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“Let him go,`ânela.”
“He’s not going to leave me here, is he?”
Kain smiled down at her. “No. He’s just going to go hit the beach.”
“At night?”
“It’s what we do. How we met, actually.”
Kendall slumped back down on the couch. “I’m so freaking lost. I don’t know what the hell is going on.” She let her head fall back.
He sat down next to her and covered her hand with his. “I knew when I put this deal together with his dad six months ago that he was going to lose his shit, but I thought I’d have time to convince Larry to tell Shane.”
Kendall hooked her foot behind her ankle and turned to him. “Was it really that bad?”
Kain rubbed his huge hand over his face. “Worse. Larry begged me to help him. I’ve got more money than sense, according to my accountants, because I took on the Justice Construction debt. It wasn’t in the will, but I also took on all of Larry’s employees.”
That didn’t sound like any merger that she’d ever read about. Usually the company would place their own people in the spots. “You loved him.”
Kain nodded. “He was as much my father as he was Shane’s.”
Kendall flinched but kept silent. Who was this Lawrence Justice? The man they described was nothing like the man she remembered. Not even close to the sort of man who would inspire this much devotion.
“My family runs most of the construction in Hawaii, but I wanted to branch out off the Big Island. I came here for college and fell in love with the area. After I got my company up and running, I had the know-how but not the contacts. California is all about old names and a good-old-boys network that I could never bust into.”
She didn’t understand the intricacies of construction, but she did understand reputation and word of mouth. The Adirondacks of New York thrived and died by those same principles. “And Lawrence had those contacts.”
Kain nodded, relaxing beside her. “Larry knows everyone, and he knows that Shane wasn’t built for this life forever.”
Kendall frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Shane will have to tell you about that, `ânela.”
She sighed and slid her hand away. “He’s not all mad at you.”
He tapped his forefinger against his knee. “I don’t know about that.”
“The lawyer, Mr. Murray…he wouldn’t tell Shane anything either.”
He sat back and stretched his arm across the back of the couch, his face contemplative. “Are you his new girlfriend?”
“Where would you get that idea?” Shane had been nothing but rude since before they left. There was no way they gave off a couple’s vibe.
Kain shrugged. “Just curious.”
“Why?”
“You’re beautiful, and he left you alone with me.”
Kendall’s eyebrows rose. “Should I be worried?”
He grinned. “Nah. I’m harmless.”
She doubted that. Something told her there was a string of women across the state who would attest to just how intriguing he was. But oddly she didn’t feel the least bit attracted. Oh, he was attractive and wore charisma like cologne, but that was all it was. Not like when she was with Shane. And that scared the hell out of her. “We just met today.”
“Huh.”
She twisted the frayed edges of a woven bracelet under the cuff of her blouse. “I feel like I’m only getting half the conversation here, Kain.”
