He would have given anything to know what she was thinking. As a telepath, he was accustomed to knowing the feelings and emotional state of those around him. Lena was so expert at blocking psychic senses that he felt absolutely nothing from her. He ignored Banta’s steady analytical thinking. The other soldiers were useless to try to read. Their heads were filled with various degrees of anger, lust and elation.
When they drew close to the doors, Kane began to sense the rage burning within the room. Inside, the man himself gave the outward appearance of a calm, almost careless businessman. His expensive suit was impeccable in black with subtle pinstriping. He was slim and tall, with his dark hair pulled straight back off his forehead. His thin lips were tipped up in a fake smile. To Kane, it was obvious he was furious with both of them.
“Lena, my dear, I’m so happy you’re home.” Oscar Thorn came around the desk and walked to Lena. He dipped his head as if to kiss her, but she turned hers and avoided the connection.
“This is no longer my home. In fact, it never was. You made sure of that.” She ignored the soldiers crowding the study and sat down in one of the four overstuffed, leather chairs grouped together for conversation. She looked as if she had sat down in that particular chair a hundred times before and none of those occasions had been much more pleasant than the current situation.
Kane found his hatred for Oscar Thorn growing by the second.
Thorn smiled brighter, but as his outward elation increased, so did his internal rage. He turned his attention to Kane. “Mr. Lakeland, you have made it quite difficult to return my wife to me.”
“Ex-wife,” Kane corrected.
He waved off the correction. “The entire thing has made me wonder why a man such as yourself would go to so much trouble for a woman he does not even know.”
Banta pushed Kane down into another of the chairs. The handcuffs bit into his wrists when his body trapped them against the cushion.
Thorn continued speaking. “Then it occurred to me that my whore of a wife had likely fucked you in order to gain your assistance. Banta assured me that this alone would not be enough. He says you take your job quite seriously and never take bribes of any kind. He told me it was one of the reasons he wanted to tempt you onto his team. Your records show you are cold and calculating.”
He paused as if waiting for some response. Kane said nothing.
Thorn shrugged. “Then I became curious about you, Mr. Lakeland. What would make a bounty hunter help a woman of this type? I had a friend of mine run a check on you.”
Kane’s stomach tightened. His own fury was beginning to get away from him and he had to make an effort to hold his mind blocks in place. Banta’s hand gripped his shoulder painfully, letting him know his slip had not gone unnoticed.
“I learned you have a brother in the service of the government. I also found out you were offered a similar job in spite of your less spectacular skills, yet you turned it down. Why?”
“I don’t work well with others.” Kane’s voice was petulant.
Banta’s hand struck him across the back of his head, hard enough so he saw stars. He grunted and bent forward before straightening again.
Either Thorn was incapable of closing off his mind or he felt so secure he didn’t bother. Kane could sense everything the magnate was thinking. He hated Lena, but for some reason hated Kane more. He enjoyed seeing Kane in pain. It was the first positive emotion he had sensed from her ex. He drew pleasure from other people’s pain.
Thorn said, “I have it on good authority that you turned down the job with our fine government because you have no stomach for bending the rules. Yet you took your fugitive out of the country when you had no permission to do so.”
“I don’t need permission if the fugitive’s life is in danger.”
A painful laugh throbbed out of Thorn’s mouth. “I think you will have a difficult time proving that Lena’s life is in danger. After all, I’m not a monster.”
“Ha,” Lena laughed.
There was another jolt of fury from Oscar Thorn, but he ignored Lena. “Are you in love with my wife?”
Kane narrowed his eyes. “I barely know her.”
A broad smile spread across Thorn’s face. He turned to Lena. “You see, my dear. You were just another piece of ass to him. You fucked this filthy bounty hunter for nothing. He couldn’t protect you and he doesn’t love you, so now you’re just the dirty whore I always took you for.”
He actually seemed pleased.
If Lena was affected by either Kane’s words or Thorn’s, she gave no indication. She sat and watched with a perfectly unreadable expression on her face.
