Page 24 of Kane (Ghost Ops #4)

Chapter Sixteen

Kane won, but only because she was a little rusty. Her three shots had been perfect. The eyes got her though. One was higher than the other while Kane’s were perfectly spaced.

He was, naturally, gloating about it. Such a peacock of a man.

But he cared about her, and he made her heart skitter whenever he called her Sunshine. He’d only started that recently. Maybe because she’d laid down the law about calling her kid. Whatever the reason, she liked it.

She left her Santa Fe at the range and he drove them the short distance to the house.

She would have walked, but it was dark and he’d mentioned coyotes and bobcats when she’d stated her intention.

She was out after that. Guess the country wasn’t so different from the big city when it came to times to avoid the streets. Or the driveway, as it were.

“Maybe a lobster dinner,” Kane said as he parked the truck. “Haven’t had one of those in a while.”

“Not sure fifty would cover it. Maybe dial down the expectations there, Candy Kane.”

He snorted. “Candy Kane? Really?”

“It just occurred to me.”

“Gotta tell ya, babe, you’re years late on that one. It occurred to Jillie Robbins in the second grade.”

“There you go then. I’m not a second grader. Takes longer to think up cheesy jokes.”

They got out of the truck and went into the house. Ethan’s door was closed, the television droning quietly in the background. Daphne told herself to say goodnight and go to her room, but she lingered.

So did Kane.

“Hey, you wanna sit on the back porch with a beer for a few minutes?” he asked. “I’m keyed up after that. Need to come down first. Afraid I don’t have any Scotch though.”

“Beer is fine.”

She took her purse and the paperwork for the Santa Fe to her room. It was quiet in there and the bed was inviting. But Kane was waiting, and she couldn’t say no. She liked being near him, liked the way he both settled her and made her feel like a live wire at the same time.

Not only that, but she was also aware her time with him was probably limited. The diamond-stamped trigger and Nathan Fader were two things connected to her past. Well, potentially in the case of Fader. But if a third showed up, time to boogie.

No matter that she didn’t want to. No matter that her life wouldn’t be the same if she did. She’d stolen records when she’d left New Orleans when she should have also stolen money. Enough to leave the country and hide out somewhere far away.

Hindsight was a bitch. She’d be cleaning motel rooms for the rest of her life if she didn’t do something with the information she had.

And if she did do something, if she trusted the wrong person—or if her father’s connections went deeper than she knew—she’d be painting a giant target on her back. She wanted to tell Kane, wanted to ask him for advice, but years of conditioning held her back.

He was waiting for her in the kitchen. He handed her a beer and they stepped onto the back porch.

It was screened and there was outdoor furniture with thick cushions.

She could envision plants, an outdoor rug, a lamp.

Some wall hangings and maybe wind chimes.

She imagined it raining softly while she sat with a book in the afternoons and read.

The air would be crisp with rain, soft with flowers, and she’d never want to leave.

She didn’t know why she was so drawn to the old farmhouse, but she loved the beautiful craftsmanship of the wood floors and tall windows.

The house had been built with love, and though it needed some updating, she could imagine it with new bathrooms and a new kitchen, the wood floors waxed to a shine, the wood around the windows and doors stripped of paint and taken back to the original color.

It could be a home worthy of HGTV. Something you’d see in a magazine.

She shook off thoughts of a future that wasn’t in the cards and looked doubtfully at the settee.

“Is this clean? Spider free?”

Kane had already flopped onto a chair. “Ethan’s a neat freak. And he’s scared of spiders but don’t tell him I told you that. Yes, it’s clean. I doubt there are any spiders. Ethan sealed the gap beneath the screen door once he evicted the previous eight-legged tenants.”

Daphne shuddered. Then she took out her phone and shined the light around the chair, bending down to look underneath too. When she decided it was safe from spiders, she sat, sighing at the comfort of the cushion.

“This furniture did not come with the house, did it?”

“Nah, Ethan found it and I split the cost with him. Don’t know where he got it, but he didn’t pay too much for it. Why?”

“It’s comfortable. Guess I’m surprised.”

He sipped his beer. “Don’t know why. Nobody likes a hard chair under their ass. Me and Ethan included.”

“Well, no, but I guess I’m surprised that you’d want to sit outside like this. Enough so to buy furniture.”

“It’s nice in the mornings and evenings. Spring was good too, except when all the pollen started. Couldn’t keep anything clean.”

“I guess not.”

Warren’s car had been yellow for two months. Everyone’s had. If you ran it through the car wash, it was yellow again the next morning. But once spring had sprung, the pollen died down and everything was green and gorgeous. Or colorful and gorgeous.

“What would you have wanted?” Kane asked. “If you’d won the bet.”

Daphne twisted the bottle in her hand. “I don’t know. Cash probably.”

He snorted. “Should have known.”

“What’s that mean?”

“Means I’ve observed you’re careful with money. You don’t seem frivolous at all. Hell, you saved six grand in a matter of months so you could buy a car with cash. Who does that?”

She was proud of herself, really. She’d never had to think about saving or living off what she had in her previous life. “People without credit cards. People who don’t believe in buying things they don’t have with money that isn’t theirs. People who don’t want debt to hold them back.”

She’d been frivolous at one point, and she’d spent big, but she’d always had cash in the bank to pay her credit cards each month. The only thing that’d changed now was she paid with cash these days. And had a lot less of it.

He studied her quietly. “You aren’t typical, are you?”

