Chapter 11
Kane
In the driver’s seat of my car, I brooded. Tomorrow, I needed to drive south to handle my flat sale, which meant giving up on finding Dixie for a couple of days. And on stalking Lovelyn.
Across the road, her house was dark. She must have turned in early, not that I’d seen the lights go out after her trick with the tracker. Fuck. She’d thrown me off course so good, I’d been halfway to the next city before I realised I was following a truck driven by a random guy.
She’d bested me. The lass was full of surprises.
I kept my gaze on the house. On arriving, I’d been unsure if she was there. Except her car was parked by the pavement. I’d already scoped it out and stuck a new tracker under the body, but I couldn’t risk entering the property. She lived with her ma.
It burned in me to snatch her. She’d been so easy to take the first time, and I battled with myself over the urge to do it again.
Or why I was even here.
She’d challenged me on the DNA test, proving how insightful she was, but Lovelyn hadn’t told me that she’d found anything new.
Going to the police station could be a sign, except I couldn’t imagine her raising Dixie’s name to them or handing over photos for a digital search. She’d protect her friend’s privacy.
I exhaled frustration. I’d come here on instinct rather than fact. If I was honest, it was because I wanted her. So badly my jaw ached and something burned in my chest.
I didn’t actually need her.
She was better off staying in Deadwater and following any new clues to Dixie. I’d be able to track her movements and could catch up when I returned. If she found her, Lovelyn would tell people. Unlike me, she liked to share her thoughts.
Which meant I needed to leave.
Not come up with ways to coax or persuade her. Not plan to tie her up and toss her into my back seat.
I stared at the ignition. If I got on the road now, I’d be in Manchester in a little over four hours and could wait it out until the estate agent’s doors opened.
There, I’d sign their paperwork, hand over the keys, and the flat would be in their hands.
All that was left was to empty the scant possessions I had and I could turn my back on the place.
For the sake of the sale money, that was my priority.
For one last moment, I regarded Lovelyn’s darkened home. Time to go.
A light flashed down one side. I stiffened. What the fuck was that?
It flared again. A brief flash of blue. A phone screen being used as a torch? She was being fucking burgled. Or worse.
I snatched up my phone and pressed an earbud into my ear then called Mila. Without Lovelyn’s number, I had no way of alerting her without hammering on her door, and that meant the fucker would get away.
“Kane? Is everything—”
“Text Lovelyn and tell her someone’s trying to break into her home.”
“What? How—?”
“Just do it.”
She swore, then tapping followed as she sent the message.
In the front bedroom, a faint glow lit the corner of the curtains. It brightened. Good. She’d seen the message.
“Tell her I’m outside and hunting the intruder. She should stay in her room with the lights off.”
My sister spoke while sending the instruction. “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me why you’re outside my friend’s place in the middle of the night?”
I was already out of my car and silently padding across the road.
Lovelyn’s house was on a quiet street, brick-built and detached so a narrow path ran from the front garden to the back on the left-hand side. Beyond that were other gardens, and here and there in the neighbourhood were lanes. Great place to be a burglar.
Chest-height hedges lined the front of her garden, and I skulked behind one, watching the house with my ears pricked for any sound. A low rattle came. The arsehole was trying the back door.
It told me exactly where he was. Breaking my cover, I bolted down the path, passing the house. Though I ran as lightly as I could, a twig cracked underfoot, the sound like a gunshot in the still night.
A scuffle came from the back of the house, and I rounded the corner to spot a figure leaping the fence.
Shite. I’d lost the element of surprise. But only just.
In hot pursuit, I threw myself over the fence, landing in the next-door garden.
The intruder was already scaling another, giving me a fleeting look at him.
Definitely a man from the height and shape, but all in black with his head covered so I couldn’t see his features.
If he was in a gang, he wasn’t wearing their colours.
Then again, neither was I. Arran had given me skeleton crew bandannas to conceal my face, but unlike the arsehole I was chasing, I had no will to hide.
Across the next garden, I hunted him. A light sprang on in the fourth, and a dog barked. It didn’t stop me. I vaulted a fence, nearly landing in a pond on my descent.
The garden beyond was silent and dark. I prowled across the wet grass. A brick wall blocked the way to the neighbouring property, but no escaping house invader sat on top of it. I’d been right behind him. Where did he go?
To my left, thick fir trees marked the end of the garden. I stalked down to them. He was in there, I knew it.
The branches shivered ahead of me, and I charged, keeping my senses alert for anyone poised to throw a fist, or a log, at my head.
A flicker of black darted through the gap, and for a heartbeat I was on him, close enough to snatch the back of his hoodie.
My fingers grazed fabric, but the fucker surged forward, slamming both hands onto the fence.
He flew over it, skimming the top with millimetres to spare.
I leapt after him. The fence gave way with a crack, splinters driving into my palms as I crashed down hard on the other side. My weight had crumpled the rotting wood.
Pain bit deep, but I shoved it aside to roll over. Halfway up the lawn, the intruder sprinted on, not hesitating.
The bastard was quick. He’d flown over a wall by the time I’d shoved to my feet and kicked aside the broken panels tangled at my boots. It had cost me, slowing me for crucial seconds. By the time I cleared the wreckage, he was already spilling out into a lane, legs pumping in a desperate sprint.