Thorn leaned over her chair. She backed away as far as the cushion would let her. His nose was almost touching hers. “Now, where are the Stones of Adeline?”
“I don’t have them anymore.”
He took her by the shoulders and shook her. “Where are they, Lena?”
“We threw them in the sea,” she screamed into his face.
Oscar Thorn was at the end of his rope. His need for Lena’s stones must have been much greater than just wanting to increase his coffers. Kane sensed the man was nearing hysteria.
His mind calmed. It was too sudden a switch for Kane’s comfort level. In his experience, that kind of shift did not happen in the minds of sane people.
Thorn straightened, turned to Banta and nodded. “Find out if she’s telling the truth.”
Shit. “Don’t do this, Banta. You want me for your little army? Fine, I’m in,” Kane said.
Banta looked at him and his expression was almost sympathetic. “Too late for that, Kane.”
Kane was on his feet in an instant. Four soldiers grabbed him and pushed him back into the chair. They held him down while he continued to fight. Even without the use of his hands, they had a hard time keeping him down.
Banta took hold of Lena’s head and lifted her to her feet. She resisted, but another soldier held her arms behind her back. She screamed and Kane felt the first thread of Banta’s assault on her mind. Her walls were holding.
“Lena, let him in,” Kane screamed.
She either wouldn’t because of her grandmother or couldn’t because she had such a strong will, but she continued to fight against the onslaught of pressure from Troth Banta.
Kane had to make an effort to block the pleasure coming from Thorn. He enjoyed every moment of her pain. If Kane had to guess, he’d say the pig probably had a hard-on watching his ex being mind-raped.
Her cry pierced the air. Even Banta cringed, but Thorn loved every moment.
Kane’s senses opened to her. He will kill you if you don’t let him in.
He knew the drill. Banta was one of the most skilled telepaths in the world. He would tear down her protections layer by layer until she had nothing left. For the weak-minded, the process was horribly painful. For the strong, it could be deadly. Some victims were left lobotomized. Kane’s entire body trembled. He couldn’t stand it. Lena’s rich, creamy skin was sickly pale. Her eyes bulged from their sockets. The screams had stopped, but her mouth remained open in silent agony.
Sweetheart, I love you. Trust me. Let him in. He said it psychically.
She slumped in the arms of the soldier holding her as Banta released her head. Lena’s eyes closed.
“The grandmother has them,” Banta said.
The soldier dumped her into the chair, where she curled into a ball. Her walls were back up, but Kane has sensed she was still whole inside before she’d cut him off again.
Rage burned white hot in Kane’s chest. He wanted these people dead. Every cell of his body yearned for their throats crushed under his fingers, the man who approached him now most of all. He vowed he would see Oscar Thorn dead or wishing he was.
Thorn smiled down at him. “Save your anger, Mr. Lakeland. You should start your prayers now. I’m sure you have quite a few sins to repent for.”
“I’ll have more before this is done.” Kane’s voice was just above a whisper,
but the intensity trilled in the air.
Thorn backed away a step. “Kill him, but don’t make a mess. Take her to her room. Troth, get me the old woman and my stones.”
“Yes, Mr. Thorn.” Banta didn’t glance at Kane. He gave his men orders and left with two of them.
One lifted Lena and carried her limp body out of the study. Thorn left through another door behind his desk. Three soldiers grabbed Kane and dragged him from the room, down a flight of steps and into a concrete basement.
He stopped struggling. There was no point. He hadn’t seen a silencer on any of their weapons. They were not likely to shoot him in such a residential area. People would hear the guns and they might call the cops. That was the last thing Thorn would want when he was so close to getting his way.
Two of them dragged him to the center of the dimly lit, musty room. They held him while the third unlocked the handcuffs and re-shackled him in the front. Then they lifted his arms and looped the chain of the handcuffs over a large utility hook that was screwed into a crossbeam. The tips of Kane’s toes still touched the floor, but his ribs and shoulders ached in this position.
