Chapter Twenty-one
He’d left Kenzie.
He wouldn’t think of driving away from her in the parking garage. He wouldn’t think of what had happened in the car. He wouldn’t think of the future they could have had, and the giant, gaping hole in his chest.
Because he loved her, he had no choice but to send her away.
The rightness of it sloshed in his stomach like poison.
Back at Raw, he pushed her to the back of his mind, the place where all the things he cared about stayed locked away. He had Elaina to focus on now. His little sister may have been a willing participant in Lynch’s scheme, but it didn’t matter. He wouldn’t abandon her. He knew too well what that felt like.
And if she was here against her will, then he’d find a way to get her the hell out.
He hadn’t been able to protect Marsi when she’d been in trouble. He’d never reached out to Elaina when she was struggling with drugs. He’d left her alone with their father while he’d taken off for college, and grad school, and Europe. If Elaina had crossed to the dark side, it was his fault.
This was his chance for redemption.
Cole parked down the street from Raw, and snuck down the ally toward the back entrance. A car was parked in front of the Dumpster—the same he’d seen in Ambrose, belonging to Finn and Jeremy.
They were still here.
Approaching the back door, he placed his hand on the door handle and gently turned it. The compression of the door against the jamb made him wince, but he slowly pushed inside. He could hear people talking on the main floor. He listened for Elaina’s voice, but couldn’t weed it out.
Quietly, he snuck toward the swinging door separating the kitchen from the to-be dining area. He wished he had a gun, but he wouldn’t have known what to do with it. He probably would have shot himself in the foot.
Keeping low, he peeked up through the round window in the door. Three people were in the other room—Carson, Finn, and Jeremy. He couldn’t see Lynch or Elaina, but that didn’t mean they weren’t here somewhere. This vantage point didn’t yield a clear view of the floor. His sister could have been in the smaller dining room that wrapped around to the right, or closer to the front door.
“What are you doing?”
The woman’s quiet voice had him spinning around. Elaina strode toward him from the back storage area, heels clicking over the tile floor. Her eyes were wide, her mouth set in a thin, red line. He was at the same time relieved and fearful.
“You have to be the biggest idiot in the entire world—”
“Where’s Lynch?”
She hesitated.
“Gone.” Her voice had dropped to a whisper.
“Come with me,” he told her. “We can leave now. I have a car.”
“I’m not a goddamn hostage,” she said. “And you’re not a goddamn action hero.”
He narrowed his gaze. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but we can figure it out. We’ll find a way out of this mess, all right?”
Her eyes flicked to the window in the door, and then back to him.
“There is no way out,” she said.
Her lower lip trembled, the way it did when she was a kid and she was about to cry.
It made his relief, and his fear, big enough to swallow him whole.
Stepping cautiously toward her, he extended a hand. She watched him warily, as if she might bolt.
“Why are you here?” she whispered. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“Because you’re my sister.”
She scoffed.
It broke him that she didn’t know he loved her. Elaina had always been so tough. She’d wanted distance, so he’d given it to her. But she’d been just as lost as he was.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t around,” he said. “I am now.”
She crossed her arms over her chest.
“I stole your restaurants,” she said.
“You probably should have given me the heads-up that was the plan.”
The smallest of smiles lifted her mouth. “You never would have gone for it if I had.”
She was probably right about that.
“We can walk away,” he told her. “This doesn’t have to be your life.”
Her back straightened. She tilted her head, as if listening to something, and a moment later he heard it. A knock at the door.
A knock, and then the clatter of footsteps across the wooden floor in the other room.
Striding toward him, Elaina peeked through the window. Immediately, she dropped low, her hand fisting his shirtsleeve. They both crouched, leaning against the kitchen door.
“Police!” came a shout from outside the front of the building.
“Shit,” Elaina hissed, beads of sweat dewing on her forehead. “Did you call them?”
Dread coiled in the pit of Cole’s stomach. “No.”
“Lynch owns half the cops,” she said, panic hitching her voice. “If they take me, if the wrong ones get me, I’m dead. Shit.”
