Читать книгу The Sharpest Edge - Stephanie Rowe - Страница 12

“I gotta go. Bye.” Tension rushed over him as Kim quickly hung up the phone.

Was she hiding something?

“Who was that?” Sean shut the door and leaned against it, taking a quick scan of the office. No threats, nothing out of place. Safe, for the moment.

“My friend. Alan Haywood. He’s watching my apartment in L.A. to see if Jimmy shows up.” Her cell phone rang again and she glanced down at it. “It’s Alan.”

He held out his hand. “Give it to me.” Alan, huh? He didn’t like the sound of a friend named Alan. Sounded fishy to him.

She glared at him. “No.” She answered it. “What?”

She waited for a moment, then smiled. “No, I’m fine. The cops just arrived and I sort of panicked. But nothing has happened.” She covered the mouthpiece and directed her next question to Sean. “Has anything happened? Did you find him?”

He shook his head and tried not to think about how the man on the other end of the phone had made her smile. Sean used to make her smile. Now all he did was make her panic. What had changed the night she’d decided to leave him? Not that he’d ever ask. She wasn’t his problem anymore. Time had given him the distance he needed not to ask. Not to care. Not to obsess.

“I promise I’ll call you every hour,” she said into the phone. “Love you.” She hung up and set the phone down. “Why are you here?”

“‘Love you’?”

“He’s a friend, Sean.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Why do you care?”

“Just wanted to make sure it wasn’t someone working for Jimmy trying to find out where you are.”

Tension flickered in her eyes, but she quickly shoved it aside. “Didn’t you get my message this morning? Jimmy isn’t after me. I was being irrational and letting my imagination get to me. I’m fine.”

Why did she have to be so stubborn? Anger roiled through him and he threw down the photos of her in the hospital. His ability to dismiss his concern about the case vanished the moment he’d seen those photos. Yeah, he’d tried to pawn the case off on Billy, but now that it was his, he was going to be haunted by those images until Jimmy Ramsey was back in jail—or dead. As a cop, he couldn’t walk away. As Kim’s ex-lover…well, that was something he had to get over. That wasn’t why he was here. “He’s no threat? I should drop the case? You’ll be fine?”

“Where did you get those?” Her hand went to her thigh, where he knew a nasty scar had to be hidden.

He leaned against the desk, his hands flat on the surface. “Jimmy hasn’t checked in for parole.”

She caught her breath, her fingers curling around the arm of the chair. “It was a bear.”

“Why are you shutting me out? I’m here to help you.” Hard to imagine there was a time when he’d known every secret she had. She wouldn’t even let him into her worst nightmare now.

Kim seemed to steady herself and threw him a challenging stare. “Why are you here? I thought you were going to assign someone else to the case.”

He gritted his teeth. “It has to be me.”

“Why? Do you think maybe you’re too personally involved—”

He held up his hand. “It’s been ten years, Kim.”

“Believe me, I know how long it’s been.”

So she’d been counting the years as well? “What happened back then doesn’t matter anymore.”

Her eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly. “It doesn’t?”

“No.” It couldn’t. He’d moved on, and he wasn’t interested in revisiting their past. He simply wasn’t. Instead, he nodded at the pictures. “That’s what matters now.”

She followed his gaze to the photos, and said nothing. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking anymore. Oh, sure, he could sense her anxiety and fear, but nothing else. He sure couldn’t see inside her mind. Didn’t know why she’d left, why she hadn’t visited her dad, why… The list was too long.

“Kim.”

She looked at him. “What?”

“Let’s make a deal. I’m here as a cop. That’s my job, and let’s not take it any further than that. The past is gone.”

After a long moment, she nodded. “Fine. No past. It’s better that way.”

“Yeah.” Then why did he so desperately want to find out what had happened? Why had she left? Dammit! Why couldn’t he stop thinking about it? Was he so weak that one moment with her in his arms caused ten years of immunity to collapse?

“I’m getting an alarm installed today. I’m going to alert the staff to keep an eye out for him.” She met his gaze. “He won’t get me.”

“It’s my job to keep you safe. I’m not going away.”

She groaned. “Why does it have to be you?”

“Because it does.” He felt years of rage bubble up, bitterness he’d kept buried for so long. He couldn’t contain it. “I might not have been good enough to marry, but trust me, I’m good enough to keep you alive.”

