Kane sat back in his chair and closed his eyes trying to take in the enormity of everything Rebecca had just told him. His first thought was to deck the bastard at the back of the plane. His second was to shoot him, executioner style. The third was to throw him out of the plane. None of them were viable without causing harm to others. But they were the only solutions that would calm the rage boiling away and overflowing inside him at that moment. The only thing keeping him in his seat was the seatbelt tight around his waist.
He found himself breathing hard. Rebecca was talking to him but he couldn’t hear her, couldn’t make out her words. Everything in his head was chaotic, dream like. Images taunted and teased his sanity to distraction. Once more they were all of her. Her account had fed his imagination and produced life-like reproductions of her torture and helplessness in the hospital. But it was the abundance of her strength that shocked him the most. All of the pain, suffering and injury she had endured and she was still battling out on the front line and ready to go in for another assault.
He still had a tight hold of Rebecca’s hand. Its softness was curled under his strong grip reminding him of her physical fragility in contrast to her inner strength, determination and formidable sense of spirit. She amazed him. Now he understood why Michael had been in awe of his sister. He opened his eyes and looked at her. She stopped talking and stopped trying to get his attention. There was apprehension in her eyes, brightening the deep emerald colour in them. He was consumed with an overwhelming sense of love that shook him to his core with its intensity. It was accompanied by a fierce burning need to protect her not only from the men who chased her but from herself and the compulsion that drove her to take on the whole bloody world.
He had an irrational thought of living up to the nickname she’d given him. When this damn plane landed back in London, he would bundle her into a car with him. He wouldn’t tell her or anyone else where they were going. He would drive her up to his cabin in the Lake District, make her hide away with him until it all went away. Yeah, as if she would let you get away with that. Then you would really take some stick for your nickname.
She needed someone to temper her, balance her drive, and watch out for the dangers that she drove from her vision in her quests. Yeah, she needed him in her world and she wasn’t going to have any choice in the matter. He understood that she would always push the boundaries with him but then that’s what he needed from her. He needed the challenge, the excitement and the fear of it. She made him feel alive. I love you and I am going to kill the next bastard that tries to take you from me.
He began to realise that his silence was unnerving her. He felt her try to slip her hand from his grip and held it tighter. He reached out and brushed his fingers along her cheek and down the side of her face. He softened his critical expression that had been aimed internally rather than outwardly and watched her tense features relax.
She asked him in a whisper, “What am I going to do about, Michael?”
He answered her gently, “What are we going to do about Michael? You will have to get used to we rather than I from now on. But in this case I am taking charge. I want you out of it. I don’t want you near him. Is that understood?”
Her sudden frown told him that she hadn’t missed the note of command in his tone.
She gave him a small laugh of disbelief. It sounded nervous. Good. She was definitely getting the message. He wouldn’t be moved on this one. She had been through enough. She’d proved herself on more than one occasion. Now she was going to take a back seat if he had to tie her up and gag her.
Her voice was haughty, short, “Why are you talking to me like that? Like we are back in Afghanistan and you are giving me an order. I don’t take them, remember!”
He deepened his voice, held his line. He smoothed his thumb over her knuckles as though it might somehow melt her resistance. “In this case I need you to. I want you safe. I don’t trust Michael...”
She interrupted him sarcastically, “What can he do to me on a plane? He’s done more than enough...”
“Precisely! He’s done enough. He doesn’t have to be physically violent to harm you.”
She was fretful, “You are going to hurt him, aren’t you? That’s why you don’t want me near him.”
If I get the chance, yes, I am going to hurt him. “No. I am just going to talk to him but I can’t tell you it is going to be pleasant. I want to find out what he knows about the organ group and what they are planning. Maybe he knows who the kidney went to.”
“You can’t keep me out of that. It’s my story, my life, my family, not yours. If he knows anything I need to be there to hear it.”
Now she was making him squirm. She was using her persuasive female tone, the one that usually rendered him helpless. Michael would manipulate her emotionally. She’d put her life on the line to protect him. She’d always put him first. It was in her nature to make excuses for him because she loved the way he had accepted her as his family. He had taken advantage of her loving support, her money with his gambling, and now her life. He was one of life’s users. With Michael she was vulnerable and the wound would run deep. Kane was determined to shield her from him.
