Page 67 of Bought to Break
Kane ignored the dying man and advanced on her. She just stared at him, wondering if this was real or just her mind unwilling to comprehend that she was being defiled in this cave.
Chapter 33
Kane
She was looking at him, but it was as if she wasn’t really there. Kane called her name and her brow furrowed. Still she said nothing, didn’t move as he knelt beside her.
She was naked to her knees, her breeches halfway down her legs. Blood ran freely down her face and chest and was smeared across her skin by their hands. He cursed Quin as he pulled what was left of her clothes up as far as he could and then cut the ropes from her wrists. Her arms fell and she left them where they landed, staring at a place on the wall behind him. Her left shoulder looked lower than the other. It was out of its socket. Putting it back into joint would have to wait for Sorin’s skill. Kane growled, wishing he could kill the two cunts again and make it more painful for them.
‘Lana?’
Nothing.
He pulled her to her feet and fumbled with his tunic, intending to take it off to wrap her in. Her legs buckled and he caught her with a curse, holding her against him as he pulled up her trousers with his other hand. He lowered her back to the ground gently and put her boots on. Then he removed his tunic and covered her.
With a final look around the cave, he lifted her into his arms and left, moving quickly down the hill in the moonlight towards the port, where Sorin and Viktor were finding a ship to take them back to the mainland.
After searching practically the whole island for Lana that afternoon, he, Sorin and Viktor had returned to the docks to learn that her clothes had been found in the sea.
Even now, after discovering her alive, Kane was still reeling from seeing those bloodied scraps that afternoon and believing that she was dead for hours. Something had broken in him and the others. They’d milled around, all three in a daze as ‘the witch’s clothes’ were passed around and the men raised horns of ale to her death.
It wasn’t until the moon was high that Quin approached, whispering to them that she was alive and in that fucking cave. He still wasn’t clear about the man’s reasons for taking her in the first place, but Quin had assured him that she was not dead.
So he’d ordered Sorin and Viktor to procure a ship and supplies so that they could leave the Army of the Dark Brothers. For her. Neither of them had liked the fact that he was going to find her alone. They’d both wanted to see for themselves if she really was there – and they no longer trusted him with her, he’d realised. It was a blow, though he wasn’t surprised. He didn’t trust himself either, truth be told. The things she made him feel, he didn’t recognise, for if he had ever felt them, he didn’t remember. He was so protective of her that he was terrified of her coming to any harm. He saw that now. He was afeared and it made him angry. How could this girl have burrowed past his inner darkness and made him so vulnerable to her?
He looked down at her stiff form in his arms. He could just see her eyes, still open, staring unseeing into the darkness, and found that he didn’t feel even the smallest amount of resentment that they were having to leave. The Brothers meant nothing compared to her. He didn’t even care that they had no plan save getting to the mainland. None of it mattered now. Not even Vineri, the Collector, the man who had haunted his nightmares since he was a boy. Kane had lived on thoughts of revenge in the Dark Brothers for so long, he wasn’t sure what else there was, but therewasmore. Lana was proof of that.
As he reached the buildings by the docks, she began to shiver, and he wrapped his arms more tightly around her, carefully so as not to cause her pain. Had it really been only the day before yesterday that he’d been so close to whipping her? He shook his head, promising himself that his temper would never get the better of him again where she was concerned. Sorin had been right to beat him so severely. He’d deserved it.
Kane could see the dwindling fires on the nearby beach as he approached the water. The men had been drinking heavily in celebration of the successful invasion and Lana’s death. Most would be in drunken stupors by now. He passed one or two still making merry and kept to the shadows as he made his way over the wooden planks to the smaller fishing vessels where the others should be waiting.
He saw movement, which was immediately followed by three soft taps of a boot against the wood. He relaxed, returning the signal with his own.
‘Do you have her?’ came Viktor’s whisper, cutting through the dark.
‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘but she’s hurt.’
‘Bring her.’
He followed Viktor through the short but complicated maze of docks and boats until they reached the one that would carry them back to the mainland. It looked like a smaller version of the ones they’d made the crossing on, which was fortunate, as it would have at least one cabin where they could keep Lana out of sight.
He boarded and found Sorin waiting for him.
‘Take her below,’ he said in a low voice. ‘We sail soon. Viktor’s standing watch, but the captain and crew are being well paid. I doubt there will be trouble.’
Kane nodded, manoeuvring himself and Lana into the depths of the merchant ship. He followed Sorin down the corridor to a small cabin with four bunks. He lay Lana down on one, wincing as her face showed the pain she was in.
‘Lana, thank the gods you’re alive,’ Sorin breathed. He turned to Kane. ‘Why is she not speaking? What’s wrong with her?’
‘I don’t know. One of her shoulders is out of joint, though. Other than that, some cuts, and she’s shivering, though she feels warm. She hasn’t spoken since I found her.’
Sorin knelt by the cot and tugged Kane’s tunic away. ‘Did you do this?’ he asked, his voice sharp.
Kane’s eyes narrowed. ‘Of course not. When I got to the cave, she was bound to the wall and two soldiers were attacking her.’
‘Attacking her?’
‘Trying to rape her,’ Kane clarified.
