KanesBounty (6 page)

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An hour later, they walked hand in hand down the white sand
beach. To the few people enjoying their vacations in Mexico, they probably
looked as if they were a happy couple on a romantic stroll.

Kane adjusted the duffle on his shoulder. Something had been
nagging at the back of his mind. Actually, several things bothered him about
Lena’s story. Yet he knew she hadn’t lied to him. He’d have sensed a falsehood.
Even if she had him blocked, people had tells when they lied and he was an
expert at seeing through them.

He could feel the weight of the five little glass stones in
the pocket of his trunks. He could also sense the power they drew from the
universe. He didn’t like it. Actually, Kane didn’t like anything he couldn’t
control. The stones were a variable he hadn’t counted on when he took the job.
Falling for Lena was another unpredictable problem. He had to focus.

“If these stones of yours can predict the future, why didn’t
you know you were being followed? Why didn’t you see me grabbing you up? Why
didn’t you know about Wade and Banta?” His voice held more accusation than he’d
intended.

She tightened internally at his tone before she tried to
pull her hand away. He held on, hoping that his determination to keep her close
would soften his words. Then she closed off her mind to him.

He stopped and pulled her into a hug. “Don’t, Lena.” Now his
voice was more pleading. He hated the emptiness he felt without her thoughts
open to him. An unwanted silence descended over him.

“I don’t know how to take you.” She pushed away, but only
enough to look up at him.

He shrugged. “I’m not complicated. I just need some facts. I
apologize if my way of getting them seems rough to you.”

She kept her mind closed and his heart ached more than a
little.

“I used the stones when I first escaped. I was nearly
captured twice. I thought Oscar might be able to track me when I used them, so
I stopped.” She paused and then said, “How did you find me?”

He shrugged. “You used the guard’s credit card in Savannah.
It was easy to find you.”

She nodded. “I needed cash. That was why I went to find
Porter, but I had to get food and a hotel.”

It was an old story. Most of his marks made the same
mistake. They would run out of money and use a credit card to survive. It was
simple to find them after that. “I need to ask you something else and you’re
not going to like it.”

She tried to pull out of his arms, but he held tight. “What
is it?” She continued to struggle.

He kissed the top of her head and let her go. Yearning for
her thoughts to be open to him, he had to push the pain away. How had he gotten
so attached in such a short time? He pushed his hands in his pockets nervously,
but then he felt the stones and pulled them out again quickly as if he’d been
burned. Feeling stupid, he pushed his hand back into his pocket and closed it
around the smooth rocks before pulling them out and opening his palm.

For a moment, he thought they glowed slightly, but the
effect faded and five quarter-size glass stones lay inert in his hand. “If they
were mine and they were this much trouble, I’d get rid of them. Why don’t you
toss them away and be done with it?”

Suddenly her mind opened up to him and rage he had not felt
from her before surged. He didn’t know if she had allowed him to feel her anger
or if she had lost control. “Toss them away?” She turned and walked away from
him, got ten feet, turned back and stalked toward him. She pointed to the
stones in his hand. “Those are the Stones of Adeline. I am Adeline.” She
stomped away again.

This time she didn’t stop and he followed as she made her
way to the edge of the sea. “I’m just saying, your life would be easier if you
got rid of them. Don’t you feel as if they’re a noose around your neck? These
stupid things are about to cost you your life.” He had not expected her rage
and he certainly hadn’t expected his own anger to flare. The idea that she
would hold onto a bit of power rather than save her life infuriated him.

“Stupid things?” She turned and poked him in the chest with
her index finger. “Those stupid things have been in existence since the
beginning of time. My family has guarded them for centuries. They are my
responsibility and I failed to protect them. I can’t even begin to fathom what
might have happened if I had been corrupted and the stones had been used for
real evil.”

“I don’t understand,” he said. Confusion mixed with
frustration over their situation put him in a bad temper. “I just want you safe
and you seem determined to get yourself killed over a bit of power.”

She stopped. Her mind cleared. He felt it as if a wiper had
cleared away a windshield. “Is that what you think?” she asked. A coarse laugh
puffed out of her mouth. “Is that why you believe I am protecting them, for
myself? You think I crave power?”

He shrugged. “You married a powerful man.”

The sorrow that filled her made him want to take the words
back. If he could have wiped them from the world, he would have done it to make
the pain of her sadness leave his mind.

“I married a man who courted me as I had never been courted
before. I admit I was taken in by Oscar. I’m ashamed of that fact. But I
married him because I believed he loved me, and for a short time, I loved him.
Unfortunately, he was not the same man after the wedding.”

