by Jill Shalvis
Kevin followed her gaze and sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. When he looked at her again, his bafflement was gone, replaced by resignation. “All you had to do,” he said, sounding very tired, “was agree to authenticate my work so I could make enough money to fund my own gallery instead of working for a bunch of big corporate idiots who know nothing about the art of furniture making.”
“I couldn’t do that,” she said. “I couldn’t authenticate what wasn’t his. Surely you knew that.”
He shrugged. “You made your choice, I suppose. But now I have to make mine.”
Kylie’s heart sank to her toes and she slowly slid her hands into her pockets. Her right hand encountered her phone. She swiped the screen and thumbed what she was pretty sure would be her phone app. Then she tapped the screen near the top, hoping like hell that first, she had service now that she was away from all the buildings and on the water, and second, that she was calling the last person she’d attempted to call—Joe.
“I can’t believe this,” her mom said. “I knew right from the start that you were a bad apple.”
“Right,” Kevin said dryly. “Or why else would you have dated me?”
Her mom’s eyes narrowed. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”
Kevin snorted. “It means you only date assholes. And you’re a mom! What kind of idea was that supposed to give Kylie? It’s amazing that she’s not all kinds of screwed up.”
Ha. Little did he know, Kylie thought. “Okay,” she said quickly when her mom started looking around, probably for a bat to hit Kevin over the head with. “This is about Grandpa’s work, not you two’s past—”
“Shut up,” they both said in unison, glaring at each other.
“You said you were the exception!” her mom yelled at Kevin.
“And you said you’d changed!” Kevin yelled back.
Kylie sighed and, keeping one eye on the children, she looked around for something to help the situation and caught sight of a couple of pieces of furniture against the far wall. An armoire and a matching mirror. “Oh my God,” she said. “Those are my grandpa’s too.” She looked at Kevin. “They were also in his shop on the day of the fire, where supposedly everything burned.”
“Most,” he said. “But not everything.”
Her mom’s eyes were wide. And pissed. “How did you get this stuff?” she asked. “His stuff?”
Kevin shrugged. “You know how the guy was. Brilliant artist, shitty businessman.”
“So you took advantage of him through me?” Kylie’s mom asked.
“Hey, he’d offered to pay me to finish some things for him,” Kevin said. “And I did exactly that, only he didn’t pay me. He couldn’t.”
“He’d never do that,” her mom said. “He was the most honest man I ever met.”
Kylie had gone still. “The horses,” she whispered.
“What?” Her mom looked at her. “What horses?”
But Kevin was nodding, confirming Kylie’s fear. “He did love the races,” he said. “And the betting.”
The truth was, her grandpa had been a gambling addict—though Kylie had believed him to be a recovered addict. Her mom was looking stunned. Kylie’s grandpa had been so good at so many things and it seemed one of those things was keeping secrets.
“He kept promising me he’d get me the money,” Kevin said. “Only it never happened.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me?” her mom asked.
“Because he begged me not to. He didn’t want anyone to know.” Kevin sent Kylie an apologetic glance. “But I needed money too. So I helped myself to one of his pieces now and then and sold them.”
“That’s stealing,” her mom said.
“I called it getting paid. He owed me.”
Kylie’s gaze fell on something right past the Polaroid camera. A high-grade food processor. Her penguin was perched on it, inches from certain destruction by rotating whipping blades if the processor got flipped on. Her stomach fell and in shock, she shook her head. “How is it that he never caught you taking stuff from his shop?”
She saw the flash of guilt and her gut tightened. “He did catch you,” she said.
“Once,” he admitted. “He walked in on me late at night loading up a few things into my truck. He said something like, ‘I knew someone was stealing from me. I just didn’t think it would be you.’”
That was exactly like her grandpa, seeing only the good in people. “He cared about you. I’m sure he was devastated.”
“Devastated? Not exactly,” Kevin said. “He pulled a gun on me and I dove to the ground when he actually squeezed off a round.”
“Wait—he shot at you?” Kylie gasped in shock.
“No, he shot at the ceiling. A warning, I guess. The bullet ricocheted off something and hit the electrical socket where the soldering iron was plugged in. The place went up in flames in seconds. It was a fluke. He just meant to scare me off. Like this.” Reaching behind him, Kevin produced a gun.
With twin gasps, Kylie’s mom and Kylie both dove to the floor.
“I’m not going to shoot you,” he said, sounding horrified at the thought. “I’m trying to show you what happened that night and how it couldn’t happen again in a million years. It was truly a one in a million shot.” He squeezed the trigger and bam, a bullet hit the ceiling. And ricocheted off somewhere else.
And then . . . nothing.
“See?” he said, shrugging. “Accident.”
Kylie shot to her feet, such fury flowing through her that her entire body was shaking with it. “You can’t just fire a gun into a closed area. You’ll hurt someone!”
