Page 65 of Captive Wilderness
I knew who Walker was from Kane’s dreams, the skinny cougar who lived in the trailer park on the outskirts of their town but had been deployed overseas in the military.
Kane signed another question, his emotions becoming discontent.
Landon shrugged. “He needed a job, some sort of direction.” He raised a hand before Kane could object to him using Walker as an underling. “You haven’t been around, Kane. You didn’t see him when he came back. He wasn’t the same. His time overseas fucked with him. I did him a favor.” His face stark, he ran a hand over his head, mussing his perfectly groomed hair. “I’ve given him something to do other than contemplate a bullet.”
Kane glanced away, and I felt his shame. He hadn’t been here for his friend, and he didn’t know how to fix it. Taking his one hand in both of mine, I tugged him to me, offering comfort.
“This,” Landon said, gesturing to the collars. “This is my fault. I had a breach and I’ll take care of it.”
“I need to find out where they’ve taken my sister.” My chest tightened painfully. “I need to get her back.”
Landon nodded. “I can understand that. I’ll do whatever I can to help, with tracking the plane and anything else. And I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve found something or when I hear from Walker.” He picked up my collar. “Can I keep this? I’d like to find out as much about the design as possible.”
When I looked to Kane, he nodded once. “We’re okay with that.”
The tension in his body easing, Kane’s gaze bounced around the rest of the lab, never settling.
“You can take a look around if you like,” Landon said to him. “You’ll see a couple of your newer designs in prototype production.”
After a brief hesitation, Kane ran a hand down my spine, then strode off, looking at the different things the employees were working on. They watched him with wary expressions. And while my mate prowled around, I realized Landon was watching me. I raised my eyebrows.
“Kane has mating marks,” he said quietly.
My cheeks heated. Kane’s dress shirt had concealed them, but his borrowed T-shirt did not. “Yes,” I said, lifting my chin.
His eyes went to my throat, but I knew mine weren’t visible underneath my shirt. I’d checked before leaving the hotel.
“What do you know of Kane’s past?” he asked, his eyes going to Kane across the room then back to me.
I didn’t see a reason to lie. “Everything.” And it didn’t matter. What was in his past didn’t change how I felt about him.
Tucking his hands into the front pockets of his suit pants, Landon leaned against the work surface. “Then maybe you could tell him what he won’t hear from me.”
The statement made me tense, but I remained quiet, too curious to object.
“The authorities in Goldenlach Ridge aren’t after him. They haven’t been for years. He doesn’t need to remain in exile because of what happened the day he left.” He paused like he was unsure if he should continue, like he wasn’t sure if I really knew everything.
I nodded for him to go on.
“That woman was dead before Kane trampled her during the fight. The coroner’s report proved that. Tom’s dad buried everything because he knew it was his kid’s fault. I think he’d known Tom was the one behind all the recent tourist disappearances from the start.” He ran a hand over his face. “Kane wouldn’t believe me when I tried to tell him years ago. Maybe he’ll listen to you.”
Swallowing, I nodded. “I’ll tell him.” Someday. Not today. There was too much other shit to process.
Our next moments were silent as we watched Kane across the room. He picked up some sort of tool and gestured to a workstation. The employee moved out of his way so he could sit.
He was in his element here. It was like he wanted to play. It brought warmth to my chest, banishing some of the cold dread I felt at not having leads on my sister’s whereabouts.
“Kane’s a lucky man,” Landon murmured, his voice bordering on wistful. I might have replied, except a ring tone I was not used to sang from the briefcase beside me. I froze, my stomach squeezing painfully. I only gave one person my number.
34
KANE
The second Brooke’sphone rang, I jumped to my feet. Meeting her shocked stare across the room, I strode away from the workstation where the engineers collaborated on one of my 3D multi-sensor transmitter ideas. Since sending my first thoughts last year, they hadn’t made as much progress on it as I would have thought.
But as soon as that phone rang, all thoughts of transmitters went right out of my head.
She held the phone away from her, like it was something that might explode. The screen read “unknown number” and her hands shook as she pressed the green icon to answer it and put it on speaker phone.
