“I wasn’t sure you’d still be around” were the words Fletcher settled on.
“Moving locations confuses everything. I figured it better notto change too much at once.” There was a strained quality to Kane’s response. “I came by Moore & Sons the other day. You didn’t answer, but I know you were there.”
“You have a key. You don’t need me to let you in.”
Kane’s mouth was a dagger-sharp line. “Yes, I do.”
There was a beat of silence as Fletcher took a breath, steadying himself. Eventually he tilted his head in Zaria’s direction. “We can talk about that another time. I’m only here because Zaria was adamant she needed to speak with you.”
Kane’s gaze flicked to her. The weight of it felt like a physical blow. “Was she, now? I can only imagine why that might be.”
“You know exactly why,” Zaria snapped, taking a step forward. Now that the impact of seeing him had worn off, all her anger came rushing back. “You went too fucking far, Kane. Did you really believe I wouldn’t track you down?”
“Oh, I fully expected you to.” He let his pen roll across the surface of the desk. “I just didn’t think to see you and Fletcher here together.”
“YoukidnappedJules!”
“That was a matter of business.”
Zaria scoffed loudly. “Oh, come off it. We both know it was a matter of petty revenge. Were you too much of a coward to face me? Is that why you waited until I wasn’t home?”
Something changed in Kane’s face when she saidcoward. Too late, she remembered that night in the workshop. How the word had still been on her lips when they met his. He tamped down his reaction, however, and calmly steepled his fingers. “I came when you weren’t home, Zaria, because I wanted to avoid giving in to temptation.”
“Whattemptation?”
“To kill you and be done with it. That would have taken all the satisfaction out of things. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“You’re pathetic. Sick-minded.” Her fury gave the scene a strange tinge of unreality. “Where the hell is Jules?”
Kane’s expression was taciturn. “Doing business, as a kingpin’s crew members are wont to do.”
“Enough,” Fletcher said. “Kane, you can’t go on like this. You don’t truly want to run things the way Ward did, do you?”
“It worked well enough for him.” Kane didn’t seem to want to look directly at Fletcher, and Zaria realized they had unwittingly placed him in an impossible position. Kane treated every interaction like a game, and she and Fletcher were two games he couldn’t play at the same time. He wanted Fletcher’s forgiveness and Zaria’s contrition. He wanted them to see him as two different people and was struggling to strike a balance.
“Did it? Ward loved you best, and even you wanted him dead.”
“Ah, but his mistake was being foolish enough to love at all. His love for me meant he deluded himself into believing I wouldn’t kill him.” Kane’s eyes flashed. “And he was wrong.”
Fletcher evidently didn’t know how to respond to that. He only gave a disgusted shake of his head, posture tensed in defeat. “I think I’ll wait downstairs. Good luck, Zaria.”
“No, Fletcher—” she protested, but the look he shot her was uncompromising as he slipped back into the hallway, the door slamming behind him with abanglike a gunshot.
Kane stared at the place where Fletcher had stood. He curled the hand resting on his desk into a fist, then extended his fingers again, knuckles popping. “I suppose you came here to plead Julian’s case.”
“I shouldn’t have to do that,” Zaria snarled. “Youknowhe did nothing.”
“Are you telling me he didn’t know about your plan to deceive me and snatch the necklace?”
She was silent.
“That’s what I thought.”
“So what if he knew? Jules didn’t betray you—I did. He never wanted me to get involved with you in the first place.”
“My point is, he’s not innocent.”
Zaria scowled. Now that she was standing here in front of Kane, she forgot to be afraid of him. They might as well have been staring at each other from across the table at Moore & Sons, arguing over something trivial. “But he’s not the one you’re angry with. You’re mad atme.”
