Kane’s lips twisted in a parody of a smile. “You and your photographic memory. If you say that’s what I said, I believe you. So maybe I really do have a son.” His jaw muscles rippled. “If he hasn’t already been killed by the scumbag who abducted him. Find Alicia. Call me as soon as you have anything. If we get to Calgary before we hear from you, we’ll come to your place.”
“I’m on it.” Hellhound’s rasp softened. “Hang in there, Cap. Think good thoughts.”
He disconnected, and I stowed my phone again before reaching over to massage Kane’s neck. His muscles felt like iron under my touch.
“Try to relax a bit,” I urged. “Tensing up like this won’t help anyone, least of all you.”
Kane hissed out a breath between his teeth. “I know.” He shook his head as if trying to rid himself of dark thoughts. “I know better. I’ve been in situations like this before. I should be able to…”
He trailed off, and I said softly, “Maybe not exactly like this.”
He blew out another breath. “Not exactly.”
I kept rubbing in silence and after a while his muscles softened, probably due more to his own efforts to relax than to my ineffectual one-handed massage.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I inquired after a half-hour of silent driving. “It sounded as though his name is significant to you. Is he named after your brother?”
Kane spared me a glance before returning his attention to the highway. “Yes.”
I thought he was going to fall silent again, but he added, “We were just starting to talk about having a family when Daniel was killed. We agreed that if our first baby was a boy, we’d name him Daniel.”
“And Wyatt is your middle name, isn’t it?” I prompted.
“Yes.”
Silence fell again.
After several miles Kane spoke as though our conversation had never lapsed. “So either she was honouring my wishes… or she was deliberately taunting me.”
“She couldn’t have been trying to hurt you.” I sent up a silent prayer that it would be true. “If she wanted to taunt you she would have told you about him.”
“Maybe.”
“Was she, um…” I wasn’t quite sure how to phrase the question. “Was your split, um… amicable? I mean, I know it’s never easy, but…”
“Did she hate me that much?” Kane stared bleakly out the windshield. “I didn’t think so, but obviously I was wrong.” He barked out a mirthless laugh. “I guess my first hint should have been the way she slapped me with the divorce papers.”
“Well, yeah, divorce papers are usually a bad sign…”
“No, I meant her timing.” He stared straight ahead, his jaw working for a moment before he spoke again. “Maybe you thought it was odd that I remember the exact date and time.”
“Um, well… I guess that kind of thing is… um… memorable…” I fumbled, trying for tact.
“You could say so,” he said bitterly. “Do you remember the armed standoff in 2004 where ten hostages were killed? It started on June twentieth.”
I nodded, my heart sinking with recognition. “I remember, but I’d forgotten the exact date.”
“I was with the Emergency Response unit at the time,” he went on. “A gunman held fifteen people hostage in a bank. We tried to negotiate…”
“…but he wasn’t interested in negotiating, was he?” I finished. “He just wanted the media attention.”
“Yes. He played us like a cat with mice.” Kane spat the words with disgust. “He killed a hostage every four hours. Each time he made a demand before the killing, but it didn’t matter whether we complied with his demands or not. Six innocent people and the police negotiator were dead before we realized he was going to kill all the hostages anyway. So we had to take a chance on collateral damage when we stormed the building.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “I remember. That was a horrible no-win situation. He murdered four more and wounded the rest before the team killed him.”
“Yes.” Kane stared into the past, his shoulders bunched, hands clenched on the wheel.
When he didn’t go on, I murmured, “So it was a bad time to get hit with divorce papers.”
His face twisted. “We had been arguing when my pager went off. When I started with the RCMP I was assigned to remote areas. Alicia hated small-town living, so after a few years I transferred to the Emergency Response Team based in Calgary. But I had only been with the ERT six months and she was already nagging me to quit. I was angry because she was the reason I’d transferred in the first place, but she said she spent all her time worrying that I’d be killed and accused me of never being there for her. But when the pager went off, I had to go.”
