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“There she is. Ladies and gentlemen, please raise your glasses to the woman who finally said yes, and will become my wife,” everyone was looking at me while I thought about climbing under a table and hiding. A waiter handed me a glass of champagne, I lifted it a little and then downed the entire thing as photographers took my photo and reporters pointed their cameras at me.
“Come up here,” Harris called out as my phone rang. I looked down to see it was Shane. I pointed at it and apologized as I quickly made my way out of the banquet room. I swear I would be more comfortable running toward Freddy Kreuger than being front and center in that room of backstabbers and narcissistic people who would question me till they were sure I was good enough for their Harris.
I had wanted so badly to come to this event, but announcing our engagement like that was just feeding me to the starving press and the socialites that wanted to climb the power ladder with him.
“Hey Shane,” I answered with a sigh. “You have the best timing ever. What’s going on?”
“I have good news and bad news.”
“Give me the good first,” I spoke the words as my head argued that I should hear the bad first.
“There was a fire at Rose Dawson’s home. It’s been reported that there were several bikes seen leaving as the fire trucks arrived.”
“Was he there?”
“Unfortunately, he was caught on a traffic cam thirty miles away at the same time.”
“Convenient,” I snarked. I made him repeat everything we knew already and what they suspected as I made my way outside.
“What’s the bad news?”
“One of our agents had been trailing someone that was reported to have been at the scene, they recovered him in the garage. The fire chief said he wasn’t sure, but he believed he had been tortured, skinned, doused in gasoline, and hung from the rafters by what was left of his arms. Then they set the perimeter on fire and…”
“I get it,” I stopped him. “That doesn’t sound like the Soulless Savages work. They are known to be creative not sadistic.”
“Whoever did it, killed everyone else in the home in a peaceful manner compared to what was left of our agent.”
“Two killers?” I presented the question as I turned to see Harris apologizing to the press, telling them how much I wanted to provide safety and that was a job that was never done. It was all political and done so he could bid for a senate seat if our task force stayed successful.
“Maybe, but with this new information, are you sure you’re ready to dance with the devil?”
“I’ve been dancing with him my whole life. He sets up his crew or anyone he can to take the fall, so he is never punished for anything he does. I’m ready to play judge and jury on this, but we need evidence he knew about the fire or he ordered his men to set the blaze. Does he have any outstanding warrants that are worth anything? Anything we can pick him up on? I need him in custody immediately.”
“There isn’t an active warrant, there are some that timed out, but I found a request to detain for questioning over a murder that happened just down the road from our office about ten years ago.”
“Let’s turn it into a warrant. Come by the house tomorrow and take my statement. I will provide cause to pick him up.”
“You might want to wait on that. I haven’t gotten to the worst news yet,” Shane warned.
“Just tell me,” I whispered as people walked past me to get to the smoking area.
“Kane killed a woman at a gas station to the west of us. You were right, you said he would lead us off course and he did, but you may not have time to wait till tomorrow if he is headed where you think he’s going.”
“Shit,” I whispered under my breath as Harris stepped outside with an angry look on his face.
“What the hell was that?” Harris demanded to know. I mouthed an ‘I’m sorry’ and lifted a finger to tell him one moment as I went back to Shane.
“I think you should enter protective custody, as a precaution,” Shane started to talk, and I interrupted as Harris demanded the car from the valet. He was pissed, but he would get over it. After all this was my job and we both agreed that the job comes first.
“No, I’m ready to face my demons head on and I will handle both of them.”
“He burned your name on the face of the woman…”
“Then when I find him, I will carve out his heart.”
KARMA
“Boss,” Dagger was yelling through my house. “K, you in here?”