“I wasn’t aiming at either of you.”
“Oh my God!” Kylie managed. “There’s a reason they don’t like dumbasses to have guns, you know!”
“You’re overreacting.”
“I’m overreacting?” she asked. “Are you kidding me? All these years I blamed myself for that fire!”
“Well, that was stupid,” Kevin said. “You weren’t even there.”
“I was earlier in the day! And you knew I blamed myself!” she cried. “You could have told me all this right after it happened!”
“Oh, right. And I’m sure the police would’ve understood about me just taking what I was owed.” He let out a mirthless laugh. “I might’ve gone to jail. And I’d have hurt your grandpa’s reputation while I was at it. Did you think of that? He was good to me—I mean, other than the whole not paying me thing. I didn’t want to jeopardize his career.”
“You lying, two-faced, thieving bastard,” Kylie’s mom said, getting back to her feet.
“Seriously?” Kevin asked, taking a step back from her. “You want to go there? How many times did you borrow money from him?”
“I’m his blood! If you don’t admit to occasionally stealing money from your parents then you’re not being honest.”
“I never stole money from my parents,” Kevin said.
Nor had Kylie, but she couldn’t think. She was shaking with anger and her head was spinning. “Why didn’t anyone find the gun or the bullet that night?”
“Your grandpa freaked that he’d lost his temper. He said the gun wasn’t registered. He made me take it and I don’t know why they didn’t find the bullet or casing. I took the gun and left, not knowing the fire was already smoldering, gaining steam. I’d never have left him there if I’d known what would happen.”
“I can’t believe this,” she said. “I thought for sure you’d have a good explanation and be just another dead end. I didn’t want it to be you. You were nice to me. I thought you liked me. But then you bailed on us, and now . . . now you’re a deserter and a thief.”
Kevin’s eyes softened. “I liked you too, Kylie, and I never bailed on you guys.”
“Yes, you did,” her mom said. “You told me that we were good together, that you saw a future. Then one day you said you had to go to New York for a job but you’d call when you got back.”
“And I meant all of that,
and I did call,” Kevin said. “Your latest conquest answered.”
Her mom rolled her eyes. “Well, if you’re going to let that stop you.”
Smoke was beginning to curl down from the ceiling, seeping in through the cracks and the vent. Kylie stared at it in growing horror. “Uh, guys?” she said, but neither was paying her any attention.
“I think you’re full of shit,” her mom said to Kevin.
“No, I really did see a life with the three of us.” He turned to Kylie. “Your mom said she’d wait for me. I was only gone three weeks, but I bet she didn’t even wait a day.”
“Hey,” her mom said defensively, but when Kevin raised a brow, she tossed up her hands. “Okay, fine. So I was a shithead back then.”
“Hello!” Kylie said, jabbing a finger at the smoking ceiling. “Forget the past! We’ve got a problem—”
“And to be fair to me,” her mom went on, “I was young and stupid. I didn’t know a good guy from a bad one. I always picked them based on what they could do for me. And worse, I always picked them over my own offspring.” She sent Kylie a watery smile. “But I was lucky enough to have a daughter willing to be patient with me. And I’m going to learn to put her first, starting now. Come over here, baby.” She held out a hand to Kylie and wriggled her fingers.
“Mom,” Kylie said through a tight throat and, reaching out, took hold of her hand. “We all need to get off the boat. Now.”
“Holy shit,” Kevin said, finally noticing the crazy amount of smoke tunneling through the cracks. “We’re actually on fire. Did I do that?”
“Yes, Urkel, you really did that!” Kylie’s mom tugged Kylie toward the door, but before they could get there, the ceiling suddenly collapsed, crashing down on top of them. Some of it was on fire, but thankfully not the pieces that hit Kylie. It took her a minute to dig out but she finally sat up, coughing, looking around for her mom. “Mom!”
“Here.” Her mom appeared as she sat up, covered in dust. In front of them, flames were flickering now, gaining strength.
Kylie dragged herself to her feet and then pulled her mom up too. “Where’s Kevin?”
“I don’t know!”
“Kevin!” Kylie yelled as her mom yanked her toward their exit. Together they stumbled and staggered up the stairs and off the boat, onto the dock, whipping back around to look for any sign of him. “Kevin!” Kylie yelled again and again, chest tight, panic gripping her. “Did he get above deck?” she asked her mom.
“I don’t know, baby.”
Suddenly the night lit up with a symphony of sounds and lights. First responders arriving en mass, appearing through the hazy smoke like avengers. Kylie felt herself sway a little bit and she sank to the dock as she stared at the craziness in fascination.
An outline of a man broke from the pack, running down the docks. “Found her,” Joe said into his comms, heading right for her, his team materializing behind him. “Kylie,” he said, voice rough, dropping to his knees in front of her.
