Kane Page 10

  “Is everything okay here?”

  He looked over Mandy’s shoulder at the quiet question. The first thing that registered was the hair. The boy’s hair was the same beautiful red as Mandy’s.

  “It’s fine, Joshua,” she murmured. “Go on inside with your parents. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  Parents? No way was this kid Mike and Cindy’s. Not with Cindy’s dark skin and Mike’s dirty blond curls.

  This kid had a fiery head of hair and green eyes he could have only gotten from one place.

  Mandy.

  Had she moved on from him so quickly? He staggered back. “How old are you?”

  The kid—Joshua, she’d called him—frowned. “I’m twelve. Why? Who are you?”

  He searched the boy’s features. Could this be…?

  Suddenly, the air felt thinner. His chest grew tight.

  Joshua said something to Mandy he couldn’t make out, then walked into the house.

  “Is this why you left me?” The tangle of emotions rising in his chest made his head swim. He leaned against the siding next to the front door.

  All this time. He had a kid, and he didn’t fucking know it.

  He had a son.

  “How could you keep this from me?” he roared.

  Mandy paled. “He’s not yours.”

  He found his footing again, and the rage bubbled up. “The fuck he’s not.”

  She reached out, putting her hand on his arm, but he shook her off. “He’s not even mine.”

  The lie burned like fire. For the first time, things started to make sense. Why she left him. Why she wouldn’t even see him all those years.

  He’d loved her for so long. Even after she crushed his heart. Even after she ruined him for any other woman. But now? For the first time, he knew what it was to hate her. “I want a DNA test.” He shouldered past her, heading toward his bike. He needed to be anywhere but here.

  She ran behind him. “Joshua is not our child.”

  “Do you think I’m blind?” he shouted as he whirled to face her. “You and Mike don’t share one strand of DNA. His kid looks just like you.”

  “He’s my brother,” she said weakly.

  “Your stepbrother.” The fury threatened to make him explode. He turned back to his Harley before he said or did something he couldn’t take back.

  “No.” She stepped between him and the bike, blocking his path. “Joshua is my brother.”

  He shook his head, his brain trying to make sense of what she said.

  She forged on. “We both look like my mom. Joshua is her son with Charlie.”

  “But…they died.” Only a few months after Mandy left him. He’d heard nothing about a baby.

  Mandy squeezed her eyes closed tightly. “Mom didn’t tell anyone she was pregnant until after her first trimester. She was in her forties; she was worried about a miscarriage. She was about seven months along when their car accident happened. The baby survived; she didn’t. I give you my word.”

  His mind scrambled, searching for a hole in her story. His knees weakened, the rage giving way to crushing sadness. There was a time he would have accepted Mandy’s word without question—back when he thought he knew her. She was a stranger now.

  He walked around her and climbed on his bike from the other side. “Your word isn’t good enough. Not when it’s this important. I need proof.” He pushed the ignition button, and the engine rumbled between his legs. “You’ve got until Monday.”

  Ignoring her stricken expression, he revved the engine and peeled out into the street.

  ***

  Amanda

  Amanda’s eyes stung as Kane sped away, his long, dark hair streaming behind him. How far had she fallen in his eyes for him to believe she would have kept a child from him?

  Tired and heartsick, she let herself back into her brother’s house.

  Mike was nowhere in sight, but Joshua sat on the sofa, his thin arms folded over his chest. He stood when she walked in. “I finally got to see the infamous Kane.” He frowned. “He thought I was his kid, didn’t he?”

  She gaped. “Wh—where did you hear his name?”

  Joshua rolled his eyes. “Are you kidding me? I’ve heard his name my entire life. Being a kid doesn’t make me deaf, and despite what all of you think, it doesn’t make me dumb. Of course, the guy thought you were my mom. I used to wonder the same thing.”

