The Sharpest Edge (11 page)

Sean was too angry to talk on the ride home, and Kim didn’t try to engage him. He kept waiting for her to demand more information about the knife or Jimmy, or to declare her independence and insist that she sleep at her house, but she said nothing. She simply sat with her feet up on the dashboard, her arms wrapped around her legs and her knees pulled up to her chest.

How close had it been tonight? Would it have been another warning or the end?

“You think Officer McKeen is dirty?” She was resting her chin on her knees, staring out the windshield.

“Why do you ask? Did he do something?” Sean was instantly alert.

“He didn’t stop me from going to my house.” Her voice was far calmer than he’d expected. “Alan thinks that cops might be willing to help out Jimmy, cop to cop.” She didn’t look at him. “He tried to convince me you might be dirty.”

“I assume he wanted you to ditch me and let him protect you?”

She nodded.

“The best way to get to you is to get you away from me.”

Kim slowly turned to look at him and he was chagrined by the emptiness in her gaze. The resignation that horror actually existed and she had to face it. “It’s not Alan.”

“When did you first meet him?”

“I met him at a party.”

“Before or after Cheryl started dating Jimmy?”

Kim’s eyes narrowed. “After.”

“He approach you or you approach him?”

“We were seated next to each other at a dinner party.”

A dinner party. Hah. When was the last time he’d been to a dinner party?

Kim frowned. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.” He swung into his driveway, certain they hadn’t been tailed from the camp office. And he’d been looking. Nevertheless, he pulled out his gun and scanned the woods for a few minutes.

An unknown enemy was the toughest.

“Let’s go in.”

He let her into the cabin and set the alarm behind them. Last night, it seemed cozy. Tonight, it was claustrophobic. Too much tension between them. “I’ll take the couch.”

Kim didn’t argue. Instead, she sank onto the sofa and hugged a pillow to her chest. It was then that he noticed that she was shivering. “Cold?”

She shook her head.

“Scared?”

“Mad.”

He couldn’t stop himself from smiling. “At me?” He pulled out a glass and stuck it under the faucet. “Want a drink?”

“No to both.” She stared blankly at the empty fireplace. “I’m mad at all of this. At Jimmy for starting it. At whoever’s playing the game now. Is it a friend of Jimmy’s? Is it Helen posing as a cohort of Jimmy’s to throw us off the trail? She could have gotten the details of the attack from Cheryl….” Kim frowned. “Of course she could have.”

The glass overflowed, and he shut off the faucet. He couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “What did you say?”

“Helen.” Kim was sitting up, her eyes bright. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. I know Cheryl told my dad about the attack. Helen would totally know what kind of a knife was used.” She threw her fist into the pillow. “Don’t you get it? She’s trying to throw us off track by making us think it has something to do with Jimmy. Did you tell her he’s dead? Of course, she doesn’t know. You told her I was at the office, so she went to the house and stuck the knife in the tree.” Her face paled. “Oh, my gosh. What if she came to the office to kill me tonight but couldn’t do it because Officer McKeen was there? Did you tell her he was there? No wonder she was pissed.” She jumped to her feet. “We have to get to the hospital to protect my dad. What if she tries to finish him off?” She sprinted toward the door, but Sean grabbed her wrist as she went by.

“Kim!”

“What?” She tried to twist free. “Don’t you get it? When she finds out Jimmy is dead, she’s out of time. She’ll have to kill him. Let go!”

“There’s an officer on your dad’s room already.”

She stilled, her breath panting. “There is? You knew it was Helen all along?” Her brow furrowed. “Then how could you send her to the office tonight?”

“Because she’s not a killer. She loves your dad.”

“She’s crazy! Just ask Officer McKeen what happened at the office.” Kim took another step toward the door.

“Kim. It’s not Helen.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I do.”

She stared at him and some of the fear left her eyes. “You believe that?”

“Of course, I do.” He studied her. “You trust my instincts, don’t you?”

She sank onto the pillows again. “Honestly, Sean, I don’t know what to think anymore. Finding out you were going
to marry me for my dad is…well…it makes me wonder if I knew you at all. Even if I do believe in you, how do I know I’m right?”

