Shiver

It had been five days since we got back from our vacation. Five uneventful days—no activity from Smith, and no bullshit from Tara or Joshua or Libby. Not that I expected that peace to last, but I certainly intended to enjoy it.

I was due to meet Blake in the basement at seven. First, I needed to go back to his apartment so that I could shower and change into my—

“Kensey Lyons?”

Halting at the unfamiliar female voice, I turned. A dark-haired woman stood there, eyes guarded, hand clenched tightly around a bunch of keys. She was somewhere in her forties. Maybe older—she was good enough with makeup that I couldn’t tell for sure.

A journalist, maybe? No, she didn’t look like someone searching for a scoop. She looked … anxious.

I lifted a brow. “Something I can help you with?”

She licked her lower lip and took a small, cautious step toward me. “My name is Liza Montgomery.”

And then I stopped breathing. She couldn’t have shocked me more if she’d bitch-slapped me. This had to be the Montgomery. Wariness kicked in, overriding the surprise, and my pulsed picked up. Unsure what to expect, I took a centering breath and waited, staring at her blankly.

“Blake hasn’t told you about me,” she correctly assumed. She glanced around. “I was hoping we could talk.”

My grip on my purse strap flexed. “About?” I heard my cell start to ring, but I ignored it.

“Blake. I understand you’re living with him. I think—”

“You need to get the fuck out of here,” a male voice growled. Rossi. He’d come to follow me to Blake’s apartment, as usual. By the way he was glaring at Liza, nostrils flaring, he knew her.

Rossi’s expression softened just a little as he turned to me. “Kensey, get in the car, honey, okay. I’ll take care of this.” He whirled on Liza, snapping, “If you’ve done this to get Blake’s attention, thinking he’ll come here, you’re wasting your time. He ain’t stupid.”

She flapped her arms. “What was I supposed to do? He won’t take my calls. He won’t—”

“Woman, why would he take your calls?”

Her eyes briefly drifted shut. “I understand he’s angry, but I need to speak with him. This can’t go on. It has to stop.”

“Yeah? Why is that?”

“I’ve paid for what happened, Rossi, I’ve paid ten times over. I left Redwater. Isn’t that enough?”

“Nothing will ever be enough, Liza.” He only then seemed to notice that I was still standing there. “Kensey, honey, get in the car.” But I didn’t.

Liza turned to me, her face beseeching. “You need to talk with Blake. Tell him I deserve some peace. Tell him—”

“Liza, get the fuck out of here,” Rossi snarled.

She jutted out her chin. “Why? What else can he do to me?”

“You’d be surprised,” drawled Rossi.

Liza swallowed. Once again, she looked at me. “Talk with Blake and ask him to either call me or leave me alone. Please.” She scurried over to a Volvo that had seen better days and drove off.

Rossi’s shoulders lowered. “Thank fuck for that. I lied, Kensey. Blake’s on his way. He flipped when I told him she approached you. That’s probably him calling you right now. Answer the phone and assure him you’re fine before he loses his mind.”

Looking in the direction that Liza had disappeared, I pulled out my phone and answered, “Hello.” My voice was low. Flat.

“Kensey.” Blake sighed in what could have been relief. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“Put Rossi on the phone, baby.”

I handed the phone to Rossi, who put it to his ear and said, “She’s gone.” He flicked a look at me. “Not much, but enough that you’re gonna have to answer some uncomfortable questions.”

Oh my God, Blake was checking to see how much Liza had told me. I’d just been approached by the woman outside my own damn place of work, and his main concern was how much I knew about his precious project.

“Yeah. We’ll wait for you.” Rossi handed me the phone. “Here, honey.”

I took it and, with a swipe of my thumb across the screen, ended the call without even a single word to Blake.

“He’s almost here,” Rossi told me.

“You know, shockingly enough, I really don’t care right now.”

Rossi winced. “Give him a chance to fill in the blanks.”

Oh, I’d give him a chance, because I deserved to know what the hell I’d just been dragged into.

I was leaning against my car, arms folded, when Blake pulled up a few minutes later. He fairly leaped out of his Maserati and made a beeline for me, his eyes raking over me; studying me from head to toe. Weirdly, he didn’t enter my personal space. Didn’t touch me, kiss me, draw me to him, anything.

“Did she touch you?” he asked, his posture stiff, jaw tense.

I slowly shook my head.

Rossi stepped toward him. “She asked Kensey to speak to you on her behalf, but I personally think she only came because she thought you’d ride to Kensey’s rescue and then she’d be able to talk to you, face-to-face.”

Blake’s eyes narrowed. “That so?”

I watched him closely as I told him, “She said she’s paid for what she did, that ‘this’ can’t go on. Was driving her out of Redwater part of your project’s goal?”

A muscle in his cheek ticked. “Yes.”

I swallowed. “She said she deserves some peace.”

His eyes darkened in a way that made my stomach flip. “Peace? That’s the last thing she fucking deserves.”

“We talked about this in Mexico. It’s tragic that Levi committed suicide. But, ultimately, it was his choice.”

Blake stiffened. One brow arched. “Are you saying she holds no blame? That I should give her what she wants?”

“Don’t get pissy with me. How the hell would I know what she does or doesn’t deserve? You won’t tell me anything. I don’t have a damn clue how it all went down.” I waited for him to explain, but he regarded me with an unblinking stare that gave away nothing. “This is what I do know, Blake—me and my mother had people trying to drive us out of Redwater all my life, blaming us for Maxwell’s fuck-ups. All we wanted was some peace.”

“It’s not the same, Kensey. Not even close.” He rubbed his jaw. “Wait here. I need to talk to Rossi.”

Blake led him away, speaking in a voice too low for me to catch … and I realized that he hadn’t cleared up a single thing. No blanks were filled. I was still none the wiser. And I was pretty sure that, even though his baggage had just approached me in a goddamn parking lot, he had no intention of explaining any of it. Why else would he be over there, whispering?

Muscles fairly quivering with anger, I yanked open my car door, hopped inside, and drove off in a screech of tires. A glimpse in my rear-view mirror showed Blake rushing to his own car. The bastard was going to follow me.

I cursed, realizing I had nowhere to go. I had no apartment, and I certainly wasn’t going to his place. Sarah was out with Bastien, so I couldn’t go to her apartment. It was Cade’s day off work, but if I went to his place, there would be bloodshed for sure. Cade would yell at him for upsetting me, and Blake would then pounce on him—happy to have an excuse to fight him. There was my mother’s house, of course, but I didn’t want to bring her into this.