by Dee J. Adams
Leo’s gaze never wavered from hers as he nodded. “True.” His eyes widened as he clearly thought of something. “Except. Just because it affected me didn’t mean it was meant to. You were supposed to ride Smokey when we finished the shot, remember?”
“But no one there knew that,” she argued. Unless someone had been eavesdropping. But no one on his crew had even met her until that day.
“Your cousin was there. The cousin that got the short end of the stick,” Leo reminded her.
“But I keep telling you he wasn’t even in town when the car accident or the shooting happened.”
“Have the police checked his alibi?” Leo asked.
“Is this a new screenplay you’re writing?” Rex asked, his smile bright.
“Hardly,” Leo replied.
“How about you guys stay here and finish your visit and I’ll go upstairs and talk to the police. Maybe they’ve found something.” She pulled out of Leo’s grip, satisfied that she had a good excuse, but miserable because she missed his heat. Buck up, cowgirl. This ride was about to get a lot lonelier. Because after she talked to the police, she planned to call the airline and see about traveling without her license. If that didn’t work, she’d hang around town until her license arrived and she could fend for herself. Leo wouldn’t be happy about this—hell, she wasn’t happy about it—but staying here only meant more heartache and who wanted that? Not her. That was for damn sure.
Wilson stared at his phone as it faded to black, his heart pumping double time, a smile stretched across his face. “Got you, cousin.” He pocketed his phone and took a steadying breath. Now he needed a plan. His luck was changing. Even if the airlines let Kim travel without ID, all flights into the Midwest were cancelled because of an epic blizzard set to strike. She’d been so preoccupied with shooting those ridiculous scenes and then dealing with Leo in the hospital, she hadn’t been paying attention to the weather in her hometown.
His brilliant cousin wasn’t so smart after all.
Maybe it was time to finesse Plan A and see if he could create a few sparks with sweet cousin Kim. He’d dealt with his fair share of boners growing up with her. He’d never been blind to her looks, but hadn’t seriously considered a possible relationship for obvious reasons. If hooking up didn’t work, then he had to figure out how the hell to make sure she’d need him for the rest of her life without any suspicion coming down on him.
He could pay someone to hurt her. Take a knife to her face and make sure no man would want to be with her. Then he could step in and be the knight in shining armor. The man who wouldn’t care what her face looked like because her bank account more than made up for the lack of looks on her part.
Once she had her ID, she’d be leaving town, which gave him more time to play with once the people here thought she’d gone home. A few texts to the right number back in Indiana saying she planned to stay longer would buy time on that end.
She still hadn’t replaced her phone, so that was two things he needed to do before moving ahead.
His brain circled around the problem. ID, phone, there had to be something he was missing. He had to find someone and had to have an alibi and a time frame. There seemed to be plenty of homeless people in Los Angeles. Anyone of them might be willing to help him out for a little cash.
Wilson shook his head, still grinning, still amazed that Kim had walked right into his arms. Did she have a fight with Leo? Maybe he could score some extra cash on the side with a call to one of those rag magazines.
“Yeah,” Wilson muttered, pacing his small hotel room. He bet those magazines paid good money for information on famous actors. Kim’s profile had already been splashed on one of them a couple months ago, but she’d been described as the blond of the week in a long line of Leo Frost’s women and no one knew who she was. Now they could post the picture again, or Wilson could set up a time and place for another picture and the new headline would have her name and more personal information. Like the fact that she was pregnant with Frost’s kid. Yeah, he liked this idea. Liked it a lot. It might even make the rift between her and Leo bigger and force Kim to confide in him more.
Wait. One glitch sparked in his head. Once Kim got her ID, she’d be out of here, and he needed to keep her dependent on him. Needed to keep her here until he could figure out how to set her up. That snowstorm was only going to last so long.
