Baller: A Bad Boy Romance (49 page)

Stretching up to meet him, she held him in her arms, and his lips came close to her ear. “And never be scared with me,” he said. “I’ll always take care of you.”

Angeline settled back and let him fulfill his promise. Kane did that and more, and just when she thought he was finished, Kane pumped all of his need into her before falling into her breasts and kissing her again.

“I swear, Angel,” he said. “I… I just love you.”

That was nearly enough. There was still Theo sleeping in the next room, but Kane could take care of all of them. She loved him for that. Loved that he was back. She responded, “And I love you, too, Kane.”

Suddenly, the door crashed open. Angeline clasped Kane close as she expected the sight of Noel.

“Angie? How could you?”

But it was her father.

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

Brent Wilkins’ limp was nearly non-existent, and while Angeline was grateful for the sight each and every day, it also meant that he was able to bust into her bedroom with fierce speed. His eyes were wild as he pushed towards the bed.

“Dad!” she cried out. “Just wait a—”

But he didn’t hear her; he didn’t even look at her. His furious gaze focused only on Kane. “Get the hell away from her!” Brent bellowed.

Angeline quickly buttoned her blouse and waved her hands frantically in the air; but, her father pushed her back to the bed and drove Kane into the mattress. Her lover struggled against him, but Angeline could tell that even though Kane wasn’t at full strength, he was holding back for her sake.

At least that’s how it felt to her.

“Let him go!” she screamed.

Somehow Angeline pressed her body between them, and she met her father’s stare. The rage in his eyes was replaced by worry tinged with love. She struggled to take hold of his sweating cheeks and assured him, “It’s okay. I want him here.”

Brent’s concern was swiftly replaced by total disbelief.

“You… you want this… this thing?” Brent said. “Why? So, his goons can aim a gun at you again? Maybe finish the job this time?”

He’d never been able to let it go, the threat of their deaths in their former home, the place that Brent had loved so well but willingly abandoned to look after her and Theo. Angeline started to tell him that this wasn’t the same thing when she felt Kane stumble from the bed, and she saw him shaking off Brent’s attack.

“No one’s after me,” Kane sputtered. “I just… I want my family back.”

It was the right word but the wrong moment. Abandoning Angeline amongst the rumpled sheets, Brent was on his feet, every hair on his neck on edge as he charged forward and yelled, “This is my family, you punk!” Brent’s hands captured his neck, and he slammed him against the wall.

“No, Dad!” she screamed, as she leapt towards him and struggled desperately to pry them apart. Kane winced on impact, and Angeline felt his pain as he groaned and clenched his jaw. “He’s hurt!” Angeline said. “Let him go!”

“He’s going to be in a world of pain when I’m done with him!”

Forming a fist, Brent brought his arm back. Clutching his arm, Angeline tried to stop the impending blow, but her father’s sudden strength was too much for her to her to combat, and his hand smashed into Kane’s chest. She cried out as he nearly doubled over in pain.

“Stop this!” Angeline begged.

“Why the hell are you here?” Brent asked.

Kane started to answer when Brent hit him again, this time in his jaw. A small pool of blood burst through Kane’s groaning lips. Angeline had to look away. He had come to her for comfort and solace, and now he was on the verge of enduring another beating on account of his escape. She could not let it happen—not again. “Enough!” she yelled.

Tugging on her father’s shirt, she maneuvered him away from Kane and protectively pressed her back to his chest. Brent was mid-punch, as she grabbed his hand and glared hard at her father.

“You want to hit him again?” she challenged. “Then, you have to go through me.”

Brent was so keyed up that his fist nearly crashed into her blazing face; but, as soon as he realized what he was about to do, he dialed it back. He was still seething as Angeline stared him down. “Stand aside, Angie,” he said in a thick voice.

When she was a little girl and her father used that tone, Angeline was always quick to stop whatever she was doing and retreat to a quiet corner. Although it worked like a charm when she was a child, she wasn’t a little girl anymore. If Kane was at stake, she would risk her father’s wrath.

“You gonna calm down?” she asked, prepared to take only one answer. Gritting his teeth, Brent was slow to stop the heaving in his chest, but as Angeline held her ground, he finally unfurled his fists and took a step back. She sighed softly at the small victory. “That’s better,” she said. Daring to turn back to Kane, Angeline took his face in her hands and examined the fresh mark on his face. “You okay?” she asked.

