Chapter 32 #2
No matter how practical a woman I was, her loss had nearly broken me.
What Kane did next had the power to break me all over again.
I forced the smallest explanation to form. “I’m not crazy. A grief therapist suggested I talk to Mum every day. Just like I would if she was still here. Hence the phone calls because my voice plays out over the house answerphone.”
He leaned his uninjured shoulder on the wall.
I took a shaky breath. “Well?”
“Well what?”
“I’m waiting for you to leave.”
A flash of emotion crossed his face. He straightened and dropped my gaze. “Didn’t realise ye wanted me gone. I’ll get out.”
“No, that isn’t what I meant.”
It was a repeat of the same line he’d used on me in Manchester. Our roles had reversed. My damn heart hurt, the strain on me too much.
The house phone rang in the hall, shrill, and feet from where we were sitting. I jumped and Kane swore, but I didn’t get up to answer it. Whoever it was could go away. After five rings, the answerphone kicked in.
“Lovelyn,” my father’s voice called out.
I groaned. “Of all the times for him to remember what day it is.”
He continued. “What the fuck are you doing hanging around Arran Daniels’ warehouse? Lyle saw you there. He thinks you’re with one of the gangbangers. What the fuck is wrong with you? Pick up.”
“Or not.” I stood, Kane rocking back on his heels to give me space, and collected the phone from the cradle, interrupting the call. “Did you get any further investigating the person who threatened me?”
I’d messaged him to ask after confiding in Kane.
“What’s the point? You’re still walking, aren’t you?”
“Julian, do you know what today is?”
Silence met my words. “I, er…”
I gripped the plastic phone tighter so it crackled.
“On the anniversary of my mother’s death, your ex-girlfriend who you once liked enough to make a baby with, you decide now would be a great time to play dad and berate me over a rumour?
How about you help me instead and give me the number of who sent those messages?
Or, if you’re feeling particularly paternal, come with me to Mum’s grave. ”
He swore a couple of times and fumbled for an excuse. “I’ll get the number. Too busy this afternoon for anything else. Got another dead hooker on my hands.”
My irritation seized. “Another woman has been killed?”
Kane stood taller.
“Showed up an hour ago on the banks of the river, fake tits bared to the sky. One of Daniels’, if I had to guess. It was downstream from his haunt. Can’t wait to tell him.”
Cold stiffened my limbs. “Do you know her name yet?”
“No clothes, no ID.”
“How about a basic description?”
“Brunette. Long red nails with diamonds. Your basic stripper uniform.”
I had the worst feeling about this. Not only because it was another murder, but of who I thought it might be. There was only one woman who came to mind. “How did she die?”
“Does my badge read ‘Pathologist’? Got to go. Enjoy your…ah, fuck, bye.”
He hung up, and I turned to Kane.
“Could you hear that?”
“Every word.”
I fluttered my fingers over my dressing gown tie. “I think the dead woman might be Karla. We need to go.”
We readied to leave the house in minutes. I threw on a warm lilac jumper then snatched up my Skeleton Girls Detective Agency t-shirt at the last minute, tossing that into my bag.
I was probably going to need it.
In the car, badly parked, which told me a lot about Kane’s state of mind when he’d got here, Kane found his phone which had apparently been in the footwell all night, glanced at it, grumbled, then tossed it to the back seat.
I likewise turned mine on, guilt filling me at all the missed calls and texts, then quickly messaged my Skeleton Girls group, asking to meet up urgently.
Kane got us on the road. “Where are we going?”
“The warehouse.”
His gaze stayed forward. “Not the graveyard? We can do that first.”
My mouth popped open, realisation catching up that we weren’t on the same page.
He was still playing through the phone call with my father.
“My mother was cremated, not buried. There is no grave. I only suggested it to Julian because he was annoying me and it was the quickest way to get him off my back and helping out.”
He ducked his head in acknowledgement then focused on driving.