He could feel her shaking. Footsteps thundered their way. Before Cole could respond, a shove came from the opposite side of the kitchen door, a slam against their backs, dislodging their positions against it. Cole set his feet, blocking the exit. Another push, this one harder, and he was bumped inward, shoes sliding on the clean floor.
“Elaina!” Jeremy’s voice. “Open the door, Elaina.”
Cole reached for his sister’s arm, gripping her wrist through the silky material of her jacket. She was too thin. Bone thin.
His father’s words filled his head: If you had a family, you’d understand.
Cole was her brother, and it was his job to protect her.
“Go,” he muttered. “Out the back door. Behind the Dumpster there’s an alley cutting to the street behind us.”
She turned toward him, biting her lower lip so hard it turned white around her teeth.
The door thumped against their backs again. Cole leaned against it with all of his weight. From the other room came a crash, and another shout: “Police! Come out with your hands raised!”
“Go,” Cole said, jerking Elaina to a stand.
She didn’t look back, and that was for the best. She ran out the exit just as the kitchen door crashed in on him. He was thrown forward, onto his hands and knees. Raised voices filled his ears. His glasses slid down his nose, and he shoved them back up, turning just in time to see Jeremy sprinting by.
Cole lunged for his legs, taking out the other man. Finn had followed close on Jeremy’s heels and tripped over his fallen body. Before they could get back up, Cole scrambled to his feet, blocking their way.
The barrel of Finn’s gun aligned with Cole’s forehead.
“Bad decision, man,” he said.
Cole shook his head. Gritted his teeth. He was not a hero. He wasn’t trained for this. He didn’t possess the necessary skills to take down the bad guys.
All he had was the memory of his sister, with her lip trembling. And Kenzie, watching in horror as her diner burned. Marsi, who was hiding because of men like this one. Men like their father and Frank Lynch.
He stared Finn straight in the face. This was a man who hurt people, and Cole wouldn’t let him take another step toward that door.
“She’s gone,” he said.
Kenzie’s hand clasping his.
Her smile against his neck.
The sound of her laugh.
“Do it,” Jeremy growled at Finn. “We have to go.”
Her laugh.
Her laugh.
Her laugh.
He stood his ground.
“Stay away from my family,” he said with finality.
The front door crashed inward with the crack of wood and shatter of glass. Jeremy was swearing. Carson was in the threshold of the kitchen.
“Police! Put your weapons down!”
Cole couldn’t see them, but he could hear their steps clatter across the floor. Sweat dripped down his temple. His pulse felt as if it had been put on hold.
With a sneer, Finn lowered his gun.
The next moments passed quickly: snapshots forever burned in his memory. Cole raised his hands. Navy uniforms flooded the room. He was heaved into one of the metal stations by a young officer with a ruddy face and a buzz cut. Cuffed, alongside Jeremy and Finn and Carson, and read his rights. Then he was dragged outside and thrown into the back of a cruiser.
In the quiet, he leaned his head back against the cool plastic headrest, and stared at the ceiling of the car, praying he’d done the right thing.
• • •
The holding room at the Las Vegas Police Department was white and sterile. There were no pictures on the walls, no clock to measure the passage of time. Cole’s cuffed wrists rested on a simple metal table; the chair they’d given him squeaked each time he moved. Across from him sat an empty chair, and as he stared at it, he wondered how many times his father had been in a room just like this.
As much as Cole had tried to avoid walking down the same path, here he was.
In his mind, he tracked Kenzie’s flight. It was the only thing keeping him sane. He imagined her in some rental car, her dark, straight hair over one shoulder. He saw her picking up his phone and checking in with her brother. She would have been in Arizona now, maybe even nearing the border.
He hadn’t known who had called the cops to Raw, but if it was her, he couldn’t fault her. He would have done the same if their positions had been reversed. Anyway, now that Jeremy, Finn, and Carson had been arrested, her way home was clear.
Cole didn’t let himself consider the alternative—that Lynch was free and could have put more men on her tail. Thoughts like that took him nowhere good. Instead, he concentrated on her freedom, and Elaina’s as well. Wherever his sister was, he hoped she was safe.