The third soldier had light skin and blue eyes. He watched the other two string Kane up. He pulled a long knife from the sheath strapped to his leg and tapped it against his palm. None of them had any real Psi talent. They were just hacks who could sense strong emotional outbursts perhaps a second before they manifested externally. It made them better soldiers, but they were no match for a talented telepath.
“You Psi-Alignment guys all think you’re something special,” the blue-eyed soldier said as he approached. “Look at you now. Like a lamb to the slaughter.”
One of the other two, a dark-skinned young man said, “Just do him, Dink. Don’t make an ass of yourself.”
The third was smiling and looking from Kane to Dink with wide, excited eyes.
“I’m going to make an ass of this joker. He’s going to beg me for death by the time I’m done with him, Luke.”
Luke shrugged. “Then you’re going to clean up the mess you make. I’m not.”
The third one giggled madly.
Dink came closer, lifted his knife and cut a small slit under Kane’s ribs on the left. “Beg me. Bitch.”
Kane felt the sting, but ignored it. He kept his mind quiet and his eyes focused on Dink. “I don’t have to beg. How’d you get that name, Dink? Got a tiny weeny, do you?”
Fury filled the weak-minded soldier. He lifted his right arm to strike. Kane pulled his legs up, wrapped them around Dink’s neck and squeezed until he felt the pop.
The other two rushed him as Dink’s lifeless body crumpled to the floor. Kane used the crazy, giggling one’s shoulders to push himself up and over the edge of the hook keeping him off the ground. As he fell, the crazed soldier fell too. Kane pulled the chain at his wrists around the boy’s neck from behind and crushed his throat. Then he turned to the African American soldier.
Kane circled the young man, looking for an opportunity to strike. “If you run now, I’ll let you live, Luke. No need to die for the asshole upstairs.”
Luke’s eyes widened and then narrowed. “I can’t do that,” he said.
“Too bad.” Kane ran forward and slammed his forehead into Luke’s head. The kid went down in a heap. He was still breathing, but would likely be unconscious for a while.
He found the key to the cuffs in the pouch on Dink’s belt and released himself. The knife wound was only a scratch. He had a knot on the front of his head. He touched it briefly and looked down at the only living soldier on the floor and shook his head.
After taking Dink’s knife, he moved upstairs to find Lena.
Chapter Eight
Lena didn’t want to open her eyes. She hoped she never had to open them again. The bed where she had slept for the two years of her marriage was the source of many of her nightmares. Now she had a more horrific dream to replace Oscar’s penchant for inflicting pain on others. Her eyes were tightly shut, but nothing would ever wipe away the pain of Troth Banta pushing into her mind. His horrifying thoughts plundering her memories would always haunt her. The bedding under her cheek was damp from the tears that continued to roll down her face. She tried to dash them away, but they wouldn’t stop. Maybe they would never stop. Her body trembled, though it wasn’t cold in the room.
She had no need to see her prison. A queen-size bed, one dresser and a chair. On one wall a mirror hung and on the other a painting of a mountain range. It was a pleasant enough space, but even a well-appointed jail cell was still just that.
A creak in the steps of the old home alerted her, someone was coming up to her room. She didn’t even bother to open her eyes. Nothing Oscar could do to her now would matter. She had failed to protect her grandmother. She didn’t care what he did to her. Death would be a welcome escape from the idea that Banta would hurt her grandmother the way he had hurt her.
Could it be Banta on the steps? Maybe he hadn’t really left the house. It could have been a trick. The broad planes of his face and those dead brown eyes burned in her memory. Her entire body shook. She wanted to be strong, but the terror of his filthy mind invading hers was too fresh.
She pulled her knees in tight to her chest and clung to them.
A soft thud sounded outside the door.
Lena heard a whimper and realized it was her own.
The door opened and a moment later his hands were on her. She tried to scream, but his hand covered her mouth. It was too much. Oh God, just let me die.
“Lena.”