He swallowed. “I was gone for forty-eight hours. No sleep. Running on pure adrenaline. Finally I got home. The blood of innocents on my clothes. On my conscience. Staggered up the front steps and she met me at the door. She’d packed my clothes into suitcases. She slapped the papers against my chest and said, ‘You’re never here anyway. Don’t be here when I get back.’ Then she turned and walked away. Got in her car and drove away. That was the last time I saw her.”
He let out a breath. “Four-fifteen on June twenty-second. Two hours after the last bullet was fired, my marriage died.”
My throat closed. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
Kane twitched his shoulders. “We had been having problems for quite a while. It was bad timing, that’s all.” We rode in silence for a few more moments before he spoke again. “Aydan… thank you.” His hand slid over to clasp mine. “It means a lot to have you in my corner at a time like this.”
I squeezed his hand. “What are friends for?”
My phone rang, and I snatched it out of my waist pouch and glanced at the call display before punching the Talk button and activating the speaker. “Hi, Arnie, that was quick. I’ve got you on speaker again.”
“Thanks, darlin’,” he began, but Kane interrupted.
“Did you find her?”
“Hell, yeah. Easy. She’s still livin’ at your old place. Same phone number, too.”
Kane let out a breath. “Good. Thank you.”
“No problem. How ‘bout if I head over there an’ see if she’s home-”
“No,” Kane interrupted. “I don’t want her to know I’m coming.”
“I could put on my Al Hamlin disguise,” Hellhound suggested. “Cruise past, make sure she’s there, maybe set up a little surveillance-”
“No,” Kane repeated. “The police will be there and I don’t want to take a chance. I’ll call you when we’re at the edge of town and you can meet us over there.” He hesitated. “…if you have time…?”
“Fuck, Cap, ya don’t hafta ask. Anythin’ ya need, I’m there.”
When the outskirts of Calgary came into view after another hour of silent driving, Kane spoke at last.
“Would you please call Hellhound again? Tell him we’ll meet him a block west of the house in forty-five minutes.”
“Sure.” I pulled out my phone and dialled.
The conversation was short, and after making the arrangements I disconnected and tucked my phone away again. Casting a sidelong glance at Kane’s rigid form in the driver’s seat, I cleared my throat and tried for a neutral tone.
“So, um… what do you plan to do when you get there?”
“I don’t know.” His jaw muscles bulged and his next words ground out between his teeth. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to say to her. I can’t…” He broke off with a hissing exhalation. “What the hell’s wrong with me, Aydan? I’m an experienced agent. I should be able to handle this.”
Sympathy constricted my throat. “It’s nothing to do with your competence as an agent. You’re a dad who’s just found out his child is missing. There’s no way to turn that off.”
“A dad,” he repeated bitterly. “I’m not a dad. I’m just a sperm donor.”
“John…”
“It doesn’t matter,” he interru
pted. “I have to let that go and stay focused.” He shot me a single tortured glance before returning his gaze to the road. “My son’s… Daniel’s life might depend on it.”
“No, you don’t have to.” When he shook his head and clenched his jaw, I reached over to grip his forearm and spoke more forcefully. “John, listen to me. This is not your case. The RCMP warned you off. Stemp warned you off. They’re right; you’re too close to it. And you weren’t even back to active duty yet so you shouldn’t be involved regardless. Talk to Alicia if you need to, but stay out of the investigation.”
“Don’t tell me that,” he said flatly. “If it was your child…”
I sighed. “Yeah, I know, I’d be in there like a dirty shirt. But you’re a professional. You know better.”
“So do you.” Kane’s lips twisted in a humourless smile. “And it wouldn’t stop you for an instant.”
“But…”
I racked my brain for some useful rebuttal and came up empty. I couldn’t preach from any moral high ground. He knew me too well.
We drove the remainder of the trip in silence while the fading sunset drained the western sky to black.