Her glittering eyes snapped to his face. He wished he could see pain and regret in them, but he saw nothing beyond the defensiveness. “I thought the past was off-limits.”

“I won’t let you use it to endanger yourself. Get over it and let me help.”

“Sean—”

The door swung open and Sean was on his feet with his hand on his gun before Didi had even stepped inside. “You have a visitor,” she said. She lifted her eyebrow at Sean in the same not-so-subtle flirtation she’d directed toward him when he’d first arrived.

As if he had time for that crap. “Who is it?”

Didi narrowed her eyes in the typical look of a woman who wasn’t used to men being immune to her charm. “Tom Payton from the marina.”

“I’ll come out and meet him,” he said.

“Me, too.” Kim jumped up, ignoring his glare to stay in the office. “I have to run this place, Sean. I’m not going to let Jimmy rule my life.”

“You’re taking over the Loon’s Nest?” Didi asked Kim as she trailed along after them. “Really?”

“Really.” Kim walked into the reception area one step ahead of Sean, but he made sure she wasn’t between his gun and their guest, who appeared to be a skinny kid wearing cutoffs and sneakers. He looked like he was eighteen, but something about his eyes said he was more likely to be in his mid-twenties. He was wearing a Yankees cap and his nose was sunburned. He blushed when Didi shot him a come-hither look. Guess the kid hadn’t figured out that Didi probably gave that smile to anyone with a Y chromosome.

“I’m Kim Collins.”

The kid nodded. “Tom Payton. Eddie sent me up here to get you. He wants to show you something on Max’s boat.” He looked nervously at Sean. “You’re the cop?”

“Yeah.”

“He saw your cruiser. Wants you to come, too.”

Sean glanced at Kim as they followed Tom out the door. Her face was shuttered and she wouldn’t look at him. Was she pissed at Sean or upset because they had to deal with her dad? What had happened to make her hate Max so much?

No, that wasn’t Sean’s problem. It was so frustrating to find himself falling into the old patterns: caring about her, wanting to know what she was feeling, wishing he could take away her anguish. He’d thought he hated her too much to lapse into past behaviors. Habit. That’s all his feelings were. A bad habit it was time to break so he could focus on the more important questions. For one, what was going on with Max’s boat?

Eddie met them at the door to the boathouse, where he had Max’s boat in dry dock. He wasted no time on pleasantries. “You guys gotta see this.” He walked them over to the boat and pointed to the steering column. “Right there.”

Sean could see some scratches on the casing. “What am I looking for?”

Eddie pulled out a screwdriver and pointed to a small piece of metal poking out. “That little piece wedged in there?” He tugged on the steering wheel and it didn’t turn. “Jammed the steering column so it can’t turn.”

Sean squatted and pulled a flashlight off his belt. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah.” Eddie leaned on the rim of the boat. “Told you his wife was trying to kill him.”

Sean had been treated to Eddie’s murder theories during their late nights at the hospital and he still didn’t buy them. In Sean’s opinion, Eddie felt guilty and was trying to absolve himself. Sean was certain Helen adored Max, even if she didn’t want to operate the Loon’s Nest for the rest of her life. “Assuming for a minute it wasn’t Helen, how else could this have happened?”

Kim was standing back, her arms folded across her chest. She was acting as though she didn’t care, but he couldn’t believe it. He simply couldn’t. He’d seen her love for her family too many times. It had been real and enduring. How had it come to this?

Eddie frowned. “I didn’t do it.”

“I know, Eddie. But could it have happened by mistake?”

He hesitated. “Well, Tom was working on the boat earlier in the day. He might have made an error, I guess.”

Sean could hear Tom outside talking to one of the resort guests about renting a boat to go waterskiing.

He sat back on his heels. “If the piece got wedged in there before Max took the boat out, how could he have steered from the start? Or it is possible that it shifted?”

“It definitely shifted as he drove. Helen probably wedged it in there and knew the steering would freeze up at some point.”

“But that could have been when he was going slow and was in no danger. It’s not a very good way to kill someone.”

Eddie frowned. “She’s not real bright when it comes to lake things. Lucky for us.”

Sean ground his teeth, trying to remain neutral. “Why are you so against Helen?”

Eddie’s eyes narrowed. “How can you be on her side? She’s the outsider.”

“I’m not on anyone’s side, Eddie. I’m just trying to get answers.”

