Kane by Loribelle Hunt Read Free Book Online Page B

tried to kill me before.”
    “There’s a first for everything.”
    He nodded, like a sage old man agreeing with
good advice. It made her want to shoot him twice.
    “It might help if I knew why. I’m guessing
the Special Branch mention did it?”
    She tried to think of all the fun ways she
could torture him. Tie him down and throw rocks was looking good.
Or tie him down and make use of a nice soft feather. Oh wait, that
was the other kind of torture, and she was not going there again.
She gave him her meanest smile, the one reserved for ruffians and
bounties.
    “Let’s see. You come at me with all this mate
business a few hours ago and conveniently forget to add you come
not only with an entourage, but a brother. You knew several hours
ago my sister was in danger and failed to mention it. Now you’re
telling me you’re in Special Branch. And let me just settle your
mind about the whole mate thing. No. Way. In. Hell.”
    She lowered the hammer on the pistol and
carefully set it on the end table. She wanted, needed out of
this room. Needed time to process all this information and she
didn’t have it. Izzy didn’t have it. She didn’t even argue when
Nico pocketed the gun. A show of faith, right? She wouldn’t kill
their precious Alpha, and they would let her go. It sounded like a
fair trade to her. Except the quiet one still blocked the door, and
when she glared at Kane, he just shook his head no. She considered
trying one of the windows, but climbing out into a bed of rose
bushes dressed only in a robe didn’t sound very appealing.
    “You still haven’t explained your aversion to
Special Branch. Or how you know about it.” Kane’s tone was curious.
“You have a reputation for staying away from government and rebel
work, so the anger doesn’t seem to fit.”
    “I have a good reason for staying out of it.”
She took a deep breath and went for the abridged version. “Our
father worked for Special Branch. Somehow Tobias found out who he
was and blew up the inn he and my mother were staying in.”
    Her voice shook with pain and rage, new and
old. She’d thought her affair with Kane was safe. He was the city’s
Alpha but had never seemed very interested in the job. She’d
thought he was addicted to excitement like she was, that he would
never settle down and get serious. There’d been a lot of appeal in
that. She’d been so wrong about him, and she didn’t want to be
forced to reevaluate him, the kind of man he was. That knowledge
would put her on different footing and a different path. She really
was going to have to give him up, and she couldn’t believe how much
the idea hurt. Had she already invested too much of her heart? No.
She refused to believe it.
    “Why didn’t we know this?” he murmured. “I
wonder if Phineas knows.”
    Rheana’s laugh rang bitterly through the
room. “Phineas has his own agenda and not much use for people who
get in the way of it.”
    Nico scowled. “I know you’re not suggesting
Phin is a traitor.”
    She snorted. “No. Just that he doesn’t see
anything but his goal--ending the rebellion. And no, we aren’t
sympathetic to the rebellion, but Phin doesn’t…count the cost. He
thinks people are expendable to the cause. He’s no better than
Tobias in that regard.”
    Nico frowned at her. “I can’t believe you’d
compare the two, Rheana.”
    She shrugged. “I lost my parents to the games
those two play with each other. What I’d really like to know is why
my sister got dragged into it?”
    “Good question,” Calista added. “I’d like to
know that one myself.”
    “Sorry,” Kane answered. “I assumed you would
guess. You know what she’s been working on? Looking for a cure for
the plague?”
    “Yes. She’s close too, she thinks.”
    “I guess so. She’s apparently found a cure
for us.” He nodded his head to take in the others in the room. “For
shifters and vampires.”
    She was quiet a minute. Isadora had
complained when the cure had turned