by Raven Dark
Coming out here to talk to him, I’d wanted to remain livid with him over what he’d done to me earlier in the car, and then in the alley, but all thoughts of my animosity toward him buried themselves under the weight of the danger Gavini posed. It bothered me how I drew strength from Kane’s protective hold, how I felt steadier with him there.
“Anika, I want you to listen to me.” His voice soothed the terror racing through me like ice. He grabbed my face and made me look at him. “Listen to me. I will protect you, angel, do you hear me? Everything I do is to protect you.”
I made myself nod shakily. Suddenly, I felt a flood of relief the wild and crazy sex we’d had before probably only made it look more than ever like I was Kane’s slave. Gavini would have no way of knowing he hadn’t forced me just by hearing us.
Except…
Except he’d given me a safe word. That didn’t sound like the treatment you gave a slave.
Before I could address this problem, David came to us and handed Kane what looked like tiny round buttons, but they looked like he’d crushed them.
“There were three of them, sir. One under the car, meant to track where we went, one in the front for me, and one in the back for you and Miss Anika. He covered his bases well.”
“Fuck. Are you sure there’s no more of them?”
“Yes, sir. You can speak freely now. I’m sorry. This is my fault. I normally never leave the car unattended, but I took it for a wash while you were in one of your meetings today. They must have lo-jacked us while it was being washed.”
However expressionless David’s face was, I could feel the irritation with himself. As much as could be for a man who was good at making himself look unflappable, David looked like his allowing the car to end up bugged was the same as if he’d let the president get kidnapped. It smacked of a man who was used to performing hi job with a frightening perfection, and once again, my mind screamed at me to know who he was. What he was.
Kane scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous, David, you aren’t at fault here.”
“Just the same.” He stopped Kane before he could help me into the back. “I insist you take Miss Anika in a cab until I can give the car a full sweep. The equipment is at the hotel. I’ll have it done before dinner.”
“But, wait a minute, David.” I glanced at both men, directing the question at both of them. “How do you two know there aren’t more bugs on our clothes, on us?”
“Because, every morning, David checks over everything I wear, everything I use throughout the day. Then he does the same at night, and now he does the same with you.”
I widened my eyes at David. “Everything?” My face flamed, picturing him scrutinizing my underwear.
“Everything, Miss Anika.”
“Wow. I’m not sure whether to feel safer, or kind of creeped out.”
David gave a lopsided smile and waited for Kane to finish with me and get in the car.
Kane took the door to the car, but then stopped and slipped his hand in mine. “Are you okay?”
I made myself nod again, trying to ignore the way my head spun, the way my skin buzzed with the awareness of danger at an intensity I hadn’t felt since before I met Kane. “It takes more than a few listening devices to scare me.”
His mouth turned up and he squeezed my hand. “Good girl. I’ll send a cab to pick you up from work. I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Okay. Kane, I’m assuming Gavini did this because he doesn’t believe you’re not helping me out of the goodness of your heart.”
“Probably.” But he kept his eyes on the city behind me, and his face was too unreadable. What wasn’t he telling me?
“So, now what? We have to confront him. We—”
He shook his head. “That’s the last thing we should do. He’ll only take pleasure in knowing he rattled you.” He locked his eyes on mine, rubbing one hand up and down my arm. “Go back to work. Pretend nothing has happened as much as you can. It’s best if Dominic thinks what he’s done has had no effect on us.”
I blew out a breath. “Easy for you to say.” He was the one who’d existed his entire life in a world of mobsters, crime and corporate espionage. I was way, way out of my depth here.
“Hey.” Kane tipped my chin up, and the warmth in his eyes startled me. For a moment, he looked like the man I’d fallen for, what was only three days ago, but now felt like a thousand years gone. Not like the man who’d deliberately been an ass to my father and then punished me when I’d called him on it. I blinked, forcing myself not to get lost in those eyes.
“What?”
“Do you trust me, angel?”
