by J. S. Scott
I’d come to care about him so deeply that I desperately wanted Kane’s name to be cleared.
“I don’t know why he’s coming all the way up here,” Kane answered in a puzzled tone. “Crazy asshole. He’s traveling up here in a fucking blizzard.”
I had forgotten that the forecast was calling for a major snowstorm today and tomorrow. Really, Kane and I hadn’t paid much attention to the weather since we were warm and toasty underground. It was easy to forget that there was a world outside this compound. But I had seen the weather report a day or two ago, and I knew the storm was coming.
“Why would he come here?” I asked curiously, wondering why Gavin hadn’t just called Kane.
“I don’t know. Must be important, but I’m not texting the idiot again. He said he’ll be here shortly. He’ll end up driving off the damn mountain trying to answer,” Kane said gruffly. “I’ll check the cameras and see if I can spot him coming in.”
Kane was worried. Beneath his insults, I could hear the note of concern in his voice. I watched as he strode down the hallway toward the bedroom and disappeared inside the monitoring room, a place where he could see what was going on outside from every camera angle—and control the gates and doors.
He was back moments later. “It’s coming down so hard I can’t see a damn thing. I opened the gate, but I can’t see him,” he mumbled irritably.
“Should we go upstairs and wait for Gavin?”
Kane hurriedly grabbed the gray sweatshirt that he’d discarded earlier so I could cut his hair, and yanked it over his head.
“I’ll go up,” he suggested. “You stay here where it’s warm. It’s going to be cold upstairs. I turned down the propane heat for the cabin when we came underground.”
I shrugged, but I had to wonder whether part of Kane still didn’t trust me outside of this crazy bunker.
Did he think I’d try to escape?
Did he think I’d beg Gavin to help me?
Did he actually think I’d betray him?
It was a depressing thought, yet I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on inside of his head if he didn’t want me to meet Gavin.
His eyes were dark and troubled as his gaze met mine, his comment still lingering in the air between us as I looked at him with all of those questions still in my mind.
Yet before I could continue the internal debate warring inside me, he resolved it all, gently kissing my forehead before heading up the stairs. “My gun is in the nightstand by the table. It’s loaded, so be careful. And the code for the doors and my keys are in there, too. I don’t want you trapped in here if for some reason I’m not around to get you out of here. I’ve been meaning to tell you where everything was stored, but you distracted me. I’ll bring Gavin down as soon as he gets here.”
The tension in the air dissolved, and the muscles in my body relaxed as the final wall between us fell once and for all. Kane had just uttered the words that made any lingering doubt I might have had disappear completely.
He’d just offered me the world, and he probably didn’t even know it. If he gave me the location of all of the codes and a loaded gun, he showed me, without words, how much he trusted me.
“Thank you,” I called as he climbed the stairs, wanting him to understand how much his trust meant to me.
He turned around. “For what?”
Kane looked genuinely confused, and I smiled at him when it became clear that he didn’t even realize the significance of what he’d just done. “For setting me free.”
He frowned as he came back to the bottom of the stairs. “Are you leaving? We’re in the middle of a major blizzard, Anna.”
Although he’d just let me know that walking away was possible, I shook my head as I stepped toward him. “No. I’ll be here as long as you need me.”
“Then you’ll never go,” he replied huskily.
I sighed and threw myself into his arms when he reached for me. While I savored the feeling of his possessive hold and his warm body, I answered, “There isn’t a single thing in my life as important as being with you right now.” I stepped back. “Go and see if Gavin is here. I’ll wait.”
Honestly, what did I have waiting for me away from here? An empty life working at my diner? I was pretty sure nobody had even questioned my absence. Buying the restaurant had been an escape. I realized that now. Since I couldn’t go back into the mountains, I’d chosen a hobby that I loved and made it into a business to keep myself busy. But my place didn’t pull much of a profit, and even though I enjoyed cooking, it wasn’t my ultimate passion.
I’d spent most of my adult life preparing for a career I loved, a passion to save lives through scientific research on avalanches. That work meant as much to me as it had to my parents, and there was nothing I wanted more than to carry on their legacy. Unfortunately, I’d been a coward, running away because of my fear and grief.
He hesitated, his questioning eyes scanning my face. “You okay, Cupcake?”
“I’m fine,” I assured him, and it was the absolute truth.
I grinned at him, and that must have been enough to convince him I wasn’t completely losing my mind because he turned around and vaulted up the stairs, finally disappearing through the secret door to the upstairs cabin.
I went and sat on the couch, still stunned by Kane’s revelation that he’d let me leave if that was what I wanted. I had access to a loaded gun, the keys to his vehicle, and the codes to let myself out.
Problem was, I didn’t want to leave anymore. I wanted to know that Kane had been cleared and that he was free to live his life again.
I sat there digesting that information for quite some time before I heard the loud sounds of footsteps on the stairs. I stood, curious to get my first look at Gavin, a man who had stood beside Kane again and again.
I made my way toward the stairs, stopping in surprise as I saw Kane’s best friend and partner as they stopped in front of me.
