Chapter 33
Kane
Seated behind the management desk, Arran folded his arms and waited on Tyler to finish detailing my role in the trafficking takedown.
My team leader stood to the side of the desk, one shoulder to the red-brick wall in a lean I knew was anything but casual.
Tyler gave off such controlled energy, but last night, he’d stabbed a man to death in front of me.
He’d taken pleasure in the killing.
That spoke to something deep inside me. An admiration generating even greater respect.
“What happened to the lasses?” I asked.
“We moved the bodies of the traffickers, leaving the lasses on the boat until help arrived. They’re in a safe house now. They’ll be taken care of.”
I shook my head. “The girl he threw at me can’t have been more than sixteen.”
Dangerous anger flashed in Tyler’s eyes. “Just a child who that fucker decided was an object to be sold. Ye saved her, Kane. That’s the salient point. For that, you took a bullet.”
I rolled the shoulder Lovelyn had tended. I’d been careful not to get the bandage wet when I showered, not such a challenge when her showerhead was so low it hit the centre of my chest. The butterfly stitches she’d laid on me had held. “A scratch. It barely bled.”
The men swapped a glance.
Arran steepled his fingers. “You proved yourself. If you’re willing, there’s a permanent place in the skeleton crew with your name on it.”
My gaze swung between them, surprise taking me over.
If anything, I’d expected a reprimand. Probably a removal of me from their team.
In every one of my previous jobs, I’d been a tool.
An on-tap provider of violence and aggression.
But there were always consequences. Quitting a job before it ended was a reason for getting reamed out by the boss.
Tyler took over. “I want ye on my team, Kane. I can’t promise easy work. It will be more of the same as last night. Long hours of waiting. Potentially deadly outcomes. But it’s violence with a purpose. My question is, did ye enjoy it?”
I took a deep breath, separating out how I’d worried for Lovelyn with the events of the night.
I preferred being out in the field, and I wanted to do what Tyler had done.
Stab first and ask questions never. The men we’d taken down deserved nothing less.
“I did. Got to say I’m surprised at the offer after I ran. ”
Arran’s gaze turned speculative. “You got the job done first. Convict told us what happened after. For future reference, if you’re away overnight and that leaves your woman vulnerable, we’ll handle it. She can stay in the warehouse or we’ll assign a guard. Whichever works.”
Lovelyn wasn’t my woman. I’d never had a woman. Yet in the same breath, with my shirt smelling of her and their neatly packaging us up as a couple, for the first time in my life, I felt like I could. It wouldn’t be just me against the world with no protection for anyone I loved.
That last word tightened my chest to the point of pain.
“I’ll bear that in mind,” I forced out.
“Take a day or two to consider your answer.” Tyler let me go.
Outside, I checked my phone, my damn pulse jumping at the name on my screen.
Lovelyn: We’re going up to the roof. Technically not leaving the building, but outside, so I thought you’d want to know.
Kane: On my way.
With the help of Riordan, I found my way to the flat roof of the warehouse, a low brick wall around the edge and steam coming from a tower vent in the centre.
Lovelyn stood with her friends, one of them holding binoculars.
I joined them, ignoring the expansive view of Deadwater for the better one of her.
Lovelyn shot me a shy smile. “You came.”
“Ye called.”
Her pretty smile flashed bigger then reduced. “We’re watching the police activity at the murder scene downriver. The body is covered. We can’t be sure if it’s Karla.”
Cassie offered the binoculars to me.
I refused with a hand raised. “She came looking for me but ended up dead.”
Cassie inclined her head. “That and an interview, though nearly all staff appointments still go through me, and her name wasn’t on my radar. I’ll check with Clem when she comes in later if it was a bar job. It’s possible she intended to ask for work on the fly.”
Manny emerged from the stairwell I’d just exited, a tablet in his hands.
