by Abbi Cook
With one last look at the house, I wait for the light in her living room to flicker on and blow the air out of my lungs. “Have a good life, Sophie.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kane
I put the car into drive, but out of the corner of my eye, I see something strange. Turning to look at Sophie’s house, I see the light flash off and on again once and then twice. Something’s wrong. I feel it in my gut.
Jamming the car into park, I jump out and rush up her sidewalk to the front porch. A sound like crying hits my ears and makes my blood run cold.
Sophie’s crying.
A second later, I throw open the front door and tear into the house to see Stills standing next to the kitchen counter holding Sophie to him and a gun to her head. I pull my Glock and aim it squarely for his forehead.
“Let her go, man. This doesn’t end well for you if she’s hurt. Trust me.”
Stills flashes me a look that says he knows how bad this is going to end. My fear is he’s accepted his fate and thinks he can set Sophie’s too.
Not today, old man. Today, I finish what I started back at that fucking shithole.
“I should have known you’d be close by. From the second this bitch showed up, you changed. The King we all knew and trusted turned into a fucking pussy because of her.”
For a moment, I take my eyes off Stills and his ugly face to look at Sophie. She’s terrified and looks like she’s about to burst into tears at any moment.
“It’s okay, Sophie. He’s not going to hurt you or he knows what I’ll do to him.”
“The same thing you did to everyone else, you fucking traitor!” Stills barks, frightening Sophie.
“Then you know what I’ll do to you, so let her go. She’s no part of your gripe with me. Let her go now, Stills, and you may not have to deal with the Varens family hounding you day and night for the rest of your life.”
Tightening his hold on her, he squeezes her hard so she screams. The sound cuts through me like a knife.
“Shut up, bitch!”
“Let her go, man. I’m the traitor. Kill me, not her,” I say calmly as I quickly scan the room for anything to change this situation to my benefit.
Right now, he’s got a gun pressed to her temple and I’ve got mine aimed directly at the center of his forehead. I’m a good shot, but Sophie’s too close for me to risk taking that shot and him moving her even an inch or two so she gets it and he doesn’t.
“I get Tap, but why Marsh and Duke?” he asks, his voice cracking on both his friends’ names.
“Let her go and I’ll tell you everything you want to know. She’s not part of this, Stills. You know that. Just let her go and take your shot at me. I’m the one you want to kill, right? You want me to feel what Marsh felt. She didn’t kill them all. I did.”
On the counter, I see a pair of scissors on top of a pile of mail. It’s within her reach, but I need to make her know they’re there and to keep Stills right where he is. If he moves even half a foot, she won’t be able to grab them.
Sophie’s teary gaze meets mine, and I glance over toward the counter for a brief second before returning my focus to Stills. I hope she understood.
“I’m going to kill her and then you, fucker,” he snaps at me. “She gets it just for causing trouble, and you get it for what you did. We trusted you, King. Every day for nearly a year we worked with you. I sewed you up more times than I can count. So did fucking Marsh! And how did you pay us back? A fucking bullet. Well, now that’s what you and this bitch get.”
I see Sophie side-eye the counter and then look at me with recognition in her eyes. She knows what I want her to do. Now we just need Stills to loosen his hold on her just a little.
“Then kill me first,” I say, hoping he’ll take me up on my offer and move to change his aim. That should give her the space to grab the scissors and stab him with them, even if he does get off a shot at me.
Stills seems to consider the idea, and for the briefest moment, he drops his arm holding Sophie. I open my mouth to yell for her to get the scissors, but the words never get the chance to come out before she spins in his hold, grabs them, and then a second later spins back around. With more force than I can believe she possesses, she buries them in his neck.
He screams out in pain, but only for a second as blood gushes from his wound and he drops to the floor. Sophie staggers back from him, slamming into my chest, as stunned as I am at the scene in front of us.
Turning to look at me, she screams and pushes against my chest. “He was going to kill me! I felt the gun against my head. I saw you look at the scissors and knew what you wanted me to do. Oh my God, Kane! I thought he was going to kill me!”
Shaking her head wildly, she’s terrified and stuck in fight mode. I know how she feels. I remember the first person I killed and know just what she’s going through.
But I can’t have her yelling and attracting attention from her neighbors, so I clamp my palm over her mouth to stifle the noise and hold her tightly to my body. “Sophie, it’s me. Kane,” I whisper in her ear. “It’s okay, baby. You’re okay. He’s not going to hurt you anymore. I’m here, Sophie. I’m right here holding you.”
She tries to talk, but nothing makes sense through her sobs. Her body shakes uncontrollably against mine, but I don’t let go because I know she’ll likely collapse if I do.
“It’s okay, Sophie. I got you.”
Her arms flail in front of her, and she begins to hyperventilate, so I spin her around and cradle her face in my hands. Stills’ blood covers her, but in her brown eyes, I see the same Sophie I fell in love with.
“I’m here, Sophie. You were so strong. So brave. I know men who wouldn’t have been able to do what you did, baby. You’re okay. I’m here.”
