Chapter 19
Kane felt like he’d been traveling for days. In fact, it was just over fifteen hours. But he would see her soon. Now he was so close, he longed to take off the reflector device and search her out. But there were two reasons why that was a bad idea.
The first was that he wasn’t allowed in her mind.
..yet, and he wouldn’t breach that promise.
Although he had every intention of getting her to revoke that ban very soon.
The other was that if there were in fact agents from the future in town trying to locate them, he didn’t want to get captured before he had the chance to find Kaitlin and tell her. ..
Hell, he wasn’t sure what he would tell her. But he reckoned actions spoke louder than words and he was here, wasn’t he?
He’d spoken to Rose as soon as his plane landed.
Kaitlin was out of contact, still roaming the streets, with Janelle and Josie as backup.
Though what Josie could do if they ran into trouble, he had no clue.
As far as he was aware, she didn’t even know how to shoot a gun.
He supposed she would have had some sort of combat training; all the Kindred had had military training.
Unfortunately, Josie had no doubt forgotten that along with the rest of her past.
Rose had assured him everything was under control, and so far, Kaitlin hadn’t sensed anything amiss.
Rose was going to call Kaitlin and tell her of his imminent arrival.
Would she be pleased or pissed off? Either way, he hoped she would be back at the hotel by now.
He’d been caught in the rush hour traffic, and it had taken him longer than he’d expected to get here from the airport.
It was dark when his taxi pulled up outside the hotel. He paid the man and got out. He had no luggage; it had already been transferred to the small plane in Kampala, and he hadn’t taken the time to go and reacquire it.
He didn’t bother with reception but headed straight up to the room number Rose had given him. He rang the bell, but no one answered. Where the hell were they? Had Rose lied? Had they moved hotels to avoid him? Was he getting paranoid?
He pulled out his cell phone and punched in her number. There was no answer.
His heart rate kicked up. He tried to tell himself that there was nothing to worry about. No reason to panic. They were just momentarily out of contact. His phone rang, and he almost dropped it. It was Rose.
“Where the hell are you?” he growled.
“In the elevator. We’re on our way up now.”
He ran to the elevator. When the doors slid open, ice flooded his veins.
There was no Kaitlin, just Rose and Dave with an almost unconscious man hanging between them. He recognized the detective who Kaitlin had kissed only a couple of days ago. What the hell had happened?
“Where’s Kaitlin?”
“Let’s get inside, then we can talk.”
He didn’t want to get inside, he wanted to find out where Kaitlin was, and then he wanted to go get her.
But he clamped his lips closed. He took Rose’s place, gripping the man’s arms, and the guy groaned.
He was coming around. Rose led the way and opened the door.
They half carried, half dragged the man to the sofa and laid him down.
“Where’s Josie?” he muttered, pulling himself half upright.
No one answered. Kane could feel the panic rising inside him. “What the fuck happened?”
“It looks like they were taken. Kaitlin, Josie and he”—she nodded to where Steve sat— “were in a vehicle heading back to the hotel when they were ambushed. We don’t know the details.
Josie managed to call in their location, and a few minutes later, Kaitlin hit the panic button.
But we never heard anything else. When we arrived, only Steve was there.
They’d stunned him with something. But Josie and Kaitlin were gone. ”
“What about the tracker?”
“Dead. They must have scanned her and found it.”
This was not happening. “You were supposed to protect her. What the hell were you doing? Where was Janelle? Where were you?”
She glared at him. “For that matter, where the fuck were you?”
At that moment, the door was flung open. His heart stopped. But it was only Janelle. “What’s happened? Where’s Kaitlin?” She strode into the room and came to a halt when she caught sight of Kane. “You’re here.”
“Obviously.”
“What happened? I got a message to get back. Where are Kaitlin and Josie?”
“They’ve been taken,” Rose said. “The vehicle was ambushed.”
Janelle hurried over to Steve and crouched down beside him. “Are you okay?”
“I guess.” He rubbed his chest. “They used some sort of taser on me.”
“At least you’re alive. Can you tell us what happened?”
He nodded and took a deep breath. Kane had to resist the urge to go shake the details out of him.
He also had an urge to rip off the reflector device and read the truth from the man’s mind.
But he had to think that through. If there was a chance that the agents from the future were close, they could pick up his thoughts.
He couldn’t risk that. They had to rescue Kaitlin, and they couldn’t do that if they were prisoners themselves.
He’d find out what he could first and then make a decision.
His mind slowed. He was back in control, the panic receding.
“We were driving back here,” Steve said. “There was a diversion. I didn’t like it—I knew something wasn’t right—but there was nothing I could do. They boxed us in, then a van hit us in the side. We couldn’t get out.”
“Before it happened, did Kaitlin say anything?” Rose asked. “Give any indication she was in…pain?”
“No. Nothing.”
“She was wearing a reflector device at that point,” Janelle said.
Rose frowned. “Then presumably they must have found her earlier but waited. And they must have known she’d pick them up, so they stayed out of her head. Maybe they even knew we were trailing her. Shit. They’re on to us.”
“Go on,” Kane urged.
Steve frowned. “There’s not much more I can tell you. A man got out of the van.”
“What did he look like?” Kane asked.
He frowned. “Like you lot. He was tall with black hair.”
“It’s them,” Rose said.
“Who’s them? Are you talking about the people from the future?”