Except I couldn’t drag my gaze off him. He’d said ‘we’. We could go to the graveyard. He would’ve come with me. My thoughts on the poor murdered woman went on hold while I tackled a much more immediate problem.
What Kane was doing to my heart.
“Would you have stayed?”
He shifted in his seat but didn’t speak.
“With me in my house, I mean. When you thought I was kicking you out, you looked sad. Kane, would you have stayed?”
He swallowed but still didn’t reply.
“For God’s sake. This is not the time for the silent treatment. You have to answer. Yes or no.”
“Yes.”
I stared. “Why?”
“I…don’t know.”
My heart thumped out of time. It would’ve been easier if he’d said no. Easier to understand the man who walked away from the grieving woman rather than deal with messy emotions. At least I could’ve put a label on everything that had happened between us.
Now, I had no idea what to do with him.
It made me happy, though. Fizzy, light buoyancy that gave me the energy back that the anniversary had stripped away.
“Good to know.” I folded my hands in my lap, warm all the way through.
At the traffic lights which took us onto the main road, Kane changed the subject. “Talk me through what happened last night. Mila told me ye left the warehouse after Karla turned up. Did she say something?”
My next breath came easier, a curl of indignation returning. “She was there for two things. A job and you. She just chose some unfortunate words that triggered me.”
“What did she say?”
Releasing the words felt better than holding on to them. “That my mama should’ve taught me to make way for prettier girls.”
A ripple of some strong emotion ran over Kane’s stern features. His hand on the gear stick turned into a fist then flexed and landed on my knee over my velvet skirt. Big, warm, and possessive.
“You’re the prettiest girl there is. Ye make way for no one.”
Lust flowed through my veins along with other feelings I didn’t want to examine too closely. Regardless of how much I’d enjoyed last night, not being an active participant left something wanting. We hadn’t reached the intimacy I craved. Or at least I hadn’t.
I needed to touch him back.
Shaking, I lifted my hand to graze my knuckles over his damp hair. Only lightly. As small an approach as I could make to a man who couldn’t drive without his window open.
Despite his words, Kane hadn’t looked at me as he spoke them. He did now, and the heat in his eyes skyrocketed mine.
The moment was over as quickly as it had come, the lights changing so we were on our way. It didn’t stop my damaged heart from getting all the big ideas.
At the warehouse, the neon-pink sign for Divide reflected in puddles on the empty cobbled streets, the place locked up tight against the rainy day.
I peeked across the river to catch a glimpse of the police activity, but nothing was visible from this angle.
Kane held the door for me to go inside, and we walked quiet corridors to the management office. Outside, he stopped. “I need to see Tyler and his team. I ran out on them last night.”
“To reach me.”
The fastest flash of a smile touched his lips. “Aye, flower girl. Do me a favour while I’m in this meeting.”
“Name it.”
“Don’t leave the warehouse. Whatever investigating ye want to do, wait until I can come along.”
That same fizzing happiness infused every part of me. I couldn’t imagine Kane pulling me in for a kiss. Public displays of affection weren’t his style. But his words were enough. He wanted to be where I was. It was easy to agree.
In Cassie’s apartment, the scent of coffee filled the air, and the four women waited on me.
Mila stepped forward with concern in her eyes. “Are you okay? You disappeared last night, then Kane was beside himself. He ordered us to watch your house until he got there. I tried messaging you both, but we left after he didn’t come back out.”
I clutched my bag and nodded to Cassie holding up the coffee pot in offer, embarrassment warming my cheeks. “I’m sorry about that. It was a crappy evening made worse by something I wasn’t looking forward to. I turned my phone off, went home, and took a sleeping tablet.”
She blinked. “My brother took care of you?”
“He did.”
Questions burned in her eyes, but Mila swallowed them and left that curiosity on fire.
I readied myself to talk to the women about the murder, but an overriding thought hit me over and over again.
That on a day when everything should’ve been at its very worst for me, I was floating on air, and that was dangerous for a woman who knew too well how fast the ground came at you when it all came crashing down.