Her tears roll down her cheeks, creating pale streams through the stain of blood on her face. Nodding, she frowns as she tries to speak.
“He had the gun…I saw you look over on the counter…I saw the scissors.”
As I suspected, she doesn’t have the strength to stand and collapses against my body, but I’ve got her. Holding her to me, I set my gun down on the counter and grab my phone out of my pocket.
Ryker answers a few seconds later, but I don’t give him a chance to make small talk. “I need Jaxon and Cason out at Sophie’s house. Ivan, too. Hell, send everyone out. We’ve got a mess here that needs to be handled.”
“What do you mean? What kind of mess?”
“Stills was waiting for Sophie when she got home. I came in, but he had her. She grabbed a pair of scissors off the counter and stabbed him in the neck. Unless we want the police here, we need to get this place cleaned up and the body out of here now.”
For a few moments, Ryker says nothing and then when he does, I hear the panic in his voice as he asks, “Is she okay? What about you?”
“We’re fine. I’m going to bring her back to the estate, but we need to go now. Send everyone we have because if the police…”
I don’t get a chance to finish before Ryker says, “I know. Okay. They’re on their way. Get out of there and bring her back here, Kane.”
I stuff my phone back into my pocket and press a kiss to the top of Sophie’s head. “Come on, baby. We have to go. We can’t stay here any longer.”
She doesn’t answer but merely nods. As we walk out, I grab her suitcase like I should have an hour ago back at the house.
Tossing her bag into the back seat, I get her settled in the passenger seat and then hurry around to get behind the wheel. The sooner we get out of this suburban neighborhood, the better.
Sophie begins to cry again, so before I drive away, I turn toward her and take her face in my hands again. “Look at me, Sophie.”
She obeys, for once, and stares at me, her eyes still filled with terror from all she’s been through. I lean in and kiss her for the first time in too long and press my forehead against hers.
“I’m right here, baby. I’m so proud of you. You stayed strong and brave
. I mean it, Sophie. I’m so proud of you.”
In a tiny voice, she says, “I was so scared, Kane. I thought I was going to die right there in my kitchen and you wouldn’t know I needed you.”
“I know. But you didn’t need me. You took care of him all by yourself.”
“When I saw you come in, I knew you wouldn’t let him kill me. Just like before, you protected me.”
Leaning back, I smile at how much she believes in me. “I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you, Sophie. No one. I swear. Now I’m going to take you back to the estate and get you cleaned up. I promise, I’m going to be right there with you, okay?”
Sophie nods and covers her face as she begins to cry again. I get it. No matter what anyone says, killing another human being takes a toll on you. Even if it’s in self-defense.
I carry her into the house and up to the room she left a couple hours ago. She needs a shower and someone there to take care of her, but I need to find out from Ryker that everything’s been handled. Sophie doesn’t need cops searching for her looking to pin Stills’ murder on her.
Setting her on her feet in the bathroom, I turn the water on and turn to face her. “I just need to run down to the office for a few minutes. I’ll be right back. I promise. In the meantime, get in the shower and clean yourself up, okay?”
“Okay.”
I kiss her again and push her damp hair off her face. “It’s going to be okay. I’m taking care of everything. Just get into the shower and let the water rinse everything away.”
“Okay.”
This time her voice sounds stronger, so I feel safe leaving her for a few minutes. I race down to Ryker’s office, taking the stairs by twos and threes, and find him pacing back and forth. He stops dead when he sees me and shakes his head.
“We could have lost both of you tonight. I let myself get distracted, Kane. I’m sorry.”
“Stills wasn’t fucking taking me out. Not tonight or any night. But this turned out as good as it did because of Sophie, not me, Ryker. She must have ice water running through her veins because she watched me glance over at those scissors no more than twice and understood what I wanted her to do. Then when Stills loosened his hold, she didn’t hesitate. Fuck, she was braver than I’ve seen most guys be on their first kill.”
“How is she now?”
“She’s cleaning herself up. I just came down because I wanted to know how things went back at her house. Did they handle everything?”
Ryker nods and then lets out a heavy sigh. “They’re taking care of it. I’m dreading the call to Joseph. He stayed away from the life because he thought it would make his family safe.”
“Give her until tomorrow before she has to deal with her parents. I know you have to tell them, but give her a little time. She’s been through a lot tonight.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to lie to my brother, but maybe I’ll just tell him she decided to stay a little longer.”
Patting him on the shoulder, I smile as relief washes over me. “She’s going to be okay. She’s tough. She’s a Varens, no matter how much her father tried to shield her from all of this.”
“Go take care of her, Kane. I’ll check in on her tomorrow, but for tonight, make sure she’s okay.”
He doesn’t have to order me to take care of Sophie. I know my job. I also know I want to protect her as much as I did back at Duke’s.
When I get back to her room, I hear the water running and walk in to find her still dressed and huddled in the corner of the shower, her head hidden in her knees. Rushing in, I crouch down in front of her, the hot water pelting my back, and put my arms around her.
“Sophie, I’m here. Just hang on to me and let me stand you up.”
