Flashback Read online

  “And now we’re not. It doesn’t change anything except we’re older, and actually, it’s going to hurt more.” Jaw tight, she shook her head again and looked at the screen. “This first. Blake first. He’s far more important than rehashing old emotions that I don’t really want to have.” She worked the keyboard. “There. He’s not on the schedule there, either, but he called me from the station. I know because it was my birthday, see? And he called me at 6:00 a.m. to catch me before work, but I didn’t have an early morning shoot that day, and I was irritated that he woke me up. I’d been up late the night before celebrating.”

  “With Chad?”

  She swiveled her eyes in his direction. “Actually, Teddy. Teddy White.”

  “Wasn’t he on People’s Most Beautiful list?”

  “How do you know that?”

  He knew it only because someone had stolen the porn out of the station bathroom, and Cristina had left her People magazine in there in its place, and—And Christ. He was crazy. “Never mind.”

  “It was just a one-night thing.”

  Oh, great. Even better. Now he could picture them having one-night sex, and—

  “He’s a friend.”

  A friend, as in someone who’d pulled her out of a fire? Someone who’d bail her out of jail?

  “Yeah,” she said softly. “I realize the word friend is a loose term, especially in Hollywood. Not like here.”

  “Do you miss it? Hollywood?”

  She opened her mouth, then closed it and sighed. “I almost said yes, out of habit. The job is fun and the pay is amazing, but…” She lifted a shoulder. “It’s empty. And I didn’t really get that until I was here, either.”

  He tried to sort out his feelings regarding this revealing fact.

  “And, anyway, it no longer matters.” She turned back to the screen. “It’s over.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My soap got cancelled.”

  “It did?”

  “Yeah, and there are auditions for new parts but I’ve been eating too many donuts, so…”

  “So…what?”

  “So I’m going to get fat.”

  He let out a low laugh. “You look great, Kenzie. So great I haven’t been able to keep my hands off you, as you might have noticed. But I’m very sorry about your job.” He couldn’t believe he was going to say this. “You could always stay in Santa Rey.”

  “I thought about it.” She sighed and faced him again. “But staying seems like a comfort thing. You know, like going back to the last place where I was happy. It’s a cop-out. And I was only happy here because of Blake.”

  He held his breath. He’d made her happy, too. Until he hadn’t. “Maybe it was more than that.”

  “I don’t know.” She sighed without giving away her exact feelings on the matter, although he suspected she didn’t know her exact feelings. “I wouldn’t be able to get a job here.”

  “I know they don’t film TV or movies anywhere close, but you could do something other than act.”

  She scoffed, then looked at him with heart-breaking hope. “Like what?”

  “You know what. You could write. And eat all the damn donuts you want.”

  She just looked at him for a long moment, until he nearly squirmed. “What?”

  “I’d have thought you’d be holding open the door for me to get the hell out of Dodge.”

  “Yeah, well, that was the old me.”

  “Well the new me is here to get Blake’s name cleared. That’s it.”

  “And also to stomp on my heart. Don’t forget that part.”

  “I won’t.” She sighed. “Except I’d really rather get out of here without hurting you at all.” With no idea that she’d just stunned him to his core, she leaned in close to see the screen better. A strand of her hair got stuck to the stubble on his jaw. It smelled good.

  She smelled good.

  It was all he could do not to bury his face in the rest of her hair and say things that would lead her back to his bed but not really get them anywhere. In fact, he’d opened his mouth to do just that when she spoke.

  “Look.” She pointed to where Blake had entered another note:

  Not noted in any of the official investigation reports is the fact that the source for the wire mesh trash cans is the hardware store where Tracy works.

  Kenzie frowned and turned her head to look at Aidan, who had gone still in sudden shock. “The Tracy who…”

  “Died.” Aidan managed to find his vocal cords. “Yeah. They dated a couple of times. He really liked her.”

  “Really? He told me he’d gone out with Tracy, but he never said how much he liked her.”

  “Maybe he didn’t tell you everything.”

  “He did,” she insisted. “We told each other everything.”

  “Kenzie, you didn’t tell him when we were going out. Maybe—”

  “No.” She shook her head. “You’re going to say he kept secrets. That he kept the arsons a secret, but he wouldn’t have—He wouldn’t have done this, Aidan. Tracy being killed, well that’s got to be a terrible coincidence.”

  “I’m beginning to believe that nothing’s a coincidence. Look at the next entry.”

  Tracy’s going to get me a list of people who’ve purchased the trash cans, but she has to wait until the weekend when her boss isn’t in.

  The next entry didn’t clear anything up, but made it all worse.

  Got the list, and holy shit. Blood is thicker than water. Got to remember that…

  Kenzie’s fingers dug into Aidan’s arm. “What does that mean, ‘blood is thicker than water’? He’s written that twice now.”

  Aidan frowned and shook his head. “I wish I knew.”

  He’s onto me. Need to be damn careful now.

  “Who’s onto him?” Kenzie stood up and paced the length of the bedroom. “God. Whoever he’s talking about, do you think…?”

  Yeah. Yeah, he did. Blake had gotten himself into hot water with someone. And that someone had either been his partner in crime, or, as Aidan was coming to believe, it was the person whom Blake had been privately, quietly, investigating on his own.

  And if that was true, and Blake had been a victim, then this other person had not only been an arsonist, but also a murderer.

  Aidan’s cell phone chirped with a message that he was needed at work, ASAP.

  “Go,” she murmured. “It’s okay. I’m just going to go through all of this and see what else I can find.”

  “Stay here.”

  Her gaze slid to his.

  “Kenzie…” How to say this without sounding like a complete idiot? There was no way to sugarcoat it, so he decided to just let it out. “I have a bad feeling.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “You, the most pragmatic, logical, cool person I know, have a bad feeling?”

  “Go with me on this.”

  “You think I’m in danger,” she said flatly.

  He didn’t just think it, he knew it. Only he couldn’t explain how or why, and that was going to drive him crazy, along with worrying and wondering where she was and if she was okay.

  And safe.

  And alive.

  “Aidan, I’m not going to hole up here. That’s ridiculous. Besides, no one knows what I’m doing.”

  “You were arrested, Kenzie. Everyone knows what you’re doing.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  Short of tying her up, which had a most interesting vision popping into his head, what could he do? “Promise me you’ll be careful.”

  She looked at him for a long moment, her hair still crazy from his fingers, her shirt crooked, her feet bare, looking like a hot mess.

  A hot mess he wanted in his life.

  “I thought we weren’t going to do the promise thing,” she said. “Not ever again.”

  “Promise me,” he said again.

  “Don’t worry.” She backed away from him, her face so carefully blank. “I intend to be careful and smart, and I intend to get out of here unsca