The first was that he wasn’t allowed in her mind...yet, and he wouldn’t breach that promise. Although he had every intention of getting her to revoke that ban very soon. The other was that if there were in fact agents from the future in town trying to locate them, he didn’t want to get captured before he had the chance to find Kaitlin and tell her...
Hell, he wasn’t sure what he would tell her. But he reckoned actions spoke louder than words and he was here, wasn’t he?
He’d spoken to Rose as soon as his plane landed. Kaitlin was out of contact, still roaming the streets, with Janelle and Josie as backup. Though what Josie could do if they ran into trouble, he had no clue. As far as he was aware, she didn’t even know how to shoot a gun. He supposed she would have had some sort of combat training; all the Kindred had had military training. Unfortunately, Josie had no doubt forgotten that along with the rest of her past.
Rose had assured him everything was under control, and so far, Kaitlin hadn’t sensed anything amiss. Rose was going to call Kaitlin and tell her of his imminent arrival. Would she be pleased or pissed off? Either way, he hoped she would be back at the hotel by now. He’d been caught in the rush hour traffic, and it had taken him longer than he’d expected to get here from the airport.
It was dark when his taxi pulled up outside the hotel. He paid the man and got out. He had no luggage; it had already been transferred to the small plane in Kampala, and he hadn’t taken the time to go and reacquire it.
He didn’t bother with reception but headed straight up to the room number Rose had given him. He rang the bell, but no one answered. Where the hell were they? Had Rose lied? Had they moved hotels to avoid him? Was he getting paranoid?
He pulled out his cell phone and punched in her number. There was no answer.
His heart rate kicked up. He tried to tell himself that there was nothing to worry about. No reason to panic. They were just momentarily out of contact. His phone rang, and he almost dropped it. It was Rose.
“Where the hell are you?” he growled.
“In the elevator. We’re on our way up now.”
He ran to the elevator. When the doors slid open, ice flooded his veins.
There was no Kaitlin, just Rose and Dave with an almost unconscious man hanging between them. He recognized the detective who Kaitlin had kissed only a couple of days ago. What the hell had happened?
“Where’s Kaitlin?”
“Let’s get inside, then we can talk.”
He didn’t want to get inside, he wanted to find out where Kaitlin was, and then he wanted to go get her. But he clamped his lips closed. He took Rose’s place, gripping the man’s arms, and the guy groaned. He was coming around. Rose led the way and opened the door. They half carried, half dragged the man to the sofa and laid him down.
“Where’s Josie?” he muttered, pulling himself half upright.
No one answered. Kane could feel the panic rising inside him. “What the fuck happened?”
“It looks like they were taken. Kaitlin, Josie and he”—she nodded to where Steve sat— “were in a vehicle heading back to the hotel when they were ambushed. We don’t know the details. Josie managed to call in their location, and a few minutes later, Kaitlin hit the panic button. But we never heard anything else. When we arrived, only Steve was there. They’d stunned him with something. But Josie and Kaitlin were gone.”
“What about the tracker?”
“Dead. They must have scanned her and found it.”
This was not happening. “You were supposed to protect her. What the hell were you doing? Where was Janelle? Where were you?”
She glared at him. “For that matter, where the fuck were you?”
At that moment, the door was flung open. His heart stopped. But it was only Janelle. “What’s happened? Where’s Kaitlin?”She strode into the room and came to a halt when she caught sight of Kane. “You’re here.”
“Obviously.”
“What happened? I got a message to get back. Where are Kaitlin and Josie?”
“They’ve been taken,” Rose said. “The vehicle was ambushed.”
Janelle hurried over to Steve and crouched down beside him. “Are you okay?”
“I guess.” He rubbed his chest. “They used some sort of taser on me.”
“At least you’re alive. Can you tell us what happened?”
He nodded and took a deep breath. Kane had to resist the urge to go shake the details out of him. He also had an urge to rip off the reflector device and read the truth from the man’s mind. But he had to think that through. If there was a chance that the agents from the future were close, they could pick up his thoughts. He couldn’t risk that. They had to rescue Kaitlin, and they couldn’t do that if they were prisoners themselves. He’d find out what he could first and then make a decision. His mind slowed. He was back in control, the panic receding.
