Page 28 of Kane

Tori nods slightly. “One temper tantrum hardly makes you a dick.”

I let out a sarcastic, dry laugh, fixing my eyes on the screen.

“Who’s the kid?”

Tori tenses beside me. “Huh?”

“The kid?” I point to the screen. “They keep showing footage of that kid, with the cop.”

Tori is quiet for a moment, and I think she’s over her momentary lapse in judgment of being nice to me. But then she speaks.

“His son.”

“He had a kid?”

Tori stares at the screen, her gaze almost lost in the artificial light.

“Kids,” she says carefully. “He had a daughter, too.”

She clears her throat. “Allegedly.”

“Jesus. Those poor kids,” I say, closing my eyes. “Can you imagine?”

And as I drift off into sleep, in that state of half awake, half asleep; I swear I hear Tori whisper, “No, I don’t have to imagine it.”

Chapter Ten

Kane

I used to dread Tuesdays like the plague because I knew Tuesdays meant therapy and group, which meant it was the hardest day of the week.

But now, Tuesdays are different. Because every Tuesday, at precisely five-oh-five pm, I walk through the doors and head to Nectar to get my weekly fix. And I’m not talking about the caffeine, or the sugar.

I just have to stomach therapy sessions with Margie for an hour, and then I get my reward.

Coffee and a cinnamon roll.

Pristine blue eyes and devilish smirks.

It’s been over a month, and though I have thought about asking him out on multiple occasions, every time I consider it, something gets in the way. A client or a new customer coming in, or there’s a line, or…

Something.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s the universe’s way of deterring me; of telling me that this mild obsession is too much and I should just forget about it. Forget about Ryder and focus on myself. On therapy, on work, on finding Unknown. Which Margie still doesn’t know about.

I don’t know if it’s worth bringing it up at this point, since I feel like it’s starting to be a fruitless endeavor.

Unknown hasn’t messaged me back. Though they are online a lot. I see their green dot, get a notification every time they are online. I swear they’re on there almost as much as I am, but yet…

Nothing.

Maybe Unknown has decided they don’t want to be found, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I’ve spent nearly two years searching records and files, even hired an off-the-books PI last year and paid him a hefty sum to stay as under the radar as he could to avoid Jasper finding out I was digging into his case. After his refusal to hear me, to tell me the truth, I’m not sure he isn’t hiding something, but finding out what it is isn’t going to be easy, I know that. Especially after the PI didn’t come up with much more than I did.

No Veronica.

No phone records.

No thirteenth victim.