Turn on a Dime - Blane's Turn (29 page)

“I wasn’t a prostitute,” she retorted. “I wasn’t going to have sex with anyone.”

Innocent and naive
, Blane thought with a sigh.

Kade just laughed. “Your innocence is charming,” he said, “and also incredibly stupid. You were almost killed tonight, and nearly got Blane killed as well.”

“Well, I could ask you the same question,” Kat said. “Why were you two there? I know Mr. Gage had Sheila killed because of her involvement with Mark. Were you the one he sent to murder her?”

Looked like money laundering wasn’t the only thing Gage had been up to. Jimmy had been working for him. But Kat hadn’t put two-and-two together yet.

“Kat,” Blane said, pulling her back onto his lap, “Kade didn’t kill her.”

“I know he’s a gun-for-hire,” she hissed at him, as if Kade couldn’t hear her in the front seat. “And he works for the Santini brothers. Mr. Gage is obviously in cahoots with them. It only makes sense that Kade is the one who killed her.”

Did she just say “cahoots”? Blane pushed the errant thought aside. “It may make sense to you,” he said, “but he didn’t kill her. I’m sure they sent Jimmy to take care of Sheila.”

Kathleen crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes narrowing at him. “How do you know?” she said stubbornly. “Kade’s a liar. You can’t trust what he says.” She glanced toward Kade. “You see? He doesn’t even deny it.”

There was no help for it. He had to tell her.

“I know he didn’t kill Sheila,” Blane said, “because he’s my brother.”

Those words had an immediate effect. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open, her head jerking around to look at Kade again, then she was sliding off his lap.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked. Her voice held anger and betrayal.

Kade answered before Blane could.

“You didn’t give us much of a chance, did you? Dramatically running off in the middle of the night. And firing a gun at us.”

“I ran off, as you put it, because I heard you two talking,” she sneered at Kade, her dislike obvious. “You both wanted that code and neither of you seemed to care how you got it.” Ouch. “God knows what you planned to do to me, Kade, whereas you,” she turned to Blane. “Apparently your idea was to fuck me for it.”

So much for their short-lived reunion.

Kade let out a low whistle. “And the kitty has claws.”

Blane thought it was probably for the best. He was too wrapped up in her to be emotionally detached. Her anger put some desperately needed space between them. Kade was right. He needed to think with his head, not his dick, or any other organ, for that matter.

“Do you have the code?” he asked.

Kathleen swallowed, her eyes betraying her hurt before she concealed it.

“Not on me, no,” she sneered, every inch a brat and lying to him on top of it. “You know, you should really see someone about that whole jaw-clenching thing. That can’t be good for your teeth.”

Kade laughed at that and Blane automatically clenched his jaw even tighter, before realizing what he was doing. Damn it.

“I need that code,” he said, his voice harder. Blane really didn’t want to try to threaten her or scare her. His threats would be empty ones and he was sure she’d see right through him.

“Why?”

Before Blane could answer, Kade stopped the car. He was out and opening her door in seconds.

“Let’s go,” Blane heard Kade say.

“Take me home,” Kathleen demanded, not moving from her seat.

Blane stuffed his hand in the seatback pocket, pulling out the pack of cigarettes and lighter he knew Kade kept there. Grabbing a cigarette, he got out on his side, knowing Kade would get Kathleen out of the car, one way or another. He lit the cigarette and waited, taking a deep drag. Sure enough, a few moments later she was hurrying up the sidewalk ahead of them. Blane fell into step beside Kade.

“At least this one is more entertaining than the others,” Kade said. “It’s like Hooker Barbie masquerading as Nancy Drew.”

There was a nearly imperceptible hitch in Kathleen’s step at Kade’s remark.

“Enough,” Blane said, shooting Kade a look. Kade glanced at the cigarette in Blane’s hand and shut up. Blane took one more deep drag before dropping the cigarette to the ground and grinding it out with his shoe.

Blane stepped up next to Kat, who stood waiting at the door, and unlocked it. Unthinkingly, his hand settled on the small of her back as he guided her. She jerked away from his touch as though burned. Blane’s hand dropped to his side.

