LITMIR.BIZ

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couldn’t leave Kelsey.

      She saw the sudden flash of headlights and heard the squeal of tires as his car pulled away.

      He was gone. Just like that.

      HE HADN’T PLANNED IT, but suddenly the need was so great, he had to do it.

      This area was unfamiliar to him. That was bad. But the drive back to his own neighborhood would take at least half an hour. And once he was there, he wouldn’t be guaranteed satisfaction.

      More importantly, he couldn’t wait that long. Already, he was burning.

      Suddenly he knew the solution, and he pulled into the parking lot of one of the fancy condominium high rises that sat directly on Crescent Beach. It was risky, the car could get towed, but it must be done.

      The beach was dark, and a thick fog was rolling in off the gulf. Several of the high rises had flood lamps that lit part of the beach, but most of them didn’t.

      The darkness, the fog and the late hour didn’t keep a few hardy couples from strolling along the edge of the water, hand in hand. Occasionally, a crowd of partying teenagers would pass by, but mostly the beach was empty.

      Empty and very, very dark.

      The powdery sand shifted into one of his shoes. As he sat down on a wooden beach chair to wait, he emptied it out.

      It didn’t take long until he found her.

      She was walking alone, dressed in a windbreaker, her hair tied back with a scarf.

      She wasn’t as young as she should be, and he didn’t even know the color of her hair. It wouldn’t be as good, as complete.

      But it would be done.

      He flicked his knife open.

      WHEN JESS PULLED INTO the driveway, Rob’s car wasn’t there.

      She hadn’t really expected him to be there, waiting for her, but at the same time, she couldn’t help feeling disappointed.

      And hurt. Not to mention confused as hell.

      What had just happened between her and Rob? Had she missed some vital and important moment? Had she misunderstood something he’d said?

      One moment he’d been kissing her as if his single goal in life were to make love to her, and the next he was running away from her as if she carried the plague, shouting his apologies over his shoulder.

      The entire episode had been too strange.

      I can’t kiss you, he’d said—right before he’d kissed her.

      And what a kiss. She’d never been kissed that way before. She’d never been kissed so hungrily, so passionately—as if she were the only woman in the world that he wanted.

      Except he didn’t want her.

      She’d invited him to come home with her, to make love to her. True, she hadn’t used quite those words, but her meaning had been clear. She’d been ready to give herself to him, totally.

      And he’d run away.

      He’d rejected her.

      Don’t cry, she ordered herself sternly, trying to force back the tears that were flooding her eyes. It wasn’t the end of the world. It only felt like it right now.

      A tear escaped, and she closed her eyes, letting her head fall back against the headrest.

      What was wrong with her? Why was she always attracted to men who ended up hurting her?

      In the back seat, Kelsey stirred and sat up groggily. “Are we home?”

      Jess quickly wiped her face. “Yeah,” she said. “We’re home.”

      “Where’s Rob?” Kelsey asked, more awake. “Didn’t we need to drive him home? Where did he go?”

      Jess pushed the remote and the garage door slid up. She glanced at her daughter in the rearview mirror as she pulled into the garage. Even in the dimness, she could see that Kelsey’s eyes were dark with worry.

      “Rob lent his car to Ian,” she explained. “Ian returned it to him, so Rob’s driving it home.”

      But Kelsey didn’t seem to hear, or understand. “Was it Ian’s fault?” she asked suddenly, her small face tight. “Did he make Rob go away?”

      “What?” Jess turned on the car’s interior light and looked at her daughter.

      Kelsey looked down at her hands. They were clasped tightly in her lap.

      “Kel, I don’t understand what you asked about Ian,” Jess said. “I need you to explain. Please?”

      Kelsey looked up at Jess, tears in her big eyes. “When we were at the Pelican Club, you seemed so happy. I saw you and Rob kissing. While you were on stage, I asked Rob if he was in love with you, you know, like Ariel and Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid.”

      Jess’s heart caught in her throat. “Oh, Kel.” What did he say, she wanted to ask. Lord, she thought, look at me, about to pump my daughter for information, like a lovesick seventh grader.

      “He said that it was more like Beauty and the Beast, and then he looked really sad.” Kelsey took a deep breath. “But I was happy, because in the movie, the Beast comes back to life and he marries Belle in the end, and I thought that meant you and Rob were gonna get married, and we could all live happily ever after.”

      There was a moment of silence while Jess took all of that in.

      Kelsey added darkly, “Then Ian showed up, and he was so rude to you, saying those mean things, and I was so mad at him, and when me and Rob played video games, I was really just pretending to play, really, I was so mad at Ian….”

      “I’m sorry, Kel,” Jess murmured, reaching back to pull her daughter up to the front seat and into her lap.

      “Then Rob told me that it wasn’t Ian’s fault that he acted so rude. He told me that Ian was upset ‘cause he still loved you, and I told Rob that if Ian still loved you, then he wouldn’t be so mean to you, and I told him how Ian used to yell so loudly and break things and make you cry, and I was glad he didn’t live here anymore. I told him that I hated Ian.”

      “What did he say?” Jess asked, looking down into her daughter’s fierce face.

      Kelsey blinked, her angry expression changing. “Rob told me that it was okay for me to be mad at Ian. He said he was pretty mad at him, too. But he said that I should probably give Ian a break, because he’s my father, even though he doesn’t want me to call him Daddy. And Rob said that he thought maybe someday, when I’m older, I’d be able to get to know Ian, and maybe then I might even like him a little bit. He said that maybe by that time, Ian might be a little older, too, and that that would help.”

      Jess didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

      “Rob’s a pretty smart guy,” she said. She took a deep breath. “Kel, Ian didn’t chase Rob away.” Jess had done that all by herself. “Okay?”

      “Okay.” Kelsey’s face was still skeptical. “So, are you going to marry Rob?”

      Jess hugged her daughter close to her. “We’ve gone on one date,” she told her. One date, and there wasn’t likely to be another. “People don’t get married after just one date.”

      “Prince Eric and Ariel did,” Kelsey countered. “And so did Belle and the Beast.”

      Jess gave Kelsey a kiss. “If only,” she said, “life could be as simple as a Disney animated movie.”

      “MURDER ON SIESTA KEY—Victim Twelve?”

      The sensational newspaper headline caught Jess’s eye at the gas station, inside the little attached convenience store.

      A woman had been murdered on the beach on Siesta Key. Last night.

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