“I don’t have the time for love.”
She took her hands away and headed back to her chair.
“It’s better this way,” she said. “At least you can stay alive. You know they’ll fry you for what you did. You need to break things off with the detective so you can flee.”
“I intend to do that,” I told her, almost as if I were trying to tell myself. “I tracked him down, you know.”
The change of subject confused her, and I had to be honest, I was confused too. It had never been so easy to find him.
Almost as if he were trapping me.
I had to be careful.
He wasn’t an easy man to get to…so if I found this out…I might be walking into my own death, but it was the reason I started this.
He was the reason I was the way I was.
“Him?” Camille asked, her surprise evident.
I nodded in response.
“Where? How?”
“I was just looking for another mid level, you know, like I normally do,” I told her, sitting down on the couch. “And his photo appeared…I tracked him. I know where he is.”
“Is he here?”
“No,” I told her. “He’s in Alaska.”
“But he’s never been easy to find before,” Camille said, coming to sit on the couch with me. The shakiness to her voice told me she was just as rattled as I was. “Could this be a trap?”
“Very possible,” I told her. “I don’t want you to worry. He doesn’t know about you, okay?”
That was a lie. He was very aware I’d given birth right after I’d been “saved” from the compound. He’d lost another baby that he could raise to be a sex servant, which was the nature of his business, and I knew that it pissed him off.
I’d always been the one to piss him off the most.
“Will you go to see Kane before you go?” Camille asked. It was a good question. It seemed he was the magnet I felt myself pulled toward always.
“I don’t know,” I answered her honestly.
She nodded, as if she were trying to convince herself that I was making a good choice. “He’s a good man,” she said. “But he’s also a good cop. His close rate is top notch, and he’s highly regarded even if he’s been in hot water recently. He’s under pressure to close this case by his Captain who is threatening his career.”
“How do you know that?”
“I just do,” she said. “He will be forced to hand you over. I can’t lose you…not now.”
I pulled her to me, hugging her tight. It felt so natural to hug and comfort her, as if I were made to do it, and yet I’d killed men with ease with these same arms.
It was confusing at best.
“You won’t,” I promised her, even though I knew I couldn’t promise that. I couldn’t even promise I’d make it out of the city without falling. Kane had that effect on me.
I just wanted one more time.
One more time to feel like I should have always felt.
Safe.
