Chapter 48 - KANE
KANE
––––––––
After leaving Amy, I enter my room to discover Nolene sitting stiffly on my bed, waiting for me.
It’s not even eleven in the morning and I’ve already had my fill of drama.
There’ll be more drama tomorrow. I arranged to meet up with Justin to discuss Thursday’s raid on Werner’s Science and Health University.
I anticipate more shouting than discussing since I’m still seething after receiving Justin’s report. But first, I have to deal with Nolene.
“You want to tell me what that was all about?” Nolene asks, hands clenched at her sides. A faint bruise mars her cheekbone where Amy hit her outside the storeroom.
Dropping into a chair opposite her, I rub the back of my neck, so tired of battling my own emotions and now I have to deal with hers. “I didn’t want to drug Amy,” I say simply.
“You’re becoming too soft,” Nolene accuses.
“Soft?” I echo, my eyes narrowing. “Because an arson manual is not my preferred bedside reading material?”
A flush stains her cheekbones. “It’s a line I’m willing to cross.” Her lips curl into a sneer. “A line you haven’t the guts to get close to.”
“With good reason.” Frustration sharpens my voice. “Come on, Nolene. Three years in prison wasn’t enough for you?”
“I was young and stupid enough to get caught,” she replies. “It won’t happen again.”
Yes, it will, and I don’t want to be around to witness it. Or go down in flames with her.
I draw a bracing breath into my lungs. “Nolene, I think it’s best we call it quits.”
She arches an eyebrow. “I know it’s over between us, Kane. You’ve made that clear enough already.”
“I’m talking about professionally as well.”
As the words settle between us, Nolene stills. “What are you saying?”
A lot of things I really don’t want to. But I can no longer deny it’s time to send her away.
I’ve been putting it off for too long. Ross and Mel feel increasingly uncomfortable having Nolene around.
Truth be told, so do I. It feels as though I can no longer predict what she will or won’t do, and that puts me in an untenable position.
“You’ve been talking about Asia for a while,” I say. “Maybe it’s time to make that your fight.”
We’ve been receiving sickening reports about the burgeoning market in Asia for graphic animal crush videos featuring teenage girls in revealing outfits killing small animals.
Nolene stares at me wide-eyed. “You want me to leave AFD?” she whispers. “You can’t be serious.”
I hold her stare and let my silence answer for me.
Understanding registers on her face. “It’s because of her, isn’t it? Highness Hutchinson?”
“This has nothing to do with Amy. It’s just time for us to move on.”
I glimpse the increasing disbelief in her eyes as she searches my face, seeing more than I want.
“She got to you, didn’t she? You’re going to throw away everything we’ve fought five years for.”
“I’m not throwing anything away,” I say steadily. “I know what I’m doing.”
Her taut face says she doesn’t believe the lie any more than I do.
“You keep telling yourself that,” she spits out. “You keep telling yourself you’re not compromising everything on a selfish, vain—”
I motion her angrily to silence. “Okay, that’s enough. End of discussion.”
She gives me a knowing smile. “My point exactly.”
I dig deep for calm, telling myself Nolene is hurting and lashing out at me is her defense mechanism. Gentling my voice, I ask, “How long will you need to get your stuff sorted?”
A range of emotions—anger, humiliation, anguish—chase themselves across her features.
I wait while she struggles to bring them under control.
“My passport’s in order,” she answers eventually.
“I’ll need to contact my friend in Manila, see if I can stay at her place.
Once I’ve sold my car, I’ll book a flight out. ”
“AFD will pay for your flight.”
I should hope so, her look says. “My lease is up so I can’t stay at my apartment,” she informs me. “I’ll need to stay at the sanctuary until Wednesday.”
Nearly four more days of Nolene. I want her gone, but demanding she leave immediately isn’t fair. Ross and Mel will have to live with her presence a little while longer.
She stands to leave, and I stand with her.
“Is it safe to use my passport?” she asks.
“You’re worried about the police finding your prints at the safe house?”
“Yes.”
“I’m told Hutchinson hasn’t contacted the police. You should be okay.”
There’s that niggle again, that sense I’m overlooking something.
Despite Andries reassuring me Hutchinson hasn’t gone to the police, I asked a sympathizer to keep a covert eye on the safe house. So far, the house is quiet, no sign of any police surveillance.
Nolene turns to go but stops. “You never really gave us a chance,” she whispers. “We were good together, but we could’ve been so much better.”
There’s truth in her words. And because a part of me aches with regret for the countless raids we partnered on, the victories we achieved, the losses we endured, I close the distance between us and pull her close, wrapping my arms around her.
A sob escapes her and she hugs me back fiercely. We stand that way for a long while before Nolene pushes me away and strides out of the room.
I let her go.