Page 25 of Kane (Ghost Ops #4)

Chapter Seventeen

Kane was taking his turn in the front of the range, technically the store area, when the man Daphne had said was creepy walked in with a range bag slung over his shoulder.

Nathan Fader, private gun dealer, man who creeped women out.

Still, the man had done nothing to him, so Kane slapped on a smile and swaggered to the counter. “How ya doin?”

Fader looked shifty. Or maybe Kane just thought he looked shifty because he automatically didn’t like the man on Daphne’s account.

“Fine.” He looked around. “Where’s the pretty girl who’s usually here?”

Kane’s gut tightened. He told himself not to lead with pummeling the man’s face. Instead, he scratched the back of his neck and tried to look nonchalant. “I’m guessing you mean Daphne. She’s got business elsewhere at the moment. Why?”

Fader shrugged. “No reason. She was nice. I guess I thought she’d be here every time.”

“Nope, not today.” He picked up a clipboard and set it on the counter. “You want to shoot?”

Fader’s eyes narrowed for a moment. He reached for the clipboard and turned it. “Yeah.”

He filled out the paperwork, produced his license and cash. Kane assigned a shooting bay and handed over a target. “Happy shooting, mister.” He waited a beat, until the man turned toward the doors to the bays. “Been thinking you should know something before you go.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Daphne’s a beautiful woman and I get why you’d be interested. But she’s my fiancée, so I’ll have to ask you to move along when it comes to her. We clear?”

Fader’s expression seemed to harden. “Yeah, we’re clear. No offense meant, man. Maybe put a ring on that finger, save yourself the trouble of having to issue threats, though.”

Kane really didn’t like this dude. But there was no reason to throw him out. Yet.

“Not a threat, my man. Just the truth. That’s my woman, and I’m mighty crazy about her.”

Fader nodded and disappeared through the range door.

Kane’s temper simmered beneath the surface.

Maybe Fader hadn’t broken into Daphne’s place, but he bore watching.

He’d mentioned her with a gleam in his eye that Kane didn’t like.

It was the same look he’d seen on the faces of hunters when they sighted the prey they planned to shoot.

There was no other description for that look. It was predatory, plain and simple.

When Daphne returned from picking up lunch, Kane went to the break room to meet her. She looked up, smiling, and his heart stuttered in his chest. What the fuck?

He’d told Fader she was his fiancée so the man would know she wasn’t alone, that she had someone looking out for her.

That she was off limits. But for the barest of moments he almost wished it was true.

Not the fiancée part, because he was never doing that again, but the part where she was his woman.

But then he came to his senses when she arched an eyebrow at him. “What’s wrong, Gramps? Acid indigestion from too much bacon and eggs?”

He shook himself. “Huh?”

“You look constipated. Like something’s off.”

Daphne opened the bag from the Gas n’Go.

The odor of BBQ was already assailing his nostrils, but it got even better when she started pulling containers from the bag.

She’d offered to do the lunch run today, and he’d reluctantly agreed since the Gas n’Go was nearby and not smack dab in the middle of town.

“Sorry, babe. The smells distracted me. I’m hungry.”

“Seriously? You had a big breakfast four hours ago.”

“I’m a big guy, what can I say? Plus I ran five miles in full pack this morning before you even dragged your pretty little ass from bed.”

“Well, when you put it that way…” She kept pulling out containers, not looking at him any longer.

“Fader’s inside the range. You should stay here until he’s gone.”

Her body went rigid for about half a second before she visibly relaxed. “Oh yeah?” she asked, eating a fry from the box she’d opened. Pretending she didn’t care when in fact she cared a lot.

Dude had to have said something to her, but she wasn’t telling Kane what that was. Made him want to go wrap his fingers around Fader’s throat and squeeze until he got an answer.

Ghost wouldn’t approve, so he wasn’t doing it. But damn, he wanted to.

“Showed up about thirty minutes ago.” He was not telling her that Fader had asked about her. He didn’t think she’d appreciate that. “And, uh, I may have told him a little lie. Just because.”

“A lie? About what?”

“I said we were engaged.”

Daphne’s eyes bugged out. Then she started laughing. And didn’t stop as she sank onto a chair and grabbed a paper plate from the stack in the center.

“You know I regret telling you that, right?” he grumbled as he sat across from her and picked up a pulled pork sandwich. “And why is it funny anyway?”

“Sorry,” she said, swiping beneath her eyes with a napkin.

“I appreciate it, really, but I was just imagining the collective wails of the local women when they discovered their favorite instructor was off the market and about to get hitched. Lainey Bowen in particular will lose her shit when she hears.”

“I went out with Lainey twice, and that was earlier this year. She’ll be fine.”

“Sure she will.”

He ignored her. “A, I’m not currently dating anyone. B, I did it so if that douchebag has intentions toward you, he’ll have to reconsider. You should be thanking me, not laughing.”

Daphne took the top off her sandwich and poured on some barbecue sauce, giggling from time to time.

He liked his with coleslaw on top, which was how they served it in the south, but Daphne got her coleslaw separate and ate it from the container with a fork.

She put the top of the bun back on and gave him a look. Then she snorted.

“I’m sorry. It’s not funny. It’s sweet. Thank you.”

He ate a forkful of green beans, still feeling slightly put out about the whole thing. “You’re welcome.”