Eddie turned away and looked for Kim, who was standing even farther away, her arms hugged around her body. “You believe me, don’t you, Kim? It was Helen trying to kill him.”

She glanced at Sean and he saw such stark angst on her face he felt it slap him. He had to close his eyes for a moment to force himself not to reach out to her. Dammit! Break the habit, Sean! But at least he’d been right to doubt her claim that she didn’t care about her dad at all.

“I don’t know what to believe.” Her voice was so pained that Eddie immediately softened.

“I’m sorry, Kimmy. I know it’s hard for you to talk about it.” He refocused on Sean. “But this is your job. You find a way to pin it on Helen before she destroys this place. I love this family and I’m not going to see it destroyed by some scheming outsider like Helen.”

“I’ll look into it. Keep the boat off-limits and I’ll send someone to check it out.” Sean inspected the rafters of the boathouse. There was a ledge around the ceiling where life jackets and some small boats were stored. Perfect hiding spot for someone who wanted to tamper with the boat and needed a place to wait until the opportunity arose.

This whole place was rife with opportunity for a stalker. It was a bunch of cabins in the woods. If Kim tried to run this place, she’d be walking on secluded trails all day long. He looked at her, and she was checking out the rafters as well. When she met his gaze, he knew she’d been thinking the same thing.

Good. Maybe she’d listen to him now.

KIM WAS TRUDGING back toward the office when Sean caught her arm. He nodded toward Tom. “Let’s chat with him.”

“About my dad’s accident?” She swallowed hard.

“Yeah.” He didn’t let go, forcing her to accompany him. He wouldn’t let her run away from her own father’s fate. Not when she’d given him that glimpse of her hidden angst. He wasn’t going to make it easy for her to reject Max. Because he loved Max. Not because he gave a rip about Kim’s happiness anymore. Or at least he was trying not to. It was harder than he wanted it to be. “Tom. Got a sec?”

Tom turned away from the guest who was paddling away in a canoe. “Yeah. What’s up?”

“You worked on Max’s boat before he took it out?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you inspect the steering column?”

“I did the normal maintenance. Everything was fine.” But he wasn’t making eye contact, and he was shifting restlessly on his feet.

“But did you check the steering column?”

Tom’s hands settled on his hips. “I didn’t look for things wedged in it.” There was a defiant edge to his voice. A challenge.

Interesting. “Eddie showed you the steering column?”

“Uh-huh.”

Yeah, Eddie would make a good investigator. “Any thoughts on how it got there?”

Tom shrugged. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t screw up.”

Sean lifted his eyebrow. “No one says you did. I’m just trying to gather information.”

“Well, it wasn’t me.” Tom picked at the edge of his T-shirt. “Is that it? I gotta get back to work.”

Sean let him go.

Kim stared across the lake, her arms folded across her chest. “You think my dad’s crash wasn’t an accident?” Her voice was clipped and reserved.

He didn’t buy her aloofness. “Do you?”

She pressed her lips together. Finally, she shrugged.

“Do you even care?” He had to ask. Had to know if she could even acknowledge that she felt something inside that frigid wall she’d erected around herself. Had to understand how the woman he’d loved had become the woman she was today.

After a long moment, she nodded once. Then she walked away.

SIX HOURS LATER, Kim waved the hunky maintenance guy away after she locked the door behind him and set the new alarm. Carl, the head of maintenance she’d seen flirting with one of the girls that morning, had driven her home and done a walk-through of her house before leaving.

She hadn’t asked for his escort, but Sean had had a little chat with Carl before taking off for the day. After she’d refused Sean’s bodyguard offer, he’d compromised by giving her someone else’s assistance.

She leaned against the locked door and sighed. She couldn’t live like this, but she couldn’t deny that a small part of her felt better after Carl had inspected the place. Was Jimmy here? Was he in California? Was she losing her mind? He was making her so crazy she didn’t know what to think.

Her cell phone rang. She flipped the phone open. “You don’t need to call me every five minutes.”

“Still no sign of him out here,” Alan said. “I’m getting worried. He should have tried to find you by now.”

She swallowed. “You know he’s going to show up out there. He has to.”

“Have you seen any sign of him yet?”

“No.” She hadn’t told Alan about the noise on the roof last night. Why would she? Growing up, she’d heard so many noises and they had never been a homicidal maniac. Until she had proof it was anything other than a bear, she wasn’t going to let her paranoia rule her. “I got an alarm and the cops are on it.”

