I pour that whiskey for Kane and return to the bathroom, where I find his head resting on the ceramic, his eyes shut. I sit down on the edge of the tub beside Kane and he lifts his head, accepting the glass. “Thanks, beautiful.”
“What happened, Kane?”
He sips the whiskey and sets the glass on the edge of the tub. “What you have probably assumed is exactly what happened. The engine went out. I managed to contact Kit as we were going down.”
“You didn’t trust the coast guard,” I assume.
“I don’t trust anyone but you and maybe my men on a good day. This wasn’t a good day.” He motions to me. “Get in with me.”
“We have a houseful of people. I need to go get rid of them.”
“Kit knew to clear the house. Jay is the only one staying. And in Kit’s defense, he didn’t call you because he didn’t know if I was dead or alive.”
“I didn’t know until the minute you walked in the door.”
His eyes darken. “Get in with me, Lilah.”
I want to press the issue of Kit’s piss-poor communication, but I decide it can wait until tomorrow. I undress and climb into the tub. Kane instantly pulls me on top of him. “What happened to your sore body?”
“Some things are worth a little pain and that means you, Lilah.”
Emotion is not done with me and it rushes over me. “I couldn’t bear the idea of losing you, Kane. I was losing my mind. Now I know how you felt.” And just like that, once again, I’ve taken us to the taboo, to the night I was raped and almost killed. Until he found me, he saved me. “Only I couldn’t do anything to save you. Kane, I was wrong to push you away. It wasn’t about me. It was about me. I didn’t know how to deal with who I am and what I am.”
“And now?” he challenges.
“Now, I know I deal with it with you.”
“Careful, beautiful. You’re sounding like you’re all in.”
“I’m marrying you, Kane. Of course, I’m all in.”
“And yet, you aren’t.”
“I am. I am all in. You have to know that.”
He studies me long and hard and then says, “Let’s get out of the tub.”
I don’t argue. He needs the hot soak, but I need him. I lean back and sit up. He follows, standing and taking me with him, lifting me out of the tub. He grabs towels and it’s not long before we’ve ditched them, and are on the bed, naked, facing each other. Not long before he’s inside me and we’re moving together. And everything that has ever between us is with us now, but none of it divides. In fact, what once divided, pulls us together.
For maybe the first time ever.
When it’s over, when we’ve both shuddered into release, Kane tangles his fingers in my hair and tilts my gaze to his. “I hear you went to kill Pocher.”
It’s not a question, and why would it be? I did.
“We do that together, Lilah,” he says roughly. “Call it a date night.”
And somehow, insane as it is, I know that for me and Kane, that statement is romantic as hell.
The couple that kills together, stays alive together. And stays together. At least where Pocher comes into play.
CHAPTER NINE
I wake the next morning to my phone ringing and Kane wrapped around me. Screw the phone, and whoever is calling. Kane is here. He’s alive and I’m hyper-aware of just how easily he might not have been here this morning, or ever again.
My phone stops ringing, and my lashes lower.
It starts ringing again. Kane groans. Groaning right alone with him, I grab my phone to find Director Murphy calling. Aware that he won’t stop calling until he talks to me, I answer with a murmured, “Director.”
Kane rolls off of me, obviously accepting our morning snuggle is over. I’d really like to hear that man say that word—snuggle.
“Late night, I hear,” Murphy comments.
“Early morning,” I complain.
“It’s noon.”
“And?” I challenge, forcing myself to sit up, glancing at the clock. Damn, he’s right. It’s noon.
“Your brother tells me you lost your shit and tried to kill our friend.”
That’s all it takes for me to snap. I throw off the covers and I don’t give two fucks that I’m naked. “First,” I say, placing him on speaker and walking into the closet where I set the phone on a shelf, “Andrew’s a drama queen.” I pull on a pair of leggings. “We’re talking about me.” I pull on a bra and tank top. “Almost killing someone,” I continue, “would mean I had my gun at his head and my finger was twitching. I never made it beyond his gate and according to Andrew, he wasn’t home.”
“As you say, this is you we’re talking about. You would have found him and killed him. So I think we can both agree that your brother saved our friend’s life.”
“Calling Pocher our friend is really fucking irritating right now, Director. He tried to kill Kane. I know he killed my mother. He is not our friend. And yes, he’s lucky to be alive.”
“You’re lucky he’s alive,” he snaps. “I don’t need one of my best assets in jail. And I don’t believe Kane would appreciate his bride being locked away, either.”
“I walked away,” I argue.
“Because there was another murder. And just so we’re clear, Tic Tac has updated me on the new murder last night and your dismissal of a connection between it and the crash. Why?”
“Surely Tic Tac told you why.”
“Do you believe in coincidences, Special Agent Love?”
“You know I don’t.”
“Neither do I,” he replies.
And with that, he hangs up.
I scowl and I dial him back, only to get his voicemail. “Of course,” I murmur, shoving my phone in the side pocket of my leggings, and my feet in fuzzy slippers before I exit the closet. Kane is nowhere in sight and I pray, oh how I pray, he’s making coffee when I should be making it for him. He did crash into the ocean yesterday.
For now, I hurry to the bathroom and start brushing my teeth while Murphy’s words play in my head, damn him. Do you believe in coincidences?
“That bastard,” I murmur, before rinsing my mouth. Inspecting my wild hair, I grab my hairbrush and start brushing. Kane appears beside me and leans on the counter next to me, his skin still angry, but far better than I expected this morning, considering how it looked last night.
“I made coffee,” he adds.
“Thank fuck,” I approve, giving him a once over and deciding he doesn’t look quite as stiff as last night. “How do you feel?”
“Better,” he says, scrubbing his stubbled jaw, which is now blending into his goatee. “In need of a shave, but coffee first. What did Murphy say to piss you off?”
Obviously, he didn’t mean the coffee first statement one little bit because I still don’t have coffee. “Aside from calling Pocher ‘our friend’ over and over? That’s the stupidest code word for the devil I’ve ever heard. Call him the devil. That’s what he is. And as for the rest of the call, you need context to understand. There was another murder last night.”