Page 147 of Burning For You

“I don’t give a fuck,” Kyle hissed. “I gave them everything they asked for. I showed them where I was when these emails came in. Thankfully, most times I was home or working and had proof. No way I could send emails from locations where I wasn’t anywhere near.”

She blew a breath out. More pissed at herself for even bringing his name up. “Then there isn’t a problem.”

“Oh, there is a problem. One for you. If you think you’re going to get any more work in this town after this stunt, you’re nuts. I don’t even know if it’s not you trying to make a name for yourself. You’ve got that fireman boyfriend. Maybe he’s been giving you ideas.”

Her hand was shaking, the phone barely touching her face, her fear of dropping it was great enough that she put it on the desk and hit the speaker button.

“You’re grasping because you’re pissed at me. I didn’t do anything. I’m the victim here. Not you.”

“You keep telling yourself that. I agreed to continue to cooperate with the police, but after this, you’re done. Don’t come to me for anything. You’ll be lucky if you can get anything printed in this area once I spread the word.”

She thought of Gale and before she could stop herself, said, “That’s defamation. Do you want to go down that road?”

“Don’t push my hand, Skye,” Kyle said. “You’ll regret it.”

He disconnected the call after that.

All that shit that Clay found on Kyle had to be true. She just saw a completely different man than the one she’d been dealing with.

She pushed back from her desk, walked to the kitchen to get a glass of water, took a long drink that did little to cool her tight, scorched throat.

Then she picked her phone up and called Ash. She wasn’t going to keep this from him.

She didn’t want to keep anything from him again.

But he wasn’t going to be any happier than her.

Seemed like they were back to square one.

37

WE ALL CARE

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Ash said.

“No,” Skye said. “I’m not.”

“I’m going to have words with him over what he said to you.”

“Don’t,” she said. “I mean it.”

He clenched and unclenched his fist. “Skye. He has no right to talk to you that way. No right to blame you for something like this.”

“Really? Because I’m the reason he got interviewed. I’m the reason his name was brought up. Your family asked me to think outside the box and I did. That’s two people now that I’ve thrown out there and both are pissed at me and have had nothing to do with it.”

He didn’t believe that. He just couldn’t let it go no matter how much Ford and Clay told him.

He didn’t want to think someone he’d worked with for years could do this, but they had nothing else.

No one else.

Flying blind never sat well with him.

Even worse, when the woman he loved was in danger.

“You can’t take the blame for that. You were asked to give your opinion and you did. No one had to run with it.”

“Don’t be that way, Ash,” she argued. “You didn’t want to believe it was Alan either. And it doesn’t seem to be. Then Clay got me thinking and I came up with Kyle. I wouldn’t have believed it was even possible if your brother hadn’t looked into him. Now I feel biased and that is the worst feeling ever. I know. I’ve been there in my life.”