A gate creaked somewhere ahead. I chased, my breath tearing at my lungs, but when I reached the end, all I caught was the echo of footfalls pounding away into the night. The intruder had a head start and knew the cut-throughs better than me.
A local kid, perhaps. My gut told me otherwise.
A car engine purred to life. Lights off, tyres spitting gravel, the vehicle tore away down the side street before I could even register the make.
Breathing hard, I stopped in the middle of the road, my fists clenched. I hadn’t brought the bastard down, but I’d rattled him.
It pissed me off that I’d failed.
“Fuck it,” I exhaled.
“Kane? Are you okay?” Mila was still on the line.
I turned on my heel and stalked back down the centre of the road, two streets out from Lovelyn’s house. “He got away.”
A pause followed. “Serious question. Is Lovelyn our half-sister?”
The hurt in her voice shouldn’t have bothered me. “No. Fuck. That isn’t why I’m here. With her expertise and contacts, she might be able to help me. I gave her my number, but she never sent hers.”
She exhaled a shaky breath. “Right. So you drove over to ask. I understand.”
Ahead, Lovelyn’s house came into view, this time with the exterior lights on. “I’m going to talk to her now. Thanks for the help.”
I hung up the call, my already fast pulse picking up at the outline of Lovelyn in the front door glass.
I crossed her path, and she slipped outside, her arms folded over a cream-coloured knitted jumper that covered purple pyjamas.
It was her hair that caught my attention.
Loose and silky, it fell around her in a curtain.
I hadn’t seen her with her hair down in a while, and need slammed into me hard, boosted by the adrenaline of the chase.
“Mila said you interrupted an intruder. Did you see who it was?” She kept her voice hushed.
I matched her low tones. “No. A man in black. Masked and fit enough to keep me running. I would have caught him if a fence hadn’t collapsed under my weight.”
Her cautious gaze soaked me in. I had no idea what she saw but held myself taller. Straightened my shoulders under her scrutiny.
I gestured at the silent house. “It didn’t wake your ma?”
Lovelyn shook her head, that silky hair flowing like water. “You’re bleeding. Let me take a look at your injuries.”
Blood dripped from my hand to the path. I hadn’t registered the sting from multiple small cuts until she’d pointed it out. “I don’t want to bleed all over your house. I have a first-aid kit in the car.”
She closed the door behind her and tapped her pocket for keys. “I wasn’t inviting you in anyway.”
At my car, I retrieved the kit from the back and dropped into the driver’s seat.
Lovelyn climbed in the other side and took it from my hands. “Was it real?”
“Was what real?”
“The intruder.”
“Why would I lie?”
“To scare me into needing protection and to give you a bargaining tool.”
I had such a problem with this woman. Stark attraction was the least of it. “Great plan. I wish I’d thought of it myself.”
Her steady gaze held on me for a few beats longer, then she dropped it to examine the kit. “Why are you here?”
“You believe me, then?”
She pulled out a tube of ointment and some wipes, extending a hand to take my bloodied one.
The touch of her fingers had me gritting my teeth against a flood of lust. It was the chase.
The act of hunting her in Leith had broken me, and now I was wishing it had been her I’d pursued tonight, ideally with getting to fuck her where I caught her.
Tension rose between us, steadily getting me hotter. I had to kill it.
“I wanted to talk to you in case you’d discovered anything.”
With her phone torch lit, Lovelyn set my hand on the dashboard and brought out tweezers. “This might hurt.”
“Do your worst, try not to enjoy it.”
She chuffed a laugh then proceeded with extracting splinters. “Let’s put this another way. You thought I learned something today and decided to follow me. I threw you off the scent with your own tracker, and you ended up here, pissed off and brooding outside my house. How am I doing?”
I raised my free shoulder. “Unsurprisingly well.”
Lovelyn levelled another severe look at me. “You fucking tracked me.”
Damn, I liked it when she swore. If she stole a glance at my crotch, she’d see how much.
Honesty directed my next words. “I’d do it again if it gets me what I want. There has to be a way we can make this easier.”
Done with tearing new holes in my flesh, she stared at me. “There is, you ass. All you need to do is talk to me.”
I shut my mouth.
Lovelyn’s gaze darkened. “Now you clam up? I… I can’t deal with you.
You don’t know how to share, and I’m a data scientist by trade.
Do you know what I love? Information. Do you know what you give me?
Nothing. I live for it. I create it and sell it.
Information is power. Knowing who knows what, identifying secrets, holding them when necessary, that’s something I do every day.
Like with Mila. The only reason I haven’t told my friend about Dixie is because you should be the one to do it.
She’s your sister. If she knows you’ve kept it from her, you’ll break her heart.
Now tell me, because your time is up, what was the result of the DNA test? ”
Despite every best intention, I gave up another truth. A strategic one made as an offer because she already knew. She just had to hear me say it. “It was a match. Both Mila and I are half siblings with Dixie.”
Her eyes shuttered closed. “Why doesn’t it surprise me that you tested your sister as well? Tell her. Right now. If you don’t start giving the courtesy of basic answers, we have nothing left to talk about.”
Lovelyn took a deep breath.
I’d never been more desperate for hot, dirty sex.
A decision slammed home. Whatever it took, I’d keep her with me. She was an asset, but more than that, I didn’t think I could let her go.
Even if it meant breaking the habits of a lifetime to do it.