Page 18 of Kane's Bounty
He stopped and pulled her into a hug. “Don’t, Lena.” Good lord he never thought he’d hear himself pleading with a woman for anything. 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?”
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 into his swimming truck’s pockets, but then he felt the stones and pulled them out again 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.
Either she had allowed him to feel her anger or had lost control. Whichever it was, he was glad to feel her again even if the emotions were negative.
“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.” 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.
It 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. The slight lump on the side of her head from where Wade had hit her was visible. 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 sucked in a ragged breath. Next to him now, 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.
