“Cara?”
She opened her eyes and glanced at Joe Hernandez, not liking the look in his gaze. “Did you find something?”
His jaw tightened, holding out his arm, a paper bag clutched in his fist. Cara grabbed it from his outstretched hand and opened it, looking in, careful not to disturb the contents. A red and white shop rag lay at the bottom. She didn’t have to touch it to know its origin. K & K was printed on the top right corner. She recognized it instantly as one from Kane and Kaleb’s motorcycle shop.
Cara glanced up at Joe. “You found this upstairs?” she asked, wondering if Kane had possibly dropped it at some point. “Maybe Kane—”
“It was beneath Jeff, Cara. Trapped between him and the mattress. And unless you’ve taken to sleeping with the dirtbag biker, it’s hard to dispute the evidence.”
She shook her head. “It’s not possible. Kane was with me.”
“You were with Robbie and me all day. The ME said T.O.D. was four to six hours tops before you found him. Where was Viper today?”
“With Kaleb,” she barely whispered, looking back into the bag. “That doesn’t mean the rag belonged to him.”
“That’s not all.”
Her gaze snapped back up as he handed her an envelope she hadn’t noticed him holding earlier. Cara took it and opened the flap. Her breath stuck in her chest as her world tilted on its axis. Her ears buzzed, her heart ached.
“I take it you’ve seen that before?”
I must have lost it.
She nodded slowly, remembering Kane walking toward her in the hotel room, bare from the waist up … save for the silver chain that encircled his neck.
Ion gave it to me.
“It looks like the one Kane wears.”
“Then if we find him, we’ll be able to verify if he still has his.”
A sob tore through her, before she managed to shake her head. “He lost his.”
Joe’s gaze hardened. “When, Cara?”
“I don’t know. I saw him after work and he wasn’t wearing it.”
Cara looked beyond her partner to see Robbie standing at the bottom of the stairwell. She placed a hand over her quivering lips. Before she could think of one thing to say in Kane’s defense, Robbie approached Joe and cleared his throat. Joe faced the captain.
“Put an APB out on Kane Tepes, Detective. I’ll meet you at the S.O. We’ll have a warrant for his arrest ready within the hour.”
“I’ll get dressed,” Cara said. She needed to be there for Kane.
Robbie turned his darkened gaze on her. “From what I’ve been hearing, you’re too fucking close to this whole mess, Brahnam. As of now, you’re off the case.”
Not giving her a chance to reply, he headed for her back door and into the black of night. She returned her attention to Joe.
“You can’t think Kane is guilty.”
“Christ, Cara. Wake up. The chain was gripped in Reeves’ left hand. I have to head to the S.O. I’ll leave a uniform here with you. You shouldn’t be alone.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“No, Cara, you won’t. Besides, I can’t chance you’ll call Kane to warn him.” He placed a warm hand on her shoulder, his look pitying. “Get some rest.”
Joe walked out, leaving Deputy Higgins standing by the door watching her. Cara curled up on the couch, wrapped her arms about herself and cried the tears she thought she no longer had. Surely, she hadn’t been that much of a fool. Kane couldn’t possibly be guilty of killing Dispatcher Reeves or ransacking her house and threatening her life.
* * *
“What the fuck is this about?” Kane asked, barely containing the desire to wrap his fingers around the pencil-pusher’s throat as he stood on the stoop of the clubhouse. Kane’s hands fisted at his side. Now was not the time to teach this ass a lesson in manners.
The captain’s condescending smile caused his ire to inch up his spine. “Kane Tepes,” he began and flipped open his badge, “we’re here on official business, I’m afraid. You’ll need to come with us.”
Kane looked to the three black and whites that sat in the gravel parking lot, red and blue LEDs lighting up the dark night. Six deputies stood, guns drawn, with Detective Hernandez just a few feet behind the captain.
“Where’s Cara? Is she all right?”
He’d never forgive himself if something happened to her after leaving her alone at the house with the dead body. He had stood close by until the uniforms arrived, but that didn’t mean the primordial couldn’t have slipped past his notice.