Oh, God. I wanted to so badly it hurt. But the memory of what he’d done in the car, and then in the alley, and why, ate a hole through any hope of anything between us other than crazy, twisted lust. “Never.”
He sighed and his hand made circles on my back. Regret darkened his eyes, but he nodded, as if he knew I’d made the right choice, no matter how much he wanted things to be different.
“I will keep you safe, girl. If you believe nothing else I say, believe that. I will do whatever it takes to protect you.”
Why, I didn’t know, but I didn’t like the way he said that. There was a threat in it, somehow. Before I could ask him, though, he leaned in and placed a kiss on my forehead. “Go to work. Try to relax. And behave.”
As soon as Anika was gone, I climbed into the back of the limo. I clenched my fists, cracking two of my knuckles. I couldn’t let what had happened with those bugs slide. Not if I wanted to maintain the reputation that kept me alive. Awareness of what my father or Dominic would do if they knew what had happened and I didn’t act, and even more potent, protectiveness for Anika, left me no choice but to teach whomever bugged my car a lesson.
“David. Where is this carwash you went to?”
“It’s the Easy Wash on Fifth.” He looked over the seat at me. His expression was deadpan, that professional look he wore when he knew he was going to have to watch me do some seriously bad shit.
“You want me to call the cleanup crew now, or later, sir?”
“Neither.”
“Ah. Got it, sir.”
A few minutes later, we pulled into the car wash. Before I was even out of the car, I had my Glock in my hand. I checked the magazine and stalked into the shop. Any one of the men could be working for Gavini, but without knowing who, I only had one option.
“Hey, what are you doing in here, customers don’t—” The one attendant from the front hurried across the shop to me. When I lifted my gun in his face, he stopped, hands flying up. “Wow, okay, the register is right there, man. I—”
“Do I look like I need money to you?” Before he could answer, I fired two shots into his forehead. As soon as he fell, I went to the back, gave the two washers there a chance to shout in alarm, then squeezed off two more shots.
A third man came out from a back office and raced for the shop’s alarm. I stalked to him and slammed his head into the top of the car about to be washed.
“What the hell man!” he wailed.
Cutting him off, I grabbed his head and pulled it back until he shouted in pain. “No one bugs my car, and no one comes after my woman.”
I didn’t give him a chance to reply before I fired a final shot into the back of his skull. Blood spattered the shiny white car crimson, and he dropped. I shoved the pistol in the waist of my pants.
“Whatever it takes.”
Kane wasn’t in the cab when it showed to pick me up at the front of the hospital when my shift ended at ten. Disappointment swirled through me, and I tamped it down. His actions today served their purpose, reminding me, unequivocally, that we were not equals; I was his property, and I best learn to act that way. Such a reminder also left no doubt, the less I trusted him, and hell, the less I saw of him over these six months, the better. I couldn’t figure out if I was relieved he was returning to California in two days or not.
Still, as I got in the cab, I couldn’t help r
emembering the way he’d been before I’d gone back to my shift. He hadn’t behaved anything like a slave’s master then. He’d been protective and reassuring. Ugh, the man was so confusing, sometimes I swore it was like he was two people. Worse, I never knew which one of them I would see next.
At the hotel, I stepped in and found the suite empty. I also found a note from Kane on the coffee table. Hope pricked at me, but I didn’t know if I hoped he would return, or that he would stay away. If he stayed away, I wouldn’t be tempted by whatever seduction he might try on me. Still, loneliness wrapped itself around me, the kind of loneliness I had grown used to feeling over the years, having forbidden myself any kind of closeness with anyone.
Too tired to bother eating, I showed quickly while David swept the hotel for bugs. I slipped into my favorite fuzzy pajamas, ignoring the silky ones Kane left for me on the bed, and handing David every stitch I’d worn that day for his inspection. When he fond nothing, relief swept over me. I bade him goodnight, and then I crawled into bed, wishing the bed didn’t feel so huge and empty without Kane there to take up half of it.
