Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Kane
“T hanks again for picking me up.”
Crew grinned as he signaled to turn left. “I don’t mind. I love that Daisy stole your car because Hugh stole hers.”
I rolled my eyes, doing my best not to jostle my shoulder. It had been a few days since everything happened and I still had stitches but it wasn’t too sore. I couldn’t believe I had been shot—again. The first time had been worse, and was something I still hadn’t told Phoebe about. We hadn’t been together at the time, but when she’d asked about the scar, I distracted her with my mouth.
I had been good at distracting her because I hadn’t wanted to scare her. And then my life had brought it all into focus, even when we hadn’t been together. That, and the fact that some asshole had sent her letters and calls. No, hiding things from her hadn’t helped. Clearly, since that was why she broke up with me.
I had been so in her life, but not involved enough. How was I supposed to change that? How was I supposed to keep her safe without being overprotective?
That just didn’t compute.
“Hugh’s car is in the shop for a recall of some sort, and what was supposed to be an hour-long thing is now taking three days.”
Crew snorted. “So, Hugh took Daisy’s car so they could get Lucy to school and shit. And then, what, Daisy just carjacked you?”
“Pretty much. It all worked out in the end I guess. Though I love how she called you to pick me up and not any of the other one hundred family members I have.”
Crew sighed. “Because I owed her. Apparently she wanted to cash in her chips.”
“You guys are the weirdest exes I’ve ever met,” I said dryly.
“We weren’t together very long, and we’re better as friends. Of course, that is a lovely segue to the fact that I guess I can’t ask out Phoebe, since you’re together again?”
I turned to glare at him as we sat at the stoplight. “Excuse me?” An irrational urge to punch the man who was driving me back to the office slammed into me.
“I was just kidding. Hell. I wanted to see how you would react. So, you and Phoebe are really together again?”
“What are we? Little old ladies with tea and gossip?” I hedged.
“I like tea. Plus, you get those little sandwiches with cream cheese. I don’t see the problem with that. And it’s not gossip. I’m asking if you’re with Phoebe again. You got all mopey when you broke up.”
“I wasn’t mopey.”
“No? Wait, you didn’t break up with her, did you? She dumped your ass.”
“Crew, why does Daisy put up with you?”
“Because I’m handsome, I can fight, and I’m like glue. I stick real well.”
“That’s not even a saying.” I rolled my eyes and leaned back into the seat. “And yes, Phoebe dumped me. Apparently I am overprotective and didn’t share enough of myself. So she wasn’t able to figure out who she was when I was always in her space. I didn’t realize I was a fucking stalker.” I hadn’t realized I snapped out the words until Crew whistled through his teeth.
“Well, hell. You’re in Montgomery Security, and you may not have the last name, but you’re a fucking Montgomery. Of course you’re going to be overprotective. That’s sort of how things work with your family. Daisy sure is.”
“You should come work with us. You’re as growly as we are.”
“Yes, but I have no need to do that. I work with my hands in other ways,” the guy teased and I sighed.
“I fucked up.”
“I’m sure you did. But about what?”
I reached out and punched him in the shoulder, and he laughed. “You’re lucky you’re injured and feeble or I’d punch you back.”
“There’s nothing feeble about me.”
“Don’t get your pride all hurt. I just picked you up from getting your bullet wound checked. So, excuse me if I think that you’re injured. Maybe not feeble, I’m sorry for using that word. But you did get shot. Is that what you’re talking about fucking up with? Or are we going back to Phoebe?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I think both? Hell.”
“Okay, let’s talk about Phoebe first because I like her.”
“Watch your step.”
“I didn’t mean like like her. I have my eyes on someone else. Just so you know.”
Intrigued, I leaned forward. “So, you really are over Daisy?”
“I don’t know what is with you guys thinking that me and Daisy were ever anything more than a few nights of fun. Plus, she’s in love with that British dude and could be a stepmom any day now. Seriously, Hugh and Daisy are perfect for each other. I like the guy. And he doesn’t want to punch me every time he sees me, so he clearly knows that Daisy and I aren’t meant for each other. And yes, I have my eyes on someone else. Not that she sees me at all. But we’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you. So, Phoebe dumped your ass. That makes sense. You never share your feelings.”
“There’s a lot in that statement that I want to go over, but why the hell would I share my feelings with you?”
“Because we’re friends. And you literally are sitting next to me wanting to talk about it.”
“Maybe.” I let out a breath. “I don’t know how. I thought I was doing everything right. We dated, we went out, we slept over at each other’s places, I told her how much I wanted her, and how much I liked her in my life. Isn’t that enough?”