  Oh no. She rubbed at her chest as she dropped to the sofa. “Oh, honey. Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “I did, eventually, but for a long time before I talked to Dad, I used to make up stories in my head. About why you gave me up…about how you might want me back someday. About the Kane-guy Mom and Dad whispered about sometimes.” His eyes lost some of their fire. “I’m glad I know the truth now. It makes things easier.”

  “We should have told you sooner.” How long had he thought she’d rejected him?

  Mike wheeled in from the kitchen. “It’s getting late, Josh. Go finish up your math homework.”

  Joshua nodded and left the room without another word.

  Mike waited until the bedroom door closed before he spoke again. “It’s time to stop keeping so many secrets.”

  She’d kept so many for so long, she couldn’t imagine what her life would be like without them. Her secrets had defined her for longer than she wanted to admit.

  “He told me what happened the night you broke up with him.” There was a hint of accusation there. “You should know he had nothing to do with the fire, Amanda. The guy he was then wouldn’t have hurt a fly.”

  “I can’t do this, Mike.” She needed a drink. Thankfully, she knew where her brother kept the bourbon. A dozen steps to the kitchen, then she had a highball glass in her hand. The familiar burn soothed the shards of ice in her chest.

  But Mike was right behind her. He was clearly unwilling to let this go. “He was going to go buy you a ring, for fuck’s sake.”

  She didn’t want to know that. More bourbon, more burn. “Leave it alone,” she rasped.

  “I won’t!” he bellowed. “I should have never left it alone this long. What the hell happened, Amanda? I know you loved him, and the poor bastard obviously loved you too.”

  “Stop.” Tears threatening, she pushed them back and drank from the bottle.

  “It was your father.” He said it quietly, with no hint of doubt. “Nothing else makes sense. He never wanted you with Kane. What I don’t understand is how he got you to go along with it.”

  What difference did it make now? “He would have put him in jail for the rest of his life,” she said dully. “He still could. There’s no statute of limitations on murder.”

  ***

  13 years ago

  October

  A baby.

  Amanda couldn’t help but smile as she held up the tiny onesie with the Atlanta Braves insignia. It didn’t matter if she was having a brother or a sister, this kid would be a Braves fan. She paid for the outfit and hummed quietly as she left the store.

  The sunshine on her face was the cherry on top of the delicious fall afternoon. A cool breeze lifted her hair from her neck. She stood only a couple of feet from the curb when her father’s silver BMW pulled in front of her.

  The passenger side window rolled down. “Get in.”

  Ignoring her creeping unease, she climbed inside. “How did you even know I was here?” She’d been at her mom’s before she started shopping; she hadn’t even seen her dad in weeks.

  He didn’t answer her question as he pulled back into traffic. It was only a few blocks to his house. He got out of the car without a word, assuming she would follow—which she did, but only after a deep sigh.

  Surprisingly, he led her to his study, where he turned on the TV mounted on the wall. The news played; a giant fire blazed through what looked like an apartment building. The words on the bottom of the screen read:

  TWENTY-TWO MISSING,

  FEARED DEAD IN APARTMENT FIRE.

  “How terrible,” she mur
mured.

  “It’s going to send your boyfriend to jail for the rest of his life.”

  She turned in time to see the hint of a smile on her father’s face before it disappeared. “What are you talking about?”

  He steepled his fingers beneath his chin. “The urchin you’ve been seeing. He’s responsible for this.”

  She didn’t believe him for a second. “Kane would never start a fire, Dad. Don’t be ridiculous.”

  He entwined his perfectly manicured fingers together and dropped them in front of his waist. “What is ridiculous is my daughter, involved with a member of the Hale family. Those…people…live on the fringe of our society. Motorcycle gangs, drugs, and guns. It’s all beneath you, Amanda.”

  There was a reason she kept her private life away from her father. “Kane isn’t involved in any of his family’s dealings.”

