“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kade said with a shrug. “Accidents happen.” His voice matched the ice in his eyes when he said, “You should be real careful one doesn’t happen to you.”

It was unmistakably a threat. James seemed to know it, too, because he shut his mouth, the red in his face fading.

Kade placed his hand on the small of my back and guided me out of the courthouse and to his car.

“Thanks for your help,” I said, still shaken from the unexpected confrontation.

“James is like a rabid dog,” Kade said. “He needs to be put down.”

“Not by you,” I said quickly. I couldn’t shake the feeling that with each person Kade killed, a little of his soul was eaten away by darkness. I was afraid that eventually the darkness would consume him.

“If not me, then who?”

Kade’s eyes met mine, but I didn’t have an answer.

The police station was only a couple of miles away and we drove there quickly. “How are you going to pay them five million dollars?” I asked as we walked inside.

Kade snorted. “It’s not five million. It’s ten percent of five million.”

Oh. In defense of my ignorance, I’d never had to bail someone out of jail.

We’d arrived before Blane had even been brought back and Kade went to pay the bail while I waited in the lobby. The blue plastic chairs were no more comfortable than the other times I’d sat in them. The minutes seemed to crawl by as I watched the clock.

“I see Kade’s taking care of the bond,” Charlotte said, sitting down next to me.

“Yes. Hopefully, it won’t take too much longer.” I put aside my antipathy for her only because she was Blane’s lawyer and was trying to help him. Regardless of how much she disliked me and how heartily that animosity was returned, it didn’t matter because both of us were after the same goal—to prove Blane’s innocence.

Just then, Blane walked around the corner, Kade at his side. I jumped to my feet, but he was already headed my way, his long strides eating up the space between us. In the span of a breath, he had me in his arms.

He’d been gone for only two days, but it had felt five times that. I clung tightly to his neck and swallowed down the lump in my throat. The warm, familiar feel of him was so dear to me.

“Save the reunion for later,” Kade said. “Police stations make me nervous.”

I pulled back from Blane, but he didn’t let me get far; his arm stayed locked around my waist, anchoring me to his side.

Kade handed Blane a pair of sunglasses. “Ready?”

Blane gave a curt nod. “You take that side,” he said, sliding the glasses on.

Kade moved to my other side so that they flanked me. Charlotte led the way as we went out the doors.

The bevy of reporters made me falter in surprise, even more of them than had been on the courthouse steps this morning.

“Keep moving,” Blane said. “Don’t stop.”

Charlotte was speaking to the crowd, which drew some but not all of the attention away from us. Flashes went off continuously, blinding me with their light as questions were fired at us from every direction.

“Mr. Kirk, how do you see the future of your campaign now that you’ve been charged with murder?”

“Was Kandi Miller aware that you’d reconciled with your fiancée?”

“You say you’re innocent despite the evidence. Who do you think could have done this to her?”

“Miss Turner, how does it feel to be engaged to a man accused of murder?”

There was a car waiting at the bottom of the steps and Blane opened the door for me. I climbed in as quickly as I could and saw him say something to Kade before getting in as well. Kade closed the door behind Blane and me, cutting off the shouting reporters. The driver stepped on the gas and we shot down the street.

The tinted windows gave us privacy and I released a pent-up breath. Then my breath was gone altogether as Blane dragged me onto his lap, tossed his sunglasses aside, and kissed me.

It wasn’t a gentle, tender kiss, but one filled with the ache of being parted as his tongue slid hotly against mine. Blane crushed me to him, his hands touching me everywhere he could reach—as though to reassure himself that I was really there.

I tore my mouth from his. “Blane,” I gasped.

Both of us were breathing hard. His hand cupped the back of my neck as his forehead pressed against mine.

“I’m sorry you were there, that you had to see me… like that,” he said.

“What do you mean? Like what?”

“Handcuffed. In court.”

The shame I’d seen on his face earlier made sense now.

I leaned back, but he wouldn’t look me in the eye. I laid my hand along his smooth cheek. “Look at me,” I said softly.

His gaze reluctantly lifted to mine, and I could read the anguish in their depths. If there were two things Blane prided himself on, they were his honor and his reputation—and both were being called into question with this case.

“I know you,” I said, “and I know you didn’t do this. Nothing is going to change that, and nothing is going to change the fact that you’re a man of courage and integrity.”

I surveyed the bruises on his face, lightly brushing a finger over the cut on his lip. “What happened in there?” I asked. “Kade said he was going to help. We didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“It was what I expected,” Blane said evasively. “Kade’s help was very… timely.”

And I knew he wasn’t going to say anything more about it.

I thought I should probably get off his lap, but I couldn’t make myself let go of him and his hold on me didn’t let up.

“Were you all right while I was gone?” he asked. “Did you stay at my house?”

I ignored the first question and evaded the second. “I promised you I would.”

Blane’s fingers toyed with the scarf at my neck and I stiffened, hoping he wouldn’t try to take it off. No way did I want to tell him what happened. He had enough going on and it didn’t matter anyway.

Kade was waiting at the house when we arrived. Mona greeted us at the door. She didn’t say a word, just hugged Blane. His face softened as he hugged her back, brushing a kiss to her forehead. She let him go and gave my hand a squeeze as we walked by, a look of shared understanding passing between us: Blane belonged here, not in a jail.

Blane led me to the den, where he tossed his jacket on a chair as he walked behind his desk.

“Where are we?” he asked, loosening and then removing his tie.

Kade sat in one of the leather wingback chairs facing Blane, who remained standing. “Jared said he has news. He’s going to be by any minute.”

Blane nodded. “What happened while I was gone? What’s Kathleen hiding from me?”

“What—nothing!” I spluttered. I should have known that Blane, an expert at reading people, would have seen through my vague answers.

“Gage tried again,” Kade said, ignoring me. “We’re lucky she’s alive.”

The we seemed deliberate and the two of them locked eyes for a moment, something passing between them that I didn’t understand.

The doorbell rang and a few moments later, Mona showed Jared into the room.

“We’ve examined the phone records for both James and Kandi,” he said as he took a seat. “The number of calls between them should be enough to prove they had a relationship.”

I frowned. Kade had said the calls Kandi had made were to an unlisted burner phone, untraceable. Now there were documented calls between the two of them? But I kept my mouth shut.

“Any calls the night of the murder?” Blane asked.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Jared said.

“You probably want to have that checked again,” Kade interjected. “I have it on good authority that not only is there a call from James to Kandi, there’s also the fact that the cell tower his phone used is within a half mile of Kandi’s house.”

Blane sent a sharp look Kade’s way but said nothing.

Jared’s expression was grave as he handed Blane a folder.