Trying not to be obvious, I couldn’t help but compare the two men as they stood side by side. Gavin was tall, just like Kane, and he was obviously in great physical shape. But that was where the similarities ended.
Gavin was attractive, even though his sandy brown hair was in disarray and appeared to be slightly damp from the wind and snow. I decided it would be almost impossible to identify every shade present in those cropped locks, and the scruffy beard on his face. I could see brown, but he also had some lighter blond highlights, and some almost the color of honey.
I couldn’t decide if he was just scruffy and whiskered from not shaving for several days, or if he’d actually been trying to grow a light beard.
Dressed in a worn leather jacket, a dark gray T-shirt, and a pair of old jeans looking like they’d seen better days, Gavin wasn’t even close to what I’d been imagining.
Yeah, he was handsome, but more unconventional and rugged compared to Kane, who looked polished, even when he’d had that damn beard. But Gavin’s smiling gray eyes gave me a glimpse of his personality, his lips slipping into an easy grin that lit up his bright blue eyes as he extended a hand after Kane introduced us. “Nice to meet you, Anna,” he said, his tone genuine and sincere.
I put my hand into his, sensing that I’d just found a new friend. We obviously had one important thing in common: we were both invested in the outcome of Kane’s situation.
CHAPTER 21
Kane
“It’s damn good to have you here, man—though I’d be thoroughly pissed off if you’d gotten yourself killed out there in the storm. What the fuck were you thinking?” If anything had happened to Gavin, I’d never have forgiven myself, since I knew he wouldn’t have trekked all the way out here for anyone else.
“I was thinking that I have news you’ll want to hear—and though I may have used up a few of my nine lives in the past, I have a few more tucked away for emergencies like this.” He gave me an al
l too familiar smile that was filled with far too much mischief. “I know who set you up.”
Anna gave my hand a squeeze, shooting me a hopeful look. “Does this mean Kane’s off the hook for that murder?”
If only. Yet I knew nothing would be that simple. Not if it had anything to do with me, though it was sweet of Anna to want that for me so passionately.
Gavin shook his head no, looking apologetic. “Sorry, Anna…it’s a bit more complicated than that, I’m afraid. I’ve figured out who was likely responsible for killing that woman and setting Kane up, but I’m afraid any of the evidence I have wouldn’t exactly be admissible in court, given that I may have come across the information in ways that probably weren’t exactly legal.”
“Fuck, Gavin, you know you can’t be doing that sort of thing. You’ll land yourself in prison again—and this time they’ll not only throw the book at you, but there’s no chance you’ll get out of there alive.” Gavin had just as many enemies as I did.
Gavin’s stint in prison had been for hacking, though they’d been lenient with his sentence, and they’d even allowed him to continue to work with computers after his sentence had been served. His ace lawyer managed to convince the judge that Gavin had simply been testing a company’s security measures in order to show them that their firewalls were inadequate, so they’d hire him to bolster their cyber security.
Granted, that was nothing but a load of crap, but it’d been Gavin’s first offense—that he’d been caught for, at any rate—and the judge had been kind. However, if he got caught again, I doubted he’d fair so well, and he could easily get tossed in prison for a decade or two, especially with there being a big push to crack down on hackers.
Not that he’d last a week with the enemies we’d made.
Gavin waved away my concerns. “I was young, arrogant, and careless when I got caught. These days, you know I’m a hell of a lot more careful—and there’s no fucking way anyone would be able to trace it back to me, if they even figured out that they’d been hacked, which is highly doubtful.”
It might sound like he was being arrogant, but the truth was that Gavin really was that good.
“So, who the hell was it? I doubt it was any of the gangs we managed to piss off in prison.” Not that I was hurting for enemies.
Gavin leaned against the back of the sofa, stretching out his long legs “It’s the fucking Russians—Alexei Petrov and his crew, to be exact. They were making a decent profit hacking into a myriad of companies—and we’ve put an end to their pillaging and plundering. I’m just surprised they only set you up, and didn’t come after me, too. Though, maybe they still have something in store for me.”
“No…that’s not it at all.” I knew exactly what had happened, and the only reason Gavin didn’t get caught up in the murder charges was dumb luck. “We always head out together if we’re both in town. And they assumed you’d be with me.”
“But I wasn’t. Thor had gotten sprayed by a skunk right as I was heading out the door, so I got stuck attempting to wash the stink out of him. By the time I was done, I didn’t smell any better than that damn dog, and figured it might put a damper on the night if there was a cloud of skunk surrounding us.” And so Gavin had bailed on me, leaving me on my own that night.
“They must have figured it’d still be worth going ahead with their plan, and then they could come after you at a later time if need be.” Fucking bastards. I couldn’t believe they’d framed me for murder. “Though I’m surprised they went through all this trouble, rather than simply tracking us down and putting a bullet in each of us.”
Gavin shrugged with a scoff. “Who the fuck knows what their motivations were. Maybe they’d planned to offer over evidence to the cops proving your innocence if we, in exchange, met their demands.”
And if that were the case, then simply framing even one of us would still get the job done, since it was no secret that Gavin and I had each other’s back—and it’d mean they could put us to work for them, which would prove even more lucrative. Gavin could easily hack his way into places that weren’t usually accessible to them.