“Don’t fight me on this one. You stay here and you don’t move.” He started undoing his seatbelt. “Ramsay, come and sit with Rebecca. Stuart you are with me. Ramsay, if Rebecca tries to move from her seat, tie her to it.”
He could tell by the look of outrage on her face, he was going to pay for that last part dearly at some point. Tough! You pushed me to it.
Stuart had been ready to move since he’d indicated that he would be needed when Rebecca was narrating events. Ramsay moved quickly into his seat as they both marched up to the seating towards the back of the plane.
Kane watched Michael lift his head out of his hands and look up to ascertain the source of movement in the cabin. His whole frame lifted from his bent position and pulled taut with tension. His dark eyes shone brightly with fear. Kane watched him stretch to look behind him, clearly expecting Rebecca to be with him. No such luck Michael. No one to manipulate. I’ve got you just where I want you.
Kane didn’t need to ask Stuart to stand and block the aisle. No escape for Michael and no view for Rebecca.
Michael asked nervously, “Where is Rebecca? I need to talk to her.”
Kane sat down at the other end of the corner leather sofa that Michael was seated on and placed his arm over its back adopting a relaxed composure. He noticed that it made Michael even more nervous. Michael glanced at Stuart and then quickly away again. It was at this point that Michael began moving the wedding ring he still wore round and round on his finger, studying it closely. His lips wore a pout and his eyes were downcast to the floor. He did the guilty schoolboy routine perfectly. Rebecca must have been putty in his hands in the past. Even the toughest of women would have found him hard to resist with every maternal instinct begging his protection.
Rebecca had acted as his surrogate mother, father and sister from the age of eleven and he’d taken advantage of her need to protect him and deceived her. Now the bastard was on his own without her to shield him. He could cut the routine, Kane wanted to see the evil monster that lurked within. That’s who he wanted to talk to, the real Michael, not the carefully crafted one he’d given to Rebecca.
Kane sat watching him for a moment, as did Stuart. Michael grew more nervous and couldn’t meet his eyes. Kane eventually answered him when he was convinced he had unsettled Michael enough to shake his guard. “You are going to talk to me and answer some of my questions, Michael.” He paused. “I know what you did to her. Rebecca has told me everything. She remembers everything now. There are no more secrets Michael, so don’t evade my questions.”
Michael’s eyes shot up at him. They were filled with blind panic. “I need to speak to her. I need to explain. I didn’t want to make her stay with Quayle. I had no choice. I was trying to save her life. I would have got her out of there. I didn’t want anything to happen to her. It wasn’t me, it wasn’t my fault I...”
Kane’s stomach twisted with disgust. Michael was only concerned with himself and proving he wasn’t at fault. A stupid schoolboy who had never grown up.
Rebecca’s adopted mother’s last words had been for Rebecca to put the safety of her son paramount. There had been none for Rebecca. Maybe he was biased, didn’t understand but he’d picked up a trace of resentment from Rebecca when she had narrated the story to him. It merely confirmed his suspicions. That was the way it usually went. There was nearly always a favourite.
Kane had been the favourite as the eldest, the healthy son as opposed to his clever severely autistic sister. It had crippled him that his mother had been unable to find a way of showing her love for Kate. She showed only her disappointment. She saw Kate as her failure. He’d hoped she would be different with Kate when he joined the Royal Marines. He’d thought it would give them space but then his mother met his stepfather and things went from bad to worse. She hardly saw Kate now and was desperate for Kane to return to the fold and end their estrangement. But he would deny her reconciliation. That was the only revenge he could enact on Kate’s behalf.
It sickened him to think that the man that sat at the other end of the sofa was worse than his mother. He wouldn’t just see Kate as a disappointment; he would see her as a vessel carrying organs that he had the right to take whenever he chose. This man saw his sister as a leech on the stronger members of society, a drain on resources, a hopeless case whose life could be put to better use in sacrifice for others. She was an object without thought or feelings, a commodity that could be exploited for wealth and convenient amenity. She was unworthy of existence in his master race.
But Kane wasn’t about to make this a conversation about Michael and his warped ideals. He refused to allow his anger to entertain Michael. Kane was suddenly philosophical. Michael wanted to save lives but to do it he had to destroy others. To a man like Michael who had undoubtedly seen much suffering that had kept him awake at night, the end justified the means. It was no excuse to Kane, simply an observation. The world often gave birth to monsters out of the initial beginnings of honest altruism and the hope of making a difference, when disappointment set in.