Hours passed. He didn’t know how many. When the door handle turned, he sat up in his seat. He’d planned what he would say to the police: a simple version of the truth. He’d come back to his restaurant to pick up some paperwork, and gone through the back entrance, as he often did. When he heard people out front, he went to check it out, and was caught up in the raid.
He had not resisted arrest. He’d given the police no reason not to trust him.
Unless they were indeed owned by Lynch, in which case he was screwed.
His brows shot up as a woman entered the room. Her yellow hair was pulled back into a sleek tail, her slim-fitting white shirt tucked into her jeans. The gaudy stones on her belt caught the light, twinkling in a mocking kind of way.
“Hey, Fight Club.” Carson took a seat opposite him. Behind her, the door clicked shut. No one else entered.
“I told you not to call me that,” he said, confused as to what she was doing here and why she was free. He’d seen her being arrested. She’d had her rights read to her right beside him.
“Where’s Elaina?” she asked.
“Where’s Lynch?” he responded. “Sean Connell.”
She tilted forward in her chair, looking tired and annoyed.
“Your sister pulled a lot of strings to get you out of this. Coming back wasn’t the smartest idea.”
Cole’s eyes narrowed behind his broken glasses. “She’s my sister.”
“It’d be best if you let that go.”
He thought of the way Carson had stood beside Lynch. Of the way she’d vouched for him. Had his dirty cops gotten her out of this?
“Who are you, Carson?”
“A friend.”
“I doubt it.”
She shrugged. “You’ve got trust issues, you know that?”
He gave a short laugh. “Even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you where my sister went.”
Carson sighed, and the familiarity was back in her gaze. “Can I ask you something?”
She could ask anything she wanted, but it didn’t mean he was going to answer.
“How come you never went bad?”
He wasn’t sure if this was a trap or not. She might have been trying to bait him into sharing something he shouldn’t have. Chin lifting, he glanced at the camera positioned just over the door.
“I almost did,” he said after a while. “I guess it just wasn’t in the cards for me.”
She removed a small key from her pocket and leaned over the table to unfasten his cuffs.
Cole rubbed his wrists, circled them, all the while eyeing her suspiciously.
She tucked the key into her pocket. “Listen up, Cole, because I’m only going to say this once. It’s imperative that you let your sister play this out. Whatever shit she’s gotten herself into, she can handle it.”
Cole scoffed. “What makes you so sure?”
“Let’s just say I’ve had my eye on her awhile.”
There was something about Carson’s voice, something about the way she looked at him, that gave him pause. It could have been part of her plan—manipulation was clearly in her skill set if she worked with these people—but her hard gaze alluded to more. A deeper plan in the works. Things he didn’t understand.
He remembered the way she’d looked at Elaina when they’d shown up at Rare. Almost as if she’d recognized her. Cole had blown it off, but maybe there was more to it.
“Who are you, Carson?” Cole asked again. A cop? FBI? Secret Agent? Even if she was on the right side, she could have been playing for the wrong team. He couldn’t get a solid read on her.
She stood. “Finn broke an hour ago. Admitted to burning down a diner in Ambrose, Ohio. He’s going to try to plead to lesser charges to shorten his sentence. Might want to let your friend know next time you see her.”
Kenzie. Hope flared in his chest. If this were true, Kenzie would be in the clear. The arson case would go away. She could rebuild, rebrand like she’d wanted.
He wanted to call her and tell her, but wasn’t sure he should. He’d let her go for a reason.
“Is my friend safe?” he asked, reluctant even to use her name.
Carson took a deep breath. “Is anyone?” She shrugged. “Elaina made certain you were cut out of this, Cole. You and yours, and Marsella and hers. Far as I know, that deal still stands, long as you don’t try to mess it up.”
He stared at the woman he’d once hired to run his restaurant, trying to gauge the truth as his worry for Elaina deepened. His sister had made deals for their safety. The same moody sister he’d always thought was too wrapped up in her own world to consider anyone else’s. He wished he knew where she was, and what exactly her part was here.
But beyond his concern, a guilty kind of hope took root. If Kenzie and he were truly out of this, there was nothing stopping him from finding her. She might hate him after the way he’d left things, but he could try to make up for that.