That night I had a dream. It was a lot like those ones I had when I was younger, when the Gavinis found my father and I a lot easier, because my dad was still learning how to live in hiding.
My father lay in his hospital bed, as frail and as weak looking as he had right after he’d been shot. I stood over him, holding his hand, and for some reason his wound was still bleeding, open and unwrapped. Muscle and sinew stared up at me through the hole in his slacks.
“Daddy, just hold on. The doctor will be here any minute.” I looked around frantically, rushing to the door of what looked like an operating room, but I didn’t see anyone. I looked out the window into the hall. No one. Where the hell was the damn surgeon? I went back to his side.
“Anika, I’m so sorry. This is my fault. I needed to keep you alive. You’re my daughter.’
“I know, Daddy, I know. It’s all right.” But when I looked at his face, it wasn’t the face I knew. His dark curly hair was gone, his face all different angles. Only when I tried to look closer, to see who’s face it was, it was just a shadow, featureless, like a mask.
I wanted to scream, but I wasn’t even sure why I was so scared. Instead, I took his shoulders, shaking him. “Dad, the doctor is coming. Stay with me.” His face swam in and out of focus, his features becoming almost clear, then not. “No, don’t go. Stay with me. Doctor!”
A hand grasped my shoulder and I jumped, spinning around.
“He’ll be alright, Daniella.”
The doctor, face covered in a surgical mask. But his voice…I knew that voice. “He’ll be just fine.” The doctor lifted his hand and I stared, eyes widening. A huge knife stuck up from his fist. Then he pulled his mask down, and an evil mobster’s grin filled my vision.
Gavini.
“What the—” I blinked, and the knife suddenly became a machete. I snapped my gaze up to the doctor’s face and a scream lodged in my throat.
The man grinning at me was Kane. He swung the blade down, straight at my father’s head.
I jerked upright in bed, clawing at the sheets. It occurred to me I could hear screaming.
Then, slowly, it dawned on me. The screaming was coming from my own throat.
When Kane rushed to my side, I was already curled up in a ball on the bed in a fetal position. I could hear the words I was saying, but they only half made sense to me.
“Anika, what’s wrong? Angel, talk to me.” He pulled me into his arms and I thrashed. “Please don’t kill him, Kane, please!”
“Kill who? Anika, come back to me. No one is going to hurt you.” He held me tighter, and pulled me until I was curled up in his lap. I put my arms around him, his warmth and gentleness making me sob harder.
I just kept saying the same words over and over again.
“He’s my dad. He’s my dad. He’s my dad….”
8
For a long time after I stopped crying and reality reasserted itself, we sat in silence. By the time I stopped, the clock on the bedside table read a few minutes after midnight. Kane leaned against the headboard of his massive bed and held me in his arms, the slow, even rhythm of his breathing calming me more than I would ever admit. Head on his chest, I wrapped my arms around him, listening to the steady beat of his heart.
“I’m sorry I lost my shit like that.” I wiped my eyes, humiliation biting into me.
“No.” His lips brushed the top of my head and he nuzzled my hair. “Never apologize for that. I know you were scared.”
My eyes stung at his tenderness. The need for something more between us constricted my chest, painful in its intensity. Like a reflex, the urge to tell him about the dream or admit my terror buried itself deep. Deep, where he couldn’t use it against me later. Now, with him being so tender, I wish I was as sure he would have done so. Not trusting myself to speak, I stayed silent.
“You want to talk about the dream?”
“Where’s David?” I evaded. With my screaming, I was surprised he hadn’t come barreling in to check on us.
“He’s gone out for the evening. Don’t sidestep, Anika. Do you want to talk about it?”
I shook my head.
He tightened his arms around me and put his head back against the headboard. For a moment I thought he’d push, find some way to get it out of me. Instead, I looked up and he nodded. “Okay.” A whisper of warmth.
