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Not exactly the utopia of her youth. That utopia was a mirage she’d never fall for again. Behind those moments of laughter, Joyce had been suffering and no one had realized it. Even now, Kim was the only one who really knew why her mom had killed herself, thanks to the letter Joyce had mailed right before she ended her life.
A letter that would haunt Kim forever.
She nodded at one of the maintenance guys on his way out of the office, the logo on his shirt identifying him. A giggle caught her attention and she turned in time to see one of the female employees latch on to his beefy arm and guide him in the direction of the laundry facilities.
Yeah, when Kim had been young, she’d lusted after the maintenance guys, too. Today, she only noticed their muscles and assessed how hard they’d be able to hit their wives.
Was she messed up or what?
She stepped inside the screened porch foyer and saw two strangers working the front desk. That was where her mom had spent her days, enjoying the contact with the guests and the outside world they represented.
Now it was a guy in his late twenties wearing a tight, black T-shirt that showed off his well-developed upper body, and a slightly older woman with blond hair pulled into two pigtails. They were arguing about something, and the woman seemed to be winning.
Kim was all in favor of avoiding both of them, but her dad’s office was behind the reception desk. She cleared her throat, trying not to feel like a stranger in the place that had been her home. “Hello.”
They ignored her and kept bickering.
“Hey!” What was up with this? For all they knew, she was a guest. Having the staff arguing in front of her was hardly what her parents would have allowed. It was as if anarchy had taken over now that Max wasn’t around.
The woman spun toward her, plastering a cheery smile on her face in an amazing metamorphosis. “Good morning and welcome to the Loon’s Nest. May I help you?”
“I’m…Max Collins’s daughter, Kim.”
The woman’s eyes snapped wide open and she clapped a hand to her mouth. “Oh!” Then she dropped her hand. “I’m so sorry about your dad. Such a nice man.”
“Yeah, I know.” And no, I haven’t visited him yet, so don’t ask. Gee, think she was getting a little testy? She tried to smile and put on a friendly voice. “And you are?”
“Didi Smith. I work here year-round, helping out your dad in the winter.” Didi was supermodel-skinny, but her eyes were sharp and intelligent. Maybe a fraction too much makeup for working the front desk at the Loon’s Nest, but she knew how to maximize it to enhance her looks. Didi was a woman who wasn’t afraid to admit her femininity. She’d fit in perfectly in L.A. Kim shook her hand, then nodded at the man, who stuck out his hand, as well.
“Will Ambrose. This is my first summer. Welcome.” He gave her a nice smile that she could see would have a good effect on guests. It made her want to smile back, so she did. Felt weird to grin, but good, too. She should do it more often.
“I’m going to be in my dad’s office for a bit, okay?”
“Sure.” Didi fished a set of keys out of her back pocket. “I’ll unlock it for you.”
“He locks his office during the day now?” Since when did that happen? It wasn’t as if he kept any money in there, and with Didi and Will running around out front, no one would be able to wander in unnoticed. Sure, she’d locked the door at the house, but that was because she had a homicidal maniac after her. Not too likely Max had landed one, as well.
Didi shrugged. “He started locking it in early June, maybe a month and a half ago.”
“Did someone break in or something? Why the concern with security?”
“I don’t know.” Didi looked at Will, who shrugged.
“Never mind.” The last thing she needed was to start thinking too much about her dad. “I’ll be inside if you need me.” She stepped inside and shut out Didi and Will, leaning back against the door while she looked at her dad’s office for the first time in a decade. The room looked as if it belonged to a stranger.
Gone were all the family photos, except for a few of Cheryl and herself. Absolutely no sign of her mom, right down to the removal of the light fixtures Joyce had installed. The furniture was different, the curtains had changed and there was carpet on the beautiful old pine floor. It was as if someone had tried to transform it from a rustic camp office into something more suitable for suburban Boston.
Was this the handiwork of her dad’s new concubine, or Max’s attempt to erase the memory of his wife?
Not that it mattered. Kim was here to preserve a future for her sister, not dwell on the past. So she lifted her chin, walked to the desk and sat. She flicked on the computer and waited for it to boot up. Maybe she hadn’t been to the hospital yet, but she could at least save this camp. No worries of running into her dad or his wife-from-hell.
