Simply Sinful

The door closed behind him. A silent goodbye. She had to admit, the man was good. Too good, she thought and turned to clean up the remnants of living with Kane McDermott.

“IT’S BEEN A WEEK SINCE we swept the underworld,” Reid said. The older man rounded Kane’s desk and took a seat across the way. “And what a week it’s been.” He kicked his feet on top of the aging, dented metal and exhaled a grunt of satisfaction.

“You always were modest, boss.” But in this case Reid’s pride was understandable. For all Kane’s concern over Kayla’s welfare, not once had he considered the possibility that Charmed! had been tied to organized crime. No one had. The signs weren’t there.

But Kayla’s uncle had been a small-time operator looking to make it with the big boys. He’d taken all the risk and cut them in on a huge profit in the hopes of proving his loyalty. He hadn’t counted on his wife, Kayla’s aunt, getting cold feet. She’d threatened to turn over the books she’d been keeping as insurance to the police. As a result, both had met their untimely ends. The remaining key players in the scheme had counted on the very thing Kayla despised. They figured the bimbo niece in need of cash would play ball, and business would continue as usual.

She’d been in more danger than anyone realized at the time. The realization still had the power to churn Kane’s gut and turn him ice-cold. The thought of Kayla haunted him twenty-four hours a day. Erotic dreams caused tossing and turning at night and softer memories left him unfocused during the day.

“Let me gloat, McDermott.”

Kane shifted his attention back to his boss.

“After all these years I’ve earned it. I’m this close to retirement…” Reid gestured with one hand. “And I never figured on going out on a case this big.”

Kane laughed at the excitement in his superior’s voice. “As soon as he heard the words murder charge, our pal spilled names, dates, hits-cases we never thought we’d solve and guys we never thought we’d nail.”

Reid grinned. “Amazing what the promise of the Witness Protection Program will do to a guy’s sense of loyalty.”

“He was loyal,” Kane countered. “To number one.”

“And what about you?”

Kane stood, shoving his seat backward so hard the chair hit the wall. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? You’re questioning my loyalty?”

Reid didn’t flinch. “Not to the department, no. But to yourself? Yes.”

Kane groaned and eased himself back into his chair. Father-mode had obviously kicked in again. “Tell you what. You worry about retiring on a high, and I’ll worry about myself.”

“Will you? I don’t think you’ve given a crap about yourself since the day your mother walked in front of a moving bus.”

Kane didn’t question where he’d gotten the information. His life was an open record to those who needed to know. But Kane never spoke of his past aloud. Not to anyone…except Kayla.

Reid might have taken a fatherly interest in Kane, but Kane had never confided personal specifics in return. “If you were anyone else, I’d slug you for bringing that up,” he muttered. And if he’d been feeling anything like himself in the week since he’d walked out on Kayla, Kane might have shut the old man down anyway.

But he’d been a walking miserable, bleary-eyed son of a bitch. He figured hearing Reid out couldn’t hurt. Hell, at this point, it just might help.

“Have you seen her?” Reid asked.

“Who?”

The captain rose from his seat. “Know what, McDermott? I have to meet the D.A. for lunch and I don’t have the time to play who’s dumber with you. You want to live life alone, the way you have been, go right ahead. You want to let her walk out of your bed and into someone else’s…”

“Hey.”

“Hey, what? I just told you I’m through playing who’s dumber. You win that award hands down anyway.” Reid braced his hands on the desk. “The lady makes you a human being, McDermott.”

“Go play footsie with the D.A. I don’t need this crap.”

“No, but you need her.” Reid straightened. “By the way, you did a hell of a job on this case, Kane.” The older man’s voice softened. “You called it as something before even I believed the lady needed protection, you kept her safe and coached her good. I’m proud of you, son.”

Kane’s mouth grew dry. Before he could answer, Reid disappeared out the station door.

CLOSED. At least temporarily. Kayla flipped the sign on the inside of the door so the word faced the busy street. Charmed! was no more. Kayla and Catherine had sold out.

“What next?” Catherine asked.

“Beats me. Your tuition is paid in full for the year, so that’s not a concern.”

She frowned. “It is to me. If I’d known back in September how this would turn out…”

“You’d have taken the money anyway. I have a career to fall back on. Now you will, too.”

“Accounting?” Catherine scowled. “How can you even consider going back to number crunching after all the changes and excitement in your life?”

“Excitement is overrated,” Kayla said wryly. Excitement meant Kane, and he was gone. Time to move on, she thought, no matter how difficult. Despite how it sounded to her sister, Kayla didn’t intend to fall back into the old Kayla mode. Not for long, anyway. “Accounting is practical and it’ll pay the bills.”

“The sale of the business will pay the worst of the bills until we get back on our feet. Accounting isn’t you. It’s the woman you were before all this.” Her arm swept the expanse of the room. “It’s the woman who wore trousers and buttoned-to-the-collar silk blouses…” Cat’s voice trailed off as she caught sight of Kayla’s outfit.

The black knit slacks and the light blue silk top had been the least offensive things in her closet. “I own one pair of jeans, Cat. They were dirty. Cut me some slack.”

“Only if you go shopping, and soon.”

“When I can afford it,” she reminded her overindulgent sister. They might have made a small profit on the notorious business, but there were loans, bills and other necessities that made frivolous spending impossible.

“I can take a leave of absence from school, we can get back next semester’s tuition…”

“Not a chance. You’ll finish.”

Silence reigned for all of thirty seconds. “Okay. I’ll cook, you’ll count, until the school year is finished. Then we switch. I make the money, you go back to school.”

Kayla shook her head. “School, books, language degrees…I’m tired of those things. I just didn’t realize it until…” Kane.

Her sister smiled and tilted her head in a sympathetic gesture Kayla recognized immediately.

“Don’t worry about me, Cat. I’ll be fine.”

“I know. And as long as you’re free for the foreseeable future, I have an idea I want to run by you. For a new business. A catering business. We’ll start small and offer every kind of service imaginable-decorations, hors d’oeuvres, serving, catering, party-planning-we can use what’s left of the money for start-up costs.” She paused for breath. “And eventually I’ll get to use my cooking skills full time while your talent for organization will keep the business going. We’ll target small parties at first and then try for the bigger clients once we establish a reputation. I thought…”

Kayla laughed. “Slow down, Cat.” She shook her head at her sister’s enthusiasm, though she had to admit she liked the idea of planning parties instead of crunching numbers. “It sounds ambitious…”

“But you love it. And get this name. Pot Luck.” Catherine emphasized each word with her hands. “Slogan, We Meet Your Every Need.”

Kayla rolled her eyes. “I think our family’s already been down that route.”

“So capitalize on innuendo and imagination. We weren’t involved. Heck, you made headlines bringing down the mob.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

Catherine laughed. “Yeah. But I made you smile for the first time all week-since that lousy son of a bitch betrayed my faith in him and walked out.”

“He did what he had to do.” Kane hadn’t gotten past losing his mother or his supposed role in her death. Kayla