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She shook her head at her sister. “I don’t want to.”
“Fine,” Joslyn said, dropping her shorts, then stepping out of her flip-flops. “I’ll show you how the big girls do it. I’ll go first and you’ll see it’s fine.”
Brave and fearless, that was Joslyn. Kenzie loved that about her. Still, cold worry cut through her. “The signs—”
Joslyn slapped a hand over Kenzie’s mouth. “Stop worrying. They just don’t want this area being used as a beach.”
Kenzie studied the dam, the coldness in her veins only increasing. She focused on her sister as Joslyn approached the edge of the water and grinned. “Count to three and I’ll jump.”
Kenzie looked down into the water and couldn’t see the bottom. So black. So deep. “I don’t—”
“You need to be more adventurous, Kenz,” Joslyn exclaimed.
Not wanting to disappoint her sister, she glimpsed at the group of all the older kids, now watching Kenzie with challenging smirks. She didn’t want to be the baby. She wanted to be cool like everyone else. Not to embarrass herself, she called, “One…Two…Three.”
Joslyn screamed as she jumped into the water. Everyone cheered, and with that, Kenzie relaxed and cheered, too. A few seconds passed and the cheering continued. Though soon it began to grow quiet.
Hands stopped clapping.
Mouths closed.
Kenzie stepped toward the water’s edge where Joslyn had jumped. She searched for Joslyn in the water, waiting for the water to ripple or a bubble to form.
Nothing.
“Joslyn,” she called.
Still nothing.
Panic sent Kenzie’s heart racing, and she snapped her head toward Joslyn’s friends. “Where is she?”
The boys rushed forward to the edge of the water. Seconds passed that felt like a lifetime. Kenzie held her breath…and counted…but by the time she ran out of breath and had to gasp for air, tears rolled down her cheeks.
Joslyn never surfaced.
All of her so-called friends ran.
Kenzie screamed, “Joslyn!”
A chiming of the bell at the door had Kenzie gasping out of the memory. Her sister died that day. The current from the dam had pulled her right into it. She stepped out from the bookshelves, her heart hammering in her chest. That’s why she couldn’t love—whenever she did, bad things happened. She approached the man entering the store and regarded him, as something seemed off about him.
Once she ignored her gut feeling. She’d never do it again.
His gaze swept over the store, and she noted his nicely tailored pin-striped suit. Maybe some would think he was handsome, with a dark head of hair and sharp lines to his face, but his nearly black eyes couldn’t lie—he had something inside of him that sent a wave of unease through her.
“May I help you?” she asked.
His stone-cold eyes zeroed on her. “I’m looking for Kenzie Hart. Are you her?”
“I am.”
He offered his hand. “I’m Adrik Petrov.”
His thick Russian accent sounded as rich and alluring as his looks, and the name registered as familiar, but Kenzie couldn’t recall from where. She shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
He squeezed his fingers around hers. It didn’t feel friendly. “Well, Ms. Hart, let’s make this simple, shall we? Are you aware that I bought this entire block of stores a month ago?”
Now the name registered just fine, and the hair on her neck prickled. “Yes, I’m aware.” She rubbed her hand on her black dress pants, wishing she’d never touched him.