Her name being softly called penetrated her terror. She could not get away from Banta’s invading mind. The people he’d killed or how much joy he’d gotten from those acts. Hands gripped her shoulders more tightly.
“Lena, it’s me.”
Again she heard her name.
“Come on, baby. Open your eyes. It’s me, Kane.”
She recognized the voice. “Kane?”
“That’s right.”
The hands holding her shoulders were not hurting her. She forced her eyes open. Kane’s beautiful face filled her vision. “Kane?”
“Yes, Lena, it’s me.”
She collapsed against his chest. More tears poured from her eyes and she shook as his gentle hands caressed her back.
“Lena, we can’t stay here. I know you’re tired. I know you need time to heal, but we don’t have any. I need for you to pull it together for a while longer. Can you do that?”
She pushed against his chest and looked up into his stunning blue eyes. “Where are the soldiers?”
“I’ve taken care of them.” He restrained the anger in his voice. His eyes narrowed slightly.
“Banta?”
His jaw ticked at her mention of the name. “He left the house. I’ll deal with him later. We have to go, Lena.”
She nodded and uncurled from the bed. She swayed on her feet, but he steadied her. “He went to find Gran.”
“Joshua will protect your grandmother.”
“How can you be sure?”
He smiled, but his eyes remained hard and angry. “Trust me. Joshua won’t let anything happen to her or her friends. They are safe.”
He took her hand and tugged gently until she followed behind him into the hallway. She looked down at the body of the soldier who’d carried her to the room. His eyes were closed. He could have been asleep. “Is he dead?”
Kane shook his head. “Just unconscious.”
She took one more look and then followed him down the steps to the main floor. She expected him to go to the front door. He turned toward the study door.
“What are you doing?”
He released her hand and pushed open the double doors.
Oscar’s head came up from the papers he was engrossed in. His wide eyes stared from Lena in the doorway and back to Kane as he approached the desk. “Guard!”
“They can’t hear you, Thorn,” Kane said.
“You killed them all?”
Kane shr
ugged. “Not all.”
Oscar’s eyes darted toward her. “You see what kind of a monster you’ve gotten involved with, Lena. He’s a killer. Doesn’t it bother you that the man you’re fucking thinks nothing of taking a human life?”
She leaned against the doorjamb and thought about it. “I believe he thinks very much about it, and the answer is, no. I’m not bothered at all by anything Kane does. He’s ten times the man you are. Besides, you and I both know you’re not averse to taking a life or two when it suits you.”
Kane rounded the desk and Oscar rolled his chair back as far as it would go. The wall stopped his backward motion. “So you’re just going to stand there and let him kill me?”
“I doubt I could stop him, if that’s his plan,” she said mildly.
Kane stood over her ex-husband. An unpleasant smile tugged at his lips and his eyes narrowed. “I’m not going to kill you, Thorn. That is too good a fate for you. I’m going to make you suffer in a way that will linger for the rest of your life. I’m going to destroy you for what you did to her.”
“You don’t have the juice to hurt me.” His arrogance knew no bounds.
Kane smiled brightly. He took a step forward, and in the blink of an eye, his fist swung around and bashed Oscar on the side of the head. He slumped awkwardly in the large leather desk chair. His eyes rolled back in his head for a second and then closed.
Kane said, “I may not have the juice, but I know a few people who do.”
He turned to her and strode across the carpet.
“Why didn’t you kill him?”
He stopped in front of her, where she still leaned against the wood. His face was a mask of emotion. She could see tenderness in his eyes along with fury. “I would love to wrap my fingers around his scrawny neck and squeeze the life out of that asshole.”
“So?” It surprised her how much she wanted him to do it. She had been raised to find the good in people. It was her destiny to serve humanity, not to destroy. Still, the idea of Oscar’s body being buried in the ground gave her hope for her future.
“I might have enough cause and enough friends to get away with it, but we’d have to live with the outcome. If I use my resources, we can destroy him in a much more meaningful way. Death is too good for him.”
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