Page 65 of Too Lethal to Love

“You expect me to remember insignificant details like that? She must have appreciated what I did, though, because a few months later, she asked for my assistance again.”

“And you got her a job in the Middle East.” Kane leaned closer to the screen. “She’s back in town and has been trying to reach you. Do you know why?”

Henry sat back in his chair and laughed. “She probablywants my help again. Even though I’m locked up, I still have connections with important people.”

A loud beep sounded from inside the interview room. “Time’s up, Miss Kerrigan.” A second later, the screen went dark.

“Fucking dead end,” Kane muttered as he shot Scarlett an email asking her to find out who Henry had referred Evangeline to. As he shut the laptop and rose from the table, a mind comms alert sounded in his brain. Hurrying to the window, he pushed the shade aside and scanned the street for a threat much bigger than the vapid blonde who treated Beth like a pariah.

“Someone’s driving around the block too many times,”Nic said. “Video feed is coming to your comms now.”

Kane looked at his wrist. A black sedan passed the house too slowly for his comfort.“If it comes around again, stop it.”

“That’s the plan.”

The bedroom door opened behind Kane. He didn’t turn to Beth. “Get back in there.”

“Has something happened?”

He ignored the alarm in her voice as he activated himself into phase two. “Someone’s circling the house. It’s probably nothing.” But the hair on the back of his neck rose, and it wasn’t from the sting of activation. “Grab my gun from the table, then stick by the bedroom doorway. Be ready to run on my order. Got it?”

Kane heard her startled agreement as she scurried to heed his instructions. Long seconds ticked by as he watched Linc casually cross the street and take cover behind an RV parked at the curb.

Beth poked her head out of the bedroom. “What’s happening?”

He held up his hand to silence her as the sedan turned the corner.

“If the car slows again, we take out the tires on my command,”Nic said from the SUV parked in the driveway.

“Roger that,”Linc said.

As the sedan approached the house, the driver’s side window rolled down. Before the dark glass lowered an inch more, all four tires blew in rapid succession. The car spun a hundred and eighty degrees. As it careened onto the lawn and into the lamppost, the screech of metal crashing into metal reverberated in the house.

Beth screamed.

“Stay here and lock the door behind you.” Kane didn’t wait for an answer as he slipped out the front and schooled his mind in mission mode. “Cover her,” he said as he rushed past Nic and inhaled the stench of melting rubber.

Slowly, he made his way to the driver’s side of the sedan. As he approached, a glint of something metallic at the top of the window flashed in the sunlight.“Gun.”

He fired a V-Strike. The shot shattered the window into thousands of dark crystals. The glass on the passenger side suffered the same fate from Linc’s barrage. Tiny shards crunched under Kane’s boots as he carefully approached, his gaze trained on a figure with black hair slumped over the steering wheel.

Linc reached through the window and yanked the driver upright. Blood gushed from the busted nose of the familiar face. “Chavez?”

“Looks like him.” Even though the unconscious man appeared thinner and much less menacing than in the intel files, Kane had no doubt he stared at the Diablo enforcer.

A hiss gurgled from Chavez’s throat as he opened his eyes and glared at Kane. “You’re a dead man.Mi hermanowill…”

Kane didn’t doubt that Chavez had plenty of mercenaries he counted as brothers who would be gunning for them.

Linc released his grip as the enforcer lost consciousness again and slumped back onto the steering wheel.

“Is that Chavez?”

Kane twisted his head. Beth stood on the stoop, his gun aimed at the sedan. Rooting his boots to the ground, he fought the urge to tackle her back into the house. “Get inside.”

She stepped onto the grass, weapon still drawn as if protecting him. “Is that him? Is this over?”

“Back. In. The. House.”

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