Now, I had no idea what to do with him.
It made me happy, though. Fizzy, light buoyancy that gave me the energy back that the anniversary had stripped away.
“Good to know.” I folded my hands in my lap, warm all the way through.
At the traffic lights which took us onto the main road, Kane changed the subject. “Talk me through what happened last night. Mila told me ye left the warehouse after Karla turned up. Did she say something?”
My next breath came easier, a curl of indignation returning. “She was there for two things. A job and you. She just chose some unfortunate words that triggered me.”
“What did she say?”
Releasing the words felt better than holding on to them. “That my mama should’ve taught me to make way for prettier girls.”
A ripple of some strong emotion ran over Kane’s stern features. His hand on the gear stick turned into a fist then flexed and landed on my knee over my velvet skirt. Big, warm, and possessive.
“You’re the prettiest girl there is. Ye make way for no one.”
Lust flowed through my veins along with other feelings I didn’t want to examine too closely. Regardless of how much I’d enjoyed last night, not being an active participant left something wanting. We hadn’t reached the intimacy I craved. Or at leastIhadn’t.
I needed to touch him back.
Shaking, I lifted my hand to graze my knuckles over his damp hair. Only lightly. As small an approach as I could make to a man who couldn’t drive without his window open.
Despite his words, Kane hadn’t looked at me as he spoke them. He did now, and the heat in his eyes skyrocketed mine.
The moment was over as quickly as it had come, the lights changing so we were on our way. It didn’t stop my damaged heart from getting all the big ideas.
At the warehouse, the neon-pink sign for Divide reflected in puddles on the empty cobbled streets, the place locked up tight against the rainy day.
I peeked across the river to catch a glimpse of the police activity, but nothing was visible from this angle.
Kane held the door for me to go inside, and we walked quiet corridors to the management office. Outside, he stopped. “I need to see Tyler and his team. I ran out on them last night.”
“To reach me.”
The fastest flash of a smile touched his lips. “Aye, flower girl. Do me a favour while I’m in this meeting.”
“Name it.”
“Don’t leave the warehouse. Whatever investigating ye want to do, wait until I can come along.”
That same fizzing happiness infused every part of me. I couldn’t imagine Kane pulling me in for a kiss. Public displays of affection weren’t his style. But his words were enough. He wanted to be where I was. It was easy to agree.
In Cassie’s apartment, the scent of coffee filled the air, and the four women waited on me.
Mila stepped forward with concern in her eyes. “Are you okay? You disappeared last night, then Kane was beside himself. He ordered us to watch your house until he got there. I tried messaging you both, but we left after he didn’t come back out.”
I clutched my bag and nodded to Cassie holding up the coffee pot in offer, embarrassment warming my cheeks. “I’m sorry about that. It was a crappy evening made worse by something I wasn’t looking forward to. I turned my phone off, went home, and took a sleeping tablet.”
She blinked. “My brother took care of you?”
“He did.”
Questions burned in her eyes, but Mila swallowed them and left that curiosity on fire.
I readied myself to talk to the women about the murder, but an overriding thought hit me over and over again.
That on a day when everything should’ve been at its very worst for me, I was floating on air, and that was dangerous fora woman who knew too well how fast the ground came at you when it all came crashing down.
