The Sharpest Edge

“How did you know I was back?” She steered Eddie toward the kitchen table he’d sat at many times, then pulled a pitcher of lemonade out of the fridge.

“I’ve been watching the house. Figured you might come back when your dad got in the accident.”

Oh, crap. “Does everyone know I’m back?”

He shook his head. “This house is too far away from the rest of the camp. No one comes out here. I’ve been driving by on the lake, keeping an eye on the place.”

Phew. She wasn’t up to facing people yet.

“Thanks for stopping by.” And she meant it. Eddie was dear to her, the only vestige of her past that wasn’t tainted.

“We’re real sorry about your dad.”

She managed a civil nod. “Thanks.”

“That boat was okay. It wasn’t my fault.”

Surprised at his response, she touched his hand. “Of course it wasn’t your fault, Eddie. It was an accident.” Wasn’t it? Hadn’t Cheryl told her it was an accident? Cheryl had been Kim’s conduit for all the town news since they’d left.

Not that she cared about the details of what had happened to her dad. But Cheryl cared, so she had to ask. “What exactly happened? No one has told me.”

Eddie frowned. “Some kids were camping on Big Moon Island about a week ago. They heard a boat motor roaring and then a crash just before midnight, so they went down there and checked it out. The moon was out, so they were able to see your dad unconscious under the water, the boat cracked up on the rocks. Smashed his head on a rock, apparently. Kids hauled him out and gave him CPR while their buddies got help from the marina. Kept him alive, but he never woke up.” Eddie blinked several times. “Best friend a man could have. Should never have happened.”

No kidding. Her dad was the guru of boating safety and could navigate the lake blindfolded, even at night. He’d never, ever run aground, let alone smashed a boat full speed into one of the islands. The darkness wouldn’t have made a difference to him. He didn’t need daylight to navigate the lake. No one who had lived on it for fifty years did. The moon and stars were more than enough.

“The gearshift was locked down, so people figure that it got stuck,” Eddie said.

So what? That wasn’t enough to cause her dad to crash into an island. “What about the propeller? Couldn’t he have turned?”

“Jammed, too.” Eddie shook his head. “Weirdest damn thing. Makes no sense. I take care of that boat, and it was fine. Sure, it’s twenty years old, but it’s in perfect shape. I didn’t screw up.”

“Of course you didn’t—”

He interrupted her, anger resonating in his voice. “The cops won’t listen to me, but you will. I know what happened.”

“What?” For an instant, Jimmy flashed through her mind. Would he target her entire family? Except that he’d still been in prison when the accident happened. Thank God for that. One less thing for her to be paranoid about.

“It was that new wife of his. She tried to kill him.”

Chapter Three

“Helen’s trying to murder him?” How ironic if his new beloved did kill Max, after he’d taken the life of his first wife. Poetic justice, although there would never be justice for the loss of Kim’s mother.

Then Kim sighed. This wasn’t the movies. Wives didn’t go around offing their husbands. Especially by cracking a boat up on some rocks. A very bad way to try to kill someone because the chances of death were minimal. Only a total idiot around the water would think that might work.

Eddie grabbed her arm, his gnarly fingers digging into her skin. “Helen despises the camp. She hates everything about his past life. She’s been trying to get him to sell the place for years and he won’t. Saving it for you girls, and she don’t care.”

A second wife who hated the lake? Her dad sure could pick his women. But Helen apparently spoke up. Joyce had kept quiet and suffered until a bottle of antidepressants became her only solution for escape from the man who had destroyed her. Damn him!

But Eddie wasn’t finished and wouldn’t leave Kim to suffer the memories of her past. “That’s why I came over here today. You gotta save the camp.”

Um, hello? No chance of that. “What are you talking about?”

“Helen’s destroying it. You gotta take over until your dad can come back.”

“No.” She pushed back from the table. “I can’t. I’m only out here to check on Max. I have to go back to L.A. in a few days. My job.” Not precisely true. Her leave of absence from her job as an editor at the Hollywood insider magazine would last a month, but she would be on the first plane back to L.A. as soon as it was safe.

She and Alan had figured it would take only a couple of weeks for Jimmy to come after her, so she could be back at work shortly. She had a gorgeous apartment, lots of friends, and invites to all the best parties so she could keep tabs on celebrity gossip. Everything that made life complete. Most of the time.

Unfortunately, in order to stay hidden from Jimmy, she’d had to go MIA from work entirely. No calls, no e-mails. She was going insane, wondering how much her replacement was screwing up. But she and Alan had decided it was too risky to have any contact with the office. Someone would need to mail her something, her address would be released and then she’d be in trouble. Total silence was the only way, and she was going through definite withdrawal. L.A. was her home now, not the lake.

Besides, there was no way she could reinvest herself in this place. Not with Sean here. Not with Helen lurking around. She had to leave, not dig herself deeper. “Eddie, I can’t help with the camp.”

Hope faded from Eddie’s eyes. “I understand.”

Could she feel guiltier about the despair on his face? “Eddie…”

He let go of her arm. “I gotta get back. July’s a busy time. Boats are going in and out and my assistant don’t know a propeller from a life jacket.”

She bit her lip as he trudged to the door, his shoulders stooped and his gait shuffling. He’d gotten so old since she’d last been here.

Who was she kidding? He’d gotten old in the five minutes since she’d turned him down. “Um…Eddie? How bad is it?”

“We’ll be bankrupt by the end of the summer.”

Oh, no. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“But then the place will be sold.” And Cheryl would have nowhere to come home to when she was finally able to resume her life.

There was no way Kim could let her little sister down. It would take her a lifetime to repay Cheryl for the two times she’d already betrayed her.

The first time was when Kim had left ten years ago, abandoning her little sister to a suicidal mother and a clueless father.

Yeah, sure, Kim had left because her mom had talked her into it with her whispered confessions while she and Kim were huddled in the alcove of the church, Sean waiting at the altar. Heck, Joyce had helped her pack, so desperate she was that Kim not make the same mistakes she’d made. Giving up dreams, being stuck in a dead-end marriage with a man she didn’t love, being trapped in Ridgeport forever, miserable beyond anything she could endure—all because of teenage love that hadn’t been real. The stark anguish in her mother’s eyes had terrified Kim, and she’d realized that if she stayed in town, she’d never be able to resist the lure of Sean, his safe and familiar arms, things that would destroy her the way they’d devastated her mother.

Of course, Kim would never have left if she’d truly understood how desperate her mom was. Joyce had sworn that she’d follow Kim soon after with Cheryl and they would all be happy. But her mom had killed herself six months later, driven to it by her husband, the man who refused to let her go. Never would Kim forgive Max for destroying her family. Ever. Not after she’d received the letter.

Kim should have realized how bad the situation was when she’d left or, at the very least, come back for Cheryl after Joyce killed herself. Instead, Cheryl had tried to take her own life, and Kim still had nightmares about it. Convincing Cheryl to come to California for school, then paying for her expenses didn’t begin to make up for the fact that she’d almost lost her sister.

The second time Kim had let Cheryl down was with Jimmy. When Kim had known it was wrong for Cheryl to marry him, but hadn’t stopped her.

Mistakes that had nearly killed her sister—twice.

No way would she let Cheryl lose her legacy, as well. Sweet, innocent Cheryl, who had never realized how bad their dad was, keeping in touch with him even after all that had happened. “Give me five minutes to change and I’ll follow you up to the office.”

Eddie’s face lit up with hope, hope that wrenched Kim’s stomach. “I’m not a business expert, Eddie. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do anything.”