“Blood is thicker than water,” she repeated. “Who is he talking about? We have no family. At least no family who cares about us, anyway.”
He hated the look on her face, the faraway, distant, self-protective look she got whenever she had to talk about her past. There was no doubt, she and Blake had had it rough growing up, being shuffled from one foster home to another. The saving grace was that they’d been kept together. It was what had made their bond so strong-they’d been all each other had had. “Is there possibly a blood relative somewhere?”
“A few, scattered here and there across the country. A great-aunt in Florida, an uncle in Chicago, a cousin in Dallas…” She crossed her arms, closing him out mentally and physically. “Just no one who wanted us.”
Gently he turned her to face him. “Could he be talking about you, then?”
“Definitely not. We were in touch all during that time, but we never had a conversation about any of this.”
Aidan went back to reading the entries, one of which mentioned employee hours. Copies of the schedules were attached. So was Blake keeping track of his alibi, or someone’s whereabouts?
Blake had somehow gotten Tommy’s first official reports on the arsons as well. Aidan and Kenzie discovered that he hadn’t been on duty at any of the suspicious fires, a fact that Tommy had apparently considered evidence since it left Blake without an alibi for when the fires had been lit. Aidan scrolled down the list.
“Whoa, stop.” Kenzie pointed to the second fire. “There. That one can’t be right. He had an alibi for that one, he was with me. He’d come to Los Angeles that week. I remember because he was my date for the Emmys. He flew home immediately after, catching a red-eye because he said he had to be back at work for an early shift.”
“Okay.” Aidan pulled up the employee schedule for that day. “But he’s not listed as on duty.”
Kenzie stared at the screen, shaking her head. “He wouldn’t have lied to me.”
She said this with utter sincerity, and Aidan was inclined to absolutely believe because she believed. But if Blake hadn’t lied to Kenzie, then there was only one other explanation.
“The schedule got changed?” she asked.
“It could have happened. Someone traded. Or-”
“Or something physically changed the schedule after the fact,” she said flatly. “And Blake isn’t here to defend himself.”
“No, but we are.” He was looking at the screen, until he realized that she wasn’t. She was staring at him. “What?”
Her eyes were shimmering brilliantly with anger and something else, a deep, gut-wrenching emotion. “I didn’t think it was possible.” Her voice sounded thick. “I didn’t want it to be possible. Oh, God.” She covered her face. “This is so stupid.”
“What?” He looked at the screen again, trying to figure out what she was talking about. “What’s stupid?”
“That I could like you more than last time.”
The words reached him as little had in all these years. “Kenz.” Melting, he pulled down her hands. “I-”
She put a finger in his face. “Don’t get excited. I don’t want to feel this way, and I’m telling you right now I am going to fight feeling this way.”
His heart was squeezed tighter than a bow. “We were just kids, Kenz.”
“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.”