Killing Gavin would be like killing the Golden Goose—and I was likely no more than a pawn to get Gavin to cooperate. Though I was damn good at drumming up business, that wouldn’t matter to them. I could easily be replaced. But a hacker of Gavin’s talent was a damn rare commodity.
Anna shifted her gaze between Gavin and me. “Wait…do you mean the Russian mafia? Please tell me you’re kidding?”
“The mafia owns a lot of the hackers, so yeah, in a roundabout way. There’s a lot of money to be had since everything’s online now.” I gave her hand a squeeze and pulled her to me, holding her tight as I kissed her forehead. “But I don’t want you worrying, Anna.”
I ignored the curious look Gavin was giving me because it was clear he’d just realized that Anna wasn’t just some woman who’d gotten caught up in my mess—even if it’d started that way. She’d become so much more to me—and as well as Gavin knew me, there was no point in trying to hide how I felt about her.
“How the hell am I not supposed to worry when a girl is dead, you’re wanted for her murder, the Russian mafia is involved, and you, Gavin, might end up back in prison for hacking? And let’s not forget that neither one of you would last another stint in prison.” She pulled out of my arms, shaking her head as if to clear it, her gaze shifting between us like we’d all lost our minds because we weren’t in a full-blown panic. “And where’s Thor now if you’re here?”
Just like that, the tension broke. Gavin and I both gave her stupid grins, that in the midst of all this, she’d think to worry about the dog. Gavin shifted his gaze to me. “I like her, Kane. I like her a lot.”
It felt damn good to hear it, though I never had any doubt. I pulled Anna back into my arms. “He’s upstairs. We thought it best since I wasn’t sure if you were a dog person, and Thor can be a bit…well…you’ll see.”
“O…kay… So… What the hell is that supposed to mean? Two heads? Glowing red eyes? Is he Cujo? Hound of the Baskervilles?” She ignored my laugh, continuing on. “And for future reference, yes, I’m a dog person—a cat person, too—though given the hours I work at the diner, I figured it wouldn’t be fair to have any sort of pet.”
“Shall I bring him down?” Gavin looked at us in question. “He’s a sweet dog, just…a bit of a puppy, is all.”
Yeah, he was a puppy all right. I had to laugh. “Go for it before there’s nothing left of the upstairs cabin.”
A moment later, a beast the size of a small bear was barreling towards us, all paws, thick black fur, and a giant pink tongue. Thor was only a year old, but he was some sort of bizarre mix of hellhound, Tibetan mastiff, and goofball.
Gavin apologized, hauling Thor away from Anna before he knocked her to the ground and drowned her in slobbering kisses. “We’re working on his training—though…he doesn’t like to listen. Stubborn beast.”
Yet Anna wasn’t at all intimidated, running her hands through his thick fur and scratching him behind his big floppy ears until he plopped himself down at her feet for a belly rub, which she happily gave him. “He’s so stinking cute, Gavin.”
Gavin shot me a huge grin to let me know just how much he liked Anna before he turned his attention back to her. “Don’t let him fool you, Anna. It’s nothing but a ploy to get you to give him treats and love.”
Still kneeling down by Thor’s side, she looked up at us. “Not sure what we have in the way of treats, but I’m happy to give him all the belly rubs he wants.”
“Then it’s probably a good thing I have a car full of groceries.”
CHAPTER 22
Anna
It didn’t take me long to recognize the similarities and differences between Kane and Gavin. They were both smartasses. They were both arrogant bad boys, though in different manners. And the two of them were drop-dead gorgeous.
Gavin didn’t seem to notice that he was attractive, while Kane was perfectly self-aware of his physical assets. Gavin was more self-assured about his skills as a computer geek, while Kane was pretty damn confident about dealing with the Russian mafia—now that he knew who was responsible for setting him up.
Throughout the evening, I watched the two men interact, finally coming to the conclusion that they suited each other as both business partners and friends. Between the two of them, they had enough skills and assets to make them terrifying.
I’d tried my best to teach Thor some manners, but the pup was more intent on licking my face, then circling the room like he’d done something brilliant before coming back to slobber on me again. But he was so damn adorable that it was impossible to get annoyed with him.
I finally gave up trying to make the gigantic puppy do anything on command. I was on the floor beside the table with him, scratching his belly when I heard Kane say something about the storm raging outside.
“You’re still a wanted man until we can get usable proof that you’re innocent. We have to figure out a way to get the evidence to the detectives in charge without implicating me—and without putting you in their sights,” Gavin rumbled, sounding frustrated.
“Agreed. The last thing I want is for either of us to end up back in prison,” Kane remarked adamantly. “But they can’t use the evidence you found illegally, even if we can get it in their hands without implicating us.”
“You need to stay here,” Gavin answered, concern evident now in his tone. “But…there might be a way. Don’t ask, but I’ve got a friend in the FBI and let’s just say he owes me a favor. If we can get him the evidence we already have and show him where to look, he might be able to get a warrant and find the evidence for himself, which would make it legally obtained.”