“CCTV shows the woman in question here for twenty minutes last night. When she arrived, she walked through Divine, left, then came into Divide and directly to the VIP section. I can’t see that she talked to anyone except the doormen, then Mila and Lovelyn. ”
On the screen, Karla moved through different camera views in the club, eventually climbing the steps to the VIP area. I stood behind Lovelyn. Beside us, Riordan wrapped Cassie in his arms and rested his chin on her head while they watched. I imagined doing the same.
Mila said, “She asked about Presley and if he was a relative. Then she left after him.”
Manny nodded. “Convict tossed him out on his ass. He stormed off to his car, and she disappeared from the field of the cameras. It’s inconclusive if they went together.”
Mila shoved her blonde hair back from where the wind whipped it into her face. “But he’s a suspect, right? She showed an interest in him then is possibly dead.”
Lovelyn frowned. “I remember something else she said. She referenced Dixie like she knew her, which means she lied when we saw her in Heaven. Now we’ll never know the truth.”
Further down the roof, Shade held up a camera. “Got a picture. There’s rope tied around the deceased’s neck.”
Shock rippled across the gathering of people on the rooftop. Everyone went to look. Except Mila. She held up a finger to pause me.
“Wallace came in. I left you a message to say. Our grandmother will see you.”
“I’ve been busy. I haven’t been through my messages.”
Irritation ticked her tight jaw. “When did you ever reply to me quickly?”
I tilted my head in question.
She exhaled and shook out her hands. “I’m pissed off, okay? But not at you. Why is it that our grandmother refuses to see me, when I’ve called her every day for months and never had a reply. She was a constant in my life, and then bam, suddenly wasn’t. Yet one text from you and she’s available.”
“I’m a novelty. She doesn’t know me.”
She stuck her hands into the pockets of her smart coat.
Mila had been their princess. The golden child her grandparents doted over.
She still had the fancy apartment and expensive wardrobe, but my sister was changing.
She had on a black t-shirt with a skeleton girls’ logo on it, same as the one Lovelyn now wore.
I tried to see it from her perspective. “Your grandfather dying changed more than we knew. Until then, he believed your grandmother was behind him completely, correct?” At her slow nod, I continued.
“Yet the woman is battling to close the company and her son is supporting her. Meanwhile, we’re uncovering how the family firm was used to ship women into the country.
None of that resonates with what ye knew, does it? ”
She shook her head. “Not at all. Not one part of it.”
“Then to your grandmother, ye represent that old-world view.”
Mila scrunched up her nose. “I don’t know what to think. Only that I’m out in the cold and I don’t want to be. I want to go with you.”
I shook my head. “That woman knows more about Darcy than anyone we can talk to. I don’t want her to slam the door.”
Her shoulders sank in resignation. “So you’ll go alone.”
“Lovelyn will come with me.”
Mila blinked in surprise, then her gaze slid to where Lovelyn stood with the rest of the group. As if sensing our attention, she lifted her gaze to mine, then Mila’s, blushed, and turned away.
Mila raised an eyebrow at me.
I gave her a look. “Don’t say a word.”
“I could say plenty. She’s gentle, kind.”
I released a breath. “And I’m everything but.”
“That isn’t what—”
“And we’re not having this conversation.”
Mila’s expression dropped into a scowl. I matched it.
I didn’t want to hear a warning about Lovelyn being too good for me. I knew that already, and Mila had implied as much when she learned we’d had a one-time thing, as Lovelyn had claimed it.
It wouldn’t work out with Lovelyn. I wasn’t what she needed, even if she was making do for now. Mila would be happy when I was the broken part, replaced by something better.
“Kane?”
Lovelyn’s soft voice interrupted us, her gaze worried. “I don’t mean to cut in, but the rope around that woman’s throat… That makes three hurt by their neck. Dixie, Esther, and now Karla. We have to find Dixie. I’m scared that the killer will try again.”
Adrenaline rushed in my veins, built off of Lovelyn’s need and a deep sense of shame in all I could never be. “Then it’s time to visit Primrose Marchant.”
Lovelyn dutifully followed me. Back downstairs, out of the warehouse, and into my car without a word. Proving exactly how someone as good as her couldn’t settle for a man like me.