Page 53 of Kane's Bounty
Wade broke the silence. “You’re really with her, aren’t you?”
Kane ran his fingers through his hair. “Yeah. I guess I am.”
Wade’s eyes widened. “I never thought you would fall for a mark, Lakeland.”
“Me either.”
“She’s special, I guess.”
Kane liked the way Shamus said it. He wasn’t jabbing at Kane. It was more like he was in awe of Lena.
“Would you have brought her in anyway?”
“Yes,” Kane said without hesitation.
“Does she know that?”
He got up and dug his hands in his pockets. He hated how he and Lena had met, but he couldn’t change it. He was a hunter and she was a fugitive. Neither one of those things had been his choosing. “Stop asking so many fucking questions.”
Shamus put his hands up in surrender and didn’t say anything else until Lena came out of the bathroom twenty minutes later.
* * *
There was no mistakingthe federal agent who was waiting for them in the room where they were led. Dark suit and bland expression, no other profession had quite the same look.
Kane thought they were going to throw him out as soon as they took her into custody, but they filled out the paperwork transferring Lena from Wade to the courts and ignored his presence.
After Lena was asked some standard questions, they were led down a hallway and into an interview room where a short man in a black suit waited.
Kane stepped between Lena and the man.
The agent stayed in his place, leaning against the far wall, and held up his hands. “I’m not going to harm Ms. Cruz, Lakeland. That’s the last thing we want.”
“What’s the first thing?” Kane asked.
The agent laughed. “My name is Blake. I work for the FBI. We want to help you, Ms. Cruz. We know you didn’t steal anything from Oscar Thorn.”
Lena sat down on the metal chair and leaned her elbows on the gray table. “What do you want from me?”
The hair on the back of Kane’s neck stood up. “Wait a second. How long have you known Lena was innocent of the crimes she’d been accused of?”
“Since the beginning,” Blake said smugly.
Kane rushed him and pinned him against the wall with his forearm pressed against the man’s throat. “You knew from day one and yet you let her sit in prison for all those weeks.”
The chair scraped on the floor behind him. Lena put her hand on his shoulder. “Kane, let him go.”
Another agent burst into the room just as Kane let Blake go.
Blake rubbed his neck and waved the second agent off. He narrowed his eyes and stepped back outside the interview room. “Jail was the safest place for her. It never occurred to us she would escape. We had planned to wait and then ask for Ms. Cruz’s help.”
“You mean you were hoping she would get desperate enough to help you if you let her rot in prison long enough.” The biting accusation in Kane’s voice was unmistakable.
Blake sat in the chair opposite Lena. “You know how these things work. We have to use all the resources at our disposal to get the best result.”
Kane narrowed his gaze on the agent. He had no discernible psychic talent. He was just an FBI agent doing his job. “And you thought it was just to leave an innocent young woman in the prison system while you tried for your ultimate goal, which I assume is to get Thorn.”
For an instant, Blake’s eyes widened before he resumed his mild, watchful gaze. “It was necessary.”
