Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Kane
I was just finishing packing up for my trip to the other side of town when my phone buzzed, the computer buzzed, Kingston’s phone buzzed, as did the alert on every other desk.
Pulse racing, I looked down at it, seeing that Phoebe had pressed her panic button.
Immediately going into protocol, even with bile rising in my throat, I called her cell. Then her landline we’d insisted she have installed. But when I heard an odd busy signal on both, telling me that her phone was either off or blocked, bile slid up my throat.
“I’m driving, you get in the car,” Kingston said, grabbing his keys and anything else we might need.
Ford was right behind him, jaw tense, while Noah picked up the phone. “I’m calling the authorities, and everyone else; you get there.”
“On it,” Kingston said, but Ford and I just gave each other a look.
The cops would be able to handle it. Letting them do their thing would be the right way to handle it.
We weren’t going to do this the right way. We were going to do this our way.
“Call again.”
I hadn’t even realized my voice was so raspy until I spoke. Ford nodded and dialed.
Her voicemail.
Another call. Her voicemail.
Again.
Hands shaking, I sucked in a deep breath and found the calm that I needed all through my training. I couldn’t protect her if I made a mistake. If my hands were shaking so much I couldn’t stop that man.
“She’s at the apartment, we’re almost there. She lives on this side of town.”
Thank God , I thought at Kingston’s words, but I needed a moment to think.
“She wouldn’t use her panic button for anything else? It wasn’t an accidental touch?” Ford asked, and I glared at the other man.
“No. You installed some of them and you know her.”
“I do. But I’m going through the motions right now because the woman I thought was just my friend who happens to be my sister is in trouble. Is Claire with her?” he asked, and then I finally got my brain into gear.
“I don’t know. It was just the alert, no text. But she’s in the apartment, which means whatever is happening is happening inside the house.”
“And the alarm didn’t go off,” Kingston added as he drove like a bat out of hell, taking a turn far too quickly. I just hoped we didn’t get pulled over on the way to her.
“How the hell do we not know anything about who this guy is?”
Ford reached out and gripped my shoulder, and I was grateful for the connection, even if I needed to scream.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I don’t like that this guy is trained. Or that he was silent for so long.” Ford paused. “It is him, right? The guy who was sending her flowers. You don’t think it’s Tim?”
That thought had occurred to me, but the idea just made my blood chill. It couldn’t be Tim. Because if it was, it would be my fault. Everything would be my fault.
Finally, we pulled up to the outside of the apartment complex, and the lights were on in most of the apartments, but not Phoebe’s. Her drapes were drawn, except for one sliver, and it looked as if a flashlight was shining through and bouncing around.
“Fuck,” I grumbled.
“Let’s make it up the stairwell, just in case. Cops are on their way, and Noah said they know that we’re on property.”
“And what did they tell us? What are their instructions?” Ford asked dryly.
“Not sure. I hung up before I could hear them.”
We were going to get in a shit ton of trouble, but I didn’t care because Phoebe was in trouble.
We made our way up, and everything went silent. That pinprick of sensation that told me I needed to focus on what I was doing, because something was wrong and I needed to be alert.
I couldn’t hear sirens yet, meaning the authorities weren’t even close. It didn’t matter. We needed to get to Phoebe.
A scream ripped through the hallway as we made our way to her floor, and we moved at once.
Kingston was breaking in through the door, gun drawn, and I followed, Ford right behind me.
The man on top of Phoebe had a knife out, his eyes glazed, and his hand over Phoebe’s throat.
Blood pooled on the ground beneath Claire, but it looked as if she had moved to the wall herself, holding onto her stomach, her hands shaking.
She was going into shock, but was still breathing, and Kingston dropped to his knees, putting pressure on the wound.
I could finally hear sirens in the distance, but I was focused on the man holding Phoebe, a knife at her throat.
“Tim.”