He had no idea what to say. He wished he had pretty words to
ease her suffering, but he was just a bounty hunter. He tracked people for a
living. Until yesterday, he’d never wanted a close relationship with anyone and
he hadn’t had one. Now he knew of nothing that would soothe her.

She walked away a few steps. Her mind calmed again and she
turned back toward him. “If you think we will have peace if I get rid of my
responsibilities, Kane, toss the stones in the sea. Go ahead, damn us both.”

He wanted to do it. Thought he could do it. He looked in
every direction. The piece of beach where they stood fighting as if they were
longtime lovers was empty of people. He pulled his arm back twice in an attempt
to hurl the hated bits of rock into oblivion. But each time he tried, his arm
lowered to his side with the stones still tightly fisted.

Kane opened his hand and they dropped to the sand at his
feet.

An arch of light shot from the place where the five Stones
of Adeline hit the beach. Kane took a step away from the bluish-green beam.
Lena moved closer and stood wide eyed.

“What is it?” he asked.

“It’s a vision,” she said.

“I thought only you could make the stones work.”

“So did I.”

Even as she said it, an image of Lena lying on her back on a
table came into view. Her skin had a blue hue and her lips were deathly purple.
Kane could see the slight lump on the side of her head from where Wade had hit
her. The black vinyl bag around her was being zipped by someone out of view.
They could only see a man’s hand pulling the zipper closed and rolling the
table away.

Lena’s breath was ragged. She had moved next to him and he
reached down and took her hand. She didn’t resist his affection and he felt a
small sense of relief in spite of the horrifying vision.

An instant later, the vision changed. He saw himself running
on grass. He didn’t look as if he was chasing a mark. No. He was chasing a
child, a little girl of two or three, with dark hair in pigtails. He lifted her
up and tossed her in the air. They both laughed. He landed in the grass with
the child clinging to him, laughing. A third person entered the vision. Lena’s
smiling face came into focus. She rubbed her distended belly and her mouth
moved as if she was saying something. They couldn’t hear what was being said.
The vision had no sound. Kane responded. Lena shook her head and back away. A
moment later, he leaped up and pulled her onto the grass and hugged her. They
both looked happy as they played. The little girl jumped in and cuddled Lena’s
round belly.

The vision ended. The light was gone. The stones lay still
in the sand.

It just was not possible. Lena stared at the spot where the
vision had been and she knew her mouth was hanging open. Neither one of the
visions was all that surprising. She had seen crazier things when she read
other people’s futures. The crazy part was, these were clearly two different
futures. They could not exist in the same universe.

“What just happened?” Kane asked.

“You triggered a vision,” she mumbled, half to herself.

“Two visions,” he corrected.

She nodded dumbly.

“What does it mean?”

“I have no idea,” she said.

She looked up at him and his mouth was drawn down in a
frown. His normal guise of being relaxed had been shattered. He clenched and
unclenched his hands. Even the one still holding hers squeezed tighter, though
not painfully. “I thought you were in charge of reading these things.”

She released his hand and knelt down in the sand, gathering
up her stones. “They have never given two different futures before. I’ve never
seen the stones triggered by someone other than my grandmother or myself. I
don’t know what to say.”

He knelt next to her. “I can’t watch you die, Lena.” His voice
was sad and angry. She knew just how he felt.

“It’s not my first choice, either.”

“The first vision had to be soon. You still had the bump on
your head.” He combed his fingers through her hair.

“I noticed.” Her mind was reeling.
How can there be two
futures?
“The stones don’t lie. They tell you what will happen to a point
and then you make a choice.”

“Well, what does it mean? Clearly the second scenario takes
place several years in the future.”

She touched her flat belly. “Clearly.”

She was lost in her own thoughts about being a mother.
Kane’s hand settled over hers. She looked up into his eyes. “Lena, I…”

“You what?”

“I’ve never had a family.” His hand slid up from her stomach
to her face. “I never thought of a wife or children. My life…”

“Didn’t you grow up in a family? A mother?”

He shook his head. “I grew up in an orphanage until I was
seven and then I was turned over to the Psi-Alignment and trained to do what I
do. I have no idea how to be what you need.”

He was afraid. Kane knew about escape. He understood how to
hide and evade. If she understood him, he was terrified of both visions the
stones had offered. She touched his cheek and leaned forward, pressing her lips
to his. He responded, sucking her bottom lip into his mouth and wrapping his
arms around her.

She broke the kiss, gasping for air. “First we have to find
out how there can be two futures. Then we have to understand how it is you can
trigger a vision.”

“How do we do that?” His voice was ragged.

“We’re going to have to see my grandmother. She’ll know what
it all means.”

