“How could anyone think you would do something like that?”
“I’m a defense attorney, Kat,” he said. “I’ve made my share of enemies in this town over the years.”
“But you would never… hurt someone, anyone, like that! You wouldn’t do that to Kandi and you certainly wouldn’t have killed her.” I was horrified, my mind trying to wrap itself around the fact that the police would consider Blane a serious suspect. “What’s going to happen?”
Blane gently pried open my clenched fist and resumed rubbing the salve on my palm. “If my source at the precinct is correct, they’ll work with my lawyer first and then come by here to question me. If I go downtown, it’ll be all over the news. We’ll see if they’ll agree so we can avoid the media circus getting any worse.”
Stunned, I couldn’t think of what to say. This was rapidly turning into a nightmare.
“Could they arrest you?” I asked.
Blane’s eyes met mine and he didn’t answer. He didn’t have to.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it. They suspected Blane strongly enough to question him, possibly arrest him?
“Your hands are like ice,” he murmured, squeezing my hands inside of his.
“I can’t believe this,” I whispered. “It’s… insane.” And I was scared. Scared for Blane.
“Everything will be okay,” he said.
Kade had said that, too, but I didn’t know if I believed either of them.
“Kat, the last time we talked, while you were in Vegas, you were really angry,” Blane said carefully. “And I deserved everything you said. I… underestimated my uncle’s aspirations for me. And the thing is, I believed the lies because I’ve seen you and Kade together. I know my brother better than anyone, and I’ve never seen him fall for a woman. Not like he’s fallen for you.”
I listened, barely breathing.
“So I need to know.” He raised his eyes to meet mine. “Are you and I truly finished? Is what we had gone for good?”
My heart was racing as though I was running a marathon and panic made me break out in a cold sweat. I couldn’t deal with this right now. Kade and I had nearly gotten burned alive. The police were coming to question Blane about Kandi’s murder. And Blane wanted to have a talk about the status of our relationship? It seemed absurd to me.
I jumped to my feet. “Blane, I don’t think now is the right time to talk about this,” I said, pulling my hands from his and backing toward the door.
He stood, moving closer until he towered over me. I swallowed, memories threatening to overwhelm me. Given the path the conversation had suddenly taken, I wondered if Blane bringing me into his bedroom had been intentional, if he knew exactly how much standing inches from where we’d first made love would affect me.
“Give me something, Kat,” he rasped. “Please. Just tell me if you still love me.”
His gray eyes held me captive and I couldn’t look away, their depths filled with pain and sorrow. Another woman might have been glad to see Blane hurting. He’d hurt me, after all. But I couldn’t stand it, so I told him the truth.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”
Relief flashed across his face, then he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. I held him around his waist and rested my head against his chest, listening to the strong sound of his heart beating.
My emotions were teetering on a ledge, my love for Blane warring with the guilt I was carrying around inside. It was wrong of me to lead him on. But if he knew what had happened between Kade and me, he’d never forgive me. And I couldn’t face that yet. I’d just gotten him back in some small degree and couldn’t handle the thought of another fallout between us—one that, this time, would be permanent.
The guilt gnawed at my heart, which made me hold him even more tightly. His shirt grew damp beneath my cheek and when he forced my chin to tip up, I couldn’t look him in the eye, so stared at a spot on his neck instead.
“Don’t cry, Kat,” he said, his words a pained whisper. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”
But it wouldn’t be okay. It really, really wouldn’t. Not with Kade, who was determined to disappear from my life, and not with Blane, who I loved but couldn’t trust.
My anger and bitterness over what Blane had done had finally dissipated, but without it, I felt even emptier than I had before.
I had to be at work soon, and my uniform was in my burned-out apartment. I called Tish to see if she had an extra I could borrow.
“Oh, not to worry—we have new uniforms for the Fourth,” she informed me.
My heart sank. “Oh no.”
“Oh yes.”
“Are they as bad as the Santa ones?”
“Think Daisy Duke meets Wonder Woman.”
I groaned. Good Lord, I couldn’t even imagine what that was, and it turned out that even if I’d been able to, it wouldn’t have come close to the real thing.
I turned around to see exactly how much of my ass was hanging out of the cut-off denim shorts Romeo had bought for us. They were even shorter than the ones he usually made us wear in the summer. The employees’ bathroom mirror said way too much. The shirt was like Daisy’s, tying between my breasts, but one side was red-and-white striped while the other was navy blue with little white stars. At least the shirt had short sleeves, so I knew it would stay on, but the plunging neckline left little to the imagination. Though the bare midriff and stomach didn’t bother me—my broken-heart diet had taken care of that—my chest appeared immune to weight loss.
I sighed. Well, here was hoping the getup helped with tips.
It was a good hour or more into my shift when I turned from one side of the bar to work the other and saw Kade walking in the door.
He’d changed into jeans and another of his ubiquitous black T-shirts, and he was just taking off his sunglasses when he spotted me. His hand paused for a fraction of a moment, then he was heading my way.
A stupid grin spread across my face and my pulse quickened. Ridiculous, how glad I was to see him, but I couldn’t help it.
“Hey,” I said as he slid onto an empty barstool. “How’s your back?”
“I told you to go to Blane’s,” he said. “Nowhere else.”
His voice was hard and flat, his eyes sparking with anger.
My smile faded. “I did, but I had to come to work.”
“I would have brought you, or Blane.”
“You weren’t there.” And I wasn’t going to relate how I’d snuck by Blane’s den to avoid an uncomfortable car ride. I was getting angry. Here I’d been all happy to see him and he had to go and ruin it. “Stop yelling at me and have a drink.” I popped the top off a beer bottle and set it in front of him.
Kade glowered at me and I raised an eyebrow, waiting. At last he sighed and reached for the beer. Taking a swig, he eyed me.
“Looks like your ribs are better,” he said.
I looked down at the expanse of skin revealed by my “patriotic” uniform. “Yeah, guess so.” The marks were yellowish now, hardly visible in the low light of the bar.
“Better not come home in that outfit,” he said. “Blane will have a shit fit.” The words were said casually, but his eyes were keen.
I stiffened. “It doesn’t matter what Blane thinks,” I said. “He doesn’t control me.” I felt absurdly like a rebellious teenager: He’s not the boss of me.
“Doesn’t he?”
“Is that what you think?”
Kade gave a deceptively casual shrug and took another drink of beer. “I brought you back because he needed you.”
His words stung. “What about what I need?”
Kade’s eyes held mine. “That’s something only you can decide.”
I had to go back to work then, but Kade stayed. He switched to coffee after the beer, and I could feel his eyes on me as I worked. Too vivid memories of his hands on me—of all we’d done in his bed—made me acutely aware of him.