Michael needed putting back in his cage, along with his ideals and his distorted sense of moral medical justice. It wasn’t a fire Michael had started all on his own. It was one he had thrown paraffin on and stoked until it was beginning to burn out of control. Kane doubted that Rebecca and he would be able to extinguish the fire completely but they could make it burn a hell of a lot less fiercely.
Kane spoke quietly, calmly, determined to keep mastery over the situation. “I am not going to allow Rebecca to sit here and listen to your pathetic school boy excuses. You must really believe you have her around your little finger. You’ve known her all of your life and yet you don’t really know who she is. Rebecca is noble, self-sacrificing, courageous, everything you are not. She is horrified at what you have created.”
Michael didn’t speak. His eyes welled with tears and he rubbed his hands over his face a couple of times. Stuart gave Kane an impatient glance. He folded his arms.
Kane decided to step it up. “You know it is all over for you now. I am going to hand you in to the police when we land in London. Why don’t you save causing your sister more heart ache and tell me who her kidney has gone to and why they now want the other one.”
Michael stared at him and then rubbed his face again. “I didn’t want to hurt Rebecca. You have to tell her I love her. I never wanted to see her harmed...” Kane gave him a warning look. Michael looked at him defeated. He bent his head and told Kane, “It’s her father. Her natural father! He’s hell bent on using Rebecca to save his daughter, Rebecca’s half sister. She has damaged kidneys from a car accident a while ago. She’s only eighteen. She is a hell raiser, bit like her father by all accounts. She was joyriding...”
Kane cut him short feeling impatient. “Who is Rebecca’s father?”
Michael gave a sigh and ran his hands through his hair and sat up and back in his seat. His voice was raised, passionate, “I can’t. You have to understand I can’t.”
Kane remained controlled. He leaned towards Michael, closing the space between them. Michael was clearly unnerved. Kane spoke quietly and made sure his feelings were masked. There would be no mercy. “I want you to tell me of your own accord Michael, or it’s simple, I will have to make you. I wouldn’t want Rebecca to lose her brother on this flight, not after everything she’s been through, even though you are a waste of valuable space.”
Michael sat straight. Kane watched his eyes widen with fear and shock. “You wouldn’t dare. We are on a plane you can’t just shoot me. You’ll bring the plane down.”
Stuart began loosening his tie and pulling it off. He said to Michael, “Yes, he’s more than aware of that fact but there are many more ways to kill a man without using a weapon.”
Michael started undoing his seatbelt with panic as Stuart pulled his tie taut and looked at it with approval. “For instance, I could simply strangle you.”
Kane sat back in his seat and feigned a relaxed composure once more.
“You can’t let him kill me. That will be murder. She will never forgive you. You’ll never get her back.”
Stuart smiled, lighting up his handsome craggy features. His fair hair was cropped short, close to his scalp. It gave him a cruel menacing look. Kane had always thought of him as his bouncer. He approached Michael. “What Rebecca doesn’t know, can’t hurt her. We can easily cover it up. You went berserk. You were a danger to everyone on the plane. We had no choice. Sir, do you remember that movie where they had to kill the horse because it went mad on the plane? I watched it with a girl friend once? What was the name?”
Kane answered him, “International Velvet.” Michael’s eyes were wide with terror now. They were just bringing him to the boil. Kane continued, “I love horses. Do you ride Michael? I ride when I can, there’s nothing like it. The guy was really cut up in the movie when they killed his horse but it had to be done to save lives. He got over it. Just as Rebecca will.”
Terror ripped through Michael’s voice, “I can’t tell you. He will have me killed.”
Kane snapped. “I am not interested in whether he wants to kill you. I don’t care what he wants to do to you.” Selfish prick. “I am more interested in the fact that he wants to kill Rebecca. I want him stopped.”
“You can’t stop him. I wanted to take Becca away. Hide with her. You can’t touch him, he’s too powerful.”
“No one is above the law. Stuart, he isn’t going to give us what we want. Kill him. Let’s rid the world of one more monster.”
Stuart moved fast. He wrapped his tie around Michael’s neck before he could utter another word. Kane was impressed. Michael fell off his seat onto the floor, on his knees as Stuart gave him a taste of how far he might go. Kane watched him claw at Stuart’s hands. He stood and replaced Stuart’s position in the aisle and glanced back to check Rebecca wasn’t looking their way. She appeared to be talking animatedly to Ramsay and Charles. He wondered what she was talking about.
