“Cash’s mother. It’s her beach house we’re at on Anna Maria Island. We brought you here because we needed to hide you away while the police investigate Mason’s death.”
“Mason’s murder?”
Gemma tucked my hair behind my ear and said quietly, “He had a gun. He’d intended to kill you, and when he and Kane fought, the gun accidentally went off.”
A memory of gunshots at the house Mason took me to flashed through my mind. But I’d heard more than one shot. Then a spike of fear raced through me.
“Did Kane get shot too?”
“No,” Gemma said with a smile, not knowing her answer created more questions than comfort in me.
“The police are treating Kane as the number one suspect in what they’re calling a murder,” Olivia said quietly.
All those horrible feelings of losing him I’d experienced that night when he was arrested and led away came back with a vengeance, and I began to cry, wishing I never woke up to hear all this. Kane was going to jail because he wanted to save me, and there was nothing I could do about it this time.
“Abbi, it’s going to be okay. Don’t cry.”
I looked at Gemma and shook my head, not believing what she was saying. “How could it be okay? Kane killed someone to save me and now he’s going to go to jail. Nothing will ever be okay again!”
Olivia leaned over and squeezed my hand in sympathy. “Don’t worry just yet. Cash and Stefan vouched for him and said he was with them all night, so he’s got an alibi.”
“So why is he still in Tampa and I’m here?”
“Well, it’s not that simple. After the problem with Jethro, Kane is naturally the one they’d look at since Mason was beaten before he was shot. Even more, your injuries would make them think Kane did it to avenge what Mason did to you. That’s why we need to hide you out here for a while.”
“Don’t worry, honey,” Gemma said in her usual sweet way. “Kane’s going to take care of everything.”
Olivia walked toward the door. “Are you hungry? I can get you something to eat.”
“Yeah. Sure. Maybe some toast or something,” I said, not really hungry but not wanting to talk anymore.
She left and Gemma sat with me, silent for a long time before she said, “Abbi, he’s going to be fine and as soon as the cops stop investigating him, he’ll come here for you.”
“He killed someone, Gemma. They’re not going to just let that go. Mason was a councilman. A politician’s death isn’t something they’re just going to spend a few days on and forget.”
“Kane was careful, honey. He’s got this covered. Don’t worry.”
“He killed someone, Gemma! Murder!” I began to sob, unable to handle the truth. Because of me, Kane was now a murderer for the second time and certain to be sent to prison. I’d turned the man I loved into a murderer for me.
“That man was going to kill you, Abbi Linde,” she scolded me. “Do you understand me? He had a gun and he wanted to kill you.” She got up from the bed and grabbed a mirror from the dresser. Holding it in front of my face, she said, “Take a good look at what he did. That’s four days out and you still look like someone took a fucking bat to your face. He kidnapped you, beat you, and planned to kill you. And you want to blame Kane for doing what any man should do for the woman he loves?”
I sat stunned at her words. Looking at my reflection, all I saw was what I’d always been. A victim.
“I can’t help it. He killed someone, Gemma. After all those times boyfriends beat me and how many times I wished someone would make them feel what I felt, now that it’s happened all I feel is sick. How can I ever look at him the same again?”
“I told you this when I first suggested you come to work at Club X. Kane is a good man. He’s crazy in love with you, probably going out of his mind missing you, and you’d be insane to think of him as anything else but that. Would you rather be dead and Mason be alive?”
It wasn’t that easy. Mason’s death made Kane something I wasn’t sure I could handle. I loved him with all my heart, but what if I never could look at him the same again knowing what he’d done because of me?
“I’m tired, Gemma. I’m going to lay down a little while,” I said, needing to avoid this conversation.
She reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out an envelope. “Okay, honey, but I want to leave this with you.”
I took it from her hand and looked at it. “What’s this?”
“A letter from Kane. Olivia brought it yesterday.”
Gemma left me and I opened the envelope to find a single sheet of paper. In his own hand, he’d written me things he’d never said to me before.
My angel,
I’m sorry I’m not there with you when you need me most. I told you I’d never leave you alone, but I swear I had no choice. Every night I lay on the floor next to my twin bed in my rooms at the club and think of the time I spent there with you. You’re the first thought I have every morning and the last thought I have every night. In between, it feels like someone’s carved into my chest and taken my heart out, leaving an emptiness there only you can fill.
There’s a darkness in me, angel—my demons demand I protect you—and I don’t regret letting them rule me that night. For you, I’d give up everything, including my freedom, if I could know you were safe. I promise I’ll make this up to you if it takes the rest of my life. Please don’t give up on us, angel.
Never doubt I love you more than anyone or anything in this world.
Kane
His letter made my heart ache and I missed him so much at that moment, I couldn’t think about those doubts I’d had just minutes before. I feared they’d return sometime, though, and I’d have to deal with them or lose him. There was no other way.
Day after day, I waited to hear that Kane had been cleared of the charges, but each time Olivia came to see me, all she could report was the investigation was continuing and at least he hadn’t been charged. The days became weeks and even though I wanted to write back to him to say I loved him and missed him more than I thought I could ever miss another person, I couldn’t just in case the police searched his rooms. Any connection to me could endanger him, so all those words I wanted to say to him remained unspoken and hidden in my heart.
I missed our little house where we’d made a home together, even if I began to like Alexandria’s house on Anna Maria Island with its warm breezes that blew through the French doors of my bedroom and porch right outside where I sat at night and wished Kane was there beside me as I watched the sun set. I told myself that this was only temporary and tomorrow Kane would come and take me and Angel home with him.