Chapter 7 #2
“I hope so.”
Molly took a deep breath. “Same. She’s the best. When I had ex-boyfriend problems, she gave me the most outrageous ideas for revenge. If it wasn’t for her, I would never have scared him quite so much as I did.”
A presence loomed next to me. Without even peering around, I knew Kane had returned. My whole body tingled with awareness of him.
I wanted to ask Molly all about that story. But more, I needed to know what was on the tablet. Standing, I returned it to my bag and settled the strap over my shoulder. “Next time I see you in the warehouse, I want the details of that revenge.”
She fist-bumped me. “I’ve got you, girl. It’s a promise.”
Back across the room, I descended the spiral steps and exited the bar. Outside, the night air did nothing to cool my hot cheeks. I whirled around on Kane.
The doors closed behind him, shutting the music inside. Kane examined the street, I guessed to check that the drunk customer had gone, then held his gaze on me.
“How?” My word came out as an accusation.
He tilted his head to one side. “Are you going to run from me again?”
I swallowed. “No.”
“Pity.”
I gritted my teeth. “Tell me how you found me.”
“Tell me what’s on that tablet.”
“I don’t know yet. I also don’t know if I want to involve you. I don’t trust you.”
It was a moment of truth, even if neither of us was giving anything away. It would be no effort for Kane to take the tablet from me. If he hurt me, I’d give up the passcode.
Yet even as I made that fleeting summary, I knew he wouldn’t lay a hand on me.
“Promise me you’ll do no harm to Dixie if you find her.”
If my words offended him, he didn’t show it. “I don’t hurt women.” A grimace followed. “Intentionally.”
That, I wasn’t touching. I gave him one final look then jerked my head down the street to my car. Kane followed me and climbed in the passenger side.
I kept the engine off when I unlocked the tablet, not hiding the code from his eyes. Whether I could hide the shakes from being so close to him after what happened tonight was another matter.
The home page of the tablet held the usual apps. The camera, the browser, various inbuilt programs. I swiped to check for others then realised there was only one page.
A pity. I was hoping for more. That it might be logged in to something that told us exactly where Dixie had gone. As if it would be that easy.
I exhaled disappointment and opened the browser. A new tab came up, no existing ones there. Weird. Dixie hadn’t enjoyed using the tablet. She claimed it hid documents from her when she downloaded them and had more than once asked me for help in navigating it.
For her to have purposefully closed out every single tab she’d used felt purposeful.
I typed a letter into the search bar. It didn’t auto populate, suggesting she had also deleted her browsing history. The same went for the history tab, downloads, and even bookmarks. Nothing there.
Moving on, I checked the photos and notes. All empty.
This was so strange. And utterly frustrating.
In the app store, I restored half a dozen apps that could be useful, my stress levels peaking as not a single one gave me anything.
My last hope was that she’d backed up the device somewhere, so I checked the date of the last time she’d done that. It was months ago. My heart sank all the way to the floor. Of course it was clean. Why make life easy when it could be infuriating?
“What’s the matter?” Kane asked.
“There’s nothing on this.”
At the disbelief in my voice, he frowned. Hell no to him not believing me. I shoved the tablet into his hands. “Not one thing. No pictures, files, not a single search record. Check for yourself. It’s been wiped.”
He paged through the different screens while I wondered over what I’d found. What I’d not found, as the case was. Dixie hated the technology enough that I’d assumed she’d shoved the tablet onto the shelf of the coffee table and abandoned it without a second thought. The evidence proved me wrong.
She’d removed any trace of whatever she’d been doing. Any trace that she’d even used it.
I sank back into my seat and stared out at the dark road.
Beside me, Kane repeated the steps I already had then posed a question. I waited for the accusation that I’d somehow done this. It didn’t come.
“We can assume she didn’t take this fucking thing with her because they’re trackable, correct?”
I gave a small nod. He continued.
“The work she was doing is probably the reason she deleted everything. It was in the back of my mind, but I was hoping I’d be wrong.”
I slid a look his way. “You know what she was working on?”
He inclined his head. “Researching men for the skeleton crew to take out. Dangerous work. Can ye do something for me? Call Manny and ask if he taught Dixie how to erase her tracks.”
I didn’t correct his assumption that Manny was part of Cassie’s process. Instead, I shot off a text to the woman herself.
She replied quickly.
Cassie: I told her to be careful and showed her how to delete everything once she’d finished her work. Oh shite. Does that mean the tablet is useless?
I hung my head. “She cleaned up after herself.”
Kane took a deep breath that inflated his chest. It took a moment for him to speak, but I sensed his disappointment as acutely as my own.
“Is there any way you can hack it? Or work some magic to get back the last things she did on here?”
My headshake was sorrowful. “Not that I can think of. This is useless to us.”
Another beat passed made of shared disappointment.
Kane would go. He’d leap from the car and vanish, his interest in me lost now I’d outlived my usefulness.
Instead, he turned to face me, so big in my car he blocked out everything else.
His gaze held mine. “We should fuck.”
My mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”
“You heard.”
I had, yet it wasn’t processing. My breathing sped up as if he were chasing me all over again, and a rush of images came of being under him, on top, doing things I’d never tried with anyone else. I couldn’t produce an answer.
“Yes or no, Lovelyn.”
God, it would be so good.
“No.”
Without another word, Kane climbed from my car, dropped the tablet back on the seat, then disappeared into the night, taking his maelstrom of energy with him.
Pulling my phone from my pocket, I dialled home, still shaking. My heart beating out of my chest. “Mum? I’ve had the most unhinged evening. Want to hear about it?”
I was ninety-two percent glad to watch him walk away. The other eight percent needed therapy.