Jill Shalvis - Flashback

But she knew before she even finished her sentence that he was gone. But who was he? A friend of Blake’s? “Dammit.”

“Shh!” everyone around her hissed.

Yeah, yeah, fine. But the prickle in the back of her neck hadn’t gone away. She got to her feet and moved to the end of the aisle, peeking around the corner just in time to catch sight of the back of a guy running away. No red shirt this time but she knew it was the same guy she’d seen at the hospital. She hightailed it after him, but when she got to the other end of the aisle, she plowed directly into the librarian.

“No running in the library!”

“Sorry.” Kenzie stepped around her, but it was too late. Her helpful mysterious caller was gone. She turned back to the librarian. “Can I use an online computer?”

“You have to sign up.”

“Okay, where?”

“We’re closing in half an hour, and the computers are in use until then. How about the morning?”

“Fine.” She’d spend tonight going through the boat and Blake’s place for anything that could help her. Then she’d borrow Aidan’s computer-if he let her-or come back here to prove that Blake had been set up. Because that was the only answer she was willing to accept.

Someone had framed him, was still framing him.

And she was going to find out who.

AT THE STATION, Aidan was run ragged by one call after another. Near the end of the shift, his unit was called out to a secondary fire at the hardware store, where the explosion from two days ago had killed Tracy. Looking at the scene woke Aidan right up. The new fire wasn’t from any smoldering spark left over from the explosion. No way. This fire had been set.

Purposely.

In a wire mesh trash can.

Tommy was already there, and at the look on Aidan’s face, shook his head. “Don’t start.”

“Arson.”

“I said don’t start.”

“Let me guess. We’re not going to have this conversation.”

“Bingo.” Tommy sounded extremely tense. “And this time I’ll tell you why.” He got up in Aidan’s face.

“Because I’m close, okay? I’m very, very close to finishing this. So you need to let me do just that. Got it?”

Aidan didn’t see that he had a choice. Later, back at the station, he stretched out on the station couch, closing his bleary eyes, needing to think.

Somehow it was all connected, he just knew it…He fell asleep trying to piece it all together, and then dreamed of a certain hot, curvy, sweet woman. A hot, curvy, sexy woman who happened to also be a thief.

He woke up when someone sat on him.

And then bounced on him.

Opening his eyes, he met Cristina’s frowning ones. “Trying to sleep here.”

“No, you’re not. Your eyes are open.”

“Watch this.” He closed them again.

She bounced again, a maneuver that threatened to break his legs. “How’s Blake’s sister?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“Because you’re sleeping with her. Is she okay?”

He shook his head. “How? How do you know what I barely know?”

“Rumor mill.” Her derisive humor hid her misery. Cristina was hurting. Hurting over losing Blake, her partner. Hurting over somehow blowing it with Dustin. She was so hard on the outside that they all forgot how soft and sensitive she was deep inside. She’d loved Blake like a brother, and cared about Kenzie by default.

“How is she, Aidan?”

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly.

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“She hasn’t returned my phone calls.”

“So you’re losing your touch, too.” She broke off, momentarily distracted when Dustin walked into the room.

The tall, tough-bodied, soft-hearted EMT pushed up his glasses, glanced at Cristina and a muscle jumped in his jaw.

Cristina didn’t appear to breathe. Five agonizing seconds passed, and finally, she looked away first.

Dustin merely sighed.

The two of them had been doing some kind of emotional tap dance for weeks now. Dustin said he wanted more. Cristina said she didn’t.

Now the tension in the room was so thick Aidan could hardly even see them anymore. “Hey, here’s an idea. You two could lust after each other in secret and then ignore each other in person. Because it’s not awkward at all.”

“Shut up, Aidan.” Cristina sent a glare in Dustin’s direction, one that said you’re an idiot.

Without a word, Dustin walked away, into the kitchen.

Cristina expelled a low breath.

“Looks like I’m not the only one losing my touch,” Aidan noted. “What did you do?”

“How do you know I did something?”

“Please.”

Cristina sighed. “He’s got his panties all unraveled because I went out with an ex.”

“Ouch.”

“No. No ouch. It was just dinner for God’s sake. No biggee.”

“Yeah. But it was dinner with a guy you’ve gotten naked with.”

She shrugged, but dejection had settled over her pretty features. “Whatever.”

“Cristina.”

“I told you, it was just dinner.” She got off of his legs, making sure to get an elbow in his gut. “And if he can’t see that then screw him.”

“Why don’t you just talk to him? Tell him the truth?”

“Talking isn’t what I want.” She headed outside, slamming the door as she went.

Aidan’s cell rang and he leaped for it, hoping for Kenzie, but he got Tommy instead.

“Might want to get down to county,” the inspector said in an undecipherable tone.

“Why?”

“Because I had your girlfriend arrested.”

“You arrested Kenzie?”

“You have another girlfriend I don’t know about?”

“She’s not my-” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “What the hell happened?”

“She’s in for trespassing and interfering with a crime scene, so you figure it out. You don’t control your women very well.”

“She’s not my woman!”

“Either way, I’d hurry. Oh, and get your checkbook. This date’s going to cost you big.”

JAIL WASN’T NEARLY as adventurous as it’d been that time Kenzie had been arrested on her soap. Then she’d had a costume director and a makeup artist. Oh, and nice, soft, flattering lights. Plus she’d been able to walk off the set when the director had yelled “cut”, and had sipped her iced tea and laughed it all off.

No such luxuries today.

