Flashback

When he walked back into the kitchen, he found Zach staring at the breakfast he’d made for Kenzie.

“You made breakfast,” Zach said. “As in got out a pan and cooked something.”

“Yeah. So?”

“You put out napkins.”

“Let me repeat myself. So?”

“So you never put out napkins. Not when it’s me or the other guys.”

“Do you want to split the food with me or not?”

“You didn’t cook this for me.”

“You’re right.”

Zach raised an eyebrow.

“You’re going to question a plate of food?” Aidan said. “Really?”

Zach didn’t have to be asked twice. He grabbed a plate and pulled up a chair.

“I thought you and Brooke were going away for a few days since you haven’t been cleared to go back to work yet.”

“We are. We’re leaving tomorrow morning. Wanted to see you first.”

“Ah, that’s so sweet. You’re going to miss me.”

“Actually, I’m not.” Zach shoveled in some food, and looked at him. “I heard about the explosion. I should have been there.”

Aidan looked at the cast on Zach’s left wrist, remembered how close he’d come to losing him along with Blake, and felt the food get caught in his throat. “You’re not healed yet.”

“It’s coming along though.” He squeezed his fingers into a fist, then stretched them straight out. “I could be back at work, dammit. I have no idea why the chief’s being so hard-assed about this. I’m willing and able.”

“Enjoy your few days off. You and Brooke deserve it.”

“Yeah.” Zach sighed. “So is the boat a complete loss?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Kenzie all right?”

“Heard about that, too, huh?”

“Yeah.” Zach paused. “Was it awkward, considering your past with her?”

“To be the one rescuing her?”

“What else?”

Yeah, genius, what else. Maybe sleeping with her…But that hadn’t been awkward. Not one little bit.

Zach was looking at him. “What am I missing?”

Aidan shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Come on.”

“Okay, nothing I want to talk about.”

“That I buy,” Zach said, and like the good friend he was, changed the subject. “I heard that Blake must have kept his accelerants on the boat, which is why it blew like it did.”

That was one theory, Aidan was sure.

But he had another. “Well…”

“What?” Zach asked.

“You’re going to tell me I’m crazy.”

Zach stood up and went to the refrigerator for the milk. “All those times I thought those fires were arson, you were the only one who believed me. I’ll be the last one to tell you that you’re crazy.”

“Yeah, but now we know that Tommy was behind you the entire time, he was just in the middle of his investigation. Still is, with the chief riding his ass to put an end to this.”

“Yeah.” Zach pushed away his plate. “So I wonder what they’d say now.”

“About…?”

“About your not buying that boat fire was any more accidental than the other fires. Or me not buying it, either.”

Aidan looked into his best friend’s eyes and let out a breath. “That boat was blown up for a reason and I think that reason was to hide something. Something that someone didn’t want found.”

“What?”

“I don’t know. And I’m betting Tommy and the Chief don’t know either but they want to.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” Zach said. “Blake’s dead.”

Aidan pushed away his plate. “Yeah.” Goddamn, but he wasn’t going to get used to that any time soon, the fact that Blake, a friend, one of them for Christ’s sake, was not only gone, but accused of arson.

“Which means that he wasn’t working alone and whoever the other person is, they’re running scared of something.”

“Or someone,” Zach said. “Kenzie shows up out of the blue after what, six years? Seems kind of odd, doesn’t it?”

Aidan’s gut tightened. “Her brother’s dead, Zach.”

“Yes. Her arsonist brother. They were close, right?”

“What are you saying, that she’s his co-felon?”

“Look, I don’t want to think about Blake doing the things they’ve accused him of, either. And I really don’t want to think about the fact that if he was still alive, he’d be in jail. But those are the facts.”

Aidan scrubbed his hands over his face. “She just got into town.”

“You know that for sure?”

Actually, no, he didn’t.

“Why was she on his boat?”

“Going through his things.” Listen to him defend her. “Missing him.”

Zach closed his eyes and rubbed them hard. “If that were true, wouldn’t she have come sooner?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything except that Blake was all she had.” Aidan got to his feet because he had to move, had to pace the length of the kitchen. “She’s…devastated. Horrified. And pissed off that we all believe that Blake’s guilty. I think she’s going to go digging on her own and find out what she can.”

“Which should make Tommy oh-so-happy.”

“He’s going to have her arrested if she hinders the investigation,” Aidan admitted. “And she’s going to hinder. It’s in her nature. She intends to prove Blake innocent.”

Zach raised a brow. “You got all that from pulling her out of the water?”

Well, shit. Aidan picked up his fork and shoveled some food in.

“You saw her after the fire. At the hospital.”

“Yeah.”

Zach paused. “And after that as well, I’m thinking.”

“Yeah.”

Zach peered around Aidan and into the living room, pointedly looking down the hallway.

“She’s not still here.”

“But she was here? Jesus, Aidan. What would Tommy say?”

“Since when does that matter?”

“Since we both now know that he was on our side about the arsons all along. He’ll be on this, too, you can guarantee it.”

Yeah. In hindsight, sleeping with Kenzie been a pretty stupid thing to do. And yet, what else could he have done but given her a place to stay?

Except for that using up two condoms part. He probably could have not done that.

“We’ve got to let Tommy do his thing here,” Zach said quietly.

“I can’t believe you’re suggesting I stay out of it, when you did the very opposite.”

“And paid for it,” Zach reminded him, lifting his casted wrist.

“She was hurting, Zach. And alone. Her purse had burned in the fire and she had nowhere else to go so I let her stay here. End of story.”