“Did you talk about your job?”
“Of course I did,” I said softly.
“Okay, beyond the aspects of, ‘Hey, I put up security things and sometimes I have a gun?’”
“Why did you say that in a sing-song voice?” I asked.
“Because your job scares the shit out of me. I may train with Daisy, but I could never do what you guys do.”
“It’s not always dangerous.”
“Says the man with a bullet wound.”
“That doesn’t happen often.”
“But it does enough that your team has a to-do list and a step-by-step plan if someone gets attacked. And you’re dealing with a lot of things that are outside of just a security camera set up at someone’s private home. Did you talk to Phoebe about any of that?”
“There are things I can’t talk about.”
Crew was silent for a minute before he sucked in another breath through his teeth. “Sure. But did you talk about any of it? Because if you say she’s feeling overprotected, it’s probably because you did that Montgomery guy thing where you want to protect the little woman and put her on a pedestal. Which, I get it. I’m the same way. But you also probably didn’t share anything that you were feeling. I know, I know, this whole getting in touch with your feelings thing coming from me is pretty ironic. But maybe you should talk to her about it.”
“About what, about the fact that if I had just caught the guy to begin with when we were in that building, if I hadn’t let him get away because I was trying to protect Daisy, my family wouldn’t be in the crosshairs of a Sherman Company dude? A guy with a gun who decided to just come after us because he thought he was better than us?”
I hadn’t realized I was feeling like that until the words were already out.
Crew didn’t say anything, and finally I whistled. “Well, hell.”
“I don’t know everything, I don’t know the details, but if you were rescuing Daisy and anyone else, is that really a mistake you think you made?”
“Sherman’s still out there.”
“He’s a little pissant who didn’t like that your company was bringing in bigger clients and doing a better job. I remember Daisy saying that they were always trying to outmaneuver you guys. And then it turns out that they were the ones that helped blow up the building Daisy was in? That man’s insane. That’s not on you.”
“But I taunted him,” I blurted.
Crew frowned. “When?”
“Years ago. It was right when we were deciding to start our company. We were just getting out of training, and the guy came over to us, treating us like shit, saying something ignorant to Ford and Noah, even though they weren’t even dating at the time. So I riled him up. I taunted him. I don’t even remember what I said, but the guy has had it out for us ever since.”
I hadn’t realized the guilt had been there until the words were out, but it was there. Maybe if I hadn’t been such an asshole, none of this would’ve happened. That was the story of my fucking life.
“It’s not your fault. The guy said something ignorant, of course you’re going to push back. You protect what’s yours. I know you, Kane. You wouldn’t have said anything completely crass or out of pocket. So, what did Tim Sherman do after that?”
“He got all red-faced and said that the Montgomerys would be nothing, and he would take our next client.” I frowned. “And then he tried to poach from us, and succeeded a few times.”
“And somehow that escalated him into making deals with the wrong people.”
“Then he shot at us. He could have killed Phoebe.”
“Do you think he’s the same one that is stalking her?” he asked, and I shook my head.
“No, the police don’t think so, and neither do we. Jennifer and Kate did linguistics and it doesn’t even sound like him.”
“Well, that’s something.”
“Is it? That means there’s someone else after her.”
“But the guy stalking her doesn’t seem dangerous, right?”
I gritted my teeth. “Bothering her and scaring her is dangerous enough.”
“You’re right. I didn’t mean to make light of it. So, no leads then?”
“None. And it’s frustrating me all to hell. Whoever this guy is, he’s good with computers. It’s the only way he could be hiding his IP addresses like that. Phoebe has gone over everybody that she has spoken to in the past year that she can think of with the authorities and us, and no one is hitting any triggers. Nothing’s sparking. I don’t like that somebody is in her business like that, freaking her out.”
“It’d be freaking me out,” Crew said honestly. “So, are you guys just going to be one-on-one with her until you find this guy? Even with Tim on the loose?”
“For now. We have security at her place and her work, but she’s not always in her office. And I can’t put her in a little box and keep her safe and wrapped away and hidden from the world. That’s not how life works. And that’s sure as hell not how her job works.”
“Did you tell her that?”
I frowned and looked over at Crew.
“What do you mean?”
“Did you tell her that you didn’t want to put her in a little box? She might like hearing that. Especially with what you said had been worrying her.”
I sighed and leaned against the seat as we made our way towards the office.
“Yeah. I should. Damn it. I’m not good at this thing.”
