The Sharpest Edge (8 page)

“Yes.”

She pulled away and walked over to the window, staring out at the trees. The sun was breaking through the branches, casting shadows on the deep woods. It could be totally creepy, with so many places for a killer to hide while he watched her, or it could be beautiful and romantic. With Sean beside her, she was almost tempted by the latter. “It’s pretty.” Appreciating its beauty wasn’t like falling down a slippery slope of romantic yearnings, was it? A good compromise.

He came to stand beside her. “Yeah.”

“I forgot how beautiful it was here.” In her memories the
town and resort had been dark and dreary. Since she’d been back, all she could think about was how isolated she felt. But now, with Sean by her side with a gun in his holster, she felt safe enough to breathe, to notice things she hadn’t noticed before.

“I never forgot,” he said quietly.

It seemed so normal to be in a bedroom with Sean. Comfortable. She took a breath and let it out. “You don’t need to sleep on the couch.”

He said nothing.

“I mean, I don’t think we should make love or anything, but I think we could manage to share the same bed without mauling each other, don’t you?”

He looked at her. “You’re serious?”

She turned away and grabbed her bag. “If Jimmy comes in through the window, you can’t do me any good if you’re on the other side of the bedroom door.” She didn’t wait for an answer, didn’t give him a chance to say no. “Besides, I owe you after walking out on our wedding. I figure giving you the bed instead of forcing you to take the couch should make us even, don’t you?” She kept her voice light, wanting to remind him of the tension between them, because heaven knew, if he kissed her as he had in the mailroom, she wouldn’t have the willpower to stop him.

And she most definitely did not want to make love to Sean Templeton.

I
T TOOK HER
less than ten minutes to shower, leaving her hand stuck out of the shower curtain so she wouldn’t get the bandage wet. She barely had the energy to throw on a T-shirt and boxers. She was so tired, she almost fell asleep leaning against the wall of the shower. Forget about drying her hair. Why bother? Sean had seen her looking hellacious plenty of times and had been planning to marry her anyway. It was way too late to try to impress him.

She paused for a moment before opening the door to the bathroom, trying to steel herself for the fact that he was probably in the living room putting sheets on the couch.

But when she opened it, he was in the bed, sleeping on his back. His upper body was bare, his arm thrown over his face to block out the sunlight. The thin, beige curtains were little protection against the noon rays. His gun was in its holster, slung over the headboard, and his body was relaxed in sleep.

Her stomach did a little flip and she sucked in her breath. He wasn’t the teenager she’d almost married. Not by a long shot. Muscles ripped in his stomach, and hair curled on his chest. His biceps was flexed where it rested across his face, and there was a long scar on the back of his arm. He was all man, and she wanted him. And this didn’t feel at all like the call of a lost first love. It felt like a woman wanting a man.

Maybe she should sleep on the couch, not him.

She walked over to the bed and lifted the covers, scooting in carefully so as not to shake the bed and wake him. He grunted but didn’t move.

Kim curled up on her side so she could watch him, clutching her bandaged hand to her chin. His chest rose softly with each breath, his lips parted ever so slightly. He still hadn’t shaved and the whiskers on his chin were long. She trailed her fingers over his jaw, remembering the first time he’d let her shave him. She’d cut him six times and he’d still let her try again a week later.

She sighed.

Then Sean jerked and moved his arm, his eyes at half mast as he peered sleepily at her.

She smiled.

He closed his eyes again and shifted his arm in that move he used to do when he wanted her to snuggle against him. She wiggled forward until her head was resting on the front
of his shoulder. Then he curved his arm around her and pulled her close, his fingers buried in her hair.

She closed her eyes and fell asleep, breathing the familiar scent of the man who’d never left her heart.

Sean woke up wrapped around Kim’s body. Her hair was draped across his face, her legs entwined with his. Her face was buried in the crook of his neck and her body was pressed against his. He inhaled, taking in her familiar scent, running his hand softly over her hip. She felt good.

