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Days earlier, he had been in their apartment. The man who made Charlee move across the country. The man who rejoiced over Erin’s miscarriage. The man who humiliated Alex during sex. And now he pulled Kenna’s heartstrings like a puppet master.
“A few days after that, I told him it was over, but it wasn’t that simple. He said he had compromising pictures of me, and if I ever told anyone what happened between us, he’d send them to my family.”
Blackmail, another piece to this unsolvable puzzle.
“Did you see the pictures?” The slight hope Kenna exuded was ridiculous, even to her own ears. “What if he was bluffing?”
“I’d already witnessed his insanity on full display. I thought he was capable of anything. I was more concerned with him dumping me in the woods. I didn’t have time to worry about pictures.”
She recalled having the same fear ahead of the run, but the looming possibility of death did not dissuade her from disappearing into the pines alongside Dr. Merino.
Perhaps that had been the point of no return. The moment in time when her obsession could not be quashed.
“When you two were seeing each other, did he ever mention any health issues, maybe heart-related?”
“He’d have to have a heart to have heart problems.” Alex rose from the couch. Her voice shook but her eyes were steel. Cold and unflinching. “And if it would’ve been me on that 5K, I’d have left him on that trail to die.”
24
IT’S ALL TRUE
“Who said, ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself?’ Again, the answer was FDR.”
Nathan gestured to the trio of men on the far end of the bar who were facepalming and shaking their heads. “I can’t believe those idiots put Churchill.”
The finer details of the trivia game were the least of Dayton’s concerns. While he was accustomed to the icy greeting from The Barenaked Philosophers, he was dumbfounded when Kenna followed along in their lack of cordiality. Days ago, he had been invited into her apartment for the first time. He’d stood in her kitchen and watched her eat. They had practically kissed in his car and now she acted as if he didn’t exist. Had the flowers turned her off? The florist had assured him it was a tasteful choice for a colleague—okay, technically they weren’t colleagues and perhaps the florist would’ve said anything to make a sale.
Despite it being her birthday, Kenna seemed in no mood to celebrate. She scarcely passed a comment to her teammates. Her standard wildflower honey cider was absent from the table, a sweating glass of water in its place. Her impassive expression gave nothing away but she rubbed her chest as if in pain. The shaggy-haired Ingmar Bergman son of a bitch, Liam, seemed to ask if she was okay but Kenna shrugged him off.
Noticing the path of Dayton’s hardened stare, Nathan nudged his arm. “You can’t do this, man. Not with her. It’s not right.”
Michael’s voice boomed throughout the bar. “When a group of this type of bird gathers, it’s referred to as a murder. Need the name of the bird, folks.”
“Honestly, Nate, I’m in no mood for your holier than thou speech.”
“You’re a psychiatrist. You should know a thing or two about ethics.” Nathan scribbled the answer on one of their slips of paper and passed it to Dayton. “A month from now, you won’t be responsible for her grade. Just ride it out.”
He snatched the paper from the counter, insisting through gritted teeth, “I’ve got it under control.”
Kenna was turning in her team’s answer as he approached the trivia table. Her eyes danced around him, like she wanted to look at him but wouldn’t grant herself permission. Dayton caught hold of her wrist long enough to get her attention but not so long as to cause a scene.
Craning down, he nearly missed her ear, mouth almost colliding with her forehead. That would’ve been prime gossip material for the throngs of students there that night. He’d had far too much to drink and yet could not stop. The way Kenna blatantly ignored him was simply unbearable.
It was a frightening peek into how she would treat him once he’d had his way with her. That had a sobering effect, if only a little.
In an almost unintelligible murmur, Dayton instructed, “Meet me around back during halftime.”
At last she looked at him, eyes wide as if he’d been a spectre and not a man of flesh and bone. He tried to account for the terror but came up empty until a possibility crossed his mind, one which made him ill.
Alex, he seethed.
Dayton returned to his seat and terminated his half-empty vodka lime, head swimming. He should have foreseen this situation. He’d figured out from the start that Kenna was inquisitive at best and persistent at worst.
The two traits were a dangerous combination.
Still, he didn’t know whether to be impressed or enraged that she’d managed to pester the truth out of her roommate.
“Hey, our tuxes are out of final alterations on Tuesday. You free that afternoon?” Nathan asked.
