I didn’t need to.
She snatched the phone. “You’ll take me to my car after?”
“Wherever you want to go.”
“I’ll be telling Mila about this.”
If she thought setting my half-sister on me was a threat, she was wrong. The two of them were friends but both were a means to an end for me. “Go for it. Don’t expect me to forget how close you were standing when you said it.”
At fucking last, she heaved a deep breath and turned for my ride. “For Dixie’s sake, and only that, I’ll help. After…”
“I’m dead to ye. Got it.”
The look she slid my way told me I was right. If I regretted losing the chance to put her on her back for me, I’d get over it.
Beside the car, she hit a number on her phone and dialled. “Mum? It’s me.”
Her ma, not the cop. Maybe that was an easier solution.
“I’m going to be home a little later. I didn’t want you to worry. What am I doing?” Her scowl darkened. “Something tedious with an asshole at work. Love you.”
She hung up, but the lass had one challenge left. “Keys. I’m driving.”
Fucking hell. If it got me to the end goal, I’d survive it.
I didn’t have to like any of this, I only had to ensure Dixie lived. Everything else was noise.
Chapter 3
Lovelyn
All action, Kane tossed me his keys then jogged to the van, collecting something from the front seat. My bag.
I gasped and snatched the oversized purple suede holdall with the floral handle I’d embroidered myself. Inside, all my possessions, including my tablet and notebook, were there. I clutched it to my chest. Thank the gods of small mercies. At least one man in my life respected my organisational systems. Shame it was the criminal.
The man himself opened the door so I could climb into the matte-black car.
“Get us on the road,” Kane instructed.
“I don’t need commentary.”
With an infuriating smirk, he settled into the passenger seat. I started the engine, mentally calculating where I might go to hunt for Dixie. I’d intended to drop by her home after her radio silence but hadn’t yet found the time. What if something had happened to her that I could have avoided if I’d been a better friend? I knew she’d been upset. I’d seen her rush out of the skeleton crew’s warehouse with tears in her eyes.
Guilt sank its teeth in. The sole reason I was in a car with Mr Kidnapper.
Pulling out of the cover of the building, I drove through a retail estate, recognising it as on the eastern outskirts of Edinburgh, and took the turning for Deadwater. The drive to my home city on the England-Scotland border would be a little over an hour. Less, if I put my foot down.
Fine, as I had a whole bundle of emotions to process, none of them good.
Moving through the gears, I slammed into fourth then fifth, merging onto the main route from Edinburgh to Deadwater. If Kane was alarmed by my driving, he didn’t say a word. Nor did I look at him, my gaze locked firmly on the road. Rain hit the windshield, and spray landed on my arm from the open windows. I tapped the buttons to close them, but Kane corrected me.
“Not mine.”
Whatever. If he wanted to catch pneumonia, that was on him.
The afternoon rush-hour traffic was in play when we reached the city, a queue to cross the bridge to the English side. Neon bled through rain, glass offices sulked beside pollution-darkened churches. The pavements were filled with people leaving work, a sea of umbrellas bobbing where their owners dodged puddles.
I pushed through until we edged the suburb where Dixie lived. Outside her apartment block, I slid into a lucky parking space. Instantly, Kane leapt out.