“She's home, resting. But she’s of no concern to you.”
“Then what’s this about?”
“Kane Tepes, we have a warrant here for your arrest.”
His brows knit together. “On what grounds?”
“For murder, four of them to be exact.”
“You can’t be fucking serious?”
“Where were you today between the hours of ten and two?”
He rubbed his brow. Why the hell was Kaleb always MIA when he needed him most? Even Grayson had taken off about two hours earlier, leaving Kane alone to deal with these fucks. He had no choice but to follow their direction to keep from creating an even bigger mess. Once at the Sheriff’s Office, he could talk to Ducat.
“I was with my brother Kaleb,” he said. “All day.”
“Is your brother here so we can speak to him?”
“No.”
“Then you’ll get your phone call. Turn around, hands on the door, legs spread.”
Kane did as the captain asked, though he felt more like draining him of every last ounce of blood. At least he’d be deserving of Kane’s wrath. One of the deputies stepped up and patted him down. Thankfully, Kane had removed his hunting knife when he had arrived home earlier, and he carried no other weapons. Detective Hernandez read Kane his Miranda rights as he slapped one cuff on Kane’s wrist, then pulled his arm behind his back before yanking on the other and securing both wrists. Hernandez led him to the unmarked car, placed his hand on the top of Kane’s head and assisted him into the back of the cruiser.
These clowns were fooling themselves if they thought simple cuffs and the backseat of a secured cop car could contain him. But for now he’d humor them. Kane needed to talk to Cara. Why hadn’t she called to warn him about what the hell was going down?
Gritting his teeth, feeling the ache clear to his ears, he leaned his head against the backseat of the cruiser.
Fuck.
He needed to get hold of Kaleb and fast. If Cara was indeed at home resting, that meant she was easy pickings for the primordial. Maybe that had been the ancient vampire’s plan all along. Once they reached the Sheriff’s Office, he’d make sure Ducat found Kaleb and delivered his brother a message to get Cara out of that house, out of town, and under the Sons’ protection, stat.
Chapter 26
Something wakened Cara. She couldn’t be sure of the cause as she’d been out like a light. No dreams, just a deep sleep. Shaking her head, she tried to dislodge the groggy remnants. When she first laid her head on the arm of the sofa, she thought she had no hope of catching any shut-eye. Every time she closed her eyes, the bloody mess of her room painted the back of her eyelids, that and her fellow officer wide-eyed and unseeing in her bed. Cara must have been more tired than she imagined or the shock of the day had totally drained her, for she had fallen easily to sleep once she allowed her eyes to close. She couldn’t be sure how much time had lapsed.
Sitting up, Cara peered into the darkness. Hadn’t she left on the kitchen fluorescent light over her sink? Even the safety light outside didn’t seem to add illumination through the windows. Total blackness hung thick in the room, with visibility being somewhere close to a foot. Maybe Higgins had turned off the lighting so he could catch a little nap himself. Slacker. The deputy’s feet were kicked out in front of him as he reclined in the chair sitting adjacent to the couch. Sure enough, he didn’t move a muscle as she stood.
Some watch dog they left in charg
e.
Cara made a mental note not to put Higgins on nighttime surveillance in the future. Using the arm of the sofa to steady herself, she stood and stretched her cramped muscles. The previous day’s images flooded her thoughts like a damn breaking loose: the blood staining her room, Jeff sightlessly staring at the ceiling, Kane by her side.
Kane.
Now that she didn’t have anyone from the S.O. watching over her shoulder, she needed to warn Kane that Robbie would no doubt have a warrant out for his arrest. Though Robbie had presented her with the evidence of Kane’s chain clutched in the dead dispatch’s hand, she knew without a doubt Kane had not murdered those women and that the Primordial had somehow gotten hold of the choker and planted it on the body.
Her breathing hitched and she strangled back a sob.