“By ‘this thing’ you mean a relationship? I’m not good at them either. I don’t know why you’re taking any advice from me.”
That made me laugh, and when we pulled into the parking lot of Montgomery Security, I looked over at him. “You’re right. Why am I taking advice from you?”
“No clue. Come on, I’m going to go get coffee and I want to go talk to Leif about some ink.”
I liked that his eyes lit up at that, and I followed him towards the building that my family owned.
My family wasn’t a million-dollar conglomerate or anything like that, we just had a lot of people who happened to own a lot of small businesses. My cousins and I owned Montgomery Security, which happened to be in the same building as Montgomery Ink Legacy, which my other cousins owned. Of course, that was next to Latte on the Rocks, which wasn’t owned by a Montgomery—technically. Although Greer was dating Ford and Noah, and Raven had married Sebastian, so I guess it was now Montgomery owned. And the art studio and showcase next door was owned by even more of my family. Somehow we had combined all of our likes and work-life into this place where we could actually see each other instead of only at family reunions, which we didn’t have as often as we used to. There were just too many of us, and it wasn’t like we could rent a town hall every time we wanted to have a dinner together.
Maybe it hadn’t been smart to put our home office next to our family. At first it had only been because we needed the space and it was available. And it wasn’t like we brought dangerous people into our place of business. But things had happened, and not just with Montgomery Security, that made the building sometimes a target. I didn’t know the solution for that, other than we were doing our best to keep each other safe.
“Hey, you okay?” Crew asked, and I nodded.
“Yeah, just wool-gathering.”
“Well, gather wool later. Let’s go get some coffee from your in-laws.”
I didn’t correct him on the family connection. My younger sister Allison was my only sister. While Daisy was my cousin, not a second or third cousin, the rest of them were technically separated by more than just one line on the family tree. But our generation didn’t care about that too often. We were all cousins, siblings, and everyone that married in we either called a cousin or an in-law. It helped the family dynamic without having to put a specific label on everyone.
Raven, Sebastian’s wife, was behind the counter at Latte on the Rocks, and grinned at us as we walked in. Her dark hair was pulled back and I noticed she had put in a few more hot pink streaks.
I loved the way Raven lit up a room, and that she had been so good for Sebastian. He had been through hell and back, and had lost everything once, but now they were raising a beautiful daughter, and I knew they were only just beginning their lives together.
“Crew. Kane, how’d your appointment go?” Raven asked, and I frowned.
“Fine, but how did you know I had one?”
“Family group chat.” Raven rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why you’re surprised that we all know everything. It’s sort of what the family does.”
I winced. “Hell. Do you think someone told Phoebe?”
Raven raised a pierced brow. “Probably, considering she’s with Kingston right now.”
I wasn’t even going to ask how she knew that. I ignored Crew’s knowing look and pulled out my phone. “I should probably tell her I’m okay.”
“You didn’t tell her that you had an appointment today?” Raven asked, disappointment clear on her features.
I ignored her, and knew I’d have to apologize later. As I went to dial, Phoebe’s name and face popped up on my screen before I had a chance to do anything. It was an old photo, taken on the day we met. It was just a quick shot of the two of us, one that Claire had taken as a joke to memorialize the moment that a bear had tried to murder us. Those had been her words, and I had laughed and had leaned into Phoebe.
I hadn’t realized at that moment that I had already started to fall in love with her. I answered quickly as Crew went to order a coffee.
“Hey, I was just calling you to tell you how my appointment went.” Not quite a lie, and I counted that as progress, right? That I wasn’t hiding things? Shit. This relationship thing was harder than I thought.
“Kane? Kingston just dropped me off at the apartment. I’m here alone with Claire, all locked up, but I just got flowers. I thought they were from you, but they aren’t. They’re from him. And I don’t know what to do.”
My jaw clenched, and from the way Crew and Raven both looked at me, I knew they saw the fury on my features.
“I’m heading over. I’ll call Kingston, you call the detective. I’m on my way. Stay safe. Okay, babe?”
“It’s okay. It’s just flowers. He’s not here.” She continued to talk and I swallowed hard, holding my rage in again. I knew if I didn’t, I’d crack the phone in my hands.
“I’m coming, Phoebe. I promise.”
“I know. I know, Kane. I’ll be here.”
I hung up and looked over at Crew. “I’m going to need a ride.”
Crew nodded, and I knew that I would destroy the world to protect Phoebe. The woman that I loved.
I couldn’t believe I had been standing in my own way this whole time. But in the end it didn’t matter. Someone was out to get her. Someone had scared her.
And I would end them.
Somehow.