“So he hates my cooking, too.”

 

Kane looked up with a groan as he spooned stew into his mouth. Sipping it down, he saw Jeremy playing around his bowl without lifting his fork. Still stirring, he saw the matching ring tapping the table. One glance up, and Kane saw Ellen.

 

To hear Jeremy tell it, he had spotted her across the quad, and he instantly knew that she was supposed to be his wife. So he courted her, fought past her objections. When Jeremy finally summoned the strength to propose, Ellen told Jeremy that was just waiting for him to get around to it, and he was quick to slip the ring around her finger. When he heard the story, true love at first sight seemed silly.

 

It still did.

 

“You okay, Kane?”

 

He felt Jeremy’s hand on his am, and Kane scoffed.

 

“Never better,” Kane lied. Quickly draining his cup, he asked Ellen for a second helping. Taking the empty dish from his hands, Ellen dished out a second bowl.

 

“Here,” Ellen said.

 

Giving him what he wanted, Kane grudgingly thanked her and started to stir the plate. In the haze of the stew, he took note of Ellen’s frustration, and he heard the muted rage in her voice.

 

“You didn’t say I’d have to cook for him,” Ellen muttered.

 

“And I didn’t ask you to,” Kane answered. “But I’m here. I’m eating. What more do you women want?

 

Ellen started to protest, but then tears began to fill her eyes.

 

“Excuse me,” she said.

 

When she was gone, Kane felt a little bad. But just a little. Ellen didn’t like him. Of that she made no secret. But she was Jeremy’s woman, and he could at least try to be play nice.

 

“Jem, I—”

 

“I’ll handle it,” Jeremy said.

 

Jeremy left the table. Leaning around his seat, Kane saw his brother trying to comfort his wife. Ellen was like steel as Jeremy wrapped his arm around her waist, and she was slow to follow the path of his touch, but then she rested her head to his shoulder and smiled into her eyes. Untying her apron, Jeremy reached under her skirt. As he touched her, Ellen moaned and brought her arms around his neck. She kissed his mouth.

 

It made him jealous. Angry. It made him remember.

 

Stepping to his brother’s porch, Kane took a deep breath of night air. It was cool as fresh as it travelled down his throat. And he was brought back to another windy night.

 

***

 

“So?” he asked. “Let’s have it.”

 

Dropping her off at her door, Angeline swayed and giggled. Kane held her tight and brushed the wind swept hair from her flushed face.

 

“It was kind of cool,” she said, quickly kissing his cheek.

 

“Just kind of?” he asked. “What the hell is that?”

 

She leaned into him, and his arms surrounded her waist. Sometimes he wished that she could just give him a straight answer. But a part of him liked her like this, liked the challenge. He would always win. Always.

 

But her fight was fun.

 

“That’s me saying that this is better,” she said.

 

Kissing him slowly, softly, Kane withered slightly under her hold. He didn’t want to, but she was more than he had ever had.

 

And he would fight like hell to keep her at his side.

 

***

 

Kane looked into the night and remembered how she felt. Her breasts, her legs, being inside her. She was supposed to stay is. Maybe she was bound to grow lonely; she could be insatiable when the mood struck her.

 

But Noel? Unforgivable.

 

Finishing his beer, Kane started back inside, ready to bypass his brother’s happiness and head to the guest room that was his to use for as long he needed it. And he needed it now. The idea of sleeping at the clubhouse, just the thought that Angeline would creep through the shadows and he might find her beside Noel’s bed, filled him with fury.

 

He was nearly through the door when a pair of headlights raced up the road.

 

On instinct, Kane readied for battle and reached into his sock. Pulling out his knife, he nearly called out for Jeremy but suddenly though better of it. Leave it to his brother, and cops would be called before he had a chance to handle this. Whatever it was.

 

“Let’s see who this is,” Kane muttered to himself.

 

The headlights dimmed, and Kane poised his knife. Rival gang? Another prisoner seeking revenge? Or maybe this was Noel making sure that he could have Angeline all to himself.

 

Kane would fight any threat. And if had to hide the bodies before Jeremy could see, and truly become a fugitive, so be it.

 

“Who’s there?” Kane asked as he neared the car.

 

The motor stopped whirring, and he waited. Narrowing his eyes, he saw two heads under the windshield, small and slight. As the passenger’s door opened, a pretty lady started to step into view, and Kane gripped his knife tighter. This had to be a trap. If he was tempted, if he stepped closer, a horde would burst on the scene and hustle him into a van. Kane could feel the blows raining down over his body, and he tensed at the thought of darkness. He’d have enough of that on the inside.

 

“I said who’s—?”

 

Lurching forward, Kane was ready to slice into anyone and anything when a beam of moonlight hit the woman.

 

“Wait! Whoa!”

 

Kane reeled back as he saw the truth of his supposed attacker. A pregnant lady? Like, really pregnant? Who the hell would send her on what might be a suicide mission?

 

“You want to cool it with that?” the woman demanded.

 

Falling back, Kane concealed his knife and threw up his hands.

 

“What the hell do you want?” Kane asked.

 

The woman and her expanded belly stepped forward. She paused just before him and sent a quick glance back to her car. Kane followed her eyes and knew that someone else was there. This could be a trick, something meant to make him complacent until the real danger reared its head.

 

“What is—?”

 

The woman cut him off with a swift slap to his jaw, and Kane reached for his stinging face.

 

“What was that?”

 

“That’s for believing everything that you’re told,” the woman said. “What kind of fool are you?”