Poor Jeff. He hadn’t deserved to be caught in the middle of the nightmare that had become her life. Tears pricked her eyes, but didn’t fall. She needed to suck it up. The living still needed her, and getting caught up in emotion now would do no one any good, especially Kane. She needed to get to Kane before Robbie did.
And Higgins untimely nap had just given her the opportunity.
Cara did a quick sweep of the living room, looking on the end tables for her cell. Three end tables and the kitchen table behind her, she had come up empty handed. If Higgins had planned a little power nap, then possibly he had pocketed the phone. Approaching the deputy, she ran her hand across the surface of the end table next to his chair, finding nothing more than her black, wrought iron lamp. At this point, she doubted that if she turned it on, Higgins would even notice. She could have left the house and been long gone without him the wiser.
Reaching for his pockets, thinking maybe he had thought best to keep her cell where she might not dare search, she noted the deputy’s eyes weren’t closed after all, but staring right at her … or rather sightlessly through her.
Her scream cut short as a hand covered her mouth and a strong forearm wrapped her windpipe. Cara fought the hold, as she tried desperately to draw breath. Losing consciousness was inevitable if she didn’t break the iron hold on her throat. Dear Lord, she hoped Kane wasn’t sitting the night in county lockup. If she was unable to get word to him, he’d be too late to save her. Her limbs numbed, her ears buzzed. She couldn’t suck in oxygen.
“Nighty night,” her attacker whispered, warm breath feathering across her ear just before her world blackened.
* * *
Kane paced the cement flooring, waiting to hear back from Kaleb. It didn’t take much to reach each side of the six-by-eight foot cell with his long gait. Old iron, prison bars closed off one end, making him feel much like a caged animal. And truth of it, he wasn’t far from being one. He could easily jerk the old iron from the cinder block walls had he wanted and been on the street looking for Cara in the blink of an eye. But Kaleb had convinced him to hold tight, to not draw unnecessary attention to the Sons.
“This is non-negotiable, Viper. Stay put,” he had said. “I’ll find her.”
His brother had given him a direct order. And with Kaleb acting as club pres while he sat incapacitated, Kane was expected to follow the directive without question. He needed to keep the Sons’ best interest in mind. Breaking out of jail would only cause them more problems and draw questions the club wasn’t equipped to answer.
Thankfully, he had been able to get hold of his twin upon arrival at county lockup. Kaleb had been pretty pissed at having to prioritize finding Cara. After all, the detective wasn’t high on his brother’s list of favorite people. To Kaleb, she had done nothing but cause trouble from the minute she entered their lives, not to mention she fronted the team trying to convict Kane of murder. Now here he stood, in the very cell she had first tried hard to put him in, but hopefully didn’t believe in his guilt, no matter the evidence presented her.
Kane sat heavily on the thin mattress covering the molded cement bed and ran his cool hands down his tired face. He probably looked like death warmed over. The last time he had taken communion was three nights back when he drank from Cara. And the truth of it, he had been careful to draw very little. He held out his hands, noting the map of blue veins beneath the surface. His skin had taken on the translucent look and his body felt the stirrings of the death chill. He needed to feed soon if he hoped to keep his strength, or getting out of this cell on his own wouldn’t even be an option.
With no windows in this part of the Sheriff’s Office, Kane had no idea if the sun had even begun to rise, though his senses told him morning had not yet come. Every minute that passed put Cara closer to danger of being bled dry by this son of a bitch. Whoever the fuck he was, he had managed to take Kane out of the equation, though he had to know no jail cell would ever hold him. The ancient vampire had to know he operated on a tight time schedule.
Kane couldn’t leave another moment to chance.
Waiting for Kaleb might mean the difference between life and death for Cara. He needed to find her, the consequences of breaking yet another rule and not following Kaleb’s order be damned. Approaching the door barring his freedom, Kane gripped the bars tightly in his fists at chest level. He braced his booted heels against the cement pedestal of the bed and pushed steadily outward. Cement crumbled; chunks fell to the floor. With one last push and an inhuman-like growl, the bars separated from the walls. Thankfully, he had managed to do so with a minimal amount of noise.
