Page 73 of The Enforcers: KANE

She reached through the thick mesh of the cage walls and began working at the lock. The angle was awkward, and her tools kept slipping. She almost had it…

She heard heavy footsteps approaching, and slid the tools into her pocket. The door to the lab opened and Selina walked in, flanked by two guards. One of them was Noah Reilly.

Selina was smaller than Rachelle remembered. Average height, with glossy brown hair and large blue eyes. She looked almost innocent, which was even more chilling than her looking like Cruella deVille would have been.

The guards were dressed in fatigue pants and no shirts, with assault rifles slung over their shoulders. They were both gorgeous; lean and muscled, with gelled hair and oiled bodies.

They looked like stripper bodyguards. Was this what Kane had looked like when he was with Selina? Her nausea grew a little worse.

Selina walked back and forth in front of the cage, examining Rachelle from every angle.

“You’re not even pretty,” she said.

“You’re not exactly a supermodel either,” Rachelle said. “What’s your point?”

Selina narrowed her eyes. “My point,” she said, “is that I never knew what he saw in you. But now I do. Now I understand everything.”

Rachelle studied her. She had no idea what Selina was talking about, but if she kept her talking, maybe she’d find out.

“So you’ve figured it out,” she said.

“Of course I have,” Selina came up to the cage, almost spitting the words. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

“No,” Rachelle said soothingly. “Of course not.”

She could feel Selina’s energy—jagged and electric, almost like lightning.

“You have powers, like me,” Selina said. “Only mine are stronger. I took him away from you.”

“Hunter?” Rachelle asked carefully.

“Of course Hunter!” Selina spat out. “I wanted him, and he was mine. He was my favorite. But you did something to him, and he left.” She got right up to the cage. “No one leaves me,” she said. “Do you hear me? No one!”

Rachelle didn’t answer. This woman was batshit crazy, and Rachelle didn’t think any of her own powers would work on her. And if Selina felt Rachelle trying to influence her, she might easily kill her on the spot.

Selina walked over to her bodyguards and circled them, raking her fingers lightly across their chests, shoulders, backs. It seemed to calm her down. When she came back around in front of Noah, she scratched him deep enough to draw blood. Selina inhaled, and licked the drop of blood off his chest. Rachelle could see him getting hard under his fatigues.

She felt sick.

“I’m stronger now, though,” Selina said. “I can make any shifter do anything I want. Not just men. Women too.” She walked up to the cage again, dropping her voice. “All except you. And I’m going to fix that.”

“It doesn’t matter what you do,” Rachelle said. “Hunter doesn’t love you. He never did.”

Selina grasped the cage mesh and rattled it. “He does love me,” she said. “And once I bond him to me with your life force, I’ll be the most powerful woman on earth. The Shifter Council will bow down to me. I’ll have everything I ever wanted.”

Chapter 20

Kane had spent the rest of the night sitting in a corner of Jace’s cabin, waiting for word on Rachelle. As dawn started to streak the sky, though, he knew in his gut that Carmichael wasn’t going to call. Even if he knew where Rachelle was, he’d never tell Kane.

Had the bastard really sent Rachelle in there as bait, with or without her consent? He couldn’t believe she would go willingly—not without talking to him first.

And to send her in unprepared, without her consent, was incomprehensible to him. All the security teams he’d led, all the ops he’d planned—he would never do that to one of his people.

But if they had a tracker on Rachelle, they should have been moving on Selina’s location by now. Why hadn’t they heard anything?

Jace was talking in low tones with Rafe and Jesse, trying to figure out if they should contact the Council. It would be a mess. Explaining how they’d harbored Rachelle and Carmichael, not to mention Noah, the Council’s missing prisoner, would take some doing. It could bring down nearly ten years of work, building their reputations as Enforcers.

Hell, it could bring down the pack, and Kane would understand if Jace didn’t want to do it—especially since they didn’t have any useful leads the Council could act on. In any other circumstances, Kane would have advised him not to take the risk, and called him an idiot just for entertaining the idea.