Then her cell phone rang and he realized that was what had woken him. He cursed and slid out of the bed, diving for her mobile phone before it could wake her. “Hello?”

No one answered.

“Hello?” he repeated. A glance at Kim told him she was still asleep, so he took the phone into the other room.

“Who is this?” It was a man’s voice and Sean tensed.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Alan Haywood. Who are you?”

Ah, her “friend.” Something unfamiliar surged through Sean and he decided that the man had a wimpy voice. “Kim’s sleeping right now and I’m not going to wake her up.”

Silence. Sean grinned, knowing the things that Alan was imagining with Sean answering Kim’s phone while she was asleep.

“Well, I’m at her house now and she’s not here. Where is she?” Alan said.

Sean immediately frowned. “Her house in L.A.?”

“No, her house in Ridgeport.”

“Is she expecting you? She didn’t mention it.”

“Listen, I don’t know who you are, but if I don’t hear from Kim in one minute, I’m going to assume she was abducted and call the cops.”

Sean tensed. This man was taking responsibility for Kim’s welfare? Forget it. The job was taken. “I’ll have her call you when she wakes up. She was up all night and she needs her sleep.” He frowned. “And why aren’t you in L.A.? I thought your job was to watch the apartment for Ramsey and get him collared for parole violation.”

“How did you know that?” Then there was a small sound of exasperation. “You’re the ex-fiancé cop, aren’t you?”

“Yep.”

“How do I know you aren’t dirty?”

“You don’t, but if I was, that comment would be enough for me to disappear with Kim. Don’t show your hand too soon or you’ll lose.”

“Who are you on the phone with?”

Sean turned to see Kim standing in the bedroom doorway. She was wearing boxers and a T-shirt, her hair was disheveled and she looked adorable. Then he looked down and saw the scar on her thigh and he felt the urge to smash the phone into the wall and kill Jimmy Ramsey. Too angry to talk, he strode across the room and lifted the leg of her shorts to the top of her scar. It went all the way to her hip.

He swore and Kim pulled away. “Don’t.” She shoved his hands away and turned to hide her leg from view. “Is the call for me?”

Damn Jimmy for making Kim ashamed of her own body. He remembered when she used to run around wearing a little bikini without a care in the world. He handed her the cell phone. “It’s Alan. He’s at your house on the lake.”

She paused. “He’s in town?”

“Uh-huh. He thinks I abducted you and he’s threatening to call the cops. You might want to clarify that.”

She gave him an apologetic smile. “He gets a little protective of me.”

Sean couldn’t keep the scowl off his face. “You sure you’re just friends?”

Her cheeks turned pink. “Of course.”

“You might want to make sure he knows that.” Yeah, sure, it was none of his business what she was doing with Alan, but it sure felt like Sean’s business.

“Thanks.” She took her phone into the bedroom, shutting him out with a slam of the door.

Gone was the bonding of last night. Was it because of her leg or because the intimacy had reminded her that he was so vile that she’d kill herself to get away from him? Maybe last night’s snuggling had been nothing more than residual tension from finding a knife in her bed. Vulnerability had sent her into his arms and he’d been stupid enough to think that maybe it meant something else.

Lesson learned. From now on, Kim was a civilian and he was a cop. Yeah, he’d read the letter, but it only explained
why
she’d left. It didn’t change the fact that she simply hadn’t loved him enough to stay.

That damn letter.

He wished he’d never read it. Had never seen Joyce condemn him in her own handwriting.

Sean gritted his teeth. As close as he was to Max, he’d thought he was close to Joyce, as well. But she’d hated him enough to turn her daughter against him.

For his whole life, he’d believed in that family and the love they had for one another and for him. One by one, each belief he had was being destroyed.

Alan could have Kim. Sean had had enough.

The fax machine beeped and Sean turned away, grateful for an excuse to think about anything else. When he pulled
the papers out of the machine, he nodded with grim satisfaction. They were the phone records from Max’s house. Somewhere on that list was the call from the person who had attacked him.

K
IM PULLED ON
her jeans, hiding her scars beneath the denim. She was embarrassed that Sean had seen them. They were awful and ugly. How could she have forgotten and worn shorts to bed with him?

