Her Secret Life

“Michael?”

He’d segued. Maybe on purpose.

Because she was getting too close?

Because he wanted her closer?

Piercing her with a gaze that was probably harsher than he’d have liked, he said, “I was shot.”

Her gasp cut into him. As did the look of horror on her perfect face. “Shot? But...when? How? Oh, my God, Michael, that’s horrible. I’m so sorry. Did it hurt?”

She shook her head. “Of course it hurt. I’m just so sorry.” Her eyes pooled with tears and he almost smiled.

Kacey was...so Kacey. Refreshing and kindhearted and about as genuine as they came. And an incredibly successful actress.

He knew she could cry at will. She’d told him so. But he didn’t doubt, for one second, that her tears that morning were real.

Funny, he didn’t feel any pity in them.

“I don’t remember pain,” he said. “Not when it happened. Later, yeah, it hurt.” The pain was more than he’d ever imagined any human body could tolerate.

Lips trembling, she nodded. Swallowed.

He could have been speaking about a case at the Stand. He felt the emotional intensity in the situation, but it wasn’t closing in on him, or closing him up.

Oddity noted.

“You were in college?” Her voice was thick, her eyes dark. He understood why she was such a hit on television. It was like he could feel exactly what she was feeling.

But it was for real.

He nodded.

“Where’d you go to school?”

“UC.” University of California.

“Same as Lacey.”

He nodded, held her gaze. And felt as though her soft touch had just drifted over him. All of him. Inside and out.

“Was it on campus?”

“No. I was home for the weekend. Here in Santa Raquel.” He could remember it all...surprisingly, he was told. Maybe not the initial pain, but the shock. The need to reach out even as he was lying on the floor. The stickiness of the blood pooling against his neck.

There’d been no sense that he was going to die. Only that he had to get to Willie.

“Was anyone else hurt?”

Not physically. He shook his head. It seemed that letting the answers out as she sought them was something he could do.

“Was it a fight?”

Another shake of his head.

“A break-in?” Her eyes grew wider.

“No.”