Kane leaned the bars against the adjacent wall and headed down the long hallway to the locked door with the window looking out at the dispatch area of the Sheriff’s Office. He hoped the night shift deputies were still making rounds. The fewer he had to hypnotize, the quicker he was outside the office.
The cylinder in the lock crunched, steel scraping steel, as he twisted the knob and easily broke the fixture. Kane’s gaze locked with the dispatch’s through the door’s window—her mouth hung agape. No ordinary man could have broken the fixture.
“Don’t move,” Kane ordered as he stepped through the doorway and into the adjacent room.
The young woman’s fear was evident in her scent. Other than the tremble of her hands, she did as Kane asked.
“Are you alone?”
She shook her head, her forefinger pointing toward the back of the station. “Just one.”
“Good. Look at me,” he said, his eyes heating, becoming obsidian.
She couldn’t have looked away from him if she tried.
“Erase the surveillance tapes for the last hour, then turn them off.”
“I can’t do that.”
“You can,” he leaned in, “and you will.”
The woman messed with the computer, typed in a series of numbers, then hit the delete key.
“Done.”
“You didn’t see me and you don’t know what happened. You will not call for backup and you’ll sleep until someone finds you.”
“I’ll sleep,” she repeated, then yawned. “I’m suddenly tired. I can’t hold my head up.”
The woman laid her head on her crossed arms atop the desk and promptly fell asleep. Kane pushed a button on the desk near her elbow, causing the exit door to buzz, giving him five seconds to exit. He headed out the door, thankfully unseen by the second party in the Sheriff’s Office. Hitting the pavement running, he knew he’d reach the clubhouse in less time than it would take to drive. Kane needed every spare second he could get.
* * *
“What the fuck are you doing?” Kaleb roared, his gaze zeroing in on Kane as he entered the clubhouse.
Grayson, Alexander, Nicholas and Joseph all turned in unison, their look no more approving than his twin’s. Kane got it. He had just broken another rule by not following Kaleb’s order as acting president. But what the hell did they expect? He wasn’t about to sit around while Cara got her throat slit from ear to ear. Kane slammed the heavy entrance door.
“Are you fucking insane?” Kaleb continued. “The cops will be swarming this place before we even have a chance to get out there a
nd look for Cara, and we’ll have you to thank for that. Don’t you know how to follow rules any more, Viper?”
Kane took a deep breath, slightly winded from his sprint. “Look, I don’t have time to explain my actions. You can dole out my punishment later. Right now I need to find Cara.”
“What the hell do you think we’re doing here? Throwing a fucking party?”
Kaleb was angry. That Kane understood. Acting as president, he had every right to be pissed that Kane had not followed his order to stay put. He’d lost Ion; he wasn’t about to lose Cara, too.
“Did you try her house?”
Kaleb scratched a spot just above his left ear, telling Kane that he tested his twin’s patience. He blew out a stream of air through pursed lips, then skirted the four other Sons and approached Kaleb.
“Well, you’re here now. Might as well give us a hand. I was about to split the territory among us. We’ll travel in twos.”
“Where’s Blondy?” Kane asked.
“Don’t know. Not answering his cell. Likely got piss drunk last night and is sleeping it off in some bitch’s bed.”
“Let’s hit the streets then,” Kane said. “You and I can check her house first.”
“Already been there, Viper. It’s not good.” Kaleb laid a hand on Kane’s shoulder. “The deputy they put there to watch her got his throat slit and Cara’s nowhere to be found.”
“Jesus!” Kane’s pulse kicked up, his anxiety hitting a high note. “Any ideas?”
“The primordial’s scent was all over the fucking house. I’m betting he took Cara, though I doubt they went far.”
“What makes you think that, Hawk?”
Even thinking of Cara in the hands of that psycho made him want to kill something and this piece of shit was number one on his hit list. “Why not kill Cara and get the hell out of the states, head back to Italy?”
Viper (Sons of Sangue) Page 28