 

Was she the old lady of the ruddy, red-headed prisoner from the yard, the one that laid into him for showing off his new tattoo and swearing that no man would ever be so lucky? The guy had pounced. Kane was barely able to block his blows as he tore his shirt by the sleeves and revealed the name of his woman, one that could never be questioned. Now, even as Kane had heard the rumor that the other man’s girl had run off with a neighbor at the first chance, Kane was trapped in the memory.

 

“You Brenda?” Kane asked.

 

The woman cocked her head to one side and then the other, her eyes becoming steel slits before she spoke.

 

“Who the fuck is Brenda?” the woman demanded.

 

Backing away from woman’s cold glare, Kane knew that he had got something wrong.

 

Not Brenda. Someone else. Noel might still have…

 

“What about Angeline?”

 

Kane’s heart stopped around her question. Around the name.

 

“What are you…? What the hell are you talking about?”

 

The pregnant lady started to lay into him with every insult she could call to mind. But Kane tuned her out. His eyes moved back to the car, and he focused on the figure in the driver’s seat.

 

No. No it couldn’t be.

 

“And you have no idea what she’s been through!”

 

The pregnant lady kept screaming, but Kane pulled away and forgot her.

 

Inching towards the car, he stopped when he heard the click of a door opening. Lean limbs hit the grass, and there she was, not looking a day older. But she was thinner, far more tired than he had remembered, and Kane stepped closer to be sure.

 

“You?” he asked.

 

She didn’t speak, barely seemed to breathe as she lingered in his eyes. How long he had waited to be near her again, and now that she was close enough to touch, Kane started to reach for her face. Angeline. It was Angeline. His palm drifted to her skin, and he brought her cheek against her flesh. When they touched, a buzz passed between them. Starting away from fire under his fingers, Angeline quickly went for his hands.

 

“Kane,” she whispered. “I’m really seeing you.”

 

A small smile formed across her lips as she neared him. She looked good. Better than good. This was what he should have seen at his first moment of freedom. Angeline. Waiting, here.

 

“Kane?”

 

Her palm was everything that he remembered. Soft. Warm. She curled her finger around his wrist. For a moment, he was lost in her eyes. But just as quickly as the world was only Angeline, Noel’s knowing smirk flashed across his mind.

 

“Kane?” she asked again.

 

She stumbled as he pushed her back. The pregnant lady rushed to her side, steadied her stance. She shot Kane a sharp, cruel glance as she shook her head. Angeline’s face also twisted, and Kane started to move closer, to say something when he was reminded that her innocent gaze was the ultimate deception.

 

“What do you want, Angeline?” he asked.

 

Saying her full name felt strange, wrong on his tongue. To him, she was always Angel. But an angel was pure and never lost faith. Angeline lay with Noel when her free nights seemed too long while he was the one languishing behind bars and stone walls.

 

“Kane,” she said, her voice hoarse and strangled. “It’s me.”

 

What did she think? That his confinement had dulled his senses?

 

“I know,” he scoffed. “So what’s you deal? Come by to see how I came out at the other end of your sentence?”

 

Her friend, whoever she was, lunged forward, but Angeline held her back as she spoke.

 

“I came to see you,” she said. “Just you.”

 

Kane wanted to engage in their familiar game, to go back and forth until he came up with the win. And he almost let her. If he was being honest, he had missed her. And now, she was close enough to touch.

 

But he wouldn’t take half of her, just a part of her. And now he knew what she really was.

 

“Won’t work anymore,” he said. “I’m not buying it.”

 

With her eyes wide, Angeline left her friend’s side. Kane tried to shift from her hands, but Angeline caught his arms and struggled to keep him in her grasp.

 

“Get the hell off—”

 

“Kane!” she screamed. “Just listen to me. I know what you think happened. But you have to—”

 

“I said get off!”

 

Shoving her away, Angeline stumbled back and fell to the ground. Her friend went to her side, and Kane hissed.

 

“You were the only thing that kept me alive in that place,” he started. “I’d dream of you, and I’d get through the next day. No one really bought it. Because I never had a pretty visitor.”

 

“Because you told me to stay away!” Angeline pleaded. “I… I wanted to come to you every day. I—”

 

“Until you just couldn’t wait,” he shot back. “You…”

 

The sight of her starting to cower, fighting against it, moved him. But how could he let her off that easy? How could he ever forget?

 

“Guess you were getting in the clubhouse any way you could,” Kane said. “Nice to know that I meant so much to you.”

 

“No,” she said as she crawled towards him, wrapping her arms around his legs. “You don’t understand…”

 

This had to be a trick, another game that she was playing. Part of him wanted to forget and take her in his arms. Maybe if it had been anyone else, he could have dropped it, found a way for them to start over. But Noel on top of the fact that she had used him to stay free of the joint? Maybe she was only in a new kind of trouble and thought him enough fool to do it all over again.

 

He would not give in.

 

“I understand,” he echoed as he stepped away from her reach. “You… you played me. And I don’t believe in you anymore,” he said. “Maybe I never did in the first place.”

 

Stepping away, he turned back to the house, knowing that Jeremy would tell him that he had done the right thing by pushing her away. Now he was a free man.

 

But would he ever truly be free?

 

“Wait! Just let me—”

 

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Angeline. She seemed determined to tell him something that he had to hear. Kane didn’t want another lie, but she caught hold of him. Her hands were firm around his arms, and she steadied her rapid breath as she met his eyes.

 

“You’re not even going to give me a chance?” she asked.

 

“No. Not again.”

 

“It’s not like it sounded!” she implored. “I never stopped thinking about you. Loving you. I—”

 

He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her closer, rage in his eyes.

 

“So you fuck my best friend?” Kane challenged. “That’s love?”

 

“I… I…”

 

Angeline eyes fluttered, and she started to fall. Forgetting his fury, thinking only with his heart, Kane moved to catch her as she fell into a faint.