He sat down on the couch next to her. “That’s how I felt when you left.”

“I guess I was right to leave if you didn’t love me.”

“Maybe.”

“Wow. I never thought I’d hear that from you. Does that mean I can finally let go of the guilt I’ve been shouldering?”

“You felt guilty?”

“The whole time.”

He smiled. Couldn’t help it. “I thought you’d forgotten about me.”

“I thought you’d forgotten about me.” She fiddled with the edge of her T-shirt. “When you joined the Army, I worried about you, but no one ever had any news. I made Cheryl ask my dad every time she talked to him.”

“I wanted to forget about my life here.”

She frowned. “That’s what I was trying to do as well, but I had to come back for my dad. Why did you come back?”

Trying? So she hadn’t succeeded in forgetting about him or what they’d had? A glimmer of hope lit up in his chest. “I don’t know why I came back. Nowhere else to go, I guess.”

“That’s sad.”

“Or maybe it’s good. Not everyone has a place to come back to when the world sucks.”

“Are you going to stay?”

“For now. You?” He caught his breath, then let it out when she shook her head.

“Only until this nightmare is over. My life is in L.A. now, but until we catch whoever it is, I’m staying.” She pursed her lips. “You’re my best bet for staying alive.”

“I can protect you only if you stay at my place and let me be your shadow.” He’d said it before, but she had yet to
accept it. Only a few hours ago, she’d been on her way back to her own house to stay.

But this time, she nodded.

His heart skipped a beat. She was accepting their intimacy and he wasn’t sure if he was glad because it would make his job easier or for another reason…. “Then we’re going to have to figure out how to deal with each other.”

“Any suggestions?”

“Pretend we’re strangers?”

She looked doubtful. “You really think that’ll work? I mean, our history isn’t exactly two dates and one drunken night of debauchery.”

He smiled. If only it were that simple. “Maybe our relationship was so mixed up in your family that it was never about us.”

“It still isn’t about only us. I’m out here because of my dad. You hate me because I left my mom and dad. Jimmy was stalking me because of my sister. You want me to become best buddies with Helen while I think that she’s trying to kill me and my father.” She shrugged. “Who knows what’s actually going on between us?”

“So there is something going on between us?”

She immediately shielded her face. “What do you mean?”

He shifted forward on the couch. “Last night, when we were in bed together—”

Heat tinged her cheeks, but she said, “It was something.”

“What was it?”

“The past? Familiar turf that felt safe.”

That’s all she thought it was? He’d been thinking about a lot more.

They fell silent and he couldn’t think of anything to say. Oh, there was plenty that he wanted to say, but nothing that he would say. Not after she’d just dismissed last night. He sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to open that door.

“Sean?”

“Hmm?”

“If you don’t think the suspect is Helen, why did you put a cop on my dad’s hospital room?”

“Because I think it’s someone who knows him.”

“Maybe you should look into Helen.” Kim sat up. “You know, when my dad got the phone call to go to the camp that night, she could have followed him there. She knew all the details of the attack from Cheryl. And she had access to the safe in the office to find out that my dad was meeting with that private investigator.”

Sean felt as if he’d been kicked in the gut. Kim was right. It could be Helen. Except… “But why? What about motive?”

Kim filled him in on the confrontation with Helen at the office and he felt sick. He dropped his head to his hands. “It could simply be that she loves your dad and his accident is stressing her out.”

“Or it could be more.”

Sean cursed. “It can’t be her.”

“Why not?”

He pressed his forehead into his hands. “Because your dad would never survive it. He loves her and her kids. He can’t handle more loss. I wouldn’t be able to save him.”

The couch shifted and he knew Kim had moved next to him. “Is that why you came back? To save him?”

He didn’t say anything. He couldn’t.

“And now you’re trying to save me?”

“Dammit, Kim. I can’t fail anyone else. Don’t you understand?” He ground his palms into his eyes and tried to will away the images flashing in his mind. Images of his best friend dying. Screaming for help.

“Who did you fail, Sean?” Her voice was quiet.

“Leave it alone.”

The small sound of laughter was deep in her throat. “When did that ever work before? Have I ever backed off when you didn’t want to talk?”

