I shrugged. He loomed over me, all threat and temptation. I couldn’t tell which was worse.
“Did ye find anything that could help us?”
My secret burned inside me. I shone the metaphorical headlights back on Kane. “Tell me who you think is chasing her.”
He kept his mouth closed.
I prodded him in the chest with an extended finger that didn’t budge him an inch. “Mystery is sexy until it gets someone killed. It looks to me like my friend came back here, threw her most important possessions into a bag, and ran like her tail was on fire. From the comment about her landlord, she’s quit this place entirely, otherwise he wouldn’t be threatening to empty it. She was scared of something or someone. You know who, don’t you?”
“I have my suspicions.”
“Then share them with me or we’re going nowhere.”
For a long moment, he remained quiet. Then he opened his mouth. “No.”
“You’re not helping her. In fact, you’re only infuriating me. There’s exactly zero reasons for me to help you any further. For all I know, you’re the nightmare she packed her bags to escape.”
“I’m not.”
Annoyance danced over me. The afternoon was getting darker, and neither of us had dared switch on a light. All of asudden, I became highly aware of how alone I was with a man I didn’t trust.
Tension tightened my muscles. Foolish woman.
“I want to leave now. She isn’t here, and I don’t know where else she might be. I have no clue on where to try next. You promised to take me back to my car, but I’d rather get a bus.” My keys were in my bag, along with the stolen goods. I’d more likely go home than retrieve my car this evening. It could wait.
Kane did his staring thing, blocking my path. “You didn’t ring your father.”
“If he got a report about my safety, he’d ignore it for two days then leave me a voicemail to tell me the barest details.”
Why did I just give up exactly how unprotected I was?
Kane didn’t speak again. But he stepped aside.
I darted out of Dixie’s flat and flew down the steps.
Kane followed, his much heavier bootsteps drumming after mine. “I’ll take ye. It’s pouring down.”
“Not if you were the last man alive.”
Despite myself, I peered back.
His confident, almost cocky gaze turned curious. “Where did you learn to drive like that?”
He meant my fast driving that got us here. But fuck him if he thought he was getting any information for free.
“Goodbye, Kane. Try not to terrorise any other women on your way home.”
“Night, flower girl.”
I fled the courtyard with a stolen tablet, a painted elephant, and one more thing I hadn’t meant to take. Kane’s attention.
Chapter 4
Kane
Lovelyn scurried from the flats like her perfect backside had a target painted on it.
More slowly, I retreated to my car. The interior smelled of Lovelyn. A floral scent that wound itself around me and activated some part of my brain that demanded I follow it.
