Love Me Dead (Lilah Love 3)

His eyes glint hard. “Then I’ll handle my own problems.” He releases me. “My own way.”

“And that means what?”

“You know what that means. You know what I do when things go wrong. I fix things, Lilah.”

He’s not talking about the cartel. He’s talking about burying that body for me. “Fix it with me.”

“When you decide you’re with me, Lilah, really with me, let me know. Until then, I’ll fix it on my own.” His cellphone rings, and he snakes it from his pocket. “I have to take this.”

I stand there and listen, and damn it, he doesn’t just speak in Spanish. He speaks in code. I start thinking about the reasons he doesn’t like elevators near the office. I start thinking about him being human. He disconnects, and I step to him, my hands on his hips under his jacket. “Who shot who?”

“Lilah—”

“Damn it, Kane. Don’t shut me out. People die in your family. Your father was murdered. Has it ever occurred to you that’s what rips me to shreds about your damn namesake? Not who or what you are, but that you could die.”

“You chase killers, Lilah. Do you think that’s easy for me?”

“Don’t turn this back on me. Tell me what’s going on. Don’t make me punch you to find out because I will and—”

He shuts me up by kissing me, and well, literally leaving me panting when he says, “No one gets to kill me but you.”

“That’s not enough. Talk, Kane.”

His jaw tenses. “There’s a hit out on my uncle, and if he dies—”

“You inherit the cartel.”

“It would be complicated. I need to take care of some things now without you, to protect you.” He strokes my hair. “What’s happening with Umbrella Man?”

“That’s it? What’s happening with Umbrella Man?”

“Let it go, Lilah.”

“No.”

“What happened with Umbrella Man?”

Damn it, he’s shut me out. Cold. Hard. Absolute. I have to let it go because I know him. Pushing now will get me nowhere and I need to focus on the one place I can get results. “Umbrella Man,” I repeat, letting him know that I’m conceding and changing topics. “I don’t trust anyone in law enforcement for obvious reasons. Can I borrow Jay and a few men to do some surveillance?”

“I’ll text you Jay’s number, so you have it in your phone. Where do you want him now? I’ll get him to come to you.”

“I’ll handle Jay.” I grab his tie. “You just fucking stay alive.”

“You’re back home, Lilah. I told you. I’m not going anywhere.” The air punches with our history and we lean into each other but his damn cellphone rings again.

“Take it,” I say flattening my hand on his chest. “Make this problem go away.”

He kisses me. “I am. I will.” He declines the call and sends a text that pings my phone. “That’s Jay’s number.” Already his phone is ringing again.

I motion for him to take it, and I head for the door. “Lilah,” he calls out as I reach for the knob.

I turn to find him holding his hand over the receiver but he doesn’t have to ask his question. I know what he wants and I answer before he even speaks. “I’ll be in Purgatory.” Purgatory—my workspace in his apartment. His eyes heat with this knowledge. “And I am back, Kane.” With that, I open the door and leave.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I meet Jay at the coffee shop on the corner, at a table, also in a corner. “Agent Love,” he greets, sitting down with me. “I hear I take orders from you now, but your safety comes above all else.”

Kane. That fucking man. “His safety comes first. What the hell is going on with him?”

He leans in close. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”

“You fucking know. Don’t make me grab you by your damn hair and yank you over this table.”

“He tells you what he wants you to know.”

“I’ll arrest you.”

“He’ll kill me,” he counters. “I’ll take the cuffs.”

“Kane won’t kill you.”

“If you don’t believe that man will kill me, you don’t know who you’re fucking.”

“He won’t kill you for talking to me,” I amend.

“No,” he agrees, “but for endangering your life he would, and for involving you in his business endangers your life. Anything you know, you know from him, not me.”

“Look, asshole—”

“Call me what you want, Agent Love, but I’ve seen you work and as such, I know why you two fit. I also know that if anything happens to you, he’ll be far worse to answer to than his uncle.”

Far worse to answer to than his uncle. It’s not exactly what Kane said to me last night, but close enough. That this man sees it, too, tells me what I’ve always known. Kane is far more dangerous than he’s ever allowed me to see. “You keep him grounded,” he continues. “And I’m going to keep you alive for all of our sakes.”

I lean in closer. “If you get in my way or fuck up my investigation, I’ll kill you myself. And I’m no two-trip bitch. I’ll get it right the first time.?

?

His lips curve, and he laughs. “You really are a bitch. I heard that about you. I like it. I like you. What do you need from me?”

“Surveillance on a couple of suspects.” I talk to him about the boyfriend and the employment offices of both women as well as the entire staff at the security company. “I need this done now, tonight. I’m going to need to get interviews done on these people. I like to watch them squirm a bit before that happens.”

“And what keeps Detective Williams from beating you to the punch?”

“She’s missing,” I say. “I’m working on an electronic trail on her. More on that later. Go. Handle this.”

“I go where you go.”

“You go where the killer goes.”

“It seems to me that’s the same thing. You go where he goes.” He stands up. “You won’t know I’m there and neither will he. Until he’s dead.” He heads for the door.

He’s right. I go where the killer goes but only because the killer leads me there. If that’s true, and I believe it is, he’ll kill again soon and make sure I’m there for the show. I have to find him first. I consider that a few moments. Will me making a show of hunting for him challenge him or drive him into hiding? I think of all the killers that I’ve investigated and captured of which there are many. They all wanted attention. They would all do whatever necessary to get that attention. As much as I want to go to Purgatory and think, I need to give Umbrella Man some attention before he demands it by killing someone else.

And so I ask myself: what does he want from me now?

That answer comes easily.

He wants me to look for Detective Williams. I dial Tic Tac. “I’ve called you three times,” he says. “Why is it that you can ignore me, but I can’t ignore you?”

“Do you say things like that to Mike? Because if you say that to Mike, you’re going to look desperate, and he’ll dump you. What does Mike do for a living?”

“All you need to know about Mike is that he isn’t rude. He calls me back. You do not.”