Chapter 9 Zaria #2
“Moving locations confuses everything. I figured it better not to change too much at once.” There was a strained quality to Kane’s response. “I came by Moore & Sons the other day. You didn’t answer, but I know you were there.”
“You have a key. You don’t need me to let you in.”
Kane’s mouth was a dagger-sharp line. “Yes, I do.”
There was a beat of silence as Fletcher took a breath, steadying himself. Eventually he tilted his head in Zaria’s direction. “We can talk about that another time. I’m only here because Zaria was adamant she needed to speak with you.”
Kane’s gaze flicked to her. The weight of it felt like a physical blow. “Was she, now? I can only imagine why that might be.”
“You know exactly why,” Zaria snapped, taking a step forward. Now that the impact of seeing him had worn off, all her anger came rushing back. “You went too fucking far, Kane. Did you really believe I wouldn’t track you down?”
“Oh, I fully expected you to.” He let his pen roll across the surface of the desk. “I just didn’t think to see you and Fletcher here together.”
“You kidnapped Jules!”
“That was a matter of business.”
Zaria scoffed loudly. “Oh, come off it. We both know it was a matter of petty revenge. Were you too much of a coward to face me? Is that why you waited until I wasn’t home?”
Something changed in Kane’s face when she said coward.
Too late, she remembered that night in the workshop.
How the word had still been on her lips when they met his.
He tamped down his reaction, however, and calmly steepled his fingers.
“I came when you weren’t home, Zaria, because I wanted to avoid giving in to temptation. ”
“What temptation?”
“To kill you and be done with it. That would have taken all the satisfaction out of things. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“You’re pathetic. Sick-minded.” Her fury gave the scene a strange tinge of unreality. “Where the hell is Jules?”
Kane’s expression was taciturn. “Doing business, as a kingpin’s crew members are wont to do.”
“Enough,” Fletcher said. “Kane, you can’t go on like this. You don’t truly want to run things the way Ward did, do you?”
“It worked well enough for him.” Kane didn’t seem to want to look directly at Fletcher, and Zaria realized they had unwittingly placed him in an impossible position.
Kane treated every interaction like a game, and she and Fletcher were two games he couldn’t play at the same time.
He wanted Fletcher’s forgiveness and Zaria’s contrition.
He wanted them to see him as two different people and was struggling to strike a balance.
“Did it? Ward loved you best, and even you wanted him dead.”
“Ah, but his mistake was being foolish enough to love at all. His love for me meant he deluded himself into believing I wouldn’t kill him.” Kane’s eyes flashed. “And he was wrong.”
Fletcher evidently didn’t know how to respond to that. He only gave a disgusted shake of his head, posture tensed in defeat. “I think I’ll wait downstairs. Good luck, Zaria.”
“No, Fletcher—” she protested, but the look he shot her was uncompromising as he slipped back into the hallway, the door slamming behind him with a bang like a gunshot.
Kane stared at the place where Fletcher had stood. He curled the hand resting on his desk into a fist, then extended his fingers again, knuckles popping. “I suppose you came here to plead Julian’s case.”
“I shouldn’t have to do that,” Zaria snarled. “You know he did nothing.”
“Are you telling me he didn’t know about your plan to deceive me and snatch the necklace?”
She was silent.
“That’s what I thought.”
“So what if he knew? Jules didn’t betray you—I did. He never wanted me to get involved with you in the first place.”
“My point is, he’s not innocent.”
Zaria scowled. Now that she was standing here in front of Kane, she forgot to be afraid of him. They might as well have been staring at each other from across the table at Moore & Sons, arguing over something trivial. “But he’s not the one you’re angry with. You’re mad at me.”
“This may surprise you, Miss Mendoza, but I’m capable of being angry with multiple people at once.
” Kane interlaced both hands on the desk.
His left thumb sported a band she hadn’t seen before: a signet ring of hammered black metal on silver.
Noting her interest, he traced it with his opposite index finger but gave no explanation.
