Flashback (8 page)

“I can do it on my own.”

Seemed she was used to doing stuff on her own. That was new.

So was his unsettledness over the way this was going down.

“Yeah,” she said at his quiet surprise. “I'm not the same helpless little thing I used to be.”

“I never thought you were helpless.”

“Well, I was. But I've grown up. I've changed. In many ways. And I don't need anyone's help. For anything.”

He arched an eyebrow. “You needed me when we—”

“No. Well, yes,
yes,
I needed you to save me from the fire, but—”

“That's not what I was talking about.” He pointed to his bed.

“Oh, no. That was just me, breaking your heart. I warned you, remember.”

Bullshit. That hadn't been just revenge. “Kenzie.”

“Sorry. Got to go. Have to go.” Once again she dropped her towel, which had the same magical effect on him as it had last night. While he stood there taking in the glorious sight of her naked body, she pulled on the sweats, kissed him on the cheek, then walked out of the room.

And, given the sound of the front door opening and then closing, out of his house.

And, most likely, out of his life.

Fitting justice really, as he'd once done the same to her. Moving to the living room, he looked out the window in time to catch her taillights as they vanished down his driveway.

I've changed,
she'd said, and she had.

But as the blood once again began a northward flow from behind the zipper of his pants back up to his brain, another thought managed to get his attention.

He'd changed as well. And he was going to prove it.

S
OMEONE WAS KNOCKING
on Aidan's door when he turned off the shower.
She'd come back.
With his pulse kicking, he grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist, heading for the door at a speed far faster than his usual get-there-when-I-get-there saunter.

Only it wasn't Kenzie at all. “Dammit.”

His best friend and partner Zach just looked at him. “Nice to see you, too.” Without waiting for an invitation, he pushed past Aidan and walked in.

Fair enough. Aidan had let himself into Zach's house plenty of times. Aidan shut the door behind Zach and shoved his fingers through his wet hair. “Sorry. Thought you were someone else.”

Zach took in Aidan standing there dripping wet, wearing only a towel. “Clearly. Who is she?”

“How do you know it's a she?”

“Because if you're meeting a guy dressed like that, we have a whole different issue to talk about.”

Aidan rolled his eyes and left Zach to go get some clothes. In his bedroom, he looked at his bed as he pulled on a clean shirt. The covers were tossed half on the floor, and on his nightstand were two empty condom wrappers.

And though it was crazy given that Kenzie had used his shampoo, his clothes and his soap, he'd have sworn he could smell her scent, some complicated mix of soft, determined, sexy woman. He stared at the bed, remembering how he'd felt when she'd crawled in with him, remembering how natural it'd been to kiss and touch her, to sink into her body and go to a place he hadn't been in a long time.

Then they'd slept together, and that had felt good, too, being all tangled up in each other again. Familiar, but new. Even better, if that was possible. Things hadn't been complicated in the dark.

Things had been amazing.

But she'd left.

When he walked back into the kitchen, he found Zach staring at the breakfast he'd made for Kenzie.

“You made breakfast,” Zach said. “As in got out a pan and cooked something.”

“Yeah. So?”

“You put out napkins.”

“Let me repeat myself. So?”

“So you never put out napkins. Not when it's me or the other guys.”

“Do you want to split the food with me or not?”

“You didn't cook this for me.”

“You're right.”

Zach raised an eyebrow.

“You're going to question a plate of food?” Aidan said. “Really?”

Zach didn't have to be asked twice. He grabbed a plate and pulled up a chair.

“I thought you and Brooke were going away for a few days since you haven't been cleared to go back to work yet.”

“We are. We're leaving tomorrow morning. Wanted to see you first.”

“Ah, that's so sweet. You're going to miss me.”

“Actually, I'm not.” Zach shoveled in some food, and looked at him. “I heard about the explosion. I should have been there.”