This was good. Since she couldn’t occupy herself with her own work, she could use the camp as a distraction from remembering that the last time she’d been in this town, her mother had been alive. A heaviness settled around her and Kim clamped down on the memories. See why she hadn’t wanted to come back? Thinking about the past made it harder to deal with the present. Who needed that? Not her.
She shut off her emotions and opened that year’s financial statements, which made absolutely no sense to her whatsoever.
She was a magazine editor, not a numbers person.
But Alan was. Maybe he could help. She picked up her cell phone and dialed his mobile. He answered on the second ring. “How’s Maine?”
“It sucks. Any sign of Jimmy?”
“None. I’ve staked out your place and your work, and he hasn’t turned up. No hang-up calls on your machine or at work. He’ll show, though. I know he will.”
Or maybe he’s already in Maine.
No, dammit. She wasn’t going to let him get to her. She was going to focus on Alan and how good it was to hear his voice. Alan. Safe and secure, her only real friend in L.A. It was amazing how close they’d gotten in the year and a half they’d known each other. Nothing like a couple of attempted murders to accelerate the bonding.
“How’s the camp?” Alan asked.
“Just about in bankruptcy. Hey, can you tell me how to read financial statements?”
“Not in the five minutes I have until my next meeting. Why?”
“Apparently, the camp is in bad shape, so I promised an old friend I’d check it out.”
“Seriously? You’re actually looking at camp financial statements? I was joking when I asked you how it was. You said you weren’t even going to set foot in the camp.”
“Yeah, well, things changed. Can you help me? Where do I start looking to find out what’s going on?”
He made a noise of exasperation. “I can’t tell you how to audit a company in thirty seconds.”
“Well, teach me something. I have work to do.” She opened another file. Payroll. Will and Didi were on there. And Eddie. She didn’t recognize any other names.
“I have extra vacation time. Why don’t I fly out there and help you?” He hesitated. “I’m not sure I like you being out there alone when we don’t know where Jimmy is.”
She almost smiled. It felt good to have someone care about her. It was a shame that there was zero romantic interest between the two of them. Though if there had been any, they would have broken up by now. Between Jimmy and Sean, she wasn’t exactly a poster child for healthy romantic relationships. Jimmy had made worse that which was already broken. “You can’t come, Alan. You have to stay out there to watch for Jimmy. Remember the plan?”
“Yes, but the plan also entailed you hiding out in a secure hotel, not in a defenseless cabin in the middle of the woods.”
Excellent point.
A loud rap sounded on the office door, startling her. It swung open before she could extend an invitation and she lurched back, grabbing a paperweight and aiming it at the intruder. Sean marched inside and her hand dropped in relief.
He was wearing jeans, boots and an old gray T-shirt that showed off the hard, lean body of a military warrior.
When she’d left ten years ago, he’d been a skinny eighteen-year-old who hadn’t grown into his long limbs.
Not anymore.
He was all man, and he looked furious.
And for some stupid reason, she was glad to see him. Probably the fact that she had a stalker after her and Sean had a gun on his hip and looked ready to kill.
God help her if it was any other reason.
Chapter Four
“I gotta go. Bye.” Tension rushed over him as Kim quickly hung up the phone.
Was she hiding something?
“Who was that?” Sean shut the door and leaned against it, taking a quick scan of the office. No threats, nothing out of place. Safe, for the moment.
“My friend. Alan Haywood. He’s watching my apartment in L.A. to see if Jimmy shows up.” Her cell phone rang again and she glanced down at it. “It’s Alan.”
He held out his hand. “Give it to me.” Alan, huh? He didn’t like the sound of a friend named Alan. Sounded fishy to him.
She glared at him. “No.” She answered it. “What?”
She waited for a moment, then smiled. “No, I’m fine. The cops just arrived and I sort of panicked. But nothing has happened.” She covered the mouthpiece and directed her next question to Sean. “Has anything happened? Did you find him?”
He shook his head and tried not to think about how the man on the other end of the phone had made her smile. Sean used to make her smile. Now all he did was make her panic. What had changed the night she’d decided to leave him? Not that he’d ever ask. She wasn’t his problem anymore. Time had given him the distance he needed not to ask. Not to care. Not to obsess.
“I promise I’ll call you every hour,” she said into the phone. “Love you.” She hung up and set the phone down. “Why are you here?”
“‘Love you’?”
“He’s a friend, Sean.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Why do you care?”
