Chapter 50 Kane
KANE
Our wounds are slowly bleeding into each other as the sting on my shoulders subsides.
The knife is on the fur rug beside me, my fingers itching to snatch it up, but it made Delilah happy so I can’t take it away.
She’s so peaceful as she lays on my chest with a small smile on her sleeping face.
The day’s up though. I have to find what Rowan is afraid of, so I press my lips to her fuzzy head then gently lay her in the middle of the room.
There isn’t anything to leave a note in case she wakes up before I come back. I don’t want her to think I’ve left her, so I nick the tip of my finger with the knife, using the bloody digit to write on the domed glass.
Wait here for me, koukla mou.
I quietly climb down the ladder to the kitchen where I hid my phone in the bottom of the foam cooler.
There wasn’t enough time to carve out a space for the power bank.
I don’t know how long it will take me to find the Vartanov person, but I can’t stop myself from going into the album full of my beautiful boy as I walk out of the cabin.
I sit at the side of the house, hidden from view if Delilah wakes up, as I stare at the rectangle slowly filling up with snow. The patch is barely visible since the wind was blowing it level all night, but I know he’s there. His little giggles join in as the video plays.
“Kane, look at that one.” He points at a butterfly on the screen as he sits on my lap, holding my hand. I don’t recognize myself, but the joy on his face is my undoing as he shyly whispers, “Kid and Kane.”
“And the butterflies?” I ask him.
“Kid, Kane, and the butterflies.” He nods, rubbing his cheek against my shoulder.
I pause, stopping myself from watching the other clips—notably, the last one he ever recorded. The cold air wraps around me as I stroke his face on the screen. “I miss you. It’s going to be over soon. You’ll come back as a butterfly, right? Just so I know you’re okay?”
There’s no response.
After all this fucking time, I still expect one.
Lennox must have removed the signal blocker because his message comes through with a timer until it auto-deletes.
Lennox:
Your friendship is a tie you were given for a reason. He can help you find who you’re looking for.
Niko.
The fuck does he have to do with shit?
I try to respond to my cryptic uncle but the thread is greyed out until it disappears in front of my eyes.
The only option I have is calling Niko. I hope to fuck Lennox is in a charitable mood so the signal doesn’t get blocked before I can get any useful information. My leg rocks as the line trills. I try to work out the time difference to know if he’ll answer or not.
But as I’m giving up hope he says, “What’s up, kid?”
I need him to stop calling me that.
“Does the name Vartanov mean anything to you?” I ask.
I can imagine him staring at the wall as he grits, “What did the fuckers do?”
“Nothing. I need to speak to them.”
“Kane, are you safe?” he asks, a keyboard clacking in the background.
“Don’t track me, dickhead,” I snap. My fidgeting gets worse as I pace, fearful of losing him to this place. “I need you to get—” My phone buzzes against my ear and I check the screen.
Lennox:
You have twelve hours.
Fuck!
“Yo, kid, you still there?” Niko’s voice comes through as I stare at my phone.
“Listen, I don’t have time to explain shit. Get them to call me or give me their number. It’s important. I wouldn’t be asking for the fucking fun of it.”
“Easy. I’ve already sent a message to their cunt of a leader.”
“A number, Niko,” I grit, flattening a patch of snow.
“If you’re in trouble, I can help you,” he offers. He has children, a wife. I can’t live with any more guilt. Not when my boy’s grave is right in front of me.
“I need that number,” I whisper. “Please.”
“Okay.” My phone buzzes with the details coming through. “Kane? These aren’t the type of people you can give your loyalty to. You understand what it means to me if you do, right?”
“There’s no loyalty. I’ll never forget everything you’ve done for me. Remember—”
“If your girl reaches out, I’ll take her to Scarlet.”
I hesitate as I walk further around the house. “Niko?”
“Yeah, kid?”
“Thank you. For everything,” I whisper before ending the call.
Eleven hours and forty-three fucking minutes of standing in the freezing fucking cold, trying to contact this motherfucker makes me hate the prick.
I don’t even know their name. Lennox dropped supplies in the middle of the trees separating the two cabins but none of them included the patience to deal with this shit.
