Page 62 of Kane's Bounty
“Do we have a deal then?”
“Yes.” He looked at the door. “We don’t have much time. Do you have the stones?”
She placed the back of her hand against the cold table and opened her palm to reveal the small group of blue rocks. A cone of light spread out from her hand to the ceiling. Within the light, John Porter sat at a board table. Three other men sat across from him. John stood and shook hands with the older of the men and both were grinning broadly.
The vision changed. A man in a long black coat ran after Oscar. Lena had lost control of the vision. They could only see the back of Oscar’s head. She quickly altered the face of the man so that it was John Porter being pursued. When the gun was fired by the cloaked figure, the vision ended.
Lena closed her hand around the Stones of Adeline. Her heart was in her throat. She had messed it up. She had shown Oscar his own dismal future. She looked up and Oscar was smiling. She let her breath out. He hadn’t noticed the split second where he was in the vision. He only saw John being killed in an alleyway.
Blood coursed through her ears as relief washed over her. She thought she might pass out, but held herself upright in the chair as Oscar rose, still smiling.
“Thank you, Lena.”
She watched him, but didn’t say anything. “Of course, I can’t keep my side of the bargain.”
“Bastard.” She narrowed her eyes at him.
“You really shouldn’t try to manipulate me. I’m much too far out of your league. Don’t bother to tell the authorities about those incidents, they’ll never believe you anyway. You should stick to duping ignorant bounty hunters. Goodbye, Lena.”
She didn’t say anything until he’d knocked on the door and the guard came and let him out. Once he was out of range of her voice, she said, “No, Oscar. You shouldn’t mess with me.”
In order to keep up the pretense, Lena was kept in custody and she was led back to her cell.
* * *
Kane wantedto get Lena out of that cell, but it was the safest place for her. He had his own job to do. It took every ounce of his restraint to stay in the shadows and follow Thorn without jumping out and kicking the sadistic bastard’s ass. He did find some satisfaction in seeing the swollen, discolored side of his face. He’d would have liked to do the same to the other side and had to keep reminding himself the plan would hurt the millionaire far more than a good beating ever could.
He also doubted FBI Agent Blake would be too keen on him ruining the plan. There were several teams of agents set up to follow and observe. The entire conversation with Lena had been recorded on both audio and video. The cameras had been cleverly hidden in the visitor’s room and the microphone had been taped to Lena.
Blake and Joshua had needed to physically restrain Kane when Thorn had slapped Lena. Now he just wanted him to pay.
Now he followed in an FBI tech van. He could hear everything that was said in Thorn’s car as well as on the cell phone.
They had his phones tapped. In the car, he called his broker and told him to buy Cross stock. Then he called someone about the deal being in play. The person on the other end of the phone said they were in for ten million.
Kane raised his eyebrows.
Thorn hung up and made a second call to another broker and put the order in for ten million dollars.
They had sent a team down to Savannah to check out John Porter. Porter gave no indication he was involved with Cross Lending or Cross Enterprises. The agent reported the small-time crook was having dinner with a woman who was not his wife, but nothing illegal was going on.
They had been watching him for several hours and found nothing out of the ordinary.
The CEO of Cross Enterprises was in his office. The agents who went to question him came back with the impression a deal had been in play, but both parties had decided to wait a few months to see if the economy would stabilize before jumping into any new ventures. He was asked to keep the information to himself for a few hours and had agreed.
The locations Lena had mentioned in the meeting were already being checked. The one at the house in Boston had produced remains.
When Thorn’s car pulled up in front of his office, the van kept going. It was only a matter of time before he would realize he’d been set up. The FBI would have to move fast.
Kane got out of the van about a block away. He walked back to building where Thorn had his offices. He knew he was being followed before he saw Banta step out of the shadows.
“I thought you were looking for an old lady to kill,” Kane said.
Banta showed his bright white teeth. “Your brother managed to keep that one safe for now.”
“You should get out of town, Troth. Your time here is coming to a close.”
“You know I can’t let you live, Kane. It’s a pity, but you made me look incompetent. I can’t have you running around the streets telling people that you overpowered three of my men.”
