by Lisa Childs
“Shh...” Abigail replied. “You have nothing—”
“I do,” Fallon said. “If I’d been home tonight instead of at that expo.”
A sob escaped from Farrah, and she began to shake, too. “Oh, my God. That expo was my idea. I made you go.”
Fallon shook her head. “You didn’t make me do anything.” She’d wanted to help her twin promote their decorating business. Big things had been happening for them.
“Shh...both of you,” Abigail said. “What happened tonight was nobody’s fault but the person who pulled that damn trigger. You’re not to blame. Ernie and Alfie are not to blame.”
Fallon thought of her oldest son, of the CEO of Colton Connections. “Heath—”
“It’s certainly not his fault,” his grandmother admonished her.
“No, it’s not,” Fallon said. “But I can’t imagine that he isn’t blaming himself, that he isn’t hurting. And he had to go...” She swallowed the emotion that rushed up again. “...to the morgue. He had to identify them.”
Abigail shuddered. “I’m sorry now. I could have gone. I had the police get Heath instead. I should have—”
“No,” Fallon said. “I wouldn’t have wanted you to go either.”
“But Heath...” Abigail murmured.
“That’s who I’m afraid for,” Fallon admitted. “I’m afraid that he’s all alone and blaming himself.” But when he’d talked to her on the phone, he’d told her that he would come over in the morning. She’d known then that he’d wanted to be alone with his thoughts—with his memories.
That was the last thing Fallon wanted—because she knew once she was alone, the grief and loss would overwhelm her—like it was probably overwhelming her oldest, proudest child right now.
A door opened somewhere in the house. Someone had come here, but she knew it wasn’t Heath. He was too stubborn. Too proud to reach out...
It had to be one of her other children or one of her sister’s children who were just like hers since they’d all grown up together—since she and Ernie and Farrah and Alfie had raised all their kids together on the property they shared, on which they’d built their two houses. The kids were grown now—self-reliant, even Jones, although Ernie hadn’t acknowledged how much their youngest child had matured recently. Now he would never have the chance, never have with his youngest son what he’d had with his oldest son—a close bond of love and mutual respect.
Poor Heath...
Of all her children, he had probably lost the most tonight. His father and uncle and his best friends.
* * *
Heath had wanted to be alone tonight. He’d thought he’d needed to be alone to get so damn drunk that he couldn’t think, that he couldn’t feel...anything.
“Damn you,” Heath murmured, and he rolled onto his side to stare at Kylie who lay next to him in his king-size bed.
A slight smile curved her lips; she was as unrepentant as she was stubborn. “I’m not leaving,” she said. “You shouldn’t be alone right now.”
It was as if she knew what he was going through. She had lost her parents somehow and had come to live with her grandmother. But she’d never talked about how she’d lost them, but Kylie didn’t often talk about herself. She talked about business, like he did. He was the one who introduced the nonbusiness topics into their conversation, like his love life. Whenever he’d asked about hers, she’d claimed that she was too busy to have one.
He really was, too. That was why it hadn’t worked with Gina or with anyone before Gina. He wasn’t going to try to make it work with anyone else, especially now when so much of the business was going to be his responsibility.
While Kylie shared his bed, it was purely platonic, like it had always been between them no matter whatever else Gina might have thought was going on with them. But Heath couldn’t help noticing how beautiful Kylie looked with her hair spread across his pillow like dark silk. She’d taken off that big sweater and wore only a thin camisole that clung to the soft curves of her body. Maybe she’d noticed his staring, or maybe she’d gotten chilled because she pulled up one of his blankets to her chin. But then she said, “Get comfortable. Because I’m not leaving. And you need to talk.”
“I don’t want to talk,” he said.
“That’s a first.”
He chuckled at her teasing. Maybe having her here was better than being alone. He sighed and unbuttoned a few buttons of his dress shirt before shrugging it off. Then he reached for his belt.
“Hey!” she exclaimed. “Just how comfortable are you planning on getting?”
“I usually sleep in the buff,” he lied—because it was his nature to tease her back.
She glared at him. “Then don’t get that comfortable.”
He just took off the belt and the shirt and lay under the covers in his dress pants and socks. It wasn’t as if he was going to be able to sleep anyway.
“Tell me about them,” she said.
“You know them.” Heaviness settling on his heart, he corrected himself, “You knew them.”
“Tell me what I don’t know,” she said. “Tell me about growing up with them. Was your dad always so fun? Your uncle always so shrewd?”
He lay back on his pillow and let the memories flow through his mind and then flow out of his mouth. He shared everything he remembered from his childhood. How his dad and Uncle Alfie had encouraged all his little inventions, how he’d gone to work with them so often that they’d given him his own little workspace on the ninth floor where all the creativity happened.
He shared everything with Kylie, so much so that he must have bored her into falling asleep because when he glanced over at her, her eyes were closed, her lips parted as she breathed softly.
And in watching her sleep, he grew so tired that his eyes wouldn’t stay open either. But moments—or maybe hours—later, a noise startled him awake.