“You’re quite right, though—I am very, very angry at you. ”
It was the opening she’d been waiting for. The reason she’d come here. “So take me instead.”
“I beg your finest pardon?”
“You heard me.” Still, embarrassingly, her voice hitched. “I’m the one you want to suffer. Let Jules go, and I’ll work for you instead.”
Kane rose, rounding the desk to lean against the side nearest her.
Zaria stiffened, and he noticed, lip curling as he hooked his thumbs into the pockets of his trousers.
She hated that the scent of him was so familiar.
Hated that she was here, doing this, when logic urged her to turn tail and get the hell away from Kane Durante.
But what other choice did she have? If Kane accepted her proposition, she could solve two problems at once.
Jules would be free, and she would be able to track down the ledger that Vaughan wanted. In theory.
“Miss Mendoza.” Kane drew her name out long, hazel eyes dangerously bemused. “Are you truly asking to join my crew?”
No turning back now. “Yes.”
“You realize women don’t typically join a kingpin’s crew.”
Be that as it may, Zaria knew it wasn’t unheard of. After all, Vaughan had Maisie working for him. “Since when do you care about things like that?”
“I don’t have time to waste making sure you don’t get killed.”
“Thanks for your concern, but I’ve spent eighteen years managing to stay alive on my own.”
Kane gave a dry chuckle. “I take it you’re excluding all the times I saved your life over the past few weeks, then.”
Her cheeks heated. “I was only in danger because you put a target on my back.”
“Unknowingly.”
“What difference does it make?”
He shrugged, the slant of his collarbone shifting beneath his partially undone shirt. “At this point, very little. Your offer is an intriguing one, but I chose Julian for a reason.”
“Jules isn’t an alchemologist, though. And a kingpin can always make use of an alchemologist.”
It was, simply put, the last card she had to play. Anticipation thrummed within her as Kane mulled that over, withdrawing his hands from his pockets to brace them against the desk. Zaria wondered what he was thinking. His reply, when it finally came, caught her off guard.
“Fine. But I need the necklace back.”
She furrowed her brow, not comprehending. If he’d given her a fake source, as she suspected, then why would he want it returned? “I don’t understand.”
“And here I thought my request quite simple,” Kane drawled. “The necklace. Give it to me.”
Zaria searched his face, looking for some indication that he was playing her.
Maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe, despite all she’d accomplished, she just couldn’t figure out how to use the damned thing.
She wouldn’t tell Kane that, though. Let him think the necklace was powerful.
Let him see her willingness to relinquish it as a sign that she was serious about this partnership, and that she could be trusted.
Carefully, she removed the necklace and handed it over, trying to appear more tentative than confused. “Why?” she couldn’t help blurting out. “Why did you give it to me in the first place if you were only going to take it back?”
Kane’s expression didn’t change as he pocketed the source. “I do many things for many different reasons.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Sure it is. You just didn’t like it.”
They stared at each other, locked in an impasse. Eventually, Zaria lifted her chin, stepping closer until they were all but an arm’s length apart. His proximity prickled her skin. “Don’t explain yourself to me, then,” she said through clenched teeth. “But let me replace Jules. Let him go.”
“I said fine.” Kane straightened beside the desk, smiling down at her.
Not his real smile, but the one more akin to a baring of teeth.
“You’re quite right that you could be useful to me, so I’ll accept your proposition.
Julian goes free, and you become mine. But when I say mine, understand that I mean it.
You’ll do whatever I ask. No arguing, no exceptions.
” He tilted his head. “And if you betray me again, Miss Mendoza, then God help you. I will find every person you’ve ever cared about and kill them while you watch.
I’ll make sure I wring every last bit of happiness from your life.
” Kane’s voice was barely audible, a whisper that scraped over Zaria’s skin like nails. “Do I make myself clear?”
She fought back a shiver, heart beating frantically, and nodded.
“Excellent. Then once again, I believe we have a deal.”