Real life sucked.

She was given her phone call-which went to her attorney, who promised to work on getting her out. With Kenzie’s own checkbook, of course.

After several hours in a holding cell, during which she contemplated the odd and unwelcome turn her life had taken, and also chewed on a few nails, she was handed her see-through baggie of personal belongings-that was twice in two days-and shown the door.

Standing in front of it wasn’t her attorney, but her own gorgeous, personal savior.

Aidan was dressed in his firefighter uniform, which told her he’d come right from the job. He still wore his firefighter badass expression, too, and was looking more than a little bit temperamental as well.

Yeah. Not exactly thrilled to see her.

Nor was she thrilled to see him.

Okay, so a little part of her was. The bad girl part of her, which reared its horny head and begged Oh, please can we have him just one more time?

She ignored that and her quivery belly, and tried to brush past him.

“What, no thank you?” He shifted so that she was forced to bump into him.

Backing up, she put her hands on her hips and sent him a glare as mean as she could conjure up after a few hours spent in jail. “I didn’t call you.”

“Yeah. I noticed.”

There were several people milling around, all from a different part of society than she was used to. The guy closest to her might have been fifty, or a hundred and fifty, it was hard to tell with the multitude of hats and coats he was wearing, despite it being summer. He pulled out a cigarette and a match, and even though she saw it coming, when he struck the match to the matchbox and the little whoosh hit her ears, she cringed.

Aidan was there in a second, holding her steady, which only further embarrassed her. “Easy.”

“Damn.” She let out a shaky breath. “What is that?”

“Post traumatic-”

She waggled a finger in his face. “Don’t say it.”

“-stress. Why didn’t you call me, Kenzie?”

“Who did?”

“Tommy.”

“Rat-fink bastard.” It was coming back to her, her childhood here-the small town mentality, the utter lack of secrets, the way everyone stuck their nose in everyone else’s business. She’d had enough of that from her early years to last her a lifetime.

She and Blake had been kept together as they’d gone into the child care protective services, where they’d landed in a total of three foster homes, each as kind and as warm as they could possibly be, and for that she was more than grateful, she was also lucky-but she’d never really settled into any of them. She didn’t tend to settle, didn’t tend to get comfortable; it was what had made her so certain Aidan was the one.

Look how that had blown up in her face.

When she’d gone off to Los Angeles and begun acting, she’d found heaven. Pretending to live someone else’s life, already all scripted out? Perfect. She’d loved it. Still loved it.

But a small part of her knew that she couldn’t always rely on a script. That at some point she would have to wing it. She’d eventually need a life, a real one, and she’d always figured that life would somehow be entwined with her brother’s, maybe even right here in Santa Rey…

But now there was nothing for her here, nothing except proving Blake’s innocence.

Aidan caught her arm as she stepped outside. She yanked free and he put up his hands, letting her step away from him as they walked outside. He leaned a hip against a tree, looking big and tall and attitude-ridden as he eyed her like she was a lit fuse.

His hair had been finger-combed at best. She could smell soap and man, and the potent mix of testosterone and pheromones boggled her mind. If she lived to be two hundred years old, she’d never understand her attraction to him. Back in her L.A. world, she had access to dozens of gorgeous men. Hundreds.

But while some had been nice dalliances, none of them had ever really gotten anywhere. Probably because a good number of the men she met were like her.

Pretend.

Not Aidan. He lived life with his eyes wide open, no script needed. His job demanded a lot of him, and he was tough because of it, but he hadn’t ever shied away from something just because it was hard. Except for her.

“Thanks for bailing me out,” she conceded.

“Need a ride to your car? Or are you going to manage that on your own, too?”

The sun was warm and bright, and she stood still in it for a moment, tilting her head up to it, inhaling deeply. Then she turned to the man who had once been her everything. Whether she liked it or not-and for the record, she didn’t-he could still stop her heart, make her pulse race, and worst of all, make her hormones stand up and shimmy. “Yeah. A ride would be great, if you don’t mind.”

He let out a sound that told her what he thought of that, and took her to his truck.

“About that ride…” She slowed, dragging her feet. “Everything’s still booked. Maybe there’s something-”

“You know where there’s something.” He turned on the engine and pulled out of the lot. “At my place.”

“Yeah.” She shook her head. “No.”

“Yeah no?”

She sighed. “It’s just that staying with you seems like a whole lot of trouble I don’t want to face.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to lead you on.”

“I thought you enjoyed exacting your revenge on my body.”

With more than a slight twinge of regret and, dammit, guilt, she avoided his gaze.

“Come on, Kenz, be honest. You’re not afraid of hurting me. You’re afraid you’ll get hurt.”

Wasn’t that the plain ugly truth.

“You made sure I understood that you’d changed,” he said softly, looking over at her for a beat before returning his attention to the road. “Now you have to understand something. I’ve changed as well.”

Yes. Yes, he had.

“Look, you wanted to know what happened all those years ago?” he asked. “I got scared, that’s what the hell happened. I’d always lived my life without letting people inside my heart, where they could hurt me. But you got in, and, yeah, that terrified me. You’re doing it again, by the way, getting in, and I’m not any more thrilled about it now than I was then.”

Something warm slid through her at his words, and the low, rough tone in which they were spoken. Warm, and dangerously seductive.

He pulled into his driveway and shut off the engine, turning in his seat to face her. “You’ll have to make do without the five-star rating.” He paused a beat. “Although there are certain five-star services I do offer.”