Kane nodded and wiped his bleeding mouth with the back of his hand. “It’s nothing,” he whispered.

Knowing what he had so recently endured, Angeline knew that he was speaking the truth. Reaching into a drawer, she still pulled out a clean cloth and wiped what was left of the new blood from his face. “I’ll get more ice,” she said.

Turning back to the bed, Angeline was stopped in her tracks by her father, his rage returning as he gripped her by her arms. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Brent demanded. “You’re helping him?”

“Dad, don’t—”

“We’ve had to live like fugitives when he’s the criminal!”

“No,” Angeline said, as she twisted her head. “That’s not who—”

“His boys brought guns to our home,” Brent said. “And now what? We should just welcome him back with open arms like it was nothing. He’s never brought you anything but tears. He’s a worthless piece of—”

She silenced her father with a sharp slap in the face. Having to hit him hurt her more than him, but she was not about to let him rewrite history. The truth of the matter was that Kane was the club’s golden boy before her desperation turned him to a place where he had to languish behind bars and that was the only reason that Noel questioned his loyalty. Tears? Sure. She wept when she thought he was lost to her and hated the sight of herself in the mirror after submitting to Noel’s lies. But worthless? No—not by a long shot.

And if she could get one thing besides Theo right…

“He’s suffered, too,” Angeline started. “And I’m never going to let anyone hurt him again. Even you, Dad.”

Brent started to object and list the ways in which she was making a colossal mistake simply by bringing him into the house, but Angeline wouldn’t hear it. “You will not touch him,” Angeline vowed. “Because I’ll… I’ll…” Now, she had to hit below the belt to prove her point and said, “Because I’ll take Theo and go with him, and you will never see us again if you don’t stop. Now.”

Her father seemed stunned, and a part of Angeline wished that she hadn’t had to utter those words. She loved her dad; so did Theo. But, could she really deny any of them the family that he had carried on his shattered legs for two long years? However, when Kane shuffled back to her side, zipping up his jeans, he lightly touched her shoulders, and she couldn’t think of losing him again.

No matter what.

“You would really do that?” Brent asked. “Leave to go on the run with him? Looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life?”

She tried to speak when Kane cut her off and said, “It… it won’t be like that.”

Both Brent and Angeline looked into his eyes, as he hung his head and spoke softly. “I’ve fixed it so we’ll be okay,” he continued. “Soon.”

“And how the hell did you manage that?” Brent demanded.

Kane sighed as he turned away from their confrontation and gazed out the window. Angeline shuddered again at the sight of his brutalized back. Out of the corner of her eyes, she even saw her father grimace. A trace of guilt seemed to wash over his face when he saw the state that Kane was truly in, but he asked again, “How can you be so sure?”

Kane kept his eyes on the world beyond the glass. He appeared to be lost in the throes of a recent nightmare, and Angeline started to make a move to hold him when Brent held her back and said, “Let’s hear it.”

His bruised back relaxed, and as Kane peered over his shoulder, a small smiled crossed his lips as he said, “I’m sure because I’m dead.”

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

When Ben told him to not look back, Kane no longer questioned his intentions. He didn’t stop to think if it was a trick or if Ben was playing him. He just hoped that his Blood Brother would honor his word and keep Noel spinning in circles until he could find Angeline, tell her the plan, and bring her deeper into hiding.

“Dead?” Angeline cried. “What do you mean?” She broke free of her father’s hold and gingerly wrapped her arms around his back. “What are you saying?” she asked.

And Kane started to spill.

***

He was driving faster than ever before. Racing away from everything that he had ever known, he nearly stopped at the turnoff for Jeremy’s house. Should he risk it and tell his brother what he was really doing with the address? He nearly made the move when he thought of Jeremy spending the rest of his life worrying where Kane was and if he was still alive. However, letting him in was the wrong call. Noel would seek him out, and Kane could only hope that he would do so at a time when Ellen wasn’t present. His brother might take a beating. Just one more time when Kane left Jeremy holding the bag. But if Jeremy didn’t know where he was, he stood a better chance of surviving—until Noel hit the road again in a useless search. He believed that Ben would make it so that Jeremy got the chance to be a father.

A chance that Kane was taking, too.

Hitting the highway, Kane smiled, really smiled, for the first time in years. No one was on his tail yet, and every roll of the rubber on the road was bringing him closer to Angeline. The thought of seeing her with his own eyes, smelling her hair, touching her soft flesh caused him to accelerate the bike, and he whispered into the wind, to a vision of her green eyes that he was on his way. Now, it was only a matter of time.

