Page 11 of The Enforcers: KANE

She really hoped Selina didn’t have Kane in her clutches again. When she’d known him, he’d been a troubled, out-of-control teenager with a good heart. Selina had exploited his loneliness and vulnerability, and led him down a dark path he might never have been able to come back from. For that alone, she had to pay.

She just hoped Kane, her Hunter, didn’t end up having to pay for his past as well. And she hoped that somehow, somewhere, he had managed to find redemption.

Chapter 5

Kane sat in his silent, empty cabin, the only illumination the small lamp on his bedside table. There was an old wooden box beside him on the bed, its hinged lid propped open.

He hadn’t opened the box in years. It was his small cache of treasures, all he had left of his childhood. A colored stone from the creek in their original territory. His father’s knife, with its hand-carved handle. Other bits and pieces that he had kept to remind himself there were things in his life that had once had meaning.

He fished a gold coin out of the box, turning it over and over in his fingers, watching it gleam in the lamplight. Rachelle—Raven—had given it to him. For luck, she said. He’d thought it was brass—it was years before he’d realized it was solid gold. Selling it would have kept them in food and shelter for a long time, on the streets.

But she’d given it to him instead. Just before she left, as if it were a goodbye present. Even though at the time he’d shared almost everything with Selina, he’d never shown her this. It had a yin/yang symbol inscribed on one side, and feathered wings—like angels’ wings—on the other.

It was a long time since he’d looked at it, or even thought about it. He’d never carried it with him, though he would have liked to. But as a shifter living a life on the edge, there was always too much of a chance he’d have to leave his clothes behind at a moment’s notice. He still rarely carried anything in his pockets he’d have a problem with losing.

But he’d held onto this coin through some long, long nights after he’d left Selina. Nights when it was all he could do not to go back to her, when her voice in his head was louder than any of the real sounds around him. Israel had to chain him down, sometimes, and he’d thrashed against his bonds while Israel sat by him, talking. Saying anything to keep him sane.

Israel didn’t talk to anyone else. Rarely more than “pass the ketchup” at a barbecue, or a few words about whatever security job they were working.

But he’d sat there night after night and talked to Kane, while he’d clutched Raven’s last gift and vowed to find her. To rescue her from the Seattle alleys and make everything up to her.

He never had.

Kane missed Israel now—missed his presence in the next room, missed having him to talk to when he was too wired to sleep and too tired to run.

But Israel was in Nashville with Jesse Travis, their pack’s Negotiator, and his new mate, Sophia, heading up their security detail. Jesse had recently taken out Sophia’s adopted father, Nash Jenkins, in a dominance battle to win Sophia’s freedom.

Which turned out to be a complete cluster fuck. Defeating the alpha technically made Jesse alpha of Nash’s territory, and no one wanted that. Not Jesse, not Sophia, and not the Nashville pack, which was huge, unruly, and very, very wealthy.

Jesse and Jace had spent half the summer going back and forth between Idaho and Tennessee, trying to figure out what the hell to do with the whole mess. As far as Kane was concerned, Jace could go ahead and leave Jesse there—him and his negotiations and his beautiful mate who was supposed to be Kane’s. Before Jesse had screwed it all up, Kane had been in the middle of a mating contract with Sophia—one that would have given the Silverlake pack access to Nashville and their assets without the mess that Jesse caused.

But no, Jesse had taken one look at Sophia and his dick had gone into overdrive. He’d taken the one thing Kane had tried to do for the pack—make them financially secure as well as physically secure—and fucked it all to hell.

And the pack still thought Jesse was a hero. No matter what Kane did, no matter how many times he saved their asses, they just thought he was an animated statue. Stone Face, they called him. Sir-Stick-up-his-ass.

Kane sighed. Brooding over his fucked-up life wasn’t getting him anywhere. He’d have sucked as a mate, anyway. He didn’t have any feelings for Sophia—he couldn’t afford to have feelings for any woman.

Their proposed mating had been a business arrangement. But Sophia loved Jesse—she was happy with him. God only knew why; he was an annoying little computer nerd. But their pheromone-soaked joy was all the more reason why Kane had no desire to be anywhere near them.

So when this casino job came up, Kane had jumped at it. He could spend his evenings away from the pack, away from their pitying glances and their leaders’ mated happiness. Jace and Emma; Rafe, their Second, and his pregnant mate Terin, and now Jesse and Sophia.

Kane was never going to have that—he’d ruined himself with Selina. He’d bonded with a sick psycho-woman, which proved his bonding mechanism was totally screwed up. All those couples nuzzling each other was beyond depressing.

Think about the job. That’s what he had to do. It’s what he always did. Use his head, think about the job.

In this case, it was the casino job. This whole thing had never made sense to him.

Why would someone target shifter businesses? It couldn’t be accidental—they had to know they were shifter-owned and run. But if they knew about shifters, they’d know that shifter businesses had better security than anyone in the world. Shifters were stronger, faster, and had enhanced senses that made them perfect for security work.

So who would go after them? Was it a personal hatred of shifters? Alexander Grant, Emma’s ex and a primo shifter-hater, was finally out of the picture. Anyway, his crimes had been direct attacks on shifters: kidnapping, murder, trafficking them to psychos who wanted them for the sex trade, or for pets or trophies. That thought still made him sick to his stomach.

This was more subtle and complex. There was something here he was missing.

Kane shook his head. The “whys” weren’t his problem. His problem—and his team’s—was simply to add an extra layer of security to keep it from happening here. And if they caught the thieves, all the better.

But thinking about the casino led him back to Rachelle. He still couldn’t believe she was here. Unless someone was playing an elaborate hoax, or Selina had somehow returned into his life with her biggest mind-fuck yet.

In a way, he could believe either of those things more easily than the reality: that Raven had gotten out. His betrayal hadn’t killed her. She’d somehow survived—and thrived. Better than he had, probably.