Page 14 of Kane's Bounty
She rested her cheek against his chest. She liked the feel of his breathing against her face. She matched his breath. “You said they feel like a magnet. Well, in a way, they are. But the stones don’t attract metal; they bring a vision of the future.”
“Whew… No wonder Thorn wants them. With that kind of power, he could do anything.”
She waited for him to wrestle the stones from her hand. She expected at any moment he would thrust her aside and run with her gift.
He nuzzled her head, moving it until he could gain access to her neck and ear. He kissed her pulse and nibbled her lobe. “Don’t think so meanly of me, Lena. I don’t take what’s not mine or offered freely. I don’t want your stones.”
She turned her head to look him in the eyes. “What do you want, Kane? If it was sex, you’ve had that. What more can you want from me? I don’t have anything. I’m a fugitive from the law and Oscar. I can tell you your future, is that what you want?”
She pushed on his chest to get up and away from him, but he held her firmly.
“I don’t know what it is about you, Lena. I don’t know why you are different than any other mark I’ve ever brought back for trial. I don’t even know why I believe your story. The point is, it doesn’t matter. You are a fugitive. You have to go back and face trial or you will be running forever.”
Her gut clenched. “If I go back, Oscar will have me killed to protect his secret, or worse, he’ll keep me prisoner until I read the stones for him.”
“You were married to him, didn’t you read them for him?” Kane asked.
Regret washed over her. “I read them when we were first married. Each time, his questions were about business deals. I would tell him the outcome and he would make business decisions based on my visions. Each time, his questions would be more valuable to him. After a year, he asked me about some associate of his. When I told him the answer, he used the information to financially destroy the man. That was when I began refusing and when Oscar started to use other means to get me to comply.”
“He beat you?” His voice sounded furious. She wondered if Kane wanted to hit Oscar or if he just opposed spousal abuse in general. He hardly seemed the type to hit a woman.
“Your friend Wade hit me.” She gingerly touched the lump on the side of her head.
“He’s not my friend. He just works for the same company I do.” He waited for an answer to his question.
“Sometimes Oscar hit me, but that didn’t get me to give him what he wanted. He tortured my friends, the few I’d made when I moved to Boston. He burned down the business of one and had another mugged in the street. He threatened my grandmother. That worked for a while. Then I managed to get her hidden away. After that, he got really mad. He tried torture, which worked more often than not. He broke my arm.
“It turned out to be a blessing. He had to take me to the hospital and that’s how I escaped. I hid out, got a lawyer and filed for divorce.” Saying it out loud somehow made her feel powerful. Oscar had taken all her power in the two years they had been married. She had taken it back. Even if it meant staying on the run, she would never go back to him.