“Just wanted to make sure it wasn’t someone working for Jimmy trying to find out where you are.”
Tension flickered in her eyes, but she quickly shoved it aside. “Didn’t you get my message this morning? Jimmy isn’t after me. I was being irrational and letting my imagination get to me. I’m fine.”
Why did she have to be so stubborn? Anger roiled through him and he threw down the photos of her in the hospital. His ability to dismiss his concern about the case vanished the moment he’d seen those photos. Yeah, he’d tried to pawn the case off on Billy, but now that it was his, he was going to be haunted by those images until Jimmy Ramsey was back in jail—or dead. As a cop, he couldn’t walk away. As Kim’s ex-lover…well, that was something he had to get over. That wasn’t why he was here. “He’s no threat? I should drop the case? You’ll be fine?”
“Where did you get those?” Her hand went to her thigh, where he knew a nasty scar had to be hidden.
He leaned against the desk, his hands flat on the surface. “Jimmy hasn’t checked in for parole.”
She caught her breath, her fingers curling around the arm of the chair. “It was a bear.”
“Why are you shutting me out? I’m here to help you.” Hard to imagine there was a time when he’d known every secret she had. She wouldn’t even let him into her worst nightmare now.
Kim seemed to steady herself and threw him a challenging stare. “Why are you here? I thought you were going to assign someone else to the case.”
He gritted his teeth. “It has to be me.”
“Why? Do you think maybe you’re too personally involved—”
He held up his hand. “It’s been ten years, Kim.”
“Believe me, I know how long it’s been.”
So she’d been counting the years as well? “What happened back then doesn’t matter anymore.”
Her eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly. “It doesn’t?”
“No.” It couldn’t. He’d moved on, and he wasn’t interested in revisiting their past. He simply wasn’t. Instead, he nodded at the pictures. “That’s what matters now.”
She followed his gaze to the photos, and said nothing. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking anymore. Oh, sure, he could sense her anxiety and fear, but nothing else. He sure couldn’t see inside her mind. Didn’t know why she’d left, why she hadn’t visited her dad, why… The list was too long.
“Kim.”
She looked at him. “What?”
“Let’s make a deal. I’m here as a cop. That’s my job, and let’s not take it any further than that. The past is gone.”
After a long moment, she nodded. “Fine. No past. It’s better that way.”
“Yeah.” Then why did he so desperately want to find out what had happened? Why had she left? Dammit! Why couldn’t he stop thinking about it? Was he so weak that one moment with her in his arms caused ten years of immunity to collapse?
“I’m getting an alarm installed today. I’m going to alert the staff to keep an eye out for him.” She met his gaze. “He won’t get me.”
“It’s my job to keep you safe. I’m not going away.”
She groaned. “Why does it have to be you?”
“Because it does.” He felt years of rage bubble up, bitterness he’d kept buried for so long. He couldn’t contain it. “I might not have been good enough to marry, but trust me, I’m good enough to keep you alive.”
Her glittering eyes snapped to his face. He wished he could see pain and regret in them, but he saw nothing beyond the defensiveness. “I thought the past was off-limits.”
“I won’t let you use it to endanger yourself. Get over it and let me help.”
“Sean—”
The door swung open and Sean was on his feet with his hand on his gun before Didi had even stepped inside. “You have a visitor,” she said. She lifted her eyebrow at Sean in the same not-so-subtle flirtation she’d directed toward him when he’d first arrived.
As if he had time for that crap. “Who is it?”
Didi narrowed her eyes in the typical look of a woman who wasn’t used to men being immune to her charm. “Tom Payton from the marina.”
“I’ll come out and meet him,” he said.
“Me, too.” Kim jumped up, ignoring his glare to stay in the office. “I have to run this place, Sean. I’m not going to let Jimmy rule my life.”
“You’re taking over the Loon’s Nest?” Didi asked Kim as she trailed along after them. “Really?”
“Really.” Kim walked into the reception area one step ahead of Sean, but he made sure she wasn’t between his gun and their guest, who appeared to be a skinny kid wearing cutoffs and sneakers. He looked like he was eighteen, but something about his eyes said he was more likely to be in his mid-twenties. He was wearing a Yankees cap and his nose was sunburned. He blushed when Didi shot him a come-hither look. Guess the kid hadn’t figured out that Didi probably gave that smile to anyone with a Y chromosome.
