Every time I mentioned his cousin, a steely resolve settled over Kane. It made my stomach tighten with nerves. If it turned out that Landon had become a criminal, if he was in charge of those mercenaries, if he’d arranged for my sister and I to be abducted… I didn’t know what Kane would do. After watching him kill four people at the cabin, then what he did to that SUV yesterday, I knew it wouldn’t be pretty.
The main airport was situated about five miles north of town. The next morning, John drove us in his truck, and we parked alongside the brown brick building. His friend, Gordon, another human, met us out front. Introductions were made, handshakes given. At my insistence, it was decided Kane would be the only one on the passenger manifest.
I’d heard someone call the plane a King Air, whatever that meant. It was bigger than the float plane but quite a bit smaller than the commercial flights I’d been on, sleek with a blue and red stripe down the side. John had said Gordon owned a few different planes, and the mines up north would often hire him for last minute flights. Thankfully, he hadn’t had anything scheduled when we needed him.
When John quoted the cost to us the day before, Kane hadn’t blinked at the price. Apparently, dropping seven grand on a private flight barely phased him. From Kane’s dreams, I knew he’d designed a lot of things that Landon either used in his tech company or sold to others. I’d never dreamed about a bank deposit to know how lucrative that might have been.
The King Air could seat about ten people in its gray leather single seats on either side of a central aisle. Kane and I sat in the front row with John and Gordon ahead of us in the cockpit. There was only a curtain to separate us, but no one bothered to pull it closed.
With the airport being so small, we didn’t have long to wait. We were taxiing and taking off within minutes of buckling up.
I bought a couple magazines at the pharmacy but couldn’t concentrate. Tension rolled off Kane in waves. With each passing mile, he became more and more rigid, retreating into a dark place. I didn’t want him to go there.
“If none of this had happened, I wouldn’t have met you,” I said, my gaze fixed to the rigid set of his body.
I knew he heard me when he nodded once, but my words didn’t alleviate his grim demeanor. If I hadn’t fallen from the sky and found his cabin, he would still be by himself, avoiding all contact with the outside world. And I would have finished up my time with the tattooed guy I’d met at the bar.
I swallowed as a sudden sick feeling rose in my stomach. The thought of being with anyone else besides Kane made me physically ill. I couldn’t picture it anymore. Me, who hooked up with a different guy every time I went into heat, couldn’t picture myself with anyone except the man beside me.
How could I have changed so much in such a short amount of time? No one made me feel the way Kane made me feel—just by looking at me. Not only did he meet my physical needs, he met my emotional ones too. And no man,none, had accomplished that before him.
Setting the magazines aside, I reached across the aisle and rubbed the back of his forearm, feeling the corded muscles beneath the hair. Keeping my gaze focused on his hand, I interlaced our fingers. Mine were slender compared to Kane’s, his thick and strong, with a light dusting of hair on his knuckles and the back of his hand. I tickled my fingers through his hair, feeling the bones and veins beneath, then lifted my gaze to gauge his reaction.
His eyes were at half mast, most of his earlier tension gone. He liked what I was doing. I stroked up his wrist, then back over the corded muscles of his forearm, petting him. His muscles flexed under my touch. I wished the aisle wasn’t separating us so I could lean my head against his shoulder. I loved touching him as much as I loved it when he touched me. The thought made the mark on my neck tingle.
I kept hold of him until we landed in Calgary to refuel an hour and a half later. There was a lot of waiting involved as a smaller plane in a big airport—scheduled commercial flights took precedence. We taxied, we waited, we fueled up, we taxied again, and waited some more. Eventually, we lined up for takeoff.
Another hour and a half later, we had another wait, circling Vancouver International Airport and taking our turn among the larger airliners flying to the coastal city of two million before we began our descent.
As the plane taxied, any softness I’d fostered in Kane during the flight disappeared. His eyes turned hard, his mouth a grim line of determination. Kane was now a predator in the same city as his prey.
The plane parked. After we were completely settled, Gordon got out of his seat and opened the door, the stairs lowering to the tarmac. Kane picked up the duffel bag, and I got my purse.
Warm air blasted me in the face when I took that first step down. I wasn’t prepared for it. My new jeans stuck to my legs, suddenly too thick and heavy. I’d been up north so long, I’d forgotten it was late spring everywhere else. After hearty handshakes and thank yous, we left John and Gordon on the tarmac and made our way through the airport to find a taxi.
Late afternoon blended into early evening. In some ways, the drive downtown seemed familiar even though I’d never been to Vancouver before. The freeways, the glass buildings, the construction crews fixing the roads all were things I would see anywhere. But it was a world away from a quiet cabin on a lake where my favorite sounds became the coos of the loons, the buzz of insects, and lapping water.
I glanced over at Kane. His eyes were fixed out the window. I touched his hand. His head jerked, and he looked at me with unfathomable eyes. Focused inward, I wasn’t sure he was seeing the city beyond the window. I took his hand again, wanting him to stay with me. He didn’t resist, interlacing his fingers in mine, but then his gaze returned to the outside view.
My heart thumped hard, nervous to let this version of Kane loose on the city. I knew he was angry at everything that had happened to me and had questions for his cousin. I wasn’t short on them either. Landon could be the key to finding my sister. But I’d also seen Kane shift, twice, in an uncontrollable way. Would he lose it in the city? Our instincts made it almost impossible to shift in front of a human. We needed to protect our secrecy at all costs. Would Kane’s need for retribution outweigh his instincts?
The entire taxi trip was taken in silence. Downtown towered around us, glass and steel. Kane’s finger stroked the center of my palm every few seconds, but his gaze remained out the window.
Finally, we pulled up to a swanky hotel in the West End. The glass structure reached to the sky, more than forty stories high, and was situated right on Vancouver Harbour. Inside, the sparkly light cast by the crystal chandeliers shone of the marble floor of the lobby. The concierge treated us like royalty despite our basic clothing and lack of luggage. Check-in took only minutes with Kane’s platinum credit card.
I examined his face as we traveled up the smooth elevator to the thirtieth floor, wondering at how he took this preferential treatment like he’d been born to it. From the memories I’d dreamed of his childhood home, I knew for a fact he wasn’t. For a man who’d lived so simply for so long, he sure had expensive tastes at the moment.
Our suite had its own living room, floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides with a spectacular view of the harbor. French doors separated a jacuzzi tub and a massive king-sized bed from the rest of the space. Six of Kane’s cabins would have fit inside. The luxury confused me.Allof this confused me. We could have gotten a room at a budget chain and accomplished our goals.
The truth slapped me upside the head. Kane was rich.
Why had he been living in a cabin without a toilet or hot water? He could have built any kind of cabin he’d wanted up there and instead, he locked his food in a cold room instead of owning a proper fridge.
It finally hit me.Punishment.The way he’d lived, no matter how comfortable he’d made it, had become forfeit. Even though he’d escaped his Goldenlach Ridge with his life, he’d been punishing himself since. My throat tightened. He’d been denying himself any kind of happiness or human connection out there in the wilderness.
Thud.Kane dropped his duffel inside the bedroom, then headed back to the door. I could practically taste his blood lust. I understood his only intent right now was ripping answers from his cousin.
I dropped my purse and ran to block his way, spreading my arms wide in front of the door. “We can’t go now.”