What kind of person ignores multiple calls and messages?
A neurotic fucking control freak hellbent on having an ego trip, that’s fucking who.
Delilah hasn’t tried to leave the cabin, but her shadow moves across the snow as she walks around the lounge.
My pretty girl doesn’t know we’re so close to getting out of this shit.
We’ll leverage Rowan’s fear for Helene’s location, I’ll watch my wife kill the cunt, then we’ll… We’ll figure it out once we’re safe.
I pace as my umpteenth call gets disconnected after three rings.
Eleven hours and fifty-one minutes, the cunt calls back. I answer before it can ring for one full repetition.
The voice on the other end is deep, rough, as he asks, “Who is this?”
“You don’t know me,” I rush out. “I know who you’re looking for.”
The background of the call is dead silent, so I stop pacing, leaning against the cabin for warmth as I rub my fingers against my palm to bring the feeling back.
“Who do you think I’m looking for?” he asks.
“R-Rowan.”
The name alone sends a shiver up my spine like he’ll pop up out of the ground.
I scan the area to make sure he doesn’t despite how irrational it is as I shakily slide a loose cigarette out of my pocket.
I’ve been rationing them after Lennox’s supply drop, but I need something to keep me still. I light it, knowing it’s the last one.
A desk chair squeaks on the other end of the line as he says, “I’m listening.”
I quickly check the time to see how long I have to explain this shit to him. Seven minutes. Seven fucking minutes to change my life.
“We’re in Austria,” I blurt out as the cigarette slowly burns. “The woman who lives with you is here with another man. Rowan’s here too, but I don’t know long he’s going to be here.”
“Where about in Austria?”
“I don’t fucking know. Wait.” I take a quick deep drag as I push my numb fingers against the screen to check the map. All the details are in German, but it will take too long to wait for a translation to load so I give the coordinates. “Meet me here. I’ll take you to them.”
He doesn’t say anything. I’m fucking sick of this cunt wasting my time when it’s not something I have in abundance.
“What would you like in return?” he asks slowly.
“Infor—”
The phone beeps and a box pops up. Call failed, no service.
“Fuck!”
My fist flies, hitting the rough stone of the cabin.
Fuck, fuck, fucking fuck!
I need to make sure Delilah’s safe. Niko’s world has rules about protecting women, so this fucker will be bound the same rules.
I walk back into the cabin as I change my plan.
I won’t be able to use what Rowan fears against him when they won’t know to look for his cabin, but they have the location for this glass box.
I walk over to my wife as she sits in the armchair, watching the sky. Holding her face with both of my hands, I kiss her. She moans, lightly pressing her hands on my chest, but she doesn’t push me. She doesn’t fucking push me away.
“You’re going again,” she says, dejected.
“One last time, okay?” I nod, my fingers flexing on her cheeks.
“I’ll come back…” Fuck, why am I lying to her?
It’s only going to make her hate me even more.
Dropping down to my haunches, I pull her face closer so her nose is brushing mine.
“I need to kill them. They’ve taken too much from us, and I don’t trust Helene. ”
“No,” she grits, attempting to peel my hands off her. “We can leave.”
“Delilah, we both know we can’t. Think about everything they’ve done. She’s spent our entire lives controlling everything, so she’s not going to stop now.”
She tries to argue but I speak over her.
“I don’t know where she is. Lennox won’t tell me.” My eyes close. “I fucked up by taking too long. Someone’s coming here. All I need you to tell them is to walk through the trees.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No.” Fear forces me to tighten my hold on her as I look into her huge eyes. “Stay here and you do not step a fucking foot in that fucking place.”
I can’t have her surrounded by all the sickening shit.
“Please, pretty girl? I’m begging you to stay here where it’s safe for me.
Just this once and then we’ll get that steak.
I will give you everything. Please stay here.
” I kiss her cheek. “Please, Delilah.” Her other cheek.
“I can’t lose you.” Her forehead. “Don’t make me lose you again.
” Then her hands, her arms, any part of her I can reach as I continue begging her.