“It took you long enough, Kane. Nobody can find me. Nobody did. And you didn’t even realize I was the one calling your girlfriend. What kind of security specialist are you when you didn’t realize what I could do? You had no clue. It didn’t even occur to you. And yet you kept getting the big contracts.”
I licked my suddenly dry lips and tried to remain calm, even as my gaze traveled over Phoebe in a quick motion. She looked bruised, a cut bleeding profusely on her arm, but it didn’t look like she was hurt anywhere serious.
Her eyes were wide, but she looked calm. I knew that was just a facade, but at least she wasn’t flailing, wasn’t getting herself nicked with that knife.
I hoped she would do what I asked quickly.
Or all of this would be for naught.
“Tim, why don’t you take a seat? We’ll talk about this.”
The other man laughed at Ford’s words.
“You really think so? That’s not how things work here. You guys don’t even know what you’re doing. You come bursting in here as if you have a right to be here, and yet all you can do is stand here and watch as I hold a knife to her throat. Do you really think you’re going to be able to save her now? You were too slow before, and too stupid to realize what was right in front of you all along. You let the FBI handle it. You weren’t even man enough to handle this on your own, like my team could have. No, you tried to follow the law, and now look at you, breaking down because your precious woman is hurt and you can’t do a thing to stop me.”
“We can talk this out, Tim. Anything you want.”
The man laughed. “There isn’t anything that I want from you.” He raised his knife and I knew if I didn’t move fast, all would be lost.
“Phoebe, down!” I called out, and Ford and I moved at once.
Ford dove at Phoebe, taking her to the ground and moving her out of the way as I took on Tim. I had wanted to be the one to hold Phoebe, but our training kicked in and Ford was closer. He went to stop the bleeding on Phoebe’s arm, and to give me backup, while I dodged the first knife strike from Tim, then the next. The third sliced against my side but it was just a graze. I ignored the fiery burn as I took the man’s wrist and twisted. He let out a sharp squeal and tried to punch me in the kidneys. I kicked out, knocked the man to the ground, and held both of his hands behind his back as he tried to kick out.
“Stop. Just stop.”
“No. This isn’t how it ends. This is not how I end.”
“Yes, it really is.”
And then Ford was there, taking over so I could hold Phoebe in my arms.
“Kane. You’re hurt.”
“You’re hurt,” I mumbled, searching her body for more cuts and bruises. Her neck was red, and already I could see bruises in the shape of that man’s hands starting to show.
“I’ll kill him.”
“No, he’s not worth it.” Phoebe’s eyes widened, and then she pulled away from me, running to the other side of the room.
“Claire.”
“I’m fine,” Claire rasped. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”
I met Kingston’s gaze and had a feeling it was just as bad as it looked.
However, the sweet sound of sirens got louder, and I let out my breath, pulling Phoebe back into my arms.
Ford could handle Tim, I just held Phoebe, and waited for the pounding footsteps to reach us.
None of this made any sense.
But maybe it did.
Maybe it all clicked into place, just far too late.
Later, when we found ourselves at the hospital, Claire in surgery but looking as if she would pull through, I sat and let them clean my cut which fortunately didn’t need stitches. Phoebe’s arm did though, and as I watched the needle slide in and out of her skin thread by thread, I vowed I would find a way to make Tim pay.
“Stop it,” Phoebe whispered.
“What?” I asked, scowling.
“You’re blaming yourself, and you’re probably thinking about doing something nasty to Tim.”
The plastic surgeon doing the stitches snorted but didn’t look up.
“I am not,” I lied.
She reached out and gripped my hand.
“You could have died.”
“I know. So could have Claire. But you did everything you could to make sure we were prepared, and we were. I am not a fighter, as is evidenced by the fact that I could not fight that guy off.”
“He was a trained mercenary. You weren’t going to be able to.”
