Page 23 of The Enforcers: KANE

“Yeah,” Kane said. He took a deep breath. “Israel, I found her.”

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. Israel had helped him look for Raven for years. He’d know exactly what Kane was talking about. Then, “You found Raven?”

“Yup.”

“Kane, buddy.” Israel’s voice was incredulous. “Where is she? Is she—shit, she’s alive, right?”

“Yeah.” Kane could hear the relief in his own voice. “Man, you know how many times I convinced myself she was dead. She’s here in Idaho, singing in the Midnight Lounge at the Silver Cloud.”

“No. Way.” Israel’s voice got very quiet. “Bro, I knew there was a reason you decided to take that job. It’s like…fate, or something.”

Not fate, Kane thought. Fate was for true mates, and he didn’t believe in it. But something.

“Have you talked to her?” Israel asked.

“Yeah. She was happy to see me.” He paused. “I thought she’d hate me.”

“I know,” Israel said. There was a short silence. “It’s good you found her,” he said.

But he didn’t sound happy.

“Look, I gotta go,” Israel said. “Traffic. See you in a couple days, okay?”

“Yeah,” Kane said. “Safe home.”

The call cut off and Kane stood holding his phone, running his thumb over the screen. Israel was like the little brother he never had. He was a good friend—the best—but Kane worried that Israel was too dependent on him. He couldn’t seem to form relationships with anyone else.

Hell. Who was he kidding? He couldn’t either.

Except…if something did work out with Rachelle…

He couldn’t leave Israel all alone. Not unless he knew he was going to be okay.

* * *

Rachelle spent the time before her date with Kane checking up on him.

The Shifter Council confirmed that Kane Colton and his colleagues in the Silverlake pack were reliable Enforcers, recommended by the Council for handling a large variety of security issues, both shifter and non-shifter related.

Everything honest and above-board.

Which made her all the more certain the Council didn’t know about his criminal past as Hunter. And all the more certain she couldn’t ruin his life by letting them find out.

And it also made their running into each other less of an unbelievable coincidence. If he was so highly respected as an Enforcer, it made sense he would be one of the people assigned to this case by the Council.

It just made her job harder.

She wished she could come clean with him, tell him about the Agency and why she was in Idaho. But they were an illegal shifter organization that conducted certain clandestine operations the Council couldn’t know about.

If she told Kane about that, he’d be duty-bound to tell his alpha—and the Council. The Agency would be exposed; this op would be blown. And it would be a close race between the Council arresting her and the Agency taking her down.

Asking him to cover for her wouldn’t be fair.

To be truthful, she wasn’t entirely sure she didn’t want to expose the Agency. Other than Carmichael, she’d never really trusted them. But she owed Carmichael.

And if this whole thing blew up, Kane’s identity as Hunter would be exposed. She couldn’t do that to him. And she didn’t know, yet, if she could trust him not to out her own secrets to the Council.

She needed to spend more time with him, to find out what kind of a man he’d become.