Stopping to refuel, Kane lingered for as long as he dared at a rest stop. As he gassed up his bike, his eyes drifted towards a board of tacked up notices. Lost puppies and used cars like new for sale. And right in the middle, there was a wanted poster for a supposedly dangerous thief. The mugshot seemed to tell a different story, someone so desperate that he had made a bad choice or ten, but the guy’s visage was plastered for everyone to see, and Kane took note of the promised reward.

10K.

Dropping the hose, Kane knew that Noel would never go to the cops and blow his own cover. However, money talked, and Noel had the funds. As long as he thought that Kane was alive, there was nothing that would stop him from promising a hefty bounty if someone could single Kane out in a crowd and point Noel in the right direction. There was a permanent target on his back, and sometimes Kane wondered what it was to Noel. Was it some hidden desire for Angeline or the fact that Kane failed to stay the grateful boy who was saved from munching on scraps? Noel thought that Kane owed him total loyalty, and Kane had betrayed that trust when he found and helped Angel. So, he worked to find ways to keep them apart, and now Kane was on the verge of screwing up his plans again. Noel would promise his own reward, and when he found him, them, his vengeance would be brutal.

Kane started to head back to Frisco. His need for Angeline wasn’t’ worth the price of her life or Theo’s. It was better for him to head for what no longer felt like home and take his medicine. In the end, it would cost him his life, but Angeline would stay safe. Noel couldn’t hurt either of them anymore if Kane was…

…if he was dead.

Pulling off to the side of the road, Kane considered the possibilities. Maybe he was driving too fast as he tried to get away, and his tires skipped a stone before he knew what was happening. That would stop Noel in his tracks and send him back to club frustrated for the rest of his days. All he had to do was pull it off, and Noel would have to admit defeat.

It would bring him back to Angeline and only cost him his bike.

Mounting again, Kane remembered the days spent restoring the chopper, playing with the wires and polishing the chrome until she sparkled like new. It had been a labor of love, and now he was about to chuck it all away.

But it wasn’t murder. It was a sacrifice of the noblest order.

“One last time,” he said as removed his jacket and hit the gas. “I know you won’t let me down.”

Speeding on the edge of the road, Kane turned a sharp corner. As the gulf brimmed below his eyes, he wondered how it would feel to crash into the jagged rocks, maintaining consciousness as the flesh left his body until everything was blackness. Should he follow the bike into the abyss and truly keep Angeline safe by way of his death?

Kane considered the possibility as he spun back to the road.

No.

Noel might still find her. He had raped her once, and if he was hopped up and furious, he wouldn’t leave her alive. His mentor’s future needed to be a series of dead ends. Kane would stay three steps ahead of him until he had to get back to business and Ben convinced him that there was no joy far from home.

Just die, Kane. It’s now or never.

Driving his bike back to the edge of the cliff, Kane held his breath and watched the wheels as they started to twist about the rocky road.

Maybe he was just going too fast. Didn’t see it coming.

Say that, Ben.

Kane hoped for those words, as he curled his fingers around the handlebars one last time. The bike went wild, but he didn’t hit the brakes as it started to careen off the cliff. He stayed with it in the open air for all of a second, and then he glanced over his shoulder and saw another vision of Angeline, drawing him back to solid ground with the sound of her sweet voice.

Find me, Kane.

Real or not, it was enough. Kane leapt from the bike and grabbed the edge of the cliff for all that he was worth. As the stones and soil slipped between his fingers, he held on tight and fought to bring his body back to the road. There was no pain as he kept hearing her voice ringing in his ears, but as he climbed back to the top, Kane turned his head at the chaos, the sacrifice that he had willingly unleashed.

His bike was stumbling as he might have done. The wheels left the frame, and the chrome bruised the dirt. A small part of him almost wanted the chopper to live to fight another day. Let some other scared little boy find the carcass and restore her to her former glory. But, at the last second, the bike hit the rugged earth at the bottom of the cliff. On impact, Kane’s old friend had his back one last time as it exploded into flames.

Kane stood for a second and watched the wreckage smolder, his leather jacket burning with the rest of it. Saluting the fire, Kane hoped that it would be enough to point Noel home and away from Angeline. He turned towards Colorado and smiled at the thought that soon he would really be with her again.