The knot gave, and the string around my neck loosened. I jerked my knee at the man’s crotch area and fought to get away.
He growled in annoyance but kept a tight hold. Then with almost slow arrogance, plucked the bag from my head.
Revealing a face I knew.
Kane.
The man of my fantasies, and now my nightmares.
I stared in shock then yanked at his hold. “Let go of me.”
He raised an easy shoulder and released my wrists. “I only held on because ye were thrashing like a wildcat. Keep it up and I’ll start to think you enjoy being in my arms.”
Emotion rocked me, but I contained it and took in our surroundings and my chances of escape. We were inside an industrial building with a high metal rafter ceiling and little else, the van parked next to a black car, and no other people in sight. The open bay faced wasteland where drizzle blurred the view.
There had to be other buildings with workers around. Kane had taken my phone, or I’d dropped it. I had to find another.
If I could get away.
He was massive, all muscle and coiled stillness. Close-cropped hair, plain black clothes. A bulge at his waist and another at his ankle.Armed. Of course he was.
I knew nothing about him. Nothing I could use to bargain with or talk my way out of this.
Wait, that wasn’t quite true.
“Does your sister know you did this?” I lifted my chin. “Mila might have thoughts about you kidnapping her friends.”
Mila had told me about her attempts to get close to her brother. Efforts he’d hopefully shared. It was her boyfriend we’d rescued today.
Kane regarded me, his features neutral. “Did what?”
“Grabbed me off the street.”
“I staged a kidnapping.”
“Same difference.”
“No. The difference is you’re still breathing.” He filled his lungs as if to illustrate the point. “In the planning for Convict’s rescue, Arran said you needed plausible deniability to help us. I worked out the rest. Your da uses you as a go-between with the skeleton crew. I’m guessing he doesn’t know that you also supply Arran with information? That means you need to walk that line carefully.”
I tried and failed to start my sentence. “So you threw me into the back of your van?”
“I placed ye. Rather I’d picked you up outside the safe house in full view of every watching cop? We risked your father seeing me once today. It’s only a matter of time before he associates me with the crew, whether I’m still working with them or not.”
The matter-of-fact way he spoke finally allowed anger to replace my fear. I balled my hands into fists. Except I couldn’t manage the words to tell him off. I was too upset. Too rattled by what he’d done.
Instead, I turned and stalked away.
Kane was on me before I’d got three paces, rounding to obstruct my path. I sidestepped him and broke into a run. He caught my trailing wrist and hauled me back against his body.
“Don’t run from me, Lovelyn. I might like it.”
God help me, a dark part of me wondered if I’d like it, too. I shoved him away, confused by the rush of lust that had no place in this strange scene. “You’re a psychopath.”
My voice shook but with fury, not fear. Mostly.
“Perhaps, but I wouldn’t have done this without very good reason. Try asking me what that is.”
“Try taking a long walk off a short cliff.”