“What, no attempts to make me talk?” I smiled shakily. Where was the badass man who never took no for an answer?
Kane’s hands slid up and down my arms, soothing. He said nothing for a long time. When he did finally speak, he sounded awkward and halting.
“About today. In the car. The alley.”
“Oh, you mean where you used me like a cheap whore?” I couldn’t resist the jab. The annoyance that welled in me felt far more comfortable than this tenderness with him, and I let it burn through me, giving me strength.
Kane’s chest rose and fell and he closed his eyes. Regret pounded off him and I could only stare. The anger deflated from me like air out of a balloon at how vulnerable he looked.
“I fucked this up, didn’t I?”
“You think?”
He rubbed his eyes. “I…” He stopped and pressed his lips together, for some reason looking like he was struggling with something. What did he want to say, but felt he couldn’t?
“Why did you have to do that, Kane?”
He put his head back. “I’m…not good that part, Anika. It’s why I don’t do relationships, at least not normal ones.”
“What’s why? Not good at what part?”
“I don’t know how to handle the whole family thing. It baffles me.”
I let out a chuckle before I could stop it. “You have one.”
“If you can call what I have a family. Angel, my life has never been normal. My father’s idea of a family gathering is sitting around interrogating everyone, bringing up their latest failure. He tests people, just to see if they can get out of his emotional snares. I’ve had to build this…shell around myself. When things get uncomfortable, I’ve learned to put the other person off balance. I am always in control, always one step ahead. If I’m not…”
“If you’re not…?”
He brought his eyes to mine slowly and then his hand slid over my nape, fingers making soft strokes up and down my neck. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought his hand was shaking.
“Around my father? When I’m not in control, people get hurt. He makes sure of it.”
“But you don’t have to be that way with me. I won’t hurt you, Kane.”
He lifted my hand and kissed it softly, then pressed it to his cheek. The warmth in his eyes left me staring. “I’m not worried you’ll hurt me. I’m worried I’ll hurt you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will. Sooner or later, you will.” He kissed my palm. The pain in his eyes made my chest tighten.
I licked
my lips, wishing I didn’t want to comfort him, wishing his words didn’t scare me a little. “We’ll have to figure out how to handle questions about us, you know.”
“What’s wrong with saying you’re my girlfriend?”
Privately, it killed me to think of saying that when it wasn’t true. “Well, Gala, for one.”
“That’s not…” He cut himself off. “I’ll have to teach you the art of evasion.”
“What?”
“Avoiding questions is a necessity for a Davros. We’ll make that part of your training.”
“My training?”
“Yes. You’ll have to be trained, and not just as my sub.”
Before I could answer, he released me and slid out of the bed. “We should talk about a plan.”
“Gavini.” The memory of what had happened that day with the car being lo-jacked washed over me and I shivered. How closely was he monitoring us?
“Yeah. You want something to eat?”
“Now? It’s after midnight.”
“Best time for a snack.” He grinned and took my hand, pulling me from the bed. “Come on. This place has the best cherry cheese cake in town.”
I laughed, admittedly feeling much better, and followed him out into the living room. I’m not a girly girl, but I’ve always believed there is nothing that can’t be made better with something high in sugar.
Kane took out his phone and ordered room service.
“So what did you get up to today?”
Just like that, the cold distance I’d come to know so well wrapped itself around him, unapproachability like a cloak draped over his shoulders. Kane put his phone away and wouldn’t look at me.
“Come. Sit down while we wait for the food.”
I worried my lip with my teeth. I hated when he got distant about his work. It made it difficult to avoid thoughts I’d rather not have. Thoughts about exactly how deep he was into the Mafia, and what sort of violence he did when he wasn’t with me.
“Kane, don’t shut me out now. Please just tell—”
A knock on the door cut me off. Kane rose and answered it, like any other time, bringing in the tray himself instead of letting the waiter do it. I rolled my eyes when he nodded to the couch, and sat down. I wouldn’t give up that easily, though.