“But it felt like I should have been able to. It felt like I needed to do more. But I kept Claire alive. And she kept me alive. And then you came. And everything’s fine. Everything’s fine.” When she burst into tears, the doctor pulled away and I held Phoebe close, keeping her arm still.
“Just hold on to me. Let the doctor finish his work and then we’ll go home. I’m never going to let anything touch you again.”
“We need to wait for Claire.”
“We can. Kingston and your siblings are waiting too.”
“What are we going to do, Kane? What’s going to happen next?”
“We’re going to get you cleaned up. And we’re going to take you home. But you’re safe now. Nothing can hurt you ever again.”
We sat there in silence as the doctor finished up her stitches and gave us aftercare instructions. While we waited to be discharged, I sat next to her on the hospital bed, holding her close.
“I still can’t believe he was able to do all of that. My poor neighbor.”
My stomach fell at the reminder of the death that had occurred. “Did he have any family?” I asked, my voice gruff.
“No. But he was always nice to us.” Phoebe wiped away tears.
“We’ll make sure he’s laid to rest. That everything that needs to be done is taken care of for him.”
“I didn’t doubt it for a second. If you didn’t, Claire and I would have.” She let out a shaky breath. “Claire needs to be okay.”
“She will be. It looked scarier than it was.” I repeated the lie.
Phoebe looked like she wanted to say something, but Kingston walked into the room, his jeans still covered in blood.
I wanted to shield Phoebe from it, but she had lived it after all; shielding her wouldn’t help.
“Claire’s out of surgery. You’re her power of attorney, so you can hear more about it, but the doctor said she pulled through. She’ll be in the ICU overnight, and then you can talk to her tomorrow. I’m going to stay though, so she’s not alone.”
I looked at Kingston, gratitude in my gaze even though I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say. My cousin just gave me a nod and moved forward so he could lean down and kiss Phoebe on the forehead.
“Get some sleep. I’ll keep watch over your best friend. You do have a hallway of family members out here, by the way. And not just the ones that you grew up with.”
My eyes widened as Phoebe sat up and winced. “Who’s out there?”
“Every single sibling you have. And your mom. Literally, all of Ford’s brothers are out there. Nobody’s talking, it’s really weird. But, I have a feeling that things are about to get interesting.”
At that, Kingston left and Isabella walked in.
“Don’t, don’t get up. I’m just checking on you. Then I’m going to kick everyone out and tell them they can see you at, I assume, Kane’s home later.”
Isabella moved forward and shifted so she could hug her sister.
“I’m really okay.”
“We’re going to talk about exactly what happened later. And you can decide how many of us show up at Kane’s house, since apparently your apartment is a crime scene now.” Isabella shuddered. “I’m really tired of our family going through things like this, okay? No more.”
Phoebe smiled softly as I squeezed her hip.
“I promise I’ll do my best.”
Isabella met my gaze and smiled, the first real smile I had seen from her in a while. “Thank you. For saving my sister.” I held out my arm.
“Come here.” She rolled her eyes, but Phoebe’s ice queen of a sister hugged me tightly, and promptly burst into tears.
That made Phoebe move, and Isabella and I both yelled at her to stop moving so she could rest, and that made us all laugh, and I held on to this moment, knowing it wasn’t over. Not completely. We would have to talk to the authorities, we’d have to deal with Tim, with the apartment, with everything.
But the worst was over.
I mouthed the words “I love you” to Phoebe over Isabella’s head and she mouthed them back.
I hadn’t been able to protect the woman I loved completely, not from all harm, but now the worst was over.
And I wasn’t going to make the mistake of letting go again.
This had been my second chance, and I hadn’t realized it until it was nearly too late.
Later, as Phoebe fell asleep on my shoulder, both of us finally resting, I held on again.
She was my forever, my only, and I knew the world was waiting for us as soon as we opened our eyes again.
We would face that.
Together.
Once we took on the important business of life, and all of the consequences of our actions first. But it would be fine.
Because thankfully, we had our second chance.