I shake my head and tell myself I’m not lying because there’s literally nothing I know about Standish’s assistant. I didn’t even know he existed until this moment, so I’m not lying when I reply.
“I don’t know anything about this guy.” I glance at the shattered glass. “Except that if he’s after me, then I’m going to be footing the bill for the new window as an apology.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Valentina says, her tone decisive. “That’s what insurance is for, anyway. Although, with two days to go before the showing ...”
Rix leans down and presses a kiss to her forehead. “Don’t worry, duchess. I’ve already got someone coming to replace it tomorrow. I had the measurements from last time it happened. The show will go on.”
31
Kane
No one threatens my woman and lives to tell about it.
I feel that to the very depths of whatever is left of my soul. And that’s why it’s ten times harder to watch Temperance walk into a police station to face this motherfucker when I want to handle things my way.
I should have dug deeper into Standish’s life than his ex-wives. I didn’t realize he had an assistant who was fucking crazy. I could have prevented this, and Ididn’t. I feel like I’ve failed her.
My vigilance will know no bounds from here on out.
I wanted to take care of the situation, but Temperance argued that the police needed to sort it out. It took everything I had not to ignore her request. What sealed it?
When she said, “I don’t want you to carry around this burden because of me, Kane. I want to brighten your life, not add to the shadows.”
She meant the burden on my conscience for another death. I’ve never had someone care about the effects of my job on me or my soul before, but Temperance continues to amaze me.
She loves me.
I still can’t believe it sometimes.
Instead of shaking her for being stubborn, I held her tight and thanked God again for sending her into my path.
I don’t deserve her. But I’m not giving her up.
Temperance Ransom is mine, and she’s staying mine until there’s not a single beat of my heart pounding in my chest.
I watch as her brown ponytail disappears inside the front door of the precinct. Wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap, I sink lower in the driver’s seat of a blacked-out Cadillac CTS-V across the street, impatient and aggravated as I wait.
This isn’t the life I want for us—her having to face things alone because I’m a fucking dead man.Literally. I should be beside her, and I could have been, but asKen Sax.Not as Kane Savage.
I punch the steering wheel before I pull my shit together and turn up the volume on the transmitter she agreed to carry inside. If I can’t be there in person, I’m going to hear every damn word that’s spoken. If anyone says a single cross word to her, dead man or not, I’ll find a way to get her out of there and so far away that the cops will never find her.
After the pipe went through the gallery window, my digging finally connected the dots. I recognized the assistant’s photo. He’s the asshole I saw sitting at the bar of Seven Sinners during the speed-dating event, and had to have been the one to pull the fire alarm.
I should have put it together earlier. That’s what I do. But I didn’t this time because we had too many other things to worry about—namely, keeping Temperance safe while I faked two deaths and then keptthatfrom her while Ransom and I systematically removed every person who presented a threat to their safety.
Or almost every person. That Lagarto motherfucker and Giles are still walking the earth, and that’s not okay with me.
Giles is only breathing because I still can’t link him to any of the trafficking. All I have to go on is Magnolia’s word, and that I don’t trust. I’ve been watching Giles for years, and his shit is tight. I don’t know what he’s doing, but whoever he hired to clean up his tracks is better than I am. But that doesn’t mean they won’t miss something eventually. I could take him out on Magnolia’s word, but my finger doesn’t pull a trigger without feeling completely certain, and I’m not sure yet that she doesn’t have a hidden agenda—like getting him out of her way at the club.
And then there’s Lagarto. About to move another shipment, and well versed at staying off the radar. In the only photo I’ve been able to find of him, he’s wearing a big floppy hat and baggy clothes, which is completely fucking useless. Information about him is the only thing standing between us and ending this, and we need more of it so we can all move on with our lives.
Except ... Ransom and I don’t have lives anymore. We’re both legally dead, and while that’s never bothered me before, now it does.
It never occurred to me that someday I’d want a woman to take my name.My name.Not an alias. Hell, I never thought I’d find a woman I’d want for more than a night.
Temperance changed everything.
My earpiece crackles to life, interrupting that train of thought.