Was she leaving?
He hadn’t wanted her to stay, but now he didn’t want her to leave him alone. “Don’t go,” he murmured. But when he opened his eyes, he found her lying beside him.
Still asleep.
So she wasn’t making the noise he heard this time. Someone else was in the apartment. Before he could throw back the covers to confront the intruder, the person was there, standing in the bedroom doorway.
A curse slipped out of his lips.
If only he’d moved faster. If only he could have prevented the ugliness that was sure to come.
Chapter 3
Kylie had been dreaming of the perfect childhood Heath had described to her—of how he’d tagged along with his dad and uncle to work, of how they had stolen raw dough off the tray before his mother had a chance to bake the cookies, of how loved and happy he was.
Instead of feeling envy over what she’d wished she had, she’d felt only happiness for him, that he’d at least had that before it had all been taken away.
Like her mother had been taken from her.
Those officers dragging her through the apartment door.
Fingers grasped Kylie’s arm, nails digging into her skin, as someone dragged Kylie from the bed. She opened her eyes as a cry of surprise and fear slipped through her lips.
“You bitch! You scheming, backstabbing bitch!” a woman screamed at her, the same woman who was pulling Kylie out of Heath’s king-size bed.
Kylie fell onto the floor as the woman suddenly released her. Her elbow struck the hardwood, eliciting another cry—of pain—from her lips. Through eyes gritty yet with sleep, she looked up to find Heath with his arms around Gina Hogan, holding her back.
How the hell had she gotten inside? Heath must have given her the code, like he had Kylie.
The blonde woman thrashed against him as she strained toward Kylie, her arms flailing. “You bitch! You conniving bitch! I knew you were after him! I knew all your calls and those late nights at the
office had nothing to do with work!”
“Gina!” Heath exclaimed. “You’re wrong, and you’re making a fool of yourself!”
The woman shook her head, swinging her long blond extensions toward Heath’s face. “You made a fool of me. Both of you! Sneaking around behind my back, lying to me—”
“I never lied to you,” Heath insisted. “There’s nothing between me and Kylie. There never was.”
She snorted. “You’re lying right now. I just caught you in bed together!”
“Sleeping,” Heath said. “That’s all we were doing.”
She snorted again.
“It is,” Kylie insisted, but she regretted falling asleep. Her intention had been to be there for Heath, to support and comfort him. She’d failed at that and now her presence here had caused an ugly scene he hadn’t needed to deal with.
“Then you must be horribly disappointed,” Gina said. “You’re so in love with him that you can’t stand him being with anyone else. That’s why you sabotaged my relationship with him. You bitch—”
“Time to go,” Heath said. “I don’t have the patience for this right now.” With his arm around the blonde’s waist, he guided her from the room.
Before Gina passed through the doorway, she turned back and glared venomously at Kylie. Moments later, her voice dripped sugary sweetness as she told Heath, “I came here for you. To comfort you. I’m so sorry about your father and uncle, Heath. Please, let me be the one to help you through this.”
“I appreciate your sympathy,” Heath said. “But I can’t handle the histrionics right now.”
“I didn’t mean to get hysterical,” she said. “It was just seeing you in bed with her and knowing that’s what she’s been scheming for all this time. She’s taking advantage of your grief, Heath.”
He sighed. “Nobody’s taking advantage of me, Gina. Now you need to leave.”
“But Heath—”
“Please, Gina, I don’t want to fight with you, not anymore.” He sounded so weary that he must not have slept much, unlike Kylie.
Heat flushed her face that she’d fallen asleep on him. She was also embarrassed about the wild accusations his ex-girlfriend was throwing around about her. He wouldn’t actually put any credence in what she said, would he?
“I’m sorry, Heath,” Gina said again. Apparently she realized she’d pushed him too far because, without any further remarks, the door opened and closed.
And Heath uttered another weary sigh. He must have run his hands through his hair because when he returned to his bedroom it was all mussed.
“I guess I shouldn’t hold my breath waiting for my apology from her,” Kylie said. Even when Gina had been dating Heath, she had barely managed to be civil to Kylie. And now...
His lips didn’t even twitch into a slight smile, yet alone the grin she’d hoped to induce. “You better leave, too,” he told her with less kindness than with which he’d handled the raving lunatic. But then he’d once admitted to Kylie that he wished he could fall in love with Gina; he had no such feelings beyond friendship with Kylie.
Or didn’t he even consider them friends?
Or had he actually believed any of the outrageous accusations Gina had hurled at her? That she’d schemed to take him away from her?
Kylie tilted her head and studied his handsome face with its tightly clenched jaw and creased forehead. “What’s wrong?”
“What the hell do you think is wrong?” he asked, his voice getting louder as anger bubbled out of him. “My dad and uncle were just murdered, and you won’t leave me the hell alone! I just want to be alone!”
“Hea—”
“Go!” he shouted at her. “Get the hell out of here, Kylie!”