Chapter 4
When Kane pulled to a stop in a quiet residential area, Hellhound straightened from his slouch against his Harley Fatboy, leaving his leather jacket and helmet lying on its seat. He strode over to meet us as we got out of the Expedition, the harsh streetlights transforming his battle-scarred features into a forbidding mask of beard and shadowed eye sockets atop a mountain of tattooed muscle.
“What’s the plan, Cap?” he rasped.
Kane hissed out a short breath between his teeth, flexing his hands as though trying to regain his circulation. “Let’s go and find out.”
Hellhound gave me a worried glance as we trailed behind Kane’s long strides, and I returned a helpless shrug.
At the front door, Kane pressed the doorbell without hesitation and we waited.
After several moments that seemed longer than they probably were, the door opened and a man surveyed us expressionlessly. Despite his civilian clothes, his short-cropped hair and level gaze said ‘cop’ just as clearly as the badge clipped to his belt.
“Yes?” he prompted.
Kane squared off into parade rest. “We’re here to see Alicia.”
The cop surveyed him with a frown, obviously picking up the ‘cop’ vibe from Kane in turn. “In what capacity?”
Kane drew a deep breath. “I’m John Kane. Daniel’s biological father.”
Sympathy transformed the other man’s face. “I’m Carson Mayweather with the Calgary City Police. I’m handling your son’s case. Please come in.”
He stood back from the doorway and we filed in.
As we rounded the corner, a soft-looking brunette sprang up from the sofa and hurled herself at Kane with a choked cry. I glimpsed brown eyes in white strained features before she flung her arms around Kane and buried her face in his chest.
His arms closed around her automatically, but his eyes blazed grey fire in an expressionless face.
“Oh, John, thank God you’re here,” she babbled, her voice muffled by his shirt. “You have to help me, you have to get him back!”
Kane’s gaze sought Officer Mayweather over her head. “Are there any new developments?” Kane asked. “Any ransom demands?”
Mayweather shook his head regretfully. “Nothing new.”
“Alicia.” Kane gently disengaged from her grip and stepped back. “Tell me what happened.”
“He was at a birthday party. His… his best friend Sammy, just a few blocks away…” She dashed tears from her eyes with trembling hands, gazing up at Kane imploringly. “They said Buck… my ex-boyfriend… p-picked him up…” Her voice broke.
Officer Mayweather touched her elbow. “Why don’t you sit down?”
She sniffled and turned away to pull a tissue out of the well-used box beside the sofa before perching on the edge of the cushions. Earlier today she might have been pretty, but terror had etched deep lines around her eyes and mouth, and her eyes were red-rimmed above blotchy cheeks.
A toy soldier lay half-concealed under the couch, and I sensed Kane’s pain as he glanced at it and then looked away, his lips tightening.
As if coming back to the present, Alicia glanced at Arnie and me for the first time.
“Hey, Lish,” Arnie rasped gently. “How ya holdin’ up?”
“Don’t call me that!” Red spots flared into her cheeks. “I hate it, I’ve always hated it!”
Hellhound blinked as though she’d slapped him. “Shit, Li… sorry, uh… Alicia, I wouldn’t’a called ya that if I knew. Why didn’t ya ever say anythin’?”
“It doesn’t matter.” She shredded the tissue without looking at it, her bloodshot gaze trained on the wall behind us. “It doesn’t matter; nothing matters except Daniel. I’m…” She shook herself and focused on us again. “Please sit down.”
We settled ourselves, Hellhound in the chair and Kane and I on the loveseat, and Alicia gave me a chilly once-over before turning to Kane. “I suppose this is your girlfriend.”
“John and I work together,” I said hurriedly. “Sorry I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Aydan Kelly.”
“Oh.” Her expression softened into relief. “So you’re a cop, too.”
“Um, no…” I began, but Mayweather interrupted, giving Kane a keen glance.
“Peters and Birch said you’d probably show up here. You know each other pretty well?”
“Not really, we just work together sometimes,” Kane said without inflection. “They’re good officers.”
