Chapter Fourteen
Ana
I stare at Kurt, and I make sure he sees the contempt in my eyes. Because I feel contempt. I feel bitterness. I feel angry. “You say I knew you wouldn’t hurt me?” I challenge. “I knew you were dead, too. I was wrong.”
“Playing dead did the same thing holding that gun to your head did. It got the job done. Parker would have killed me to keep me from giving him up. In that moment, it was me or him. If I would have died then I wouldn’t be telling you this now, would I? I kept my SIM card. It’s buried in the old mine, next to Big Bear Rock. It’ll verify a lot of what I told you about my activities and the threats against you before I disappeared. Get it. Go through it. Then you can untie me and we can get to work saving your life.”
I sit back. “How do I know that’s not a trap?”
“Why would I want to trap you out there?”
“To continue to manipulate Luke. You made him promise to protect me and now you’re using that against him. That, in and of itself, tells you why I won’t trust you.”
“He left you, Ana. I had to know he was all in.”
Unless it’s more than that. Unless Kurt really is angry over Kasey’s death. Unless all of this is some game Kurt is playing to get back at Luke. It’s a far-fetched idea, but my badge taught me never to rule out any theory before proving that theory wrong.
“He left me? That’s why you’re going after Luke? You really want me to believe that you have no bad feelings toward him because he killed Kasey?”
“I’m not going after Luke, Ana. But as I said, he left you. I simply wanted to get a clear picture of his motivations now that he’s back by your side.”
“By making him punch you.”
“He’s not a man that flies off the handle. He wouldn’t have punched me if he didn’t care about you.”
“And that’s it? That’s all that worried you about Luke? There was no concern at all over him killing Kasey?”
“Kasey was begging for a grave. He was not a good man.”
“You were—”
“His stepfather?” he queries. “Yes, I was. And I get it. You think that because I’m not your blood, or his, that we’re less connected. You’re wrong. I loved your mother with all that I was and all that I am today. And I loved her kids, who became my kids. I chose to be your father. A biological father doesn’t get to choose. I chose both of you. Kasey chose everyone else but us. Time is ticking, Ana. Go get that SIM card or send Savage. The man is named appropriately. He’ll bring it back.”
I consider him for a moment, and then, I don’t agree or disagree with him. I simply stand up and walk toward the kitchen. My mind is racing with everything he’s said to me. Darius dug around too much and I’m reminded about the key to a locker, or lockbox, he’d claimed to have left me. Maybe, just maybe he had a photo or information that meant nothing to him but everything to Kurt. Not that I trust Kurt, or plan to trust him ever.
But we’re going to use him. We have no other option.
I round the corner to the kitchen and find Luke and Savage standing there. They’re waiting on my assessment of Kurt but it’s no different than it’s ever been. Kurt is a man who gets what he wants, even if it’s me running an obstacle course to earn my birthday cake, like living through sixteen years of death and tragedy wasn’t enough to allow me one day to just eat cake. No matter what is on that SIM card, I’m going to struggle to believe he was forced into anything, including a grave. I’m also not ready to dismiss the idea that we don’t really know what is going on, and Kurt has set us up, or rather Luke, by way of an elaborate show.
He loves to make a mockery of people. The very thought tells me that I’m going to struggle to trust him. And the minute my eyes meet Luke’s, I see the same doubt in his eyes.
We’re in agreement. Trusting Kurt is not an option. The problem is, there’s more in Luke’s eyes than just distrust for Kurt. He heard all of the questions I asked Kurt about holding Kasey’s murder against him. He thinks I went there because I can’t let go of the fact that he killed Kasey, so logically, in his eyes, I thought Kurt couldn’t either. And he’s wrong. Which I’ll tell him but not now. We can’t deal with that now. The clock is ticking on our three days to find the package. We have to conquer our enemies before they conquer us.