Aidan looked at the cast on Zach's left wrist, remembered how close he'd come to losing him along with Blake, and felt the food get caught in his throat. “You're not healed yet.”

“It's coming along though.” He squeezed his fingers into a fist, then stretched them straight out. “I could be back at work, dammit. I have no idea why the chief's being so hard-assed about this. I'm willing and able.”

“Enjoy your few days off. You and Brooke deserve it.”

“Yeah.” Zach sighed. “So is the boat a complete loss?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Kenzie all right?”

“Heard about that, too, huh?”

“Yeah.” Zach paused. “Was it awkward, considering your past with her?”

“To be the one rescuing her?”

“What else?”

Yeah, genius, what else.
Maybe sleeping with her…But that hadn't been awkward. Not one little bit.

Zach was looking at him. “What am I missing?”

Aidan shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Come on.”

“Okay, nothing I want to talk about.”

“That I buy,” Zach said, and like the good friend he was, changed the subject. “I heard that Blake must have kept his accelerants on the boat, which is why it blew like it did.”

That was one theory, Aidan was sure.

But he had another. “Well…”

“What?” Zach asked.

“You're going to tell me I'm crazy.”

Zach stood up and went to the refrigerator for the milk. “All those times I thought those fires were arson, you were the only one who believed me. I'll be the last one to tell you that you're crazy.”

“Yeah, but now we know that Tommy was behind you the entire time, he was just in the middle of his investigation. Still is, with the chief riding his ass to put an end to this.”

“Yeah.” Zach pushed away his plate. “So I wonder what they'd say now.”

“About…?”

“About your not buying that boat fire was any more accidental than the other fires. Or me not buying it, either.”

Aidan looked into his best friend's eyes and let out a breath. “That boat was blown up for a reason and I think that reason was to hide something. Something that someone didn't want found.”

“What?”

“I don't know. And I'm betting Tommy and the Chief don't know either but they want to.”

“It doesn't make sense,” Zach said. “Blake's dead.”

Aidan pushed away his plate. “Yeah.” Goddamn, but he wasn't going to get used to that any time soon, the fact that Blake, a friend,
one of them
for Christ's sake, was not only gone, but accused of arson.

“Which means that he wasn't working alone and whoever the other person is, they're running scared of something.”

“Or someone,” Zach said. “Kenzie shows up out of the blue after what, six years? Seems kind of odd, doesn't it?”

Aidan's gut tightened. “Her brother's dead, Zach.”

“Yes. Her arsonist brother. They were close, right?”

“What are you saying, that she's his co-felon?”

“Look, I don't want to think about Blake doing the things they've accused him of, either. And I really don't want to think about the fact that if he was still alive, he'd be in jail. But those are the facts.”

Aidan scrubbed his hands over his face. “She
just
got into town.”

“You know that for sure?”

Actually, no, he didn't.

“Why was she on his boat?”

“Going through his things.” Listen to him defend her. “Missing him.”

Zach closed his eyes and rubbed them hard. “If that were true, wouldn't she have come sooner?”

“I don't know. I don't know anything except that Blake was all she had.” Aidan got to his feet because he had to move, had to pace the length of the kitchen. “She's…devastated. Horrified. And pissed off that we all believe that Blake's guilty. I think she's going to go digging on her own and find out what she can.”

“Which should make Tommy oh-so-happy.”

“He's going to have her arrested if she hinders the investigation,” Aidan admitted. “And she's going to hinder. It's in her nature. She intends to prove Blake innocent.”

Zach raised a brow. “You got all that from pulling her out of the water?”

Well, shit.
Aidan picked up his fork and shoveled some food in.

“You saw her after the fire. At the hospital.”

“Yeah.”

Zach paused. “And after that as well, I'm thinking.”

“Yeah.”

Zach peered around Aidan and into the living room, pointedly looking down the hallway.

“She's not still here.”

“But she
was
here? Jesus, Aidan. What would Tommy say?”

“Since when does that matter?”