“Kim? What’s wrong?” Alan asked. “Are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. Sorry. Nothing’s wrong.” She zipped up her jeans and tried not to look at the bed, still rumpled from their snuggling last night. “Why are you in Maine? Who’s watching my place in L.A.?”

“I had to come. I’m worried about you.”

“For crying out loud, Alan, I have an ex-military cop sleeping two inches from me. What do you think can happen to me? If
he
can’t save me, you certainly can’t.” She jammed her feet into her sneakers and smashed a brush through her hair.

“Nice mood you’re in. And what do you mean, he’s sleeping two inches from you?”

“Oh, give it up, Alan. If I was having sex with him, which I’m not, it would be none of your business.” Was she in a bad mood or what?

“Since when do you shut me out? I flew three thousand miles to help you. I’m not the enemy.”

Crap. He was right. “Listen. I’m sorry. I’m a little strung out.” While she changed the bandage on her hand—just a little red mark on her palm that didn’t do justice to the emotional damage it had wreaked—she told him about the knife in her bed and the suspicions about Max’s accident. By the time she was finished, Alan was as cranky as she was and glad he’d come out to protect her.

Maybe he couldn’t save her from a psycho with a knife,
but there was one thing he could do. “Why don’t we meet at the camp office in half an hour to go through my dad’s financial files. Maybe if we can figure out what’s up with him and the camp, we can determine whether this has anything to do with Jimmy.” She gave him directions and hung up, then prepared herself to face the man she’d dreamed about all night.

She walked into the kitchen to find Sean sitting at the kitchen table with a granola bar, a sports drink and a fax. He was still wearing nothing but his boxers and he looked even better vertical than he had sprawled out in the bed last night. What was wrong with her? Why was she reacting this way to him? It had been ten years, for heaven’s sake. She couldn’t still be yearning after the man from her past, could she? She cleared her throat and opened the fridge. Anything to avoid being caught gawking at him. “What are you reading?”

“Your dad’s phone records.”

She found a yogurt and turned to find him watching her with a grim look on her face. “And?”

“And he got a call from the Loon’s Nest at 7:30. It lasted about thirty seconds.”

“So someone lured him there, then somehow got him into the boat and crashed it?”

“I think we’re missing part of the story, but yes, I think that’s the gist of it.”

“Which number at the camp?”

He held the sheet out and she looked at it. “That’s the guest phone in the lounge, which is open twenty-four hours a day. Any guest or staff person, or even anyone who wanders in, could use it.” She frowned. “So it’s not that helpful.”

“Except now we know someone wanted him over there.” He pointed to a second listing. “Another call from the camp, forty minutes later.”

“That’s my dad’s office.”

“I checked with Helen, and when I mentioned it, she said he had called her after he left to ask her what he was supposed to pick up at the grocery store. She didn’t know what number it came from, but it looks like he made it into the office.” He cracked his jaw, his eyes sharp and intense. “I want to have another look around his office.”

“For what?”

“Signs of a struggle. Anything.”

A struggle. “You think he got knocked out before he even got in the boat?”

“Maybe. Or maybe once he got down there. I don’t know, but I want to look around.” He rubbed his chin. “I want to check out the boathouse, too. Maybe have another chat with that kid who works there, Tom Payton.”

“While we’re doing that, Alan can go over the office files.”

Sean narrowed his eyes. “Why is he going to do that?”

“Because he can look at the financials and maybe decipher what’s going on with the camp that’s making it fail. Maybe this whole thing with my dad has nothing to do with Jimmy.”

Sean snorted. “And I suppose you’re going to find another explanation for the knife in your bed, too? Maybe a bear broke in and left you a present?”

Kim glared at him. “Hey, I stayed here last night, didn’t I? That should make you happy.”

Sean lifted an eyebrow. “Since when do you do anything to make me happy?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Forget it.” He threw his chair back from the table. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

She grabbed his arm as he went by. “Why are you mad at me? What did I do?”