Aw, look at that. He was worried about her, his eyes reflecting that and a lot more. In spite of himself, he cared about her. She knew that much. It wasn’t entirely his fault that he was so emotionally challenged, she thought, putting a hand on his jaw. “You’re so pretty, Joe. It’s really a shame that you’re such a dumbass.”
Lucas choked out a laugh, but at Joe’s glare, quickly turned to Kylie’s mom. “You okay, ma’am?”
“I will be if you never ‘ma’am’ me again,” her mom said, looking singed around the edges but thankfully unhurt.
Joe turned Kylie’s face to his, running his finger over a bump on her forehead that made her wince and slap his hand away. “Kevin’s still on the boat,” she said and gripped the front of his shirt in her fist. “We’ve got to save him.”
Joe pointed to a figure of a man sitting on the other end of the dock with an oxygen mask over his face.
Kevin.
She sagged in relief, sort of falling into Joe. He still knelt in front of her, looking her over, face grim, jaw tight—whether in reaction to her “dumbass” comment, or just the fact that she was here where she shouldn’t have been, she didn’t know.
“I didn’t mean to be here,” she said. “I—”
He put a finger over her lips. “We’ll circle back to that later, when your hair’s not still smoking.”
“I texted you.”
“Yes, and it said ‘Siri, text Joe.’”
“What?” She shook her head. “No, she was supposed to tell you where I was. That bitch. I also called. Did she tell you that?”
“I got the call. We were connected the whole time, which is how I got here in time to see you save yourself. Proud of you, Kylie.”
She tried to meet his gaze at that, but suddenly the ground was shaking so violently she was having trouble speaking. “Wh-wh-what’s happening?”
“Shh,” Joe said, pulling her in close. “You’re in shock.”
“Am not—Hey,” she said as Joe ran his hands over her, looking for injuries. “I’m okay.” But then she ruined that statement by nearly coughing up a lung. “Really. Totally fine,” she finally managed with a very hoarse voice.
This didn’t appear to ease his tension one little bit as he continued to hold on to her. “You’re bleeding.”
“What? No, I’m not. I’m—” She looked down and saw a long rip in her jeans from hip to knee, revealing a huge gash in her leg with lots of blood and gore. “Huh,” she said, her heartbeat pounding like a drum in her ears as her vision started to fade. “Look at that . . . I am bleeding.” Her vision went all cobwebby.
“Kylie.” Joe sounded more intense than she’d ever heard him and that was saying something. “Kylie, stay with me.”
Ha. If only he really meant that.
Chapter 32
#YouAintHeardNothingYet
Joe’s heart was still on overdrive from the crazy race to the marina while listening to Kylie handle the situation via her cell phone. The connection had been spotty so he’d missed a bunch of what was said, but the gunshot had come through loud and clear and he’d gone into heart failure until he’d heard her voice again. “Kylie, the paramedics are going to take a look at you now.”
She weaved and clutched at him. “I’m sorry you’re upset.”
“Let’s worry about you.”
“Five-by-five rule,” she said, cupping his jaw with both hands to stare into his eyes. “If it’s not going to matter in five years, don’t let it upset you.”
He shook his head and hugged her close, pressing his face into her hair, trying not to embarrass himself, but he was going to need a moment. “You’re going to matter in five years, Kylie.”
She didn’t respond to that. Instead she pulled back to look earnestly into his eyes. “You get why I went without you, right? I didn’t mean to, but I had to go with my mom. I couldn’t let her go after Kevin by herself.”
“And you were amazing, baby,” her mom said, dropping to her knees on Kylie’s other side now. “But let’s allow the hot guys do their job and take care of you, okay?”
“I can take care of myself.” Kylie looked around with a frown. “Why is the ground still shaking?”
“Still you,” Joe said gently. He took an emergency blanket from Lucas and wrapped it around her shoulders. He was worried about the gash along her thigh, as it was bone-deep. There was another cut at her temple and along one cheek. Her pupils were dilated. And she was breathing like she’d just run a few miles. None of it added up to anything good. “You did great, Kylie. You took care of your mom. Now you’re going to let us take care of you.”
She closed her eyes. “But I’m fine.”
“And don’t I know it. But I’ve got you now. I love you, and I’ve got you.”
No answer.
He stroked the hair from her face. “Kylie.”
Nothing. She’d gone limp in his arms and for the second time in an hour, his heart about stopped. The next few minutes were a blur of action as he handed her o
ver to the paramedics, not leaving her side until they’d loaded her up in the ambulance.
Her mom climbed in beside her, and then the double doors shut in his face and they were gone.
“Hospital,” he said to Lucas and headed straight for his truck.
Lucas beat him to it—quite the feat. “I’m driving,” he said.
Since Joe didn’t want to waste time fighting, he took shotgun and then proceeded to backseat-drive Lucas all the way there. “Turn