“Since we both now know that he was on our side about the arsons all along. He'll be on this, too, you can guarantee it.”

Yeah. In hindsight, sleeping with Kenzie been a pretty stupid thing to do. And yet, what else could he have done but given her a place to stay?

Except for that using up two condoms part. He probably could have not done that.

“We've got to let Tommy do his thing here,” Zach said quietly.

“I can't believe you're suggesting I stay out of it, when you did the very opposite.”

“And paid for it,” Zach reminded him, lifting his casted wrist.

“She was hurting, Zach. And alone. Her purse had burned in the fire and she had nowhere else to go so I let her stay here. End of story.”

“You could have lent her money. She's a famous soap diva—I think she'd have been good for it.”

“The hotels were all booked up.”

When Zach just looked at him, Aidan lifted a shoulder. “It was just bad luck on her part.”

“Just bad luck, huh? Funny, you don't look so put out.”

“Don't you have a fiancée to go home to?”

Zach grinned dopily. “Yeah.”

“So go already.”

Zach got up, then paused. “Look, Aidan, I know she meant something to you once, but—”

“She's Blake's sister.”

“And
your
ex. I'd think that'd be reason enough to stay away from her.”

Yeah.
One would think…

 

O
PENING THE SLIM ENVELOPE
she'd scooped from Aidan's kitchen table on her way out the door, Kenzie practically kissed the credit card she found inside. She needed some personal items, like clothes of her own, not to mention underwear. Not that she didn't love Aidan's sweats, because she did. They smelled like him. They felt like him.

Which was exactly why she had to get
out
of them.

She did her best not to pout over the loss of her Choos, which she wasn't going to find at Wal-Mart, but the store was still one of God's greatest creations. When she'd bought and put on a peasant skirt, two layered tank tops and a pair of sandals, she got back into her car. She'd missed two calls on her cell, both from that same local number as before, but no messages, so she put it out of her head and drove to the docks. Then she sat in the parking lot nursing a hot chocolate and a blessed box of donuts, staring at the charred remains of Blake's boat.

She was alone except for the occasional car. One was a light-gray sedan that slowed as it passed her, the windows so dark that she couldn't see in. Probably another looky-loo like herself, except…except she'd seen a car like it before, somewhere…

She ate a donut.

Until a couple of weeks ago, before Blake's death, she hadn't had chocolate or donuts in months. Maybe years. She'd been on a strict eighteen-hundred-calorie diet, combined with a workout every single day, without fail. All to look good.

That's what TV stars did. They looked good. She was paid to.

Except she no longer had a TV show to look good for. Back in L.A., she knew the job-finding frenzy had already begun. All her co-stars were busy auditioning, and what was she doing? Eating donuts instead of facing the fact that she was unemployed.

Her cushy, easy, comfortable, fun job had come to an end.

Life over.

She looked at
Blake's Girl
and felt the last donut congeal in her throat. No. Her job was over, not her life.

Blake's
life was over.

God.
Brushing the sugar from her fingers, she got out of the car. She wasn't looking her best, but then again, there were no paparazzi in Santa Rey. And thanks to no one in the press making the connection between her and
Blake's Girl,
there were no reporters to take pics of her pale, makeup-free face, or all of the bruises and cuts she'd sustained in the fire. Her wrist wasn't bothering her, but the splint was a pain in the butt. She hadn't been able to corral her hair into a ponytail, which meant it was flying wild around her face and in her eyes.

She could have asked Aidan for help but she'd rather have the wild hair than have his hands on her again.

Okay, that wasn't true, wasn't anywhere close to true, but she could pretend it was.

Dammit.

For those few hours last night in his arms, she'd not been alone and lost and hurting. She'd been transported, taken out of herself.

And along the way, she'd forgotten to make him regret dumping her.
Nicely done.
Rolling her eyes at herself, she moved closer to the docks. The charred remains of
Blake's Girl
were taped off with yellow crime scene tape.