Stephanie Rowe - The Sharpest Edge

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.