She looks up at me with wildness in her eyes. Shaking her head, she sobs, “I can’t get the blood off. It’s in my skin, Kane. It won’t come off.”
Tugging her shirt up her body, I whisper, “It’s going to be okay. Let’s get these clothes off and then you’ll be able to clean up better.”
I toss the soaked shirt and the rest of her clothes out of the shower and grab the bottle of shampoo. “First, we need to wash your hair, baby.”
After maneuvering her out of the water, I take a handful of shampoo and rub it all over her head. It’s a simple motion, but as I do it, she stares up at me wide-eyed and so scared.
“I know how you feel. I do. The first time I killed someone I couldn’t stop shaking. This won’t last, Sophie. I promise.”
“I don’t know what to do, Kane.”
“You don’t have to do anything. Ryker and I are handling everything.”
“What happens now? How can I ever go home and live in my house knowing what happened there?”
“Now you stay with me here. That’s what happens now. You stay here and I’ll take care of you.”
I see the confusion settle into her expression. After how I’ve acted since she came here, I understand why.
“What does that mean?”
Gently, I turn her around so I can rinse the shampoo out of her hair. “Close your eyes.”
This gives me a few moments to find the right words for what I want to say to her. I don’t want to fuck this up, but wanting someone like I want her is new to me. I hope she understands that.
Opening her eyes, she searches my face for the answer to her question. “What did you mean you’ll take care of me?”
With her face finally clear of all the blood, she looks like the woman I fell in love with, and I can’t help but smile at how sincere she sounds. “It means I don’t want you to go. Stay with me. Let me do what I never thought I could. Let me show you how much I love you every day and every night.”
“You love me and want me to stay?”
“I love you. I loved you when it was just the two of us in that apartment fighting to stay alive. I loved you when you came here, even though I tried everything not to. I loved you tonight when all I wanted to do was protect you from Stills. I don’t pretend that I’m the kind of man you should want. All I know is you make me think there’s some good left in the world, and I want that in my life.”
As I watch, she begins to cry, her tears mixing with the water as it flows down over her cheeks. She’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen in my life, a beautiful soul I love.
“You love me,” she says on a sob. “I’ve wanted to hear the man I knew back at that terrible place speak to me again, Kane. I thought you had disappeared forever, though. Now you say you love me and want me to stay here with you. I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you will. Say whatever you want. Just say it here with me.”
Her smile lights up her face when she answers, “I loved you when you were King at that place and protected me. I loved you when I found out you weren’t dead. And I loved you for coming to my rescue tonight. I love you.”
She loves me. Kane, a man who hasn’t believed he deserved love since that night all those years ago, the night that brought me to this place.
Sophie loves me.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sophie
I clutch my knees and take a deep breath in as Kane handles some issue on his phone. I’m safe here at Ryker’s home. My family will protect me. I’m strong.
For all those years, my father’s grumbling about the Varens’ family business never made me think any of us would ever be touched. I doubt he thought his eldest child would ever experience what I have in the past few months.
“Okay, that’s done,” Kane says with a smile before crawling up the bed toward me. “Are you hungry?”
He sounds like the man I spent those terrifying days with back at Duke’s. Still gruff and hard, his gentleness comes out when he tries to take care of me. I see it in his dark eyes that once enchanted me but now soothe me more than he can ever know.
I love the contrast in him, the hardness that makes the kindness even more pronounced.
Shaking my head, I stretch my legs out in front of me so his T-shirt comes to the middle of my
thighs. “I’m not hungry right now. Maybe later.”
“Okay. Just let me know. If no one’s around in the kitchen, then I can make you something.”
He sits far enough away from me that he’s out of my reach. Or is it that I’m out of his reach? Does he have a problem being close to me now?
I look down at my bare forearms and cringe before folding my arms across my chest. “Is something wrong, Kane?”
Leaning back just the tiniest bit, he puts more room between us. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“Why do you keep moving away from me then?”
I see the worry in his eyes. It makes them look sad. I don’t understand why he’d be sad, though. He said he was proud of me for being strong and brave, but now it’s like I have the plague and he needs to avoid even touching me.
“The first time I killed someone, I wanted to run away and hide. I didn’t want anyone near me. I just thought that maybe I should give you some space right now. It’s nothing else, Sophie. Honest.”
Reaching out, I touch my fingertips to his forearm, loving how warm his skin feels. I hold my breath as I wait for him to flinch or recoil from me, but he doesn’t move, almost as if he understands how much that would devastate me.
“It just feels like you don’t want to be near me right now,” I say quietly, hoping I’m wrong.
A second later, he crawls up the bed to sit next to me and presses his leg against mine. “What did I tell you about whenever you’re around?”
I look away, afraid to answer his question. I remember what he said, but maybe everything that’s happened since then has changed things. Maybe seeing what happened tonight made him realize he loves me but that’s more about protecting me than anything else.
His fingers gently touch my chin and turn my head to face him. “Hey, what’s going on? Tell me. Whatever it is, we got this, right?”
Closing my eyes, I answer his question the best I can. “I just thought maybe you feel different than you did back at Duke’s.”