Now I just need to wait for Temperance to turn her back on me for a moment, which she does as she walks toward the door of the cabin, admitting defeat.
It still amazes me she’ll turn her back on a hit man. But she doesn’t see me as that man. I never want her to see me as that man.
I crouch next to the woodpile and see a scrap of paper. A note from Ransom.
Shit got fucked. Laying low. Don’t fail me now.
I shoveit in my pocket and tuck a burner phone into the bundle of wood. There’s only one number programmed on it, so there’s no question of who he needs to call. As soon as he turns it on, he’ll see a text waiting.
Plan has changed.
Three wordsthat are going to change all our lives.
Now all I can do is hope like hell that Ransom gets it and calls me, or we’re all fucked.
11
Kane
Hours later, after we return from the swamp and finally leave that motherfucker Elijah’s warehouse, I’m in my command center with my heart still beating like the war drums of my ancestors.
I watched him watching her.
I watched himwantingher.
But what made me rage?
Watching him make her fuckingquestionherself.
Elijah may have let her go like a noble son of a bitch once, but I could read it in his every move—he wouldn’t let her go again if she ever gave him another chance.
I hate that he’s making me face the question I’ve been putting off.
Will I be able to let her go?
I glance up at the monitor to see Temperance sitting at my kitchen counter, working on her laptop.
I like seeing her in my space. I like seeing herperiod.
Could I handle seeing her with another man?
Before I can answer the question, one of my secure lines rings, and I tense.
Ransom.
I answer. “You hear us today?”
“What the fuck are you doing letting my sister poke around the swamp? What if they’d been there? You’re supposed to be keeping her safe, you piece of shit. Keep her locked up in a safe house and sit on her.”
“Nothing happened,” I say, because I can’t tell him that I would die before I’d let anything hurt her.
“I don’t fucking like it.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have taken a fucking job traffickinghuman cargo.”
Ransom goes quiet. “I didn’t know. I swear to fuck, I didn’t know. You know I wouldn’t.”
“But you did, and now your sister’s ass is on the line too.”