He turned back to the task in hand. He nodded at Stuart to loosen his grip on Michael who was desperately trying to breathe. For a brief moment Kane’s mind replaced Michael and put Rebecca in his place. He remembered seeing Tom strangle her. He thought of Srisai gripping her throat until she turned blue. He thought of her slender neck, the softness of her skin there, how fragile it was... Rage and pain returned and ripped at his heart.
“Sir.”
Kane’s eyes moved up quickly from Michael to Stuart. Stuart looked confused by his silence. He nodded.
“Right, Michael. I hope that was enough to convince you that I meant what I said.”
Michael was coughing.
“All right. All right. Her father is Philip Traynor.”
Kane stared at Stuart. Stuart’s face was a picture of disbelief and wonderment. Kane felt his brow crease into a frown as he let the name sink in. Michael continued to cough, milking the whole scene for what it was worth.
Stuart said with a certain amount of incredulity in his voice, “You are telling us that Rebecca Eaton is the Prime Minister’s daughter?”
“Yes. Not that he would ever acknowledge that publicly. It’s been hushed up for years.”
Stuart still wasn’t convinced, “You’re kidding, right? The man portrays himself as a Socialist Saint. He’s put the country back on its feet again. I voted for him. I don’t believe you.”
Michael’s voice rose with frustration, “I’m not lying. I am telling you the truth. Kane, why don’t you ring your client? Anna will confirm it. She knows who Rebecca’s father is, just ask her.”
Kane thought about all that Rebecca had told him about that night when her adopted parents were murdered and what one of the men said to her. “I am guessing Rebecca wasn’t planned,” he stated. “He would have been, what, around nineteen or twenty at the time and in university. His grandfather was a Law Lord and his father sits in The House of Lords now. The Traynors have always been big in politics, I suspect they weren’t too pleased when they found out his girlfriend was pregnant. Who is Rebecca’s mother?”
Michael looked up at him. He lowered his voice. He spoke with contempt. “She wasn’t his girlfriend. She was somebody he met at a party. Somebody who preferred the younger man and still does.”
Kane felt his frown deepen. He knew exactly whom Michael was talking about. Funny, he wasn’t shocked. It was logical.
Kane said, “Anna Harker, is her mother?”
He heard Stuart say, “Shit.” Kane closed his eyes with pain and frustration. How the hell was he going to tell her that? He had a sudden compulsion to go to her and hold her close and not let her go. He looked back down the aisle seeking her out. As he suspected, she was looking at him. He’d felt her eyes on his back. Her gaze met his own.
He tried to give her a small smile of encouragement to cover up his shock, but he was unable. He watched her bruised face pale as she took in his pained expression. He had never seen her appear so vulnerable, yet so beautiful as at that moment. His eyes stung and burned with the tears he’d held back for so long. One of them escaped and trickled down the side of his cheek as he turned back to Michael. He made no attempt to remove it.
Stuart still held his tie around Michael’s neck. He gave Kane a sympathetic look. Michael was desperate, “Please, you can’t tell her. It will finish her. Anna is dying, let the past die with her.”
Kane continued his questioning, hearing his hurt for Rebecca trip through his calm tone. “Did Traynor send the men to kill her as a child?”
“His father sent men the first time. Harker had told Philip there was going to be a child but she was going to get rid of it. He thought she had done. Then he met a friend of a friend who told him Harker had lied. He told his mother and father. They had plans for him, his career and future marriage mapped out. They sent someone after Harker’s baby. But Anna foiled it. She hid Rebecca with her best friend’s family and told everyone the baby had died with illness. Rebecca was safe.”
Stuart removed his tie and Michael raised himself back to his seat. He was visibly shaking. “I don’t know how Philip found out she was still alive but he did. This time his career was really starting to take off in politics. He took advantage of my parents’ story on the Mafia and sent men to kill her and wipe my family out. They were to make it look like a hit. You don’t mess with this man. He has power and I don’t just mean that awarded to him because he is PM. He has ties with people you don’t cross...”
Kane interrupted. “You were both put with your Aunt in Scotland when your parents were murdered and he never tried again?
“I don’t know. I think he was scared off by all of the publicity surrounding my parents’ murder.”
“And now he wants to make use of Rebecca to save his legitimate daughter?”
Michael’s eyes were downcast to the floor once more. He nodded his reply.