After checking his watch, Wilson glanced around the room and straightened up a few things. “Hanging with the cousin,” he mused softly. “Nothing like a little family bonding time.” She had told him to give her a couple of hours to break the news to Leo that she was leaving before picking her up. Two hours to figure out how best to deal with Cousin Carolyn. She owed him that inheritance.
Chapter Sixteen
“What? Why?” Leo figured he probably looked like an idiot with wide eyes and slack jaw, but at the moment he didn’t care. At the moment, he felt like someone had drop kicked him like last week’s trash and left him to get run over in the street.
Kim paced in front of him while he sat on the couch. Wearing one of her short black skirts, with a slinky top that outlined her curves and high wedge shoes, she looked like business as usual. With the exception of her wrinkled brow, she might’ve been lecturing him about money. He should’ve known when she said we need to talk that she was about to unload a bomb. Those same four fucking words again. God he hated them. “Because,” she said, in answer to his question. “I need some space.”
Space. Which meant she felt smothered? By him?
Leo shook his head, completely stupefied, but he didn’t argue. “Okay, you need space. I’ll give you plenty of space. I’ll stay out of your way, I won’t talk to you, won’t look at you. But don’t leave.” God, was he begging?
More to the point, was it working?
Her brows slanted down and she definitely looked torn. “Leo, it’s not about that. It’s about…”
He waited, but she couldn’t seem to find the words. Finally she squeezed her eyes shut before meeting his gaze. “I know you mean well and I think you’d try to give me room, but the fact is you and I are very…” She pressed her lips together and shook her head, still struggling for words.
“Combustible?” Leo offered.
“Yes!” She pointed at him and nodded. “Combustible. Good word. No matter how hard we try, we seem to end up horizontal and I don’t… I can’t…” She took a deep breath. “I just need some space.”
So she either didn’t like the sex—which wasn’t the case by her own admission—or was scared of the kind of sex they had. Crazy-good, wreck-the-sheets, blow-the-top-off-the-roof sex. The kind that maybe led to something deeper, something not everyone found every day or sometimes not in a lifetime.
“And you want to get away from me so badly that you’re going to hang out with a cousin who might be trying to kill you?” Leo stood and rubbed the headache that kept gnawing at the back of his neck. The day her cousin Wilson won out over him definitely marked a crappy day.
“I told you, I talked to the detectives and Wilson has an alibi. His buddy in Arizona said he was with him the day of the shooting. The man isn’t a magician. He can’t be in two places at once.”
Leo felt his chest tighten.
“Leo,” she finally said, her eyes so sad that it ripped him up.
What could he say? “I don’t get it?” He faced her, their attraction as strong as any magnet. “What’s wrong with this?” He gestured between them, letting the heat simmer while they stood inches apart. Leo knew with complete certainty that he could kiss her now and have her naked on the sofa in thirty seconds.
Her gaze drifted to his lips and his heart took an unsteady beat. He was two seconds away from making good on his mental threat, but she took a step back. Air cooled the space between them. “Ultimately we want different things, Leo, and if I lose sight of that, I’ll regret it later.”
Different things? Yes, maybe they did, but they also wanted each other and that should count for something. But push
ing her might do more harm than good so Leo gestured to the door. “I don’t want you to go, but I can’t stop you.”
She nodded and avoided eye contact before going upstairs. She came back a couple minutes later with two shopping bags. Presumably all her belongings and everything she had to show for this trip. “It’s not like I won’t be talking to you,” she said. “My license will be delivered here, probably about the same time flights will open up to Indiana. I’ll see you before I leave.”
“Great.” Yeah, he sounded pissed, but he couldn’t help it. He was pissed. She was willing to forgo time together because…because… “Let me get this straight. You’re leaving because even though I told you I’m going to be part of this baby’s life, you’re afraid of us?” He gestured between them.
She shook her head, which turned into a shrug, which became a look of pain so clear in her eyes, it crushed him even more.
Someone knocked on the door.
Wilson.
Shit. Leo needed more time. He was a master at persuasion given the right circumstances.
