Free The Consequence by Karin Tabke

operation. He needed you in order to get to the piece of crap you were fucking.” Amanda’s glare swept Katy as if she was the most unworthy opponent on the earth. “And you made it so easy for him didn’t you?”
    Katy couldn’t speak.
It wasn’t true!
Simon was not that person!
    “He must not have pumped all of the information he needs from you; otherwise he would have kicked you to the curb by now.”
    When Katy didn’t respond in any way, Amanda hoisted her bag over her shoulder. “Don’t believe me? Ask Simon. And if he denies it, come see me, I’ll be happy to show you your file.” With a smug smile on her rotten lips, Amanda literally pranced past a stunned Katy.

 
     
     
     
    aty’s heart and head were an emotional meat grinder. Of course she was in denial. Simon was a man of extreme integrity. He’d told her last night he’d given her his heart, body and soul. She’d believed him. She still believed him! Amanda was lying, trying to dig an irreparable wedge between her and Simon.
    But Katy was a scientist. She looked at what was real, not emotional reasoning or conjured fantasies. Simon had all but outted himself last night when he admitted he was on the task force. Oh he had skillfully skated on the edge of the truth. Katy knew he and his men were there because of the symposium. A symposium where she was the key note speaker!
    And the entire time he’d been pretending? Making her fall in love with him to get information out of her? She refused to believe it. But how could she not when the facts screamed the truth?
    Anger flashed. Did he really think she was involved with Evan’s duplicity?
    Inwardly she cringed. She should have known Simon was too good to be true. A sexy stud like that interested in her? An introverted lab rat?
    She slumped back into the seat of the town car and stared aimlessly out the window. Her heart was not broken it was shattered. Deep sadness consumed her. You could only beat a good woman down so many times before she could not get back up. And right now, she was that woman. Defeated. Done. Destroyed.
    By the time they pulled up to her apartment, she accepted that she was not even the consolation prize this time, but simply a means to an end, a pawn in a game she had no idea she’d been a player in.
    As she closed her apartment door behind her, and realized what a fool she had been,
again
, she got angry all over again.
Son of a bitch!
He was not going to get away with this without his comeuppance. “Damn you, Simon West!”
    Instead of seething in her apartment, Katy changed into her workout attire and headed for the gym.
    She ran blindly on the treadmill for an hour. Still unsettled, she lifted weights then killed it on the Stairmaster, but she was loaded for bear. Confused, angry, and hurt, she racked her brain for anything that might disprove what Amanda had said about Simon’s motives for getting involved with her. After all, he’d never approached her. How fortuitous for him that Evan dared her to take him back to her room for a threesome. She’d handed herself over to him on a platter. She’d been such a fool!
    She stepped harder when she thought that she could deal with all of it despite him targeting her. Him having sex with her, and him making her fall in love with him. If he had just come clean about it! Was it all a farce? She refused to believe it. Simon cared about her. He had to! No one was that good of a liar.
    Just as furious with herself as Simon, she punched the air. She wanted to hurt someone. She took her hurt out on the heavy bag. So intently was she punching and kicking it, she didn’t notice she had an observer. Not until she was a sweaty, gelatinous mess.
    Wiping the sweat from her brow with her gloved hands, she caught her breath when her eyes clashed with Evan’s. He was staring morosely at her.
    “If I didn’t know any better Katy, I’d say you were a little angry.”
    He unwound himself from the wall where he had been standing as he