“How involved is he in your organization?”
Michael looked up at him again. “He’s in it at the top. His family is rich; his wife’s even more so. He gave the go ahead for the operation and provided a lot of the funding. He’s been very influential in obtaining backing from worldwide investors. He’s not the only elected member in England or the rest of the world involved but he is chairman of the Board that presides over the whole operation. You might say he’s The Organ Grinder.” Michael half smiled at his own humour.
Kane frowned.
Michael became agitated, “He is a desperate man Kane. He’s already lost one child to suicide and had to hush it up. His wife is at breaking point and now he is going to lose his daughter. He dotes on her. He will do anything to help her survive and that includes killing Rebecca.”
“Who told you all of this?”
“I knew Rebecca wasn’t my sister since that night they came to kill us. She never thought I heard but I did. I never mentioned it to her. I thought I might lose her if I did. Quayle told me the rest. I don’t know where he got his information, maybe from being Harker’s surgeon, but the bits I was able to check out were true. The plan was to take Rebecca in London. She would have been taken to a hospital operated on and taken home. It would have been so much easier for them. But when the army caught her Quayle had to act. Despite our facility in South Bundhara the local instability and interference of Tasanee Somwan proved disastrous.”
“I presume you mean taken to The Marsworth in London?” Kane knew by Michael’s silence that he was right. “How does Anna Harker fit in? There is too much of a coincidence given her link to Quayle.”
“She has no involvement with the organ harvesting or the Board. Quayle used her contacts in South Bundhara to get support for our scheme and permission to build the facility there. She has always loved Rebecca. She gave her up to protect her. When she found out what Traynor was up to, she sought out Rebecca and took her under her wing. She’s been trying to protect her by threatening to tell the world about Traynor’s illegitimate daughter if he didn’t leave Becca alone. That’s why she sent you to North Bundhara after Rebecca. She knew you wouldn’t give up on her, that you would keep her safe from Traynor. She was wrong, Rebecca could only be safe with Quayle. I detest him as much as you do but Traynor wouldn’t have crossed him. She would have been protected.”
Kane had heard enough. His fist swung out low and fast executing a tidy hard blow across the side of Michael’s face. Before he could recover Kane delivered a second, connecting with his nose. Then he pulled Michael up by his shirt collar. Kane could hardly breathe with anger as Michael bleated. Stuart stood back. Kane pushed Michael back against the partition wall.
“You think it was safer to leave her with a man who stole her organ, sexually assaulted her and wanted to keep her in fear as his whore. You know what, Michael? You are a selfish bastard who never grew up. You’ve been hiding behind Rebecca all of your life, since the day you cowered in that vent. You’re still doing it. What you mean is that if Rebecca had stayed with Quayle it would have been easier for you and you wouldn’t have had to play the show of doting brother. Because deep down inside you hate her. You are jealous of her strength and the power it gives her. She makes you realise just how much of a weak bloody coward you are. This was your way of punishing her for making you feel that you fell short.” Michael’s startled red eyes confirmed the truth.
Kane finished his eloquently passionate accusation with a punishing hard thrust of his fist into Michael’s stomach. Michael groaned and keeled over. Kane shoved him to the floor. He turned to Stuart. “Tie him up.”
Kane turned away from them and straightened his attire and his mind before striding down the plane back towards Rebecca. They needed to talk and they needed privacy. Ramsay moved aside the moment he reached the table but Kane didn’t sit down. He took hold of Rebecca’s hand and gestured for her to rise. He tightened his hold on her hand as he led her back past Michael and his bleeding nose. He took her right to the back of the plane and took her inside the private bathroom. He sat her down on the small seat that came out from the wall and locked the door.
He took a deep breath unsure of how to begin. He ignored her questions about her brother’s broken nose and pushed her back down on the seat when she tried to leave. He got down on his knees. He’d made a decision. He had to tell her everything. He had insisted she keep nothing from him. No secrets. She would find out one day, he knew that only too well. She would go looking and she would find the truth and find that he had been lying to her, keeping it from her. She would reject him, leave.
Maybe it was selfish of him to tell her just so he could keep her. But he loved her and maybe that was a selfish emotion. He wondered if she would do the same for him. He would want to know. Her whole life was based on bringing the best interpretation of the truth to the ordinary person in the street so they could make their own mind up. He took another deep breath as he knelt on the floor beside her and held her arms as he told her everything.