Page 9 of Their Wicked Games

Perplexed, Carter shook his head. “I guess not all of us go into law enforcement. My concern is we might have found only the tip of the iceberg. Rio will need to look a little deeper into the associates of these men. We have the driver of the cattle truck in custody. He might be able to shed some light on who was involved, but I doubt the guy we arrested outside the meth lab is going to talk.”

“Okay.” Wolfe handed Carter Kane’s M18. “I’m done with this and I’m sure you agree with me that there’s no valid reason to relieve Kane of his weapon.”

Carter nodded. “None that comes to mind.” He turned toward the cabin. “I’ll go and tell Kane and Jenna we’re done here.”

He headed up the steps and found Kane seated with Jenna on his lap. Her head rested on his shoulder and an imprint of knuckles shone red on her cheek. He frowned. “You should have mentioned you were injured, Jenna. Do you need to go to the ER?”

“Me? No, I’m good.” Jenna slid off Kane’s lap and stood. “Dave’s probably got a cracked rib and I’m not seeing any duty of care for him, if he’s considered a suspect.” She pushed hair from her face. “Have you finished the investigation?”

Shaking his head, Carter smiled and tossed a toothpick into his mouth. “Yeah, we’re done and he’s never been a suspect, Jenna. I witnessed a righteous shoot. They fired first, as you witnessed, and Kane was acting in self-defense. In fact, the moment they drew their weapons, as a law enforcement officer and within Montana law, he was well within his rights to take them down.” He handed Kane his gun. “I’ll run the statements past the DA and when he clears you, Rio can put out a carefully worded media release, saying something like, the Black Rock Falls Sheriff’s Department and the Snakeskin Gully FBI raided a meth lab on the outskirts of town. During the ensuing gunfight, all the perpetrators received fatal gunshot wounds.” He moved the toothpick across his lips. “No names, no worries.” He indicated to the door with his thumb. “I’m heading back to town now. I’ll see you back at the office.” He turned on his heel and went out the door.Those two sure need some alone time.

NINE

Troubled by Jenna’s silence, Kane waited for the bodies to be bagged and loaded into Wolfe’s van before he led Jenna outside. Her M18 had been fingerprinted and photographed, and Wolfe handed it to her.

“You were lucky those guys weren’t sampling their own product or you might have suffered more serious injuries. Let me take a look at you.” Wolfe examined Jenna’s face and pressed his fingers gently over the marks. “Bruising but no damage. Is the inside of your mouth okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a headache, is all.” She looked at Kane. “Dave is bruised as well. How do you know he hasn’t cracked a rib?”

“He’d know.” Wolfe smiled at her. “He has had enough of them to know.” He turned to Kane. “If you get any shortness of breath, call me.”

“How far away is the Beast?” Jenna peered at the dirt road leading from the cabin.

Kane lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. “It’s a few hundred yards away. Do you want me to go get it?”

“No, I’d rather walk.” She bent to rub Duke’s ears. “Duke loves a walk in the forest and I could do with the fresh air.”

It took only a few minutes to reach the Beast, and Jenna was silent on the ride back to the office. She usually discussed her worries with him, and the lack of communication was just not like her. Maybe it was because it was the first time she’d seen him take down a group of men. He’d killed in the line of duty in her presence but never in a showdown like before. Concerned she might be seeing him in a different light, when he parked out front he turned to her. “Is there something on your mind? Something you need to discuss with me?”

“Yeah, there is.” Jenna turned in her seat to look at him. “I’ll leave the interview of the man Rowley took into custody to him and Rio, but we need to go and see the parents of the kids murdered in the forest. I guess with Rio and Rowley tied up, we’ll have to take their victim’s parents as well. I figure Carter and Jo can manage the third one… well, I hope so. We can’t leave it any longer, but I need to go inside and try to cover these marks on my face. Do you mind waiting?”

Shaking his head in disbelief, Kane stared at her. “They can wait another half an hour. You need to sit down and have a cup of coffee and something to eat before you do anything.” He cleared his throat. “I sure need to take some pain meds and unwind a little before we plunge into another stressful situation, that’s for darn sure.”