He’d do whatever it took, if she’d have him back.
“You’re free to go,” Carson said. Whatever position she had here must have given her this authority. She extended a hand, and after a moment, he took it. They shook. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Cole, but don’t ever come back.”
He wasn’t sure she meant jail, or Vegas, or all of Nevada. Whatever the case, that was perfectly fine with him.
With a small smile, Carson returned to the door, yellow ponytail swinging behind her. She held it open as he walked through, and led him to the checkout area, where his wallet and keys were returned. When he turned around, she was already gone.
He was still trying to make sense of what had just happened as he stepped outside into the dark, dry Vegas night. He wasn’t sure what time it was—if it was nearly morning or closer to midnight. As he searched for the impound lot where they’d towed his Camry, his eyes landed on a park bench beside the door, where a woman sat wearing jeans and a dark T-shirt. Her long hair was down, twisted over one shoulder, and as he stopped and stared, his pulse scrambled, just as his thoughts went quiet.
She rose quickly, kneading her hands together. A streetlight overhead surrounded her in a soft glow, but he barely saw anything else, anyway. When she was around, everything around her had a way of falling out of focus.
His feet moved slowly, taking him closer. The last hours dissolved as her presence sunk in.
You’re here, he thought.
She held out a hand, as if to stop him. “Before you say anything, I only called the cops because you didn’t leave me another choice.” She lifted her chin defiantly, but her gaze betrayed her vulnerability. The questions in her eyes pressed on him like a finger on a bruise.
“I think there were other choices,” he said.
She planted her hands on her hips, showing off the taper of her waist, and the swell of her curves.
You’re beautiful, he thought.
“Running away?” she said. “I don’t think so. I already told you, I’m with you, idiot.”
He stepped closer, now just an arm’s length away.
“Are you going to have me arrested every time I step out of line?” he asked.
She made a deliberate effort not to smile, but her full lips turned up all the same.
“I might. It’s impossible to tell.”
“I guess that’s a risk I’m going to have to take.”
She looked down then, and the fragile connection between them faltered.
“Did you find her?” She meant Elaina.
“Yes,” he said quietly. “I let her go.”
Kenzie nodded. She picked at one of her nails.
“That for the best?”
He sighed, thinking of what Carson had said. How Elaina had fought to keep he and Marsi out of her business. He wondered again who Carson worked for, and if her keeping an eye on his sister was a good thing or not.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“She reminds me of Garrett,” Kenzie said. “The way he was after the army. Makes it sort of hard to be really mad at her.”
Cole’s chin pulled inward. “How do you mean?”
“Guarded. Angry. Like he was trying too hard to pretend he wasn’t broken.” She dug the toe of her shoe into the dusty asphalt.
He thought of how thin Elaina was, how hard and tired she looked.
“You shouldn’t have driven away from me,” she said. “But I know why you did, and even though I want to punch you, I don’t blame you for trying to save her.”
He blinked.
“It’s what you do for family,” she said.
His throat grew tight.
“I called the police because I was scared,” she continued in a rush. “And I’m not sorry, Cole, because you’re still alive, and forever is a really long time to love someone when they go and get themselves shot trying to save the world.”
He closed the space between them, lifting her in his arms. She gripped the back of his shirt, tugging him closer. “I’m sorry,” he murmured against her hair. “Forgive me.”
She rested her head against his heart, and every broken part of him mended. Every ragged piece was made new. This was it for him. She was it. There would never be another woman. There would never be another day he didn’t love her.
Around them, the sky was beginning to gray with the impending dawn. A reminder it was time to move on. To start over.
They found his car in the impound lot. He led her to the passenger side and helped her in, and when he took the driver’s seat she curled up against his side, fingers spreading over his chest.
He was the luckiest guy in Vegas.
“We could hit one of those twenty-four-hour chapels on the way out of town,” she suggested. Her fingers walked up his chest, over his buttons, stirring heat in his veins. He would never get enough of her touch.
“I don’t think so,” he said, pulling out onto the main street. “I’ve heard there’s a nice place in Ambrose. Johnson State Park.”
She giggled and kissed his neck while the sunrise guided their way home.