“So you didn’t know you had a son at all.” Mayweather eyed him with the intensity I recognized from all the cops and agents I knew. Watching for lies.
“No. Not until they questioned me a couple of hours ago.” Kane turned a burning look on Alicia.
“Don’t you put this on me,” she said defensively. “I told them not to contact you. I told them you didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“But I do,” Kane said in a voice so soft it sent a shiver of primal fear down my spine. “He’s my son, too. And you kept him from me.”
The red spots were burning in Alicia’s cheeks again. “No, you did that. You were never here while we were married, and then you left and never came back. It’s your own fault that you never knew Daniel existed.”
“You told me to leave and never come back!” Kane snapped. “What did you expect me to do?”
Alicia lunged to her feet. “I expected you to fight for me… for us! You’re such a big hero, always ready to fight for everybody else, even total strangers in some horrid war on the other side of the world, but you wouldn’t fight for us!”
Kane was on his feet, too. “You packed my bags! You had the divorce papers ready! I don’t know what delusional world you live in, but life isn’t like those romance novels you love so much! In real life a guy who refuses to leave and tries to force a reconciliation gets slapped with a restraining order and labelled a stalker!”
“You didn’t even try!” Alicia was screaming up into Kane’s face, and Mayweather intervened with a hand on her elbow.
“Let’s cool it, folks,” he said in the same ‘everybody-stay-calm’ cop voice that Kane so frequently used. “Alicia, John, let’s just sit down. This isn’t helping Daniel.”
Alicia let him guide her back to the sofa while Kane sank onto the edge of the loveseat again, but he leaned forward, his gaze boring holes in Alicia.
“What did you tell him?” he asked in that deadly-quiet tone. “Did you tell him your boyfriend was his father?”
“No.” She stared through him, cold and remote. “I told him that his father was John Wyatt Kane, a man I once loved very much. A brave soldier who died fighting in a war, in a place far away over the ocean.”
“You told him I was dead?” Kane’s fists knotted. “You lied to him?”
“It wasn’t a lie.” Alicia dropped her gaze to watch her hands throttlin
g each other in her lap. “John Wyatt Kane died in that war,” she whispered. “The man I loved never came back.”
Kane went grey-white as though he’d been stabbed in the gut. My hand flew to his without a conscious decision on my part, earning a dirty look from Alicia.
“I’m sorry,” Kane said hoarsely. “I tried. You have to know how hard I tried…” He swallowed. “But you should have told me you were pregnant. I would have-”
“Would have what?” Alicia demanded, her fists clenching. “Tried harder? I wasn’t good enough when I was barren, but if I could give you a son maybe I was worth a little more effort? Is that it?” Her voice was rising again, her knuckles whitening. “Was I just a… a… brood mare to you?”
“No, of course not, I-”
“Folks,” Officer Mayweather interrupted. “We’re not accomplishing anything here. John, was there something specific you wanted?”
Kane squared his shoulders. “Yes. I’d like to know exactly what happened, please. And what’s been done so far.”
“Alicia, will you please tell it again?” Mayweather inquired. “I realize it’s upsetting, but each time you tell it there’s a chance that you might remember something more.”
She nodded, her arms wrapped tightly around her body while she stared at the floor. “Daniel went to Sammy’s party. He was so excited. It was all he’d talked about for weeks. Sammy is his best friend and they share a passion for toy soldiers.” She shuddered. “They pretend they’re soldiers fighting in a war. I should never have told him John was in the military.”
“Please go on, Alicia,” Mayweather encouraged.
“Yes. Well.” She drew a deep breath, still hugging herself. “Anyway, the party was at two o’clock, and Marta…” She glanced briefly at Kane before returning her gaze to the carpet. “Marta is Sammy’s mother. Marta said she’d walk Daniel home after the party ended at four o’clock. At four-thirty I started to wonder. At five o’clock I called her, and she said…” Her voice wavered. “She said… my ex had picked him up at three-thirty.”
The Spies That Bind Page 3