  “Really?” he mused, and dread trickled down her spine. Reaching down to his desk, he spun his open laptop to face her. Frozen on the screen was a still frame of Kane and his brother on Scott’s motorcycle. He hit the spacebar, and she watched the two of them exchange words before Scott walked away. Kane followed him into the apartment building she saw ablaze on the TV.

  She swallowed. “Okay, he was there. It’s a pretty big leap to go from stepping on the property to him setting the fire.”

  “Not when I have someone threatening to testify to it if I don’t pay him off.” Her father all but hissed. “I don’t like being threatened, Amanda. And I don’t appreciate you giving someone the means to do it.”

  “I have nothing to do with you getting blackmailed.” Heat climbed her face. “And I don’t care what some lowlife says, Kane didn’t do this.”

  “That lowlife…is an undercover cop.” He slammed the laptop closed. “If you think his word won’t carry weight, you’re a fool.”

  None of this made sense. Kane wanted nothing to do with his father’s motorcycle club; she’d bet her life on it. “I know he had to have a good reason for being there.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Amanda. Whether he did it or he didn’t, this cop has the power to put him away. Unless I pay him not to.”

  “How much does he want?” She had some money saved. Maybe she could take care of this herself.

  “Fifty thousand dollars.” The words fell like a lead balloon. “Your boyfriend had the motive, the means, and the opportunity to set this fire. There’s an eyewitness and a video placing him at the scene.”

  Motive? “He had no motive, Dad. What could he possibly have to gain?”

  He raked his hand through his hair in a very un-Beauregard-like gesture. “To benefit his father’s organization. The real targets were in the drug trade. They were the men the cop was in deep with. I’m not sure how this change in leadership ties to his family’s ‘motorcycle club,’” he said, curving his fingers into air-quotes, “but that’s the crux of it. Whether the Hale boy is part of the club or not is irrelevant. Some people actually value getting their father’s approval.”

  His little dig hit home. She knew her father loved her, but it was a selfish kind of love. It had been the same way when he was with her mom. If she didn’t put him first—if she didn’t see things his way—he took it as a personal affront. You were either with him or against him. She sighed. “What are we going to do?”

  “We?” He narrowed his eyes and approached her. “We aren’t going to do anything. I am going to pay this bastard for his silence.”

  She let out the breath she’d been holding. “Thank—”

  “You,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “will cut all ties with Kane Hale. Now and forever.”

  “No,” she breathed.

  Her father put his face centimeters from hers, so close she could smell the cigar smoke on his breath. “Oh yes. I will not leave myself open like this again. You want to save this young man, give me what I want.”

  Tears streamed down her face, but her father appeared indifferent. “Decide now.” This. This was the kind of thing her mother ran away from, but now Amanda was trapped.

  What choice did she have? She nodded.

  “He’s at Northside Hospital. Go now. Make a clean break.”

  She turned, her heart in her throat. Her stomach churned, threatening to empty its contents on the Aubusson rug.

  “And Amanda, don’t get any ideas about changing your mind later. If you go back on our deal, I’ll go to the police myself. This stays between us. Remember, there’s no statute of limitations on murder.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Amanda

  Mike listened to Amanda’s confession without so much as a twitch on his face. But the moment she finished her story, his features twisted. “Your father is a rank bastard.”

  Not the response she was expecting, but it was true, nonetheless. Beau Griffin was also controlling and narcissistic. His genteel manners and charming smile, the simple tools he used to boost his popularity among the people. Their regard fed his bottomless well of need for respect and adoration. No matter how hard they tried, the simple love she and her mother had to give could never have been enough. They’d been doomed to disappoint him.

  The bourbon no longer burned as she swallowed it down, generally a sign she needed to stop drinking. She screwed the cap back on the bottle and returned it to its perch above the side-by-side refrigerator. “Be that as it may, he’s the only reason Kane is walking free.”

  Mike rolled his eyes. “He’s the reason Kane was threatened in the first place.”