Walking into the den, Blane discarded the tuxedo jacket and untied his bowtie while Kat and Kade took seats in two identical chairs. Blane moved to lean against his desk as he faced them, crossing his arms over his chest and tried to figure out his next move.

“You’re hurt!” Kathleen suddenly exclaimed.

Blane glanced down to where Jimmy’s knife had sliced through his jacket and shirt down to the skin. Damn. Now he’d have to get a new tuxedo made.

“Just a scratch,” he dismissed, settling on a plan of attack. If he answered her questions, chances were she’d feel better about cooperating. Getting her to lower her defenses and stop being so combative was key. “Now what do you want to know?”

Kathleen nervously licked her lips, then asked, “Who do you really work for?”

“No one,” Blane answered. “You could say this situation happened by accident.”

“How could it be by accident?”

“Kade and I don’t usually work together,” Blane said. Though he had to admit, he’d enjoyed knowing his brother had his back on this one, someone he could trust implicitly.

Kathleen glanced at Kade in disbelief, then back to Blane.

“Kade used to be FBI,” he explained.

“Used to be?”

“They had a lot of rules that got in the way,” Kade said with a careless shrug.

“Those are called laws, Kade,” Blane chastened him.

“Whatever they are, I decided I would enjoy myself more as a . . . freelancer.”

“Vigilante, you mean,” Blane corrected. Kade wasn’t exactly doing his part to inspire trust from Kathleen.

“You say tomato . . .” Kade sighed.

Blane looked back at Kat. “People hire him to find lawbreakers and be judge and jury.”

“And executioner,” Kade interjected, smirking at Kathleen who eyed him with trepidation. “You’d be surprised how good business is.”

“Last year,” Blane said, pulling her attention back to him, “I realized something was amiss with the firm and its relationship with TecSol. I needed someone on the inside with the Santini family, so I asked Kade to move back to town and help me.”

“And I’m not even charging him,” Kade added.

“And why do you need the code?” Kathleen asked.

“Because of this.” Blane walked behind his desk and brought up the election map, adding the new jurisdictions he’d discovered earlier today with a few clicks. Hitting a button, the image was projected onto the wall.

Kathleen got up and walked over to it. Kade rose as well.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“It’s all the elections that will be encrypted using that code in two days.”

She looked stunned. “But . . . that’s not possible,” she stammered. “It’s only supposed to be used in Indy.”

“That’s what you think, princess,” Kade said.

That gave Blane pause. Princess? Where the hell had
that
come from?

“What you don’t know,” Kade continued, “is that TecSol is just one front company. There are dozens more, all using the same software to encrypt the returns. All going live on Tuesday.”

“The Santini brothers—” she began.

“They’re little fish,” Kade interrupted. “This is much bigger. The problem is we haven’t found the ones who are really behind this yet. The code would help us track this to them.”

“How will that help you?” she asked. “What do you know about computers, codes, and encryption?” Her tone indicated a decided disdain for Kade’s intellectual capabilities. Kade just smiled.

Blane sighed. “Quite a bit, actually,” he said. “Kade’s job in the FBI was in the cyber crime division.” He left out the part where Kade had been hacking and writing code since before puberty.

Kathleen said nothing to that, still staring at Kade who merely cocked an insolent eyebrow at her. Turning on her heel, she approached Blane.

“Will you give me the code?” Unlike Kade, he believed that sometimes you really could get what you wanted if you just asked nicely.

“Do I have a choice?” she asked.

Inwardly, Blane flinched. Whether she thought he would hurt her or that Kade would, she believed she wouldn’t be allowed to leave this room unless she gave them what they wanted. And quite honestly, he didn’t have a clue what he’d do if she didn’t. Hurting her was out of the question.

“You always have a choice,” he replied.

“Though you may not like the consequences,” Kade added, making Kathleen spin around.

“Is that a threat?” she hissed at him.

Blane rubbed his forehead tiredly. He wouldn’t let Kade hurt her, but maybe she didn’t know that.

“It’s a fact,” Kade said, his voice like ice.

Blane stayed quiet, letting Kathleen assume what she would. A moment passed, then to Blane’s relief, she capitulated.

“Fine,” she spat. Turning to a chair, she set her heel-clad foot on it and began raising her skirt.