“Just how much does he know?” Kane asked.
“Josie and Kaitlin told me. Just before the crash. About the cataclysm.”
“Jesus.” Kane ran a hand through his hair. “What happened next?”
“They wrenched open the door, and something hit me. I thought I’d been shot, but obviously, that wasn’t the case. Anyway, it knocked me out, and I didn’t see anything else until Rose pulled me out of there.”
“It could only have been minutes later,” Rose said. “But the van was long gone.”
“Did you get the number?” Kane asked.
“Yeah. I wrote it down.” He pulled a notebook out of his pocket and tossed it to Kane. “I’d run it through the police databases, but I’m guessing you’ve probably got something better.”
“I’ll get it to Ethan,” Rose said. “I doubt they’ll find anything useful, but he can get the CCTV feeds from the traffic cams around the area. We might get some idea what direction they’ve gone in. It will give us somewhere to start anyway.”
Jesus. They had to find her. They could be torturing her right now. He should never have let her go through with this. Or he should have been here to protect her.
“It’s not your fault,” Janelle said.
“Of course, it’s my fucking fault. I should have protected her.”
“Not your job. Well, not any more than it’s any of ours. We all underestimated them.”
Kane pressed a finger to his forehead. “And Kaitlin is paying for that mistake.”
“And Josie,” Rose said. “Christ, we’d better let Sadie know.”
“What happens now?” Steve asked. “How do we get them back?”
Kane blew out his breath and cleared his mind.
Thinking about what could be happening to Kaitlin would not help.
And truthfully, there was no reason for the agents to hurt her physically.
They didn’t need to; they could just go straight into her mind and get the information they wanted.
Though that probably wouldn’t be without pain.
There always seemed to be pain when they pushed inside.
But hopefully, no permanent damage. There was no doubt that they would get access to everything in her head.
That had far-reaching implications. He couldn’t worry about that now—except for letting the others know they were compromised.
Most important right now was finding Kaitlin and Josie and getting them back unharmed. These people were ruthless…though they hadn’t killed Steve. Likely they hadn’t wanted to risk killing Kaitlin and so their weapons had been set to stun.
“First, we need to contact Ethan, get him looking into the vehicle—anything he can find. Also get him to arrange a plane. If we find them, we’ll need to leave here immediately.”
“I’ll do that,” Rose said.
“And we should call Jake in Uganda, tell him what’s happened. They need to be prepared in case their location is compromised.”
“I’ll call him,” Janelle said.
“Okay. I’m going to take off the reflector and see if I can get a lock on Kaitlin—they’ll have to remove hers if they want to get inside her head.
If I can’t reach her, we’ll go to the last location, and hope Ethan gets us something on the vehicle.
We need to get closer. Sooner or later, we’ll pick her up. ”
“Should we take off the devices as well?” Rose asked.
“No. I’m stronger than all of you. If I can’t find her, then you won’t either. If we need to spread out later and cover a bigger area, then we’ll rethink that strategy, but for now, we keep you hidden from them for as long as possible. Okay, go make those calls.”
Once they were gone, he sat for a moment.
“Just tell me you’ll get them back,” Steve said.
“I’ll get them back.”
He slid off the reflector device. Closing his eyes, he reached out and searched for Kaitlin but found nothing.
It could be that she was unconscious. They’d probably stunned her as well.
She wouldn’t have gone with them without a fight.
And after the failed attempt on New Year’s Eve, they would have been expecting that.
He blew out his breath and opened his eyes.
“Anything?” Steve asked.
“No.” He studied the other man and then slipped into his mind. It was a little chaotic in there. He was panicking almost as much as Kane. He cared about Josie.
“Think about the accident,” Kane said.
“You’re in my mind?”
He nodded. “I might be able to pick up some details you’ve forgotten.”
“Okay.”
Steve’s mind cleared a little. Kane followed the pathways, saw the accident happening as Steve had seen it.
But he’d already given them everything he remembered.
Most of the time, people had no clue that Kane was in their heads.
When they did know, they invariably clamped up, as though they could hide whatever they were thinking from him. Steve’s mind was open.
Then Kane backed up. There was something the other man was trying not to think about. Kane dug a little deeper, and he went still with shock.
Even she wouldn’t do that.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me?” he growled.
Steve winced.
Kane couldn’t believe she’d actually told this outsider about the time machine.
That was almost sacrilegious. Never mind her harebrained idea to steal it and go back in time and save her brother.
She was clearly not thinking straight. That was probably why she’d come up with this other—also totally harebrained—plan to use herself as bait. He gritted his teeth.
“If it makes you feel any better, I don’t actually think either of them had thought it through.
” That was from Steve. Kane studied the man with narrowed eyes.
Maybe he should take the guy out—teach Kaitlin once and for all that she shouldn’t share secrets that were not her own. But he realized he couldn’t do that.
Once perhaps, he would have done it without too many qualms. He was no longer that same person.
“Are you going to kill me?” Steve asked.
“No. I’m going to fucking kill Kaitlin.”
“You’ll have to find her first,” Rose said coming back into the room. “What’s she done now?”
He shook his head. “She’s un-fucking-believable. And crazy. And a danger to herself.” He was going to find her, and he was going to handcuff her to his side and never let her out of his sight again. She certainly wasn’t going to be stealing any time machines.
“Yep. All those things and don’t you love her for it?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“Then let’s go find her.”