“And where exactly is your grandma?”

“She’s in hiding. I knew Oscar would use her as leverage if
he could find her.” She trusted him with her life, but she was not ready to
trust him with the life of the only family she had left. Her grandmother was
too precious.

He kissed her forehead. “I can’t get you there if you don’t
tell me where we’re going.”

She rested her head against his chest. His heart beat a
steady rhythm and she closed her eyes. “I will tell you, Kane. Just not yet.”

The sun began to set. They walked hand in hand back to the
hotel. In the lobby, Kane stopped a bellman. “Can we eat in the restaurant in
these clothes?”

“
Sí, señor.
It is casual here. Would you like for me
to check on a table for you?”

“Yes, please.”

A few minutes later, they were seated one level below the
lobby at one of the dark tables in the outdoor restaurant. Lena barely noticed
the food. She ordered some kind of fish, but she only ate because she was
starving. She plucked pieces off the soft roll and popped them in her mouth
while she thought about how to get to her grandmother.

“Why don’t you tell me what the problem is and we can work
it out together?” Kane asked.

She looked across the table at him. His white shirt was only
buttoned part of the way. The smattering of dark hair that covered his chest
was visible. His bright-blue eyes devoured her as if she were
his
soft
roll. She wanted to comb her fingers through his mussed hair and pretend they
were on vacation, the same as all the other couples eating around them. But
they were not on vacation. They were lovers because fate had thrust them
together. The vision of them frolicking as a happy family must have been a
mistake. Though she’d never heard of or seen the stones make any errors.

Lena sighed. “I don’t even know where to start.”

His smile was warm. It was the kind of look she could get
lost in. Oscar had never smiled at her that way. He had been too smooth for
warm looks. He used seduction and guile. Kane made no pretenses. He was exactly
what she saw, rough edges and all.

When he spoke, it was low, for her ears only. “You are
worried that finding your grandmother will expose her to Oscar.”

Her heart jumped. “Can you read directly from my mind? I
thought you could only sense feelings.”

“Relax. I am not reading your mind. I would not invade your
privacy that way. I just know I would not want to expose someone I was hiding
by seeking them out. I can practically see you trying to work out the logistics
as you brutalize that piece of bread.”

She felt relief, but something he said troubled her. “Then
you can read minds? Really read them?”

He looked away and his expression was hard and distant. When
he looked back, she saw pain in those beautiful eyes. “When I was in training,
they taught us to probe minds. If you are in physical contact, it’s possible.
If you have permission and the person opens their mind to you, it is very
intimate. It’s possible to share something unique.”

“I’m guessing not everyone feels permission is necessary,”
she said.

His jaw ticked. “If a telepath probes a mind that is closed,
it is violent, painful and can destroy the victim. I consider it a type of
rape.”

She could not help the shiver that ran up her spine at the
idea of someone like Wade or Banta invading her mind in such a way. Then she
thought about Kane. He had worshiped her with his body. What would it mean to
share his thoughts? Her pussy clenched at the idea, even though her heart
pounded with fear at the notion of being totally exposed.

He cleared his throat. When she met his gaze, he also looked
aroused. She wondered if his thoughts were similar to hers. She didn’t ask. “I
am going to have to trust you completely in order to get to my grandmother and
protect her from Oscar and his people.”

“And you don’t.” He didn’t say it with anger. His voice was
very matter-of-fact. They both knew it was true.

“I’m tempted to just tell you to take me in to the Boston
authorities. At least Gran would be safe.”

“But you would likely end up in that body bag.” He sounded
angrier than she’d expected.

She knew he was right. Oscar would either have her killed or
he would somehow get his hands on her, and if that happened, she would kill
herself. Either way, she would be zipped into one of those bags and the first
vision would come to pass.

“I don’t want you dead, Lena. I’m willing to play this thing
out until your trial date. Which means we have less than a week to find
Grandma, figure out how to clear your name and get you to the Boston
courthouse.”

“Why are you helping me?” She had to know.

“I’ve never felt like this before. I’ve never wanted what we
saw in the second vision. It never even occurred to me that kind of life was
possible for a man like me. I’m still not convinced, but I’m willing to risk
everything to find out.” His eyes sparkled in the flicker of the candles on the
table.

It must have been a very sad existence as a little boy
growing up the way he did. “My mother and I lived with my grandmother until
Momma died a few years ago. I barely knew my father, but I had a happy childhood.
I was loved very much. When you grew up in the training facility, did you have
friends?”

He cocked his head to one side. “Sure. Wade was my friend
for a time.”

“What happened?”

He shrugged and then laughed. He looked as if he remembered
something long forgotten. “We grew up and took different paths.”