Blane’s brows climbed with her hemline. He couldn’t look away as the fabric rose to reveal her smooth leg, then higher to her thigh, and even higher, until he would have begged for just an inch more.

Kathleen pulled a thumb drive from her stocking, holding it up for him to see. “A precaution,” she said. “Sorry your hands were too busy elsewhere to search me properly, Blane?”

Blane’s gaze met hers. At the moment, she knew exactly what she was doing, knew she was affecting him. Another show like that and he’d haul her mouth-watering ass upstairs to his bed and show her just how thorough he could be.

As if reading his thoughts, she dropped her skirt and tossed the thumb drive onto his desk. “How are you doing to trace it?” she asked.

“We need to get into their infrastructure, but I’m working on that,” Kade said.

Kathleen didn’t even look Kade’s direction, just raised an eyebrow at Blane.

“He hasn’t been able to hack into their network yet,” he clarified.

“
Yet
being the key word,” Kade said.

“Your time is running out,” she said. “Wouldn’t it be better if you had someone on the inside?”

“That would make things a lot easier, yes,” Blane answered. “But our last lead died with your friend Mark.”

“Maybe I could help out,” she offered.

Kade laughed outright, while Blane’s immediate thought was that no way in hell was he letting her within a mile of those people. They’d already tried to kill her once. Who was to say they wouldn’t try again?

“What are you going to do, princess?” Kade asked, stepping into her personal space. “Fuck the information out of Santini?”

Kathleen smacked Kade so hard, it echoed in the room. Kade looked as furious as Blane had ever seen him while Kathleen just stood her ground, staring him down. The hostility between the two of them was oppressive.

So much for his brother and his erstwhile “girlfriend” getting along. It didn’t look like they’d be catching a movie together anytime soon.

“Kade, take a walk,” Blane ordered, before things deteriorated even further.

For a moment, Blane thought he wasn’t going to listen, but Kade finally turned and left the room. Kathleen blew out a breath, her hands clutching the chair next to her for support. Sometimes Blane forgot just how menacing Kade could be when he chose. Normally, he didn’t like seeing his brother that way, but tonight it had worked in Blane’s favor.

Blane moved closer to her. “I apologize for him,” he said. “You didn’t deserve that.”

“Is he always such a charmer?” she asked dryly, her eyes avoiding Blane’s.

“He’s just . . . a bit of a cynic.” With good reason, though Kathleen didn’t know that, nor did she need to.

Kathleen was too tempting to resist and Blane had the passing thought that maybe he could convince her to share his bed one last time. A princess, Kade had said? She certainly looked the part tonight and Blane was suddenly, fiercely glad that there was such an antipathy between her and Kade.

He slid his arms around her waist, pulling her toward him. She came willingly, giving Blane hope that perhaps he wouldn’t be sleeping alone tonight.

“Not that I’m going to complain that you two don’t get along,” he said. She looked up then, her blue eyes questioning. “I don’t like competition.”

Blane kissed her and this time she was ready for him, accustomed to the demands of his lips and tongue. Her hands clutched at his shoulders, her body pressed against his. His hands lowered to pull her closer while his mouth skated down the curve of her neck. She tipped her head to the side and gasped at the touch. Blane buried a hand in the soft curls cascading down her back.

“So beautiful,” he murmured. And she was. Not just her looks, but her taste, the scent of her skin, the feel of her in his arms.

She said something, but Blane was too far gone to hear it, sucking her earlobe into his mouth. She shivered and Blane wondered if she’d agree to the couch instead. He didn’t know if he could make it all the way to his bed.

“Blane, stop!”

This time, the words penetrated, as did the realization that she was pushing him away. Blane abruptly released her. She stumbled backward, looking dazed.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, hoping whatever it was wouldn’t take too long to fix. Desire was humming in his veins.

“I can’t do this,” she stammered. “I can’t be your . . . flavor of the month.”

“I never said you were,” Blane replied.

“Then what am I?”

That was a good question. No, she wasn’t a transient lay, in and out of his life — no pun intended. Neither was she someone he should seek to make permanent, though he realized that he didn’t immediately shrink from the idea, at least, not with her.

But she was young, had never played this game before, and was a liability he didn’t need. Even now he could see the hope in her eyes. The last thing either of them needed was her forming an attachment to him.