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“Anyone hit?” the bodyguard shouts.
Kane lifts off me, and I find his eyes. They are, for once, unsettled, uneasy. “Are you?”
I take a mental inventory of my body, and the only part of me hurting is my head and where my seatbelt snapped across my body. I shake my head. “No.”
He helps me up out of the foot well, his eyes roaming over my face. The anger clouding his expression is a little scary.
“The police will be here soon,” the bodyguard says. “What do you want to do?”
“Ford, give me your gun,” Kane tells him. Ford hands it over without question. Kane tucks it into his jacket pocket. “Tell the police it was an accident.”
“What are you going to do?” Ford demands.
“I’ll call one of my men from the house to pick us up on the road outside of the village.”
“I don’t like the idea of you wandering about when someone just tried to kill you.”
Kane pulls out his phone and sends a message. His other hand clamps around my thigh, as if he’s trying to keep me close.
“We can’t stay here. I can’t be pulled into a police investigation.” After a moment, he puts the phone away. “The threat is neutralised. We’ll be fine,” he assures Ford, who doesn’t look convinced. “Contrary to what you believe, Ford, I am more than capable of protecting myself.”
Kane leans across me and opens the door. The village we’re in looks small, quaint. In the distance, I can see rolling fields and not a whole lot else. I get out of the car, my legs shaking a little. The car that hit us has rolled back a few feet, the bonnet caved in. Two men are dead. One slumped in the driver’s seat, another sprawled on the ground, blood spreading around his body. A shiver runs through me, and I wrap my arms around my body, trying to ward off the chill that suddenly infuses my bones.
Kane’s hand cups my neck as he steps up behind me, making me jump.
“We need to go.”
He takes my hand and drags me through the village. People are crouched behind cars, bins, anything they can find. They peer up at me as we pass, their eyes wide, fearful. We brought hell to this small place. We disturbed their peace, their illusion of safety.
I hate that we did that.
I stumble to keep up with Kane’s long stride as he drags me through the narrow streets. We don’t see many people, and the ones we do see, I wonder what they are thinking considering both of us are bleeding.
Kane eventually stops at a bus stop. The shelter is more like a wooden shed with the front cut out. He pushes me onto the bench inside it, his eyes scanning the street before he returns his attention to me.
“You’re bleeding quite heavily,” he says. There’s a hint of tension in his voice, mixed with irritation.
I swipe at the blood still flowing down my face, rubbing the red liquid between my fingers before wiping it on my jeans. “I’m breathing. That’s all I care about.” He keeps hold of my hand as he returns his attention out of the shelter. “Kane, this is a personal attack on me, isn’t it?”
“What makes you think that?”
“Because I was attacked before the wedding too.”
He sighs. “I received a threat against you.”
My blood runs cold. “What kind of threat?”
“There are factions who didn’t want this marriage to happen.”
“Which factions?”
“Well, that’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
“Why didn’t they try to stop the wedding?”
“Security was too high. Both from our side and your father’s. It would have been insanity to attack at that time. They need you alone. Vulnerable.”
Cold sweeps through me. Someone wants me dead. I knew that was a possibility in this life. I was always my father’s weakest link. Now I’m Kane’s. If we have a child, it will cement our position and make his family even more powerful. I can see why whoever is doing this would want to stop things.
“And you have no idea who wants me dead?”
Something in my tone has his head snapping towards me.
“It’s me they’re trying to hurt, Elena. They think they can take you out and reduce the power my family is gaining. No wife, no legacy, but they’ve kicked over a hornet’s nest because I will destroy every single person behind this shit.” His eyes move to the blood on my face. “I will repay your pain a thousand times over. I promise you that.”
I believe him. I squeeze his hand, and I realise this man, this stranger I married, might not love me yet, but he will do anything to protect me.
I’m not sure where that puts me because I’m supposed to be digging into Kane’s life and feeding it back to my father, but I’m not sure I can do that.
Because part of me wants this marriage to work too, and that’ll never happen if I’m spying on my husband.