Ethan and Blaze came striding in. Seth was RSO since they only had one shooter at the moment, and Ghost was in Research Park. Chance had taken Rory to an appointment with her endocrinologist.

“Thanks for going to pick up lunch, Daph,” Blaze said as he sat and plucked a pulled pork sandwich off the pile.

The sides were family style, and they all had paper plates to scoop their choices onto. Except for Daphne’s coleslaw, which was a single serving.

“You’re welcome.”

“How’d the new car drive?” Ethan asked.

“Great! The AC works, which is fantastic, and you don’t have to jiggle the door handle a certain way to get it to open. Though I’m grateful to Warren for the use of his vehicle,” she added. “But this one is definitely a step up.”

“Guess it was worth the wait,” Kane said, shooting told you so looks at his teammates. They’d ridden his ass for the past couple of months about finding a car, but it was good he’d waited. The Santa Fe had been a better deal than she’d have picked up in the spring.

“I’d say so,” Daphne said, happily stabbing some mac and cheese onto her fork.

Kane made a face at Ethan and Blaze. They rolled their eyes.

Seth wandered in a few minutes later and grabbed a sandwich. “Fader just left,” he said as he took a seat. “He’s pretty tight-lipped about his reasons for being in town.”

Kane gaped. So did Ethan and Blaze. “Wait—you tried to make small talk with him?”

Seth gave them a look. “Uh, yeah? Need to know more about him. Where was he when Daphne’s apartment was broken into, that kind of thing.

He said he was in Huntsville on the day in question.

Had a meeting. That’s all I got out of him.

Except I’ve got the plate number for his rental now so I’ll see what I can find out about the GPS coordinates that day. ”

Daphne was blinking, hard. She put her fork down and picked up the napkin again.

“You okay, Daph?” Seth asked.

“Fine,” she said with a sniff. “Think I’ve got an eyelash in my eye.”

“Hey,” Kane said, wanting to move the conversation to something that wouldn’t make Daphne cry while also giving her a chance to recover. “Daphne failed to mention it, but she’s something of an expert marksman.”

Three heads turned to look at her. Which was not what Kane had intended. She dabbed her eyes again and then rolled them. Well, at least she’d recovered enough not to get mushy because they cared about her.

“Candy Kane exaggerates. I can hit a target.”

“Exaggerates, my ass. She put a perfect round circle around my bullseye. Rapid fire. At twenty yards.”

“Wait,” Blaze said, his head turning from Daphne to Kane to Daphne and back again. Seth looked like he’d encountered a puzzle he couldn’t solve. Ethan was looking at Kane like he was waiting for the joke. “You’re saying that Daphne put a circle around your center shot? At twenty yards?”

“Yeah, dumbass, that’s what I’m saying. She’s been holding out on us. She’s a crack shot.”

“Kane,” she grumbled. “Swear to God.” Then she took a breath and smiled.

“Yes, I can shoot. I’m not a beginner. I never mentioned it because nobody ever asked, plus I wasn’t in the mood to step onto a range and see if I could still shoot as well as I used to.

Kane, in his overbearing way, decided I needed to learn so I could defend myself.

But he didn’t bother to find out if I already knew how to handle a weapon. So I showed him.”

“I have so many questions,” Seth said.

“Me too,” Blaze added. Ethan nodded.

“It’s no big deal,” Daphne told them. “Eat your lunches. I’ll fucking demonstrate if you need me to, but not until after I’ve eaten this sandwich and had some more mac and cheese.

And I want my banana pudding, too. Hell, come to think of it, I’m going to be too full after all that, so maybe after the range closes. ”

“No offense, Daphne, but I really need this demonstration,” Blaze said. “Not because I don’t believe you can do it. I just really want to see it.”

Daphne gave a long suffering sigh as she waved her fork around. “Fine, fine. But I already told Kane I don’t want to teach any classes or do RSO duty unless I absolutely have to, okay? I don’t want to be involved with the retail side. I’d really prefer nobody wants me to do that.”

“Think you’ve got enough to do,” Seth said. “If you don’t want to do retail, you don’t have to.”

“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but how did you learn to shoot so well?” Ethan asked.

She shot Kane a look. He had the feeling that if she could get him alone right now, she’d knee him in the balls. But hey, she wasn’t fucking crying anymore.

“You know how some kids have to join a sport or play an instrument and practice it all the time, even when they don’t want to?”

The guys all nodded.

“That was my dad, except his instrument was a gun. And he insisted I practice. I had no choice.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Blaze said. “Nothing you’re forced to do is fun. Badly as I want to see you shoot, if you don’t want to, none of us are gonna make you.”

She smiled at him. Kane felt a pinch of jealousy in his soul that she never smiled at him like that.

“Thank you, but I offered. Kane may be overbearing and a dick sometimes, but he’s right that I need to stay in practice. It was probably one of the workmen who broke in and it’ll probably never happen again. But I should be able to defend myself if it does.”

“Wasn’t trying to be a dick, babe,” Kane said, feeling unfairly picked on.

“I know, Gramps. It just comes naturally.”

The guys snorted.

“Shut up and eat,” Kane grumbled at the three of them. “And mind your own business.”

Ethan grabbed a fry and pointed it at him. “But yours is so much more fun.”