“You are both paid bounty hunters working for the same
company. How are your paths different?”

“We are contractors. Some are willing to overlook what’s
legal in favor of profit. Wade is one of those people. He has an odd sense of
right and wrong.”

“But not you.”

“No. I don’t need money that badly. I have enough.” He
looked over her shoulder toward the beach, seeming lost in thought.

“What about women?”

His focus was back and he looked at her as if he might jump
over the table and take her in the restaurant. “What about them?”

“Were there women in training with you?”

“Sure. I know a lot of great women recovery agents.”

“Do you sleep with them?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Sometimes.”

She hadn’t expected the pang of jealousy at the idea of him
having sex with another woman, but there it was. She felt a jolt of anger and
had to push it down. “Did you ever fall in love with any of them?”

He must have sensed her jealousy. That devastating smile
returned. “I would tease you, but I can’t do it. No, Lena, I’ve never fallen in
love with any of the women I’ve slept with. Not on the job or off. Never—”

He stopped so abruptly, it seemed as if he was going to say
more. “So you’ve never loved anyone in your life.”

“No.”

The intensity in his stare made her heart pound faster. “I
want you.” The words tumbled out of her mouth as if of their own accord. She
didn’t know why she had said them, other than they were the truth. She did want
him, all of him.

An instant later, he called for the check.

When he gripped her arm and pulled her from the restaurant,
she wasn’t surprised, but then he didn’t head toward their room. “Where are we
going?”

He didn’t answer, just turned and grinned down at her before
sliding his hand down her arm and taking her hand in his.

They walked along the beach. Refreshing gusts of cool sea
air blew away the heat of the day. When he turned onto the street and headed
for town, she asked again, “Where are you taking me?”

“I need to make a phone call.”

“There’s a phone in our room.”

He turned a corner into a dark alley. Music wafted from the
Cabo Wabo bar down the block. Vines grew up a trellis and obscured them from
the main street. Kane pressed her back against the hard stucco wall. Her
shoulders were bare and they scratched against the building. His body pressed
tight to hers. His hard cock pressed tightly between them. She gasped and
pushed forward to feel him more keenly.

He moved her hair to one side and ran his tongue down the
side of her neck while his hands slid down her waist and he undid the button of
her shorts in one quick move. Her entire body was on fire. He couldn’t intend
to fuck her in the street. People were walking past the alley every few seconds
to go to the busy bars and restaurants. She rose on her tiptoes and his shaft
rubbed low against her abdomen.

Kane thrust his knee between her legs. She moaned loudly as
her bathing suit abraded her clit. “Kane?”

“Do you still want me, Lena?”

Was he nuts? What kind of telepath was he? “I want you.”

“Here?” He pressed his knee against her pussy again and slid
his hand down into her shorts and suit bottom. He squeezed her ass and let his
fingers slide between her ass cheeks.

“Everywhere. Anywhere.” She didn’t know which one she meant
at that point. Maybe she meant them both. Her body cried for more of him.

He covered her mouth with his, thrusting his tongue inside
and devouring her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulders, then
pulled herself up so that her pubic bone rubbed his cock, before lowering back
down and letting her pussy grind against his thigh.

The rumble in his chest told her he wanted her too. His hand
slid over her hip and between her legs. Pushing inside her shorts and suit, he
spread her juices over her clit while rubbing back and forth.

His kisses drowned out her gasps and cries. He rubbed
harder, dipped his finger in her slit and rubbed her clit again. A woman
laughed loudly just on the other side of the leafy trellis that hid them. A
man’s voice followed, but the words were obscured by the blood rushing through
her ears.

Every muscle tightened and her body shuddered. She tightened
her grip on his neck, pulling their bodies tight, and let go of the orgasm that
crashed down on her.

Kane’s kisses softened. He pulled her bottom lip between his
and then did the same with her top one. His fingers slid from her wetness and
he sucked them into his mouth, giving them both a taste of her. Lena moaned
again. Her pussy already yearned for more. She wanted his cock buried deep
inside her. She would have let him fuck her right there in the street. In fact,
the proximity of so many people had turned her on. She had never been one for
public displays, but the idea that at any moment they could be discovered was
thrilling.

“I can’t risk using the phone in the room. I need a
payphone.” He answered the question which she’d almost forgotten she’d asked.

She pressed her cheek to his chest and breathed in his
spicy, warm scent. Her arms curled around his back and she pulled his ass tight
to her. Feeling how hard he still was, it was nearly torture when he pulled
away.

His smile was light, but she could see the intensity of his
desire in his eyes. “You can take care of that later. Let’s find a phone and
get a drink.”