“So you were the one who pulled the trigger.”
“I wasn’t aiming for her. She got in the way.”
As if that were somehow better. Kane pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger, casting about for control. Zaria had nearly been killed by this man. She’d been forced to watch Cecile’s life drain out of her and had blamedhimfor it. Fury licked through his veins and pooled in the back of his throat until he thought he might spew poison instead of words. When he spoke again, his voice was like metal on glass. “I ought to fucking shoot you right here, Sahni.”
“I’m sorry!” Anil said, eyes wide as saucers. “I didn’t know the girlwas important to you. I figured you were running some kind of con on her.”
That struck Kane like a physical blow. Both things were true: Kanewasrunning a con on Zaria. But also, no matter how he tried to convince himself otherwise, she was important to him.
Not just for the heist, though that should have been the only reason. He shouldn’t be thinking about the way she’d looked standing in his bedroom, golden-brown hair coming loose from its intricate knot, expression so perfectly obstinate. He shouldn’t like the way her dark eyes became a weapon when she was angry at him. He shouldn’t be jealous of her friendship with Julian Zhao and how the boy interacted with her in an affectionate yet effortless way that Kane would never be able to achieve.
The idea of Anil Sahni shooting Zaria dead in the crypt of St. John’s shouldn’t make him want to rip the man’s head off.
“This was my last chance,” Anil continued when Kane said nothing, a note of pleading in his voice. “Ward was furious I let the Mendoza girl get away, and the only way to redeem myself was to kill her tonight. If I fail, he’ll killme.”
Yes, that sounded like Ward. “He said that?”
“He didn’t need to.”
Fletcher shot Kane a look as if to say,Fair enough.
“Well then,” Kane told Anil coolly. “You’d best leave town entirely. Because it sounds like Ward will murder you if you don’t kill Zaria, andI’llmurder you if you do. You can pass that along to your associates.”
Fletcher’s gaze burned into the side of his face, but Kane refused to meet it, opting instead to stare Anil down until the other man looked away.
“Fine,” he grunted. “I’ll leave before first light.”
“See to it that you do.”
The aftermath of Anil’s confession was the quiet following an explosion.
They’d released the man into the night, and Kane had no doubts he would be gone by morning. Unlike most of Ward’s crew, Anil had a family, though he’d never mentioned as much to Kane directly. He didn’t need to. Ward had made reference to it once, but even if he hadn’t, Kane could tell Anil was the type of man with something to fight for. He would pack up his loved ones and get the hell out.
Kane and Fletcher sat at the dining table, staring at each other without speaking. Fletcher’s fingers drummed an uneven rhythm on the wood, and Kane’s thoughts slammed into one another like bugs hitting a glass window.
“What do you think it means?” he said finally.
Fletcher swiped a hand along his jaw, which was sprouting a thin layer of barely visible scruff. “That Ward wants her dead?”
Kane gave a slow nod. He felt like a length of rope that had unraveled and been pulled too taut.
“Dunno. It means he’s keeping an eye on us, for one, which I don’t love.”
“Then he has to know what Zaria’s contributing to the heist. It doesn’t make any sense that he wants to get rid of her, unless he wants me to fail, which I know he doesn’t.” That had been made abundantly clear to Kane.
“Maybe he’s angry that you told her about the necklace?” Fletcher suggested. “You said you were supposed to keep it confidential.”
“Then why not punish me? Why say nothing at all and quietly go after her?”
“He doesn’t like to punish you.”
Kane’s laugh was a bitter, choking thing. “It hasn’t stopped him before.”
Fletcher crossed his arms. His light hair was in disarray, and the bruising on his face was beginning to deepen in color. Though he looked nothing like he had as a child, Kane was abruptly reminded of the first day they’d met. The defiant, determined look in his friend’s blue eyes… it was too familiar. Kane knew Fletcher didn’t like his relationship with Ward. He rarely said it, but it was evident in the way he stiffened whenever Kane relayed his interactions with the kingpin. If it came right down to it, Fletcher would get himself killed trying to protect Kane from Ward, and Kane couldn’t have that.
Especially when he knew he’d never been the one truly in danger.
“Are we going to tell her?” Fletcher said, and Kane lifted his head.
