The Sharpest Edge. Stephanie Rowe

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СКАЧАТЬ had made a sixteen-year-old girl fall in love, and it seized her gut and tugged.

      For an instant, his arms tightened and he crushed her against him and it was as if the past ten years had never happened. They were both eighteen again and the world hadn’t betrayed them.

      Then he pulled back and set her to the side and a rift of cold air settled in her chest. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

      Wrong? She blinked. Wrong was the cold shadow in his eyes, the rigid set to his jaw that said he wanted nothing to do with her anymore. But what could she expect? It was what she’d wished for.

      “Kim? You called the cops?”

      Sweat broke out on her forehead again and she hugged herself. “He’s going to kill me.” Her voice was no more than a whisper, but Sean must have heard her because the lines on his face deepened and his expression became harsher.

      “What are you talking about?” His hand went to his gun. His eyes became vigilant. He looked all cop, and something else. Something more. Someone who knew how to handle a weapon and who thrived on the threat of death.

      Where was the gangly kid she’d almost married? The boy whose only goal in life had been to run the Loon’s Nest alongside her parents? Gone, apparently, replaced by a hard man she didn’t even know.

      A man who was here to protect her from Jimmy.

      “Who’s going to kill you?” He shifted her slightly, putting himself between her and the doorway, his gaze boring deep into the interior of the house. Searching for the threat.

      “Jimmy Ramsey.” Just saying his name made her legs start to shake again.

      “Who’s he? Is he inside?”

      She was freezing, even though it was a hot, muggy night. Guess fear of death would do that to a person. “I heard him outside.”

      “Outside?” Sean grabbed her, shoved her inside the house and slammed the door shut behind them. “Who? Your husband?”

      Was it her imagination or did he stumble over that word? She shook her head and clutched her arms to her chest, the old T-shirt hanging loosely off her. “My sister’s ex-husband.”

      “Cheryl’s husband?” He frowned. “What’s going on?”

      She pressed her back against the door, afraid of the house and its cavernous interior with so many hiding places. “He was in prison and he got out and I heard something on the roof and then he climbed down the side of the building and then you came and I don’t know if he’s still here or…”

      Something flickered in his eyes, but he offered no comforting words. Not as he would have ten years ago. “Lock yourself in the bathroom while I check things out.” He opened the powder room door, old instincts apparently directing him to the right place without a second thought. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

      She grabbed his arm before he could get away. “Be careful. He’s a cop.”

      Sean stopped, surprise flickering on his face. “A cop?”

      She nodded. “He’ll kill you.”

      “No chance.” He disengaged her grip and guided her into the room, then pulled the door shut. “Lock it.”

      His footsteps didn’t take him away until she’d engaged the lock with an audible click.

      And then, all she could do was wait.

      KIM LEANED AGAINST the door, trying to catch her breath. Her chest was so tight, her hands cold, her forehead hot.

      Sean. He was here. At her house. Alive.

      And Jimmy was here. At her house. And he wanted her dead.

      She groaned and slid down the door to the floor. Her hands were shaking so badly she dropped them to the tiles and let her head flop back against the wood.

      What was Sean doing in town? She never would have agreed to come back if she’d known he was around. Even for her sister, she couldn’t have done it. Cheryl had begged her to return to Maine when they’d found out about their dad’s accident because Cheryl was still trapped in hiding and couldn’t come home. For her sister, Kim could endure anything.

      Except Sean.

      And Jimmy again.

      She had no strength left to cope with either of them, not even for Cheryl. She was exhausted, so unbearably tired.

      A knock on the door sent her leaping to her feet. Kim smashed herself up against the opposite wall. Was it Sean, or had Jimmy killed Sean? What if Jimmy had come back to finish her off at a leisurely pace?

      “It’s me. Open up.”

      She nearly collapsed with relief at Sean’s voice. “Is it safe?”

      “Yeah.”

      Kim inched toward the door and flicked the lock, but the doorknob turned before she could open it. Sean stuck his head into the room, his dark eyebrows knitting when he saw her. She had no doubt that he’d be able to see through her facade and know that she was terrified. For an instant, his face softened and she thought he was going to give her the reassurance she craved, but then his expression hardened. “Come on out. We need to talk.”

      An agonizing need to have his arms around her again jolted her into moving toward him, but he turned away before she could reach him.

      Nothing. No comfort. No special look. No touch of support, even though he had to know how much she needed it. Regret made her energy sag. Had she done that to him? Changed him from a sweet, doting guy into someone who wouldn’t even touch her arm in comfort? She couldn’t ask. Couldn’t apologize. Where would she start after a decade of silence? Should she try?

      He held the door for her and stepped back when she reached him, his eyes cold and distant. Pushing her away. He didn’t want to hear about their past. She could read it in the tight set to his mouth, the way he held his arm so she couldn’t brush against it.

      They were strangers now.

      Strangers who had to discuss the man who’d almost killed her once and wouldn’t let her escape next time.

      Chapter Two

      Sean grabbed a soda from the fridge, pulled out a chair with his foot and sat down at the kitchen table. “Talk.”

      Talk. God, there were so many things to discuss. And nothing to say.

      Nothing except for Jimmy.

      Kim sat down across from Sean and tried not to think about how much she wanted him to hold her. Just for a minute, so she could feel secure and loved and warm. Which was stupid. That was the reason she hadn’t wanted to come back. Falling into the trap of the familiar and the safe already, just like her mom had warned her.

      A lump came to her throat at the thought of Joyce Collins, as it always did.

      Sean fixed his gaze on her. “Jimmy Ramsey. A cop who wants СКАЧАТЬ