The Consequence by Karin Tabke Page B

whatsoever and Evan Stone is a desperate man. Desperate men do desperate things. I will not put you in harm’s way under any circumstances.”
    “I’m not weak! Besides, Evan is a coward at heart. He won’t hurt me.”
    “He may be a coward who I will remind you put his hands on you in the gym, but the people he associates with are not.”
    “He was angry I broke his phone,” she defended weakly. He had been scary.
    “What do you think he’s going to be when you pull the rug out from underneath him?”
    “Simon, please. I want to be a part of this. I need to be!”
    “This is not debatable, Kat. I’ll find another way around this.”
    “Simon, this is the only way to get him for his crimes, and prevent that video from going viral so you keep your job.”
    “I could give two fucks about my job. If that’s why you’re so hell bent on doing this, thank you for worrying about me, but if I get fired for conduct unbecoming an officer, which I very well could if that video goes viral, I’ll deal with it. You getting hurt I won’t deal with.”
    Simon lifted her up into his arms and strode with her to her bedroom then into the bathroom. He reached in and turned the shower on, then stripped them both and pulled her in with him.
    “Simon, I’m going to do it, with or without you.”
    Grabbing her hands he drew them over her head and pushed her flush against the shower wall. “I have no doubt in my mind that you could get that turkey to sing. But that’s not your job, princess, that’s mine.” He dipped his head to her lips. “My other job is to protect you from bad guys, and you need to let me do that.”
    “But Simon I could—”
    “Shut up,” he roughly said, then kissed her senseless.
    Much later when Simon was naked and snoring in her bed, she slipped out to her kitchen. Grabbing her cell phone and a yellow legal pad and pen, she began to decipher Evan’s texts using the Morse code cheat sheet Simon had made for her.
    An hour later, Katy blinked in stunned silence. Evan was expecting an info delivery from her this Saturday. He was also going to be exchanging more biological information with a certain Mr. Sung who would be giving him account codes to an offshore account. Fifty million dollars would be deposited after Sung validated the information Evan was going to give him.
    It was more important than ever that she catch Evan in the act because the info Evan was selling was the process to grow a deadly bacterium that had the potential to kill millions if inhaled. She shivered. If Simon knew, he’d be that much more adamant she did not become involved…
    Pacing the kitchen floor, Katy racked her brain trying to put together a plausible plan of action that Simon would approve of. He was afraid she would get hurt. She knew he’d do everything he could to protect her, but he’d have to be far enough away that Evan didn’t get suspicious.
    Maybe another cop could be her “date” to the ball? Someone from his team? Someone he trusted.
    “That’s it!” she squealed. She ran back to her bedroom and pounced on Simon. “Wake up, Simon, I know what we can do!”
    He grumbled, not the most pleasant man when he was abruptly woken from a deep sleep by a squealing woman.
    When she told him her grand plan, he hooked her around the waist with his arm and pulled her into the curl of his body. “One step ahead of you, Cinderella. I’m taking you in to meet the boys tomorrow. Now go to sleep.”
    For an hour she laid still and silent with a huge grin plastered against her face. Simon was bringing her deeper into his shadowed world. She couldn’t wait to meet the ‘boys!’
     

     
    They were not boys, not by any stretch of any definition. These were full-grown, big shot, grown ass men. When Kat had walked into the testosterone-laden office, she quite literally felt weak at the knees. She was the only female amongst a half a dozen men.
    Simon introduced them as: Avi, who was quiet with dark enigmatic eyes,