He grabbed a paper off the counter and tossed it at her. “Here’s your letter. I had no idea your mother hated me. First her, then you. What a fool I was to think I had a future with
you and your family. I mourned your loss for years, then went off and joined the Army because I couldn’t deal with staying in town. And you just gallivanted off to L.A. and made a great life for yourself without a care. I was a damned idiot not to see it.”

She crushed the letter into her hand. “You read the letter?”

“Yeah.” He walked past her into the bedroom, and she couldn’t stop herself from shivering as he walked by. So good to know she still wasn’t immune to Sean when he was half-naked.

“And? Do you understand why I left?” She walked to the door of the bedroom, where he was rifling through drawers.

“Oh, believe me. I understand.” He tossed his jeans and a T-shirt over his shoulder, then shoved the drawer shut with his hip. “Like mother, like daughter. I wasn’t good enough for either of you, was I?”

Oh, no. “Sean, that’s not what the letter is about. It wasn’t you. It was me. It wouldn’t have mattered what man was in the picture. It was the town I had to leave.”

He rolled his eyes as he walked past her into the bathroom and dropped his boxers.

She barely managed to avert her eyes…okay, fine. She
didn’t
manage to avert her eyes at all, but Sean was too distracted to care. Guess he’d been naked around her so many times he didn’t even notice. Well, she noticed.

“Give me a break, Kim. I read the letter. I heard your explanation. If it was simply the town, you could have asked me to leave with you. Ever think of that?”

She stared at him. No, she never had.

“See? That’s all crap. You and your mom thought I’d destroy you. Not the town. Me.”

How could she have thought this man would be the end of her? He was so real, so caring, so passionate. “Maybe we were wrong.” The words slipped from her lips before she’d even realized she was thinking them.

He stared at her. “What?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore.” She bit her lip. “My mother killed herself because of my dad. How do I forget about that and walk away? And should I even want to? I mean, she was my mother.” She clutched her bandaged hand to her chest. “My mom is dead. My sister tried to kill herself. All I’ve done since is try to make sure I stay as far away from that trap as I can. And now you’re in my life again and I have all the same feelings for you, just like she said I would. So how do I know what’s right and what’s wrong? God, Sean, I don’t know what to do!”

“You need to see your father. Ask him what really happened with your mom.”

Her gut knotted up. “He’s not the perfect man you believe he is.”

“He’s not the scum you think he is.”

“He married Helen three weeks after my mom was buried. Three weeks! You expect me to believe that he wasn’t having an affair?”

Sean flinched as if she’d hit him in the face. “Why don’t you ask him instead of judging him?”

“Have you asked him?”

He met her gaze. “No, I haven’t.”

“You don’t want the truth.”

His eyes flickered. “That letter has brought up some questions I want answers to. When he wakes up, I’m going to ask. Are you?”

“What if he doesn’t wake up?”

“He will.” He clenched his fist and smashed it into the door frame. “He
will.
”

She was shocked by the raw pain in his eyes. “You love him, don’t you? It’s not just about the camp or about being a part of his family. You love him.”

He grunted something unintelligible that she took as a confirmation.

“You love him like he’s your own father.”

He shrugged. “So?”

“So was my mom right? Did you want to marry me because of him and the camp? You get me, you get my family? Become my dad’s son for real?”

“No! I…” His voice trailed off after his initial denial. He stared at her and the shocked look of self-awareness creeping over his face was enough of an answer.

He’d never loved her.
Not really. Not the way she’d thought he had.

That hurt. Last night, she’d felt so close to him, remembering how special he’d made her feel when she was a teenager. She’d been wondering how love like that could die. Questioning whether it had.

But it hadn’t been true love. Not for him. He’d confused romantic love with his yearning for a family. “All these years, I wondered if I did the right thing by leaving. I wondered if maybe, just maybe, she was wrong about us. About you.” Kim shook her head. “And she wasn’t, was she? God, Sean, I thought you really loved me.”

“And I thought you loved me. Guess we were both wrong, huh?”