“I’m sick of referring to what we had in the past.”

She was quiet then. “I’m sorry. You’re right.”

Silence.

“As a twenty-eight-year-old woman who does her best not to let men boss her around, I’m going to ignore your request for me to leave it alone as I would with any other man. Who did you fail, Sean?”

He couldn’t help but smile. “You’re a pain in the butt.”

“That’s what everyone tells me at work.” The couch shifted again and he felt her lean against the pillows. Her hip was pressed to his, but neither of them moved apart. “Did I ever tell you what I do for a job now?”

He lifted his head and looked at her. “No, you didn’t.”

She raised her arms over her head and stretched. “I’m an editor for a dishy mag. We get all the inside scoop on celebrities and pay lots of money to paparazzi for pictures that invade the privacy of megastars. I go to all sorts of invitation-only functions and I’m expected to spend a fair amount of money on my wardrobe.”

“Seriously?”

She grinned at him. “Surprised?”

“I guess. It doesn’t seem like you.”

“Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn’t. Who likes their job every day anyway?”

He shrugged. “Not many people, I guess.”

“Exactly.” She folded her arms across her stomach and stared at him. “I manage a staff of five. I had to fire an employee two months ago because she was harvesting celebrity e-mails from our files and selling them. She cried and told me how she had three kids and her husband had just left her and she needed the job.” Some of the light went out of her eyes. “I fired her anyway. Found out later she didn’t have any kids, but I felt terrible for that whole week until I learned the truth.”

He studied her as she continued to ramble on about her
job and he realized that she really wasn’t the eighteen-year-old girl he’d almost married. She was mature, confident and successful. A woman of her own mind and sensibilities. Would she have become this woman if she’d stayed in town and married him?

Maybe not.

He realized she’d stopped talking and was looking at him expectantly.

“What?”

She punched him softly. “You weren’t even listening.”

“I was thinking about how you’re not the girl I once knew.”

She smiled. “I’ve changed a lot.”

“I can tell.”

“And now it’s your turn.”

He was not so fond of the look on her face right now. “What do you mean?”

“I introduced you to the new Kim. Now it’s your turn. All I know about you is what you were like ten years ago. What’s new in your life?” She gave him an innocent smile. “How are we supposed to forget about our past if we don’t build something new to lean on?”

He leaned back next to her so that their shoulders were touching. “I was in the Army for eight years. Weapons specialist. My main job was to get helicoptered into a zone, then hang out and direct incoming planes on their targets.”

“You ever make a mistake and almost get a bomb dropped on you?”

“We were training the Marines one time and one of them had the aircraft approach from behind us. They dropped the bomb and that thing was coming straight down on us. Barely missed us.” He shook his head at the memory. “Dumb fools.”

“Is that how you hurt your leg?”

He frowned. “That was another time.”

“What time?”

“Kim…”

She grabbed his arm as he started to get up. “Who did you fail, Sean? Tell me.”

“My best friend, okay? Frank McCabe, father of two, got hit, and I didn’t get him clear fast enough. He died. Dead. Happy?” He pulled free, walked into the bedroom and slammed the door.

He sat on the bed and dropped his face into his hands.

When the door clicked, he didn’t move. “Go away.”

Instead, the bed dipped and Kim slipped behind him, settling her legs on either side of his. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his back.

He stiffened, knowing she was going to ask for details or tell him it wasn’t his fault or order him to get over it.

But she didn’t.

She simply held him.

Held him as no one had held him for a long time.

S
EAN AWOKE TO
the smell of fresh coffee. He opened his eyes to find Kim sitting at his feet on the couch, her legs tucked under her while she sifted through a stack of computer printouts. Her nose was wrinkled in thought and her hair was shoved into a crooked ponytail. No makeup, still wearing her boxers and T-shirt from bed, she looked adorable. He could see the scar on her leg, but she didn’t seem to be trying to hide it. It felt right, waking up with her close to him.

Then he grimaced, remembering last night. Kim had sat with him for a while and then they’d gone to bed. Him on the couch, her in the bedroom, neither of them even discussing their sleeping arrangements.