“I didn’t think, I’m sorry.” Jenna squeezed his arm. “You always seem to take everything in your stride. I know you were worried about me, but taking down those men didn’t concern you, did it?”

Taking lives did concern him, but he didn’t dwell on it. He sighed. “I don’t kill someone and feel nothing, Jenna. The fact is, it was them or me. They wanted to kill me, and I gave them the option to walk away. They chose to draw down on me, so honestly, I won’t lose any sleep over what happened, but seeing you kidnapped is another matter.” He glanced at her. “Are you sure you’ll cope with talking to the parents? You’ve just been kidnapped. I don’t want you to experience another PTSD episode.”

“I said we should keep going today because when I had PTSD the shrink told me to follow the day’s plan, because it would help. I didn’t suffer an attack but thought if we just carried on as normal, it would take the edge off. The truth is, what happened has shaken me up more than I had imagined. It wasn’t being kidnapped so much, because I knew that you would come and find me, it was seeing you take the shot in the chest.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I thought for a moment I’d lost you.”

Kane cupped her cheek and kissed her. “I’m hard to kill, Jenna. It took only a minute or so to put on the liquid Kevlar vest. I was banking on taking them by surprise. I might be a big target, but when people panic, they tend to shoot wide. I was confident I could take them down before they got me. The big guy, the one I figure pulled you into the truck, is the one who fired the shot that hit me. He’d obviously been trained to hit center mass, and this was what I was banking on. I knew the vest would take the hit.” He smiled. “If it had gotten nasty, I had plenty of trees to hide behind and Carter was on my tail. I’ve faced down more men than that alone, but I didn’t like you seeing me in action. It’s a part of me you didn’t need to witness.”

“It wasn’t the killing, Dave. I’ve seen enough in my time but seeing them shoot at you was terrifying.” Jenna shook her head. “Don’t look at me like that. I know telling you I worry about you is a bad thing. Wolfe told me one time not to become your Achilles heel or I’d get you killed. Today, I messed up and put you in danger. I get that.”

Exasperated, Kane snorted. “Like it was your fault some gorilla dragged you into their truck? Honestly, Jenna, that’s not what’s worrying me. Out there, I was in the zone and oblivious to anything but the target. I wasn’t angry by the time I faced them, but when the first bullet hit me I went into survival mode. Seeing me like that isn’t pretty and not something I ever wanted to reveal to you. It’s something I’d rather forget but it’s programmed into me. It’s not going away anytime soon.”

“I understand and next time I’ll close my eyes.” Jenna let out a long sigh. “If you’re feeling okay, how about dropping by Aunt Betty’s? We can grab a meal and you can take some pain meds. I’ll ask if Susie Hartwig will fix up my face for me. She’s great at makeup.”

Duke barked his approval and Jenna laughed. “That makes it two against one.”

Kane grinned at her. “Okay, you twisted my arm.” He started the Beast and headed to the diner. They hurried inside and waited at the counter.

After placing their order, Susie Hartwig, the manager, whisked Jenna away into a back room and Kane took Duke to their usual table at the back corner of the diner. As a service dog, Duke was allowed to go anywhere and was well known throughout town. Apart from the sheriff’s department logo on his coat, he carried a deputy’s badge on his collar. Aunt Betty’s Café was one of his favorite places as Susie always had leftover meat for him. Kane sat down and Wendy, the assistant manager, came right along with a pot of fresh coffee, cups, and the fixings.

“Jenna looks as if someone punched her in the head.” Wendy gave him a long look and raised one eyebrow.

Abashed that the thought that he’d do such a thing could enter her mind, he stared at her. “Someone did, but they won’t be laying hands again on a woman or anyone else anytime soon.” He swallowed the need to tell her he’d killed the man responsible. If he let that slip, it would be all over town by suppertime.

“That’s good to know.” Wendy smiled at him. “I’ll make sure your slice of cherry pie is extra wide. You look like you’ve had a rough day and it’s only lunchtime.”

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