Chapter 8 House Rules （Kane）
HOUSE RULES (KANE)
I’m convinced I need a muzzle.
No bad-mannered mutt ever did worse than the shit I pulled.
Yes, I expected pure torture from the moment we met, but I never thought it would go down like this.
I never thought I’d let one charged kiss melt my brain like an ice cream cone dropped on a sidewalk in July.
I’ve barely finished cleaning up dinner—left a plate for her in the microwave again, if she comes back—when Margot bursts through the door.
Blue eyes wide, blonde hair whipping around her face, and that gorgeous face—
She’s gone bone-white.
This isn’t the same woman who wouldn’t look at me when she fled the house after my biggest mistake since the divorce.
“Kane!” she yells as the door slams against the wall. “Kane, thank God.”
The panic in her voice activates pure instinct.
I’m already moving before I process what she’s said. My hands grip her upper arms and she gasps.
She stares up at me with stark fear flashing in her eyes.
“What the hell happened?” I whisper, iron yet gentle.
Her eyes flutter shut and then open again as she breathes roughly.
Her throat tightens.
“I… I was in the car, just pulled up at the end of the driveway and—there was someone there. A man, watching me, slinking around in the shadows. When I saw him, he freaked. He went flying right past my car, and I—” She’s trembling now, and I guide her into a chair.
“Sit,” I tell her. All my old military instincts sharpen, and a familiar icy calm settles over me. “Start from the beginning. What did you see?”
“Not much. Definitely a man. He was hiding in the brush, I think. I was only there a minute before he just sprinted past the car, and—”
She breaks off as the kids come barreling into the kitchen.
“A man? What man?” Sophie squeaks.
“A bad guy! Don’t worry, I’ll find him.” Dan rips a drawer open in the key drop by the back door, rifling through it until he finds a flashlight.
“No, you won’t.” I grab him before he reaches the door. “You’re staying put and I’m going out there.”
“But—”
“No buts, little man. Lock the back door after me.”
The severity on my face says there’s no argument as I pry the flashlight out of his hand.
Dan nods, his face falling a little.
Margot slumps down in a kitchen chair, watching me through damp blue eyes while Sophie looks on, bewildered.
“Hello?” a tinny voice says on the other end of the phone clenched in her fingers. “Is everything okay? Did you make it back?”
Slowly, mechanically, she raises the phone to her ear and speaks, looking at me the whole time. “Yes, I’m okay, Hattie. I’m with Kane and the kids now.”
“Kane? Is that the guy who—”
“Bye!” Margot ends the call.
“Stay with them while I investigate.” I grip the flashlight in one hand. It’s one of those long, sturdy tactical flashlights built for the outdoors. The hard, all-weather shell built around it makes it double as a small club.
Possibly left behind by Leonidas’ bodyguard or maybe the old man himself.
At close quarters, it’s a makeshift weapon, which might be useful. Can’t rule out anything the second I step outside.
Adrenaline tosses my heart like a tumbleweed, but I wrestle back the caveman instinct to go rushing out there in the dark.
First, I need to make sure these guys stay safe and the area around the house is clear.
“Sophie,” I say. “I need you to stay with Margot and Dan, okay?”
She nods, her small green eyes wide.
Dan brushes past me, grinning in triumph. “Ready to lock it when you are.”
“Good. I’ll wait until I hear that click,” I tell him. “Now what do you do if someone comes to the door and it isn’t me?”
“Call 9-1-1,” the kids say together.
“And hide,” Dan adds.
“Right. You head upstairs to our room and lock the door. Push the heaviest thing you can find in front of it.” I glance at Margot, grateful to see her color returning. “Will you stay with them? I won’t be long. Exactly where did it happen again?”
“That section with the overgrown brush,” she says.
So they were lurking near the house, then.
That’s fucking grim for intentions, knowing that brush is thick.
Also tells me they were probably around long enough to figure that out, which means they could’ve scoped out the entire place.
Shit.
I nod firmly and make sure my phone is still in my pocket, brandishing the flashlight in my other hand.
“Anything else I should know?” I lock eyes with Margot.
“I don’t think so. Just—be careful, Kane.”
“Don’t worry about me. If I find anybody poking around, worry for them.”
The color fades from her cheeks again.
I’m not trying to scare her, but I’m deadly serious.
Asses will be kicked to the moon if I find anybody on our land.
Her land.
What the fuck ever.
“Stay put, guys,” I warn once again, looking them over. “I’ll be back soon.”
The driveway is long and dark, one long cold shadow when the temperature drops.