Kim skittered away like if she didn’t move, she might change her mind. “Hi,” she said after opening the door to her cousin.
“Hey!” He had his hands in his pockets and looked like the cool operator he thought himself to be. Leo didn’t necessarily dislike the guy, especially after all the trouble he’d gone to in Las Vegas, but watching that GQ smile only pissed him off more. He looked too put together in his blue polo shirt, khakis and round glasses.
Leo wanted to punch the enthusiasm off his face. This time his ego took a solid shot in the solar plexus. He shouldn’t be jealous simply because the guy was her family, but that nasty emotion swirled in his gut anyway.
“I’m ready,” Kim said, her smile forced. Her real smile stretched wide and beautiful. This one looked as if she’d sucked a couple of lemons. She turned to him. “I’ll give you a call a little later.”
Leo nodded. The whatever on his tongue stayed firmly behind his lips. He doubted anything civil would come out of his mouth at this point anyway.
“Okay. Thanks. Bye.” She scrambled out of the house in a blur of streaming blond hair, the door closing firmly behind her.
Leo caught the surprise on Wilson’s face at the quick departure, but he didn’t argue. He just followed Kim like a stray dog waiting for attention.
Like the sap he was, Leo watched Kim load her bags into the back seat of Wilson’s rental. Before sliding into the passenger seat, she glanced up. For a second, Leo wished he hadn’t been at the window, but the pain he saw in Kim’s eyes mirrored his own. He thought he’d hit bottom a couple of times already, but the hollowed out feeling in his gut told him he’d just found a new bottom.
“Fine,” he muttered, heading to his phone. He had a shitload of work and a film to distribute and if everything went according to plan, he’d be back on his feet, with or without Kim, in no time.
A stupid thing. A real stupid thing to look back at the house and see the hurt in Leo’s eyes. Kim never intended to hurt him. Very much the opposite. She wanted to make him happy. She wanted to comfort him any way she could, including under the sheets, which was what made it impossible to stay. No matter how many times her heart told her to get comfortable and stick around, her head knew better.
Leo had too much stacked against him. His reputation, yes, but mostly his opinion on her pregnancy. She couldn’t look back on her decision. Couldn’t regret it. Her peace of mind—and maybe the state of her heart—depended on it.
“So, what do you want to do?” Wilson’s question prodded her out of her thoughts.
“Do?”
“Yeah?” He glanced at her as he drove the winding canyon toward the city.
She wanted her driver’s license so she could go home and resume her life without Leo—and God, that thought killed her—but it wasn’t what he meant. “I thought you had your conference?”
“It’s optional.”
“Optional?” Did that mean he didn’t plan to go? “I thought this was a business thing. Don’t you have to learn new things and report back to work?”
“All the handouts come in a conference binder.” Wilson checked his rearview mirror. “I don’t have to go to any of them if I don’t want to. Everything I need is in the handouts.”
“Why bother coming to the conference if you’re not going to attend any of the seminars or workshops? Or take part in the networking?” Maybe she was more like her Aunt Carolyn than she thought because the lack of ambition on Wilson’s part had her bristling. Carolyn had mentioned on more than one occasion that she thought Wilson thought he could get by on his looks.
He glanced at her as if she was dense. “I can’t get the handouts if I don’t sign up for the conference. Duh.”
Kim bit her tongue—literally—to keep from snapping a surly reply. Who spent a week in a hotel for a conference they didn’t plan to attend? Sure, he’d been to a couple of meetings, but nothing that required the amount of money he’d probably shelled out.
That piece of information swirled around in her head. Had the conference been a convenient way for him to be closer to her? To buddy up or be around in case she needed help. Or—what if—there was no conference to begin with and he’d come in just to find a way to get closer to her? That seemed crazy.