“I think I should come out there. Stay with you.”

She frowned and forced herself to walk into the kitchen to find something for dinner. “I’m fine. Really. We have to stick to the plan.” Stay organized. Stay in control. It was the only way to win. “His goal is to get us to react emotionally and make a mistake. We can’t let him win.”

Alan was quiet for a moment. “I don’t like it.”

“Join the club.” She paused. “Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure.”

“Can you double-check the date Jimmy got out of prison? Find out for sure if he was still there a month ago?”

“Why?”

“There’s been some stuff going on around here. Weird stuff. I just want to make sure that Jimmy didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“What’s going on, Kim?” His words were rushed, almost panicky. “Talk to me.”

“Just find out, okay?” She didn’t want to talk about the possibility that Jimmy had tried to kill her dad. Talking about it gave the swirling innuendos validity, and she didn’t want to do that. Not unless there was a reason. “I’m seeing ghosts where there are none and I need to remind myself of the facts, okay?”

“That’s all it is?”

“Yes.” Heaven help her, she hoped that was all it was.

He grunted. “I’ll check. Call me in an hour, okay? To check in.”

She couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “Thanks for caring.”

“See you later, Kim. Be careful.”

She disconnected and shoved her phone in her pocket. No way was she leaving it in another room. Such a fine line between being paranoid and being careful. She’d been clinging to the right side of the line for the past eighteen months, but right now she was dangerously close to catapulting down the other side of it into an emotional hell that would destroy her the way it had killed her mother.

SEAN PULLED HIS cruiser into Kim’s driveway later that evening. It was past midnight and the lights in the cabin were still on. Nerves getting to the woman who claimed to be so tough?

He parked outside her front door and climbed out, standing silently to listen to the woods. To feel the darkness.

Owls were hooting softly. Loons were calling. The sounds of night were active and right.

Then why was his skin prickling?

He turned slowly and stared into the woodsy hill above the driveway. It was too dark to see, but he didn’t need his eyes. He could sense something. Someone.

Soundlessly, he unclipped his gun and slid it free, aiming it into the woods.

“Sean? Is that you?”

A window scraped open and he glanced up at Kim. “Quiet.”

Her eyes widened and her mouth snapped shut.

He turned back to the woods, but whatever had been there was gone. He could sense nothing. Had it been his imagination? On edge because the woman he once loved might be in danger? Or an accurate cop instinct?

He wished he knew.

He holstered his gun and faced the window. “Any problems tonight?”

“Was someone out there?”

“I don’t know.”

Her eyes were huge and he wanted to grab her and hold her and chase those nightmares away. The past didn’t matter, huh? What an idiot he’d been to think he could order it away. “I’ll check out the rest of the property, then head on out.”

She stared at him. “Do you want to come in?”

Hell, yes, he wanted to come in. She was leaning out of her old bedroom window. They’d stolen many a moment in that spot while her parents were out on the lake. Too many memories. “Um, no, I need to keep moving.”

Her fingers gripped the window frame. “I could make some coffee, so you don’t fall asleep.”

“You want me to come in?”

Silence fell and he regretted his question. Kim was too proud to acknowledge that she was scared. He shouldn’t have forced her to admit that she wanted his company because she never would. Not anymore.

Despite everything, he wanted to be inside that house with her. It didn’t matter what the circumstances were or that they were trying to pretend they were strangers. He simply wanted to be with her. To keep her safe, whether she could admit she needed help or not. “I’d like some coffee.”

She hesitated, then nodded. “I’ll be right down.”

The slam of the window jarred through the night and Sean headed to the front step to meet her. Despite all his efforts to fight his attraction to her, to resist the lure of returning to her side, he was getting sucked in.

He stood on the doorstep and listened to her feet thudding on the stairs as she ran down to greet him. A sense of the inevitable settled heavily on his shoulders. He didn’t want to be here, yet he couldn’t stop it.

And it had nothing to do with the job.

They had ended badly before, and he’d seen enough to know it wouldn’t be any different this time. For ten years, he’d buried the pain. But seeing her again was bringing it all back to the surface again, and it sucked.

Dammit. He was tired of the unanswered questions. Maybe it was time for the discussion they’d never had. Maybe that would finally free him from caring, because Lord knew, nothing else had worked.