  “Ah, but you’re forgetting one thing, big brother. My father had nothing to do with Kane going to the apartment building or with whatever went down inside.” She dragged one of the kitchen chairs from beneath the round oak table and sat down. “Don’t you think it occurred to me he was behind the whole thing? But it doesn’t make sense. There were too many factors out of his control.”

  Mike wheeled to the refrigerator and pulled out a plate covered in Saran Wrap. He lifted up on one heel to stick it in the microwave and hit the start button, then sat back down to watch the plate spin around on the revolving tray.

  “I guess you’re right, but it doesn’t change the fact he manipulated the circumstances to his advantage. He never wanted you and Kane together. Thought he was beneath you, like he thought my dad was beneath your mom.”

  The timer went off, and he lifted up again to pull out the plate. He placed it on his lap, then grabbed a fork from the drawer and delivered it to her.

  Under the cellophane, she spotted two chicken legs, some mashed potatoes, and corn. Her stomach gurgled.

  “Eat,” he chided.

  She pulled off the covering and moved the food around with her fork. It smelled amazing. “You’re right. My dad doesn’t do anything out of the goodness of his heart.” Look at the price she had to pay for his help with the company. Though she had no intention of sharing those details with her brother.

  She blew on a forkful of steaming potatoes. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Kane and I are both different people now.” Carefully, she slid the creamy bite into her mouth.

  “For a smart woman, you sure are stupid sometimes.” Mike shot her a patronizing look. “It’s still Kane. He’s still the same guy.”

  Mike couldn’t really be so naïve. She grunted as she swallowed her food. “The Kane I was with would never have joined a biker gang. He hated everything about it. He wanted to be an investment banker, for crying out loud. Now he’s right there, living the life with his asshole brother and misogynist father. He lives outside of society. If those things don’t make him a different man, I don’t know what would.”

  His face softened. “Talk to him. God, sis, you owe him that much.”

  “Yeah.” She took a few more bites, but she barely tasted her meal anymore. “I need a copy of Josh’s birth certificate. Kane saw him tonight; he thinks he’s ours.”

  “Damn,” he muttered. “His reaction couldn’t have been pretty.”

  The food no longer held any appeal. “It w
asn’t.” Exhaustion was a crushing weight on her shoulders. “You mind if I crash here tonight?” Tomorrow was Saturday; it wasn’t like she had to go to work.

  She didn’t wait for an answer. Depositing her dish in the sink, she stumbled to the guest room and crashed face-first onto the bed.

  She dreamed of kissing away Kane’s scars in his hospital bed, a life free of her father, and a baby with dark brown hair and green eyes who she could call her own.

  ***

  Kane

  Kane squinted against the rays of afternoon sun burning his retinas. Though he wore a pair of durable sunglasses, a night with little-to-no sleep had left him sensitive to the light.

  He couldn’t find any holes in Mandy’s story about the kid he’d seen on Mike’s porch, but he also couldn’t dismiss the possibility it was all a lie. Maybe a part of him wanted it to be a lie.

  The idea of a child of his own—a son—did something to his insides he couldn’t bring himself to examine all at once. There was hope there, but also anger and a deep sense of betrayal. Surprising, since he thought Mandy had already dicked him over as much as one person ever could.

  The blaring horn from a car behind him shook him out of his thoughts. The light had turned green. With a sigh, he lifted his hand in recognition before resuming his course to the seedier part of town.

  Gone were the streets lined with Wal-Marts and Applebee’s. Now he passed small houses long ago repurposed as various businesses. One was faded pink with a rusted air conditioning unit in the front window and a wooden sign advertising a psychic inside. The one next to it was blue with a yard made of mostly short weeds and dirt claiming to be a daycare. A “KinderKare,” according to the stenciled letters next to the door.

  Some of the houses looked like they’d been abandoned for years. A couple showed evidence of fire; one had no roof at all. Then, an old service station…an overgrown lot with a threadbare sofa on its side and two bald tires…and finally, his destination.