Wilson had been like this in Tucson, too, before she’d flown back home. Maybe she should just ask him point blank if he needed money. But even as the thought flickered in her head, she knew the door that would open and the mistake it would be. He’d take it as an opportunity to ask whenever he needed something and her patience would wear thin real fast. And what about her idea of just giving him part of the inheritance? That idea didn’t sit well with her only because it went against Carolyn’s wishes. What if she knew something Kim didn’t about Wilson’s gambling. Maybe he hadn’t stopped despite saying he had. The possibilities swirled in her brain.
“How much longer is the conference?” He’d have no reason to stay once it ended.
“It ended yesterday,” he said.
“What?” She faced him. That was a very convenient answer in case there had never been a conference to begin with. “Then why are you still in town? Don’t you have to get back to work?”
“They can wait a few days. I told them I had a family emergency. I do,” he said, after glancing at the surprise on her face. “You need me until your ID gets here. You’re the only family I have, I’m not going to leave you stranded in a big city.” He adjusted his shoulders as if he’d been affronted. “I know what’s important in life. Family. And you and I are all that’s left. We need to stick together.”
If he meant to make her feel guilty, he’d done a pretty good job of it.
The rest of the drive to the hotel stayed fairly quiet. “Is there anything you need?” Wilson asked as he pulled into the parking lot. “Oh, a phone, right?” he said, answering the question. “We can set your stuff in the room and head to a phone store.”
“We could if I had my license. I doubt they’re going to let me buy a phone without ID for my credit card.”
“We can try. And if they don’t, then I’ll pay for it.”
She shook her head and opened her mouth, but he cut her off.
“Don’t argue with me. You’ll pay me back. I’m not doing it out of the goodness of my heart. You need a phone, so you should at least get one while we wait for your ID.”
It was hard to argue with his logic. She did need a phone and she could pay him back. It was the IOU factor that made her itchy. Carolyn’s wording in her will popped up in Kim’s head. I know that’s why you started sucking up to me. How could she not think of it?
Nevertheless, after dropping her bags in the room, they headed out for a new phone. As she suspected, Kim couldn’t purchase the phone without ID and Wilson shelled out his credit card to the tune of several hundred dollars, making Kim feel like she’d just crossed some kind of invisible line.
The good thing about getting a ne
w phone was the solitude she got while setting it up and adding all the contacts she could remember. Instead of waiting with Wilson in his room until a room of her own was ready, she sat in a corner of the no frills hotel lobby.
An overwhelming urge to text Leo had her pressing her lips together in doubt. “Don’t be stupid,” she muttered to herself. It wasn’t like she didn’t plan to ever talk to him again. She just needed space. She punched a quick message. Hi. Got a new phone. Same number as before. Will stay in touch so I can pick up my ID when it arrives. How did she sign off? Catch you later.
Part of her felt guilty for leaving him when he was still dealing with his concussion, but her emotional survival depended on her ability to stay strong, to stay independent. Independence meant she needed to rent a car. Or needed Wilson to rent one for her because she refused to let him be a taxi service until she left town. It was just one more thing she’d owe him, but at this point she didn’t care.
Wilson stretched out on his bed, waiting for Carolyn to return from the lobby. He’d listened to the maids cleaning through the thin walls and called the front desk to make sure Carolyn got the adjoining room instead of one farther away. He had her now, so close. Right at his fingertips. No need to chase her or worry about the next time he’d see her. God, he hadn’t felt this liberated in months. Too many months.
It was just so damn hard to wait to have to deal with her. He wasn’t even sure he’d get his hands on her inheritance if he had to dispose of her, but it was worth the try. Because he knew damn well the only way he’d see a dime of it if while she lived was to create a bond that went past the type of family dynamic they usually shared. It wasn’t unheard of. Cousins hooked up in a lot of places in the country.
So what did they do in the days until the mail arrived with her precious driver’s license? Sight see? Shop? He doubted Carolyn would let him pay for more than the necessities, which meant they had a lot of nothing in their future. But, who knew…maybe with a few days to get to know each other better, his dear cousin would have a change of heart and give him everything he wanted.
