the bedroom. I'd thought about exaggerating my moans of pleasure, but when it came down to it, I couldn't. Jace really was good at what he did.