She flinched. For the second time in just minutes, a person was lashing out at her. While Gina had physically hurt her—her elbow and the scratches throbbed still—Heath’s words hurt her worse. All she’d wanted was to help him. But she’d failed in every way. This wasn’t about her, though.
So she drew in a deep breath and forced away her hurt feelings.
This was about him. And she wanted to do what was right for him—whether he knew what that was or not. Gina wasn’t right for him or about anything she’d said about Kylie, either.
Had he actually paid any attention to what Gina had said? Was he thinking now that Kylie was in love with him and was using his grief to get her hooks in him?
If he suspected that it was true, it was no wonder he was trying to throw her out. He wanted a serious relationship about as much as Kylie did—which was not at all.
* * *
She hadn’t deserved that. Heath knew it even before the guilt weighed down his shoulders and settled heavily on his chest. For a second she looked like he’d attacked her as violently as Gina had.
But then Kylie, being Kylie, lifted her chin and forced a slight smile. “You really think you’re irresistible, huh?”
“What?”
“You must believe that crap Gina was spewing about my being in love with you.”
He nearly laughed, felt one actually bubbling up the back of his throat. But he didn’t have the energy to let it out or to let Kylie stay. He was so damn tired. He needed to rest and while he had fallen asleep watching her sleep, his body wasn’t nearly rested enough. Instead it was tense and strangely aware of her. That was why he wanted her gone—before he did something stupid, like actually believe Gina’s accusations, not because Kylie had any designs on him but because he wanted her to...
She was beautiful with her long, dark hair tousled around her bare shoulders, with her delicately featured face and dark eyes. He wanted her.
That was crazy. She was a coworker he wanted to make a partner. A business partner only.
As Heath had told Gina many times, he didn’t mix business and pleasure. And he would never risk a harassment lawsuit by going after an employee of Colton Connections, no matter how beautiful and smart that employee was.
“Why the hell won’t you just go?” he asked, frustration eating away at his patience and his tact.
“Because you need me,” she said.
Now he felt like she’d slapped him, as he drew his head back and gasped. Maybe she thought he had feelings for her—feelings beyond friendship and professional respect. “I—I don’t need anyone.”
“Yes, you do,” she said. “You need me.”
“Gina said you’re in love with me,” he said. “Not the other way around.”
“Gina’s crazy,” she said.
It wasn’t the first time Kylie had said it, but it was probably the first time she’d had a real good reason for saying it. Gina had lost it pretty badly when she’d found them in bed together. But he almost understood her reaction. Gina had loved him, only to have him break her heart because he hadn’t been able to return her love.
“You and I are just friends, and you damn well know that,” Kylie continued. “And you need a friend now more than ever, Heath. So stop pushing me away.”
“If you were really my friend, you would respect my wish for privacy right now, and you’d leave like I’ve asked you to over and over again,” he pointed out, his patience wearing thin with her. And with his sudden awareness of her.
Maybe he was the crazy one.
She shook her head. “You think this is the worst of it?” she asked. “Last night? That’s just the beginning. You have the funeral. The investigation...” Her voice trailed off with a little crack of fear.
What was she scared of?
“You don’t think I know what’s coming?” he asked. “I need to get to my family. I need to get the hell out of here myself, so I just want you to go.”
She picked up her sweater from the foot of the bed and pulled it on over that thin camisole. Then she walked toward him, toward that doorway.
Was she finally leaving?
&n
bsp; Instead of feeling the relief he expected, dread settled heavily into the pit of his stomach. Maybe he didn’t really want her to go. He didn’t want to actually be alone.
But he’d already shared more with Kylie—more of his pain and his memories—than he ever had with anyone else. But then he’d never experienced pain like this before.
What was his mother going through?
He needed to go see her. He should have gone to her last night. But when he saw her, he needed to be strong for her. And he hadn’t been strong last night.
When Kylie walked past him in the bedroom doorway, he curled his hands into fists, so that he wouldn’t reach for her. So that he wouldn’t stop her from leaving. This was what he wanted—to be alone for just a little while before he joined his family.
They were probably all together now.
Everyone but him...
He needed to join the others.
But hell, Kylie was right. He also needed her. And he’d just treated her so damn badly. He’d had no right to lash out at her, no more right than Gina had had. All she’d wanted was to be there for him, as a friend.
And he’d proved to be a crappy one back to her. An unappreciative one.
He was going to need her now, more than ever, as a friend and as a business partner. But had he, in his grief, ruined that friendship?
He couldn’t afford to lose any more right now. He couldn’t handle losing anyone else that mattered to him. And Kylie mattered—damn her.
* * *
Detective Joe Parker spread the crime-scene photos across his desk, studying every angle. The victims had been walking out of the building where their business, Colton Connections, took up two of the twenty floors. A lot of other businesses occupied the building, but these two men had been working the latest, were known to work the latest.
But for the CEO and VP...
Heath Colton and Kylie Givens...
Kylie was just an employee.
Heath was family. Ernest’s son. Alfred’s nephew.