“Typical how? A lot of people my age aren’t buying into the overconsumption culture anymore.

Debt keeps you tied down, keeps you working a shitty job and never owning anything.

I like my freedom. If I decide I want to move along to a new place, I could.

Pack up the car, give notice at the range and my apartment, and go somewhere new. ”

“Is that what your parents did?”

She hated the lie she’d told, but there wasn’t a better one. “Whenever the mood hit, yes, that’s what happened.”

“Where are they now?”

Fuck.

“Kane, honestly.” She sighed. “My mom died when I was eighteen. My dad’s still around. We don’t speak anymore. Happy?”

All true statements.

“It pains you, and no, that doesn’t make me happy. You don’t know where your dad is?”

“Nope. Don’t care either.”

He was quiet for a while. Daphne took a sip of her beer, let it slide down her throat and burn into her stomach. She’d never been much of a beer drinker. Still, the burn felt good because it forced her to center herself.

“I don’t talk to my dad either,” he said.

“He and my mom divorced after I joined the Army. He was abusive. Not physically. Mentally. To her, to me. She died three years ago. After living her entire youth with that asshole, she ended up dying before he did. Lung cancer, and she never smoked a day in her life. He did, though. He’s still breathing and taking up space while she’s gone. ”

Her throat was tight. He’d lost his mother and his wife, and he had a father he didn’t speak to. It was hard to imagine someone as charming and vibrant as Kane having such heartbreak in his life. It sucked.

“I’m sorry, Kane. Life’s not fair, is it? The biggest assholes never get what they deserve.”

She thought of Jackson and her father. Of the kind of shit they were doing now, and she despised them for it. Wanted to bring them down. But she was afraid.

Afraid she’d go down while they kept doing what they always did. Nothing would change and people would still suffer. Her included.

“Sometimes they do,” he said softly. “I’ve been a part of it. But it’s definitely not often enough.”

She blew out a frustrated breath. “I wish somebody would make me queen of the world for a week. I’d make some adjustments.”

He laughed softly. “Not a bad idea. But people would go back to doing the shit they always did once you were done. The greedy and lazy ones, that is. Gotta say though, as much shit as I’ve seen in my life, I know the world is more good than bad.”

“I’m not so sure.”

“I’ve been in places where people barely had anything to eat, or a roof over their heads, much less a wad of cash to buy a car.

But if one of their neighbors needed help, they were there, giving what they had.

I’ve seen people run into burning buildings, toward burning vehicles, into churning oceans, to save a person they didn’t even know.

Because they couldn’t stand by and do nothing.

That’s what gives me hope—that the default setting of humankind is essentially good. ”

Daphne gaped. “Wow, and you call me Sunshine? I think you’re the Suzy Sunshine around here, Kane. I’m firmly convinced people are greedy, grasping, and out for what they can get.”

“Not gonna argue with you. Many of them are. But it’s easier getting up in the morning with hope in your heart. At least for me.”

Hope in your heart. She liked the sound of that.

And she’d felt it more often than not since she’d settled into life and work in Sutton’s Creek.

Not when she was at the inn, because Celia Lincoln was overbearing and irritating, but once she’d started at the range.

The people were good. They helped each other, looked out for each other.

She was part of that tribe, but a dark part of her insisted she wouldn’t be if they knew who she really was. What kind of family she grew up in.

The panic that always simmered beneath the surface started to bubble.

“You know, I think I need to go to bed,” she said, getting to her feet.

He uncurled from his slouch and sat up straighter. “You okay?”

She managed a smile. “I am. But I’m tired. Buying a car and shooting guns all in the same day is way more exhausting than I expected it to be.”

“A good kind of exhausted, I hope.”

“Definitely. Good night, Kane. And thanks for the help.”

“Night, Sunshine. Hey,” he said when she’d taken two steps toward the door.

“Yes?”

“That was some amazing shooting. Best I’ve ever seen anyone besides my guys do. If you want it kept secret from them, I’ll do that. Think you should crow about it, but your opinion’s the one that matters.”

His words made the knot in her throat tighter. Not the ones about shooting, but about it being her choice whether or not others knew.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I don’t mind if they know. But I don’t want it to change anything. I don’t want to teach classes or do RSO duty.”

“Understood. One more thing—you want eggs and bacon again? Or waffles?”

“You don’t have to cook for me, Kane.”

He got to his feet, towering over her as he motioned her toward the door and followed her inside. He dropped his empty bottle into the recycle bin. Why did he have to be so flipping sexy doing something that simple?

“You can’t cook. I can. And before you get excited, the waffles are frozen. I stick ‘em in the toaster oven, slather ‘em with butter and drizzle on the maple syrup—real, of course.”

“How do you have abs? Seriously, how?”

He dragged his shirt up and patted his very flat belly. “These abs? My award-winning, panty-melting abs?”

Her mouth went dry. “Those abs, Candy Kane. Do you have others tucked away somewhere?”

He grinned at her. “Nope. I workout, babe. You’ve seen me do it. It’s the only way to maintain my manly figure to the peak of perfection.”

Daphne rolled her eyes, but she was charmed. Because that’s what Kane did. He charmed people.

“I am seriously going to bed now. I’ll let you know in the morning what I want to eat.”

“Whatever you want,” he called after her.

Daphne trudged upstairs, then closed her door and leaned against it. Whatever she wanted?

Because she wanted a lot. None of it involved bacon.