“Don’t worry about that,” Kade said, flicking off the overhead light before lying down next to me on top of the covers. He bent his arms behind his head and stared up at the ceiling.
Easy for him to say.
Kade reached for the bedside lamp.
“Wait,” I said, grabbing his arm. He looked at me, questioning.
“Um, do you mind leaving it on?” The thought of being in the dark terrified me enough to swallow my embarrassment at asking for a nightlight like a child.
I couldn’t read the expression that crossed Kade’s face, but he gave a nod and lay back down.
“Will you stay with me?” I asked, hating that fear had prompted the question but unwilling to face the night alone. Or without Kade.
Kade looked at me. “Absolutely.”
I abandoned any pretense that I didn’t want to be close to him, scooting over until I was pressed against his side. His eyebrows climbed, but he didn’t say anything, just wrapped one arm around me as I rested my head on his shoulder, my arm lying across his chest.
What would become of him? He’d said he couldn’t stay away from me, but us being together wasn’t an option. How could I possibly be with Kade when my feelings for Blane were still so confused? Blane said he wanted me back, but how could I go back to him when I also loved Kade?
I loved them both, but Kade had been wrong when he said one of them would have me. That wasn’t going to happen. Not when I knew it would drive them apart for good. I couldn’t—I wouldn’t—be the catalyst for that.
Convincing them was going to be another story.
The next time I woke, sunlight streamed through my window. I glanced at the clock. It was early, which was good since I needed to get ready to appear at Blane’s arraignment.
With a pang, I noticed Kade was no longer in bed with me. I figured he had probably known I’d be okay once the sun came up, but it still would have been nice to have him by my side.
I showered and blew my hair dry, my aching arms making it take longer than usual, then stood in front of my closet in a towel, trying to figure out what to wear. Though they were healing nicely, there were still the cuts on my chest from James. So something to cover up the scabs would be good.
A knock at the door interrupted my perusal. I opened the door to find Mona standing there with a tray.
“Breakfast,” she said with a smile.
“That’s so sweet of you,” I said, stepping back so she could come in. “Thank you.”
“It’s no trouble,” she said, setting down the tray. I saw her eyes flick over my neck and chest when she turned around and I self-consciously hitched the towel higher to hide the J.
“What are you going to wear?” she asked, brushing by me as she headed for the closet.
“I’m not sure,” I confessed. “Do you have any suggestions?”
She picked out a deep pink tea-length dress with fitted elbow-length sleeves. It had a vintage feel to it and, though it wasn’t something I’d normally wear, it would probably work well for where I had to be today. “And you can wear this, too,” she said, opening a drawer and pulling out a pale nylon scarf printed with pink flowers.
I thanked her and she left. I drank the water she’d brought, only had one cup of coffee, and ate some of the yogurt and fruit she’d brought for me. Half an hour later, I was adjusting the scarf around my neck, glad to see it concealed the marks from the metal collar.
I headed downstairs and found Kade in Blane’s den, sitting in front of the muted television. He was dressed nicely, too, and my breath caught at the sight of him in black slacks and a black button-down shirt. He didn’t wear a tie and had left the top button of his shirt undone.
“How do I look?” I said stepping in front of him and doing a pirouette. “Am I suitably pure and innocent enough to be Blane’s fiancée?” I smiled wryly at the joke, since the last thing I felt was pure and innocent.
The look on Kade’s face was enough to wipe the smile from mine.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, my heart plummeting. “What’s happened?”
Kade didn’t answer for a moment, then he said, “Your friend Tish called you.”
I frowned. “She did?” That reminded me. “Where’s my cell?”
Kade pulled my phone from his pocket and handed it to me. “She wanted to let you know that your boss, Romeo, was going to go to the cops with something he’d found.”
I looked up from the phone, alarmed. “What did he find?”
“Apparently, unbeknownst to you or the other employees, he’s had video cameras installed for monitoring. And one of them is located in the storeroom.”
I stood in shock, staring at him.
“In reviewing the footage,” Kade continued, “Romeo felt it should be turned over to the police, but he thought you should make that call. He felt uncomfortable, given the content, about talking to you himself, so he had her bring this by.” He picked up a DVD that I hadn’t noticed was on the table.
Shit.
“So does everyone know?” God, that would be awful. No, James hadn’t raped me, but the realization that everyone I worked with might know I’d been cornered like that—attacked like that—made me want to crawl into a cave and not come out.
“I have no idea,” he said. “She didn’t say.”
I eyed Kade. “So what’s the matter?” I asked. “You already knew what happened between James and me.”
Kade stood, coming so close to me that I had to tip my head back to look him in the eye. “Arriving after the fact,” he said stiffly, “or hearing about it from someone else, isn’t the same as watching every moment on a fucking video.” The anguish was stark in his eyes. “Blane should have killed him.”
“No, he shouldn’t have,” I said. “Or else that would be on the video, too, and then where would we be?”
Kade turned away and I caught sight of the television. William Gage’s photo had flashed on the screen and I frowned, reaching for the remote control and unmuting the TV with a sinking feeling.
“… found deceased in his home this morning,” the voice-over was saying, “from an accidental fall down the stairs while in his wheelchair. He’d been ill with terminal pancreatic cancer…”
I muted the television again, not wanting to hear any more. Kade had completely ignored the story, pouring himself another cup of coffee from the carafe on the sideboard.
I thought I knew what had happened and who had done it, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel remorse, only relief.
“Did you do that?” I asked. “Did you kill him?”
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to,” Kade said.
I swallowed hard. While I didn’t regret William Gage’s death, I did regret that Kade had killed him because of me, but I knew that was the last thing Kade would want to hear.
“If James gets arrested for what he did to me,” I said, changing the subject, “won’t that provide a pattern of behavior that will help us prove what he did to Kandi?”
“Yes, but you’d need to file a complaint.”
“I can do that.”
Kade turned around, fixing me with a piercing stare. “You’re going to file an assault charge… against the district attorney? Don’t you realize what they’ll do to you? The press will rip you apart. They love James, and now his poor daddy just bit the dust. As Blane’s fiancée, they’re going to paint you as the conniving slut, no matter what that video shows.”
I raised my chin and squared my shoulders. “If it’ll help Blane, then it’s worth it.”