I can see my breath in my flashlight beam. It’s not that late, but it’s pitch-black under the tall trees near that brush. I get why she panicked.
Fuck.
I expected trouble in the wake of the kiss, yeah, but not chasing a prowler.
At least the kids seem more excited than scared.
Dan’s having the time of his life playing superhero. The boy’s too young to have a real sense of danger and old enough to think that a few summer karate classes turned him into a lethal machine.
Sophie only panics when she’s alone, and I’m glad as hell there’s plenty of company for her.
A twig snaps under my shoe.
I swing my flashlight over the path, checking for any movements, any rustling on the horizon that can’t be blamed on the trees.
Nothing.
It doesn’t take long to get to the spot where Margot parked and claims she saw the shadow man.
There are tire marks on the ground from where she squealed away and kicked up gravel. Then there’s the brush, where she swore the man was lurking.
I approach warily, my senses on high alert.
If he’s smart, he’s long gone.
Only, she didn’t stick around to find out if he was alone. Or if he came back.
The leaves seem bleached in the light as I circle the brush, reversing direction every few seconds to avoid anyone getting the drop on me.
Nothing and nobody.
Just dead autumn silence.
My lungs heave with tension.
Loud frogs croak in the night. A few thin branches sway in the breeze.
It’s an eerie night even without any mysterious prowlers. I wouldn’t be surprised if a coyote came slinking out of the brush.
As I look closer, my flashlight catches something glinting in the grass.
There are several broken twigs and a patch of flattened grass like someone was camped out here for a while.
And right in the middle, an unlit lantern.
Shit.
Fury knifes through me as I pick it up, examining it in the light.
This isn’t the sort of thing you’d pick up from a store—it looks weirdly homemade or modified. Stained glass, maybe, it’s tinted dark blue to dull the LED light inside.
Whoever did this knows a few tricks.
No trail, no trace of them at all except for this fucking lantern.
How long was he here? And why?
Did Margot startle him when she parked, flushing him out of the trees? If she was this close, he might’ve thought it was just a matter of time until she saw him and bolted.
But who the hell would come snooping around the place this late?
I search the area one more time, but there’s nothing besides this ghostly blue lantern.
I head back to the house and knock.
Margot appears in the doorway a second later. Her eyes widen when she sees the lantern.
“What’s that?” she whispers.
“A present left by our friend. Found it abandoned in the brush.”
Dan and Sophie appear by her side, crowding in to get a good look.
“Whoa!” Dan gasps. “Dad, what is that?”
“Just a lantern some careless idiot threw together. Let’s not get carried away, okay? We could’ve just had a stray camper who decided to crash on this land.”
Yes, I’m playing up the mundane possibilities.
I don’t want them worried sick.
I’m also reasonably confident any imminent danger has passed. The average burglar or rural squatter is more skittish than a deer.
There’s no good reason to come back now that they know this place isn’t vacant, or an easy target.
“So… we’re not in danger?” Sophie asks softly.
“No,” I say emphatically. “And if we were, they’d have to get past me first. Bad day for any clown who tries.”
Sophie smiles as I wink at her and ruffle her hair.
Margot gives a whisper of a smile too. I hate that it feels like a weight off my shoulders.
“You’re lucky you guys have a scary dad,” she tells the kids, still watching me intently.
“Sure are.” I flex my guns like a bombastic wrestler until they laugh.
The corner of her mouth dimples. “And if there was someone creeping around out there, I guess they can’t see much now. Not without the lantern. It’s so dark tonight.”
Sophie pushes her glasses up her nose and looks at Margot with clear relief.
“Why don’t you guys go watch TV? Just to be on the safe side, I think we’ll stay in tonight. It’s too cloudy for much stargazing anyway,” I say.
Dan already has the remote in his hand. I wait until he’s bickering with Sophie about what to watch.
Then I wave Margot closer.
“Hey, you mind heading upstairs with me for a minute?”
Her expression freezes over, but she nods, threading her fingers through her hair. Her phone stays in her hand as she follows me up to my bedroom.
After everything that happened between us earlier, this feels like another mistake in the making, but I force away the thought as I push the door shut, leaving it open a crack to hear what’s going on downstairs.
“Tell me if you’re good. For real,” I growl.
“I’m… yeah, I’ve calmed down a bit.” She clears her throat, glancing at the wall I caught her tapping on before. “I’m really sorry if I freaked you guys out.”
“You didn’t scare me. And Dan’s always desperate to prove he’s just as tough as his old man, so you didn’t scare him, either.” I fold my arms. “Soph, she’s stronger than she looks. But we’ll file a police report in the morning.”
A line forms between her brows.