“Can I ask what happened?” Between the three of them, the truth might leak out.
“No,” Kennedy says without missing a beat.
“He’s your boyfriend, Ken.” There’s a mocking tone in her sister’s voice. “Shouldn’t he know all about you? Every last, dirty detail?”
I’m getting the idea Daddy, here, is genuine, big sister not so much.
Kennedy reaches for my hand under the table and gives me a squeeze.
“Go ahead, Kam. I bet you can’t wait to shake the dust out of our dirty laundry. I don’t really care. All of that is in the past.” She gives her father a smug grin. “If you’re really interested in starting off on the right foot, that’s exactly where you’ll leave it.”
Kamryn exchanges glances with her father. It looks like Kennedy beat her at her own game. She’s good, I’ll give her that.
“Kennedy is right.” Her father pats the top of her hand, a dull smile comes to him as he soaks it in. “I’m sorry this is happening to you. I talked to Keith. I’ve gone over the polygraph. I think it’s time we end this madness, Ken. I can’t have your hatred for me shaping the rest of your life. I can’t stand the thought that she’s made you into something you’re not. Your mother was angry. She didn’t do the right thing, but neither did I. What you need to understand is that you can’t go around doing this to other people. It has to end, Kennedy. Keith doesn’t want money. He simply wants an apology.”
“He’s not getting it.” She doesn’t waste time to give it a second thought.
“Then tell us what happened. What was going through your head?” He’s pleading, insisting in the kindest way possible.
“Keith Stearns is a cheat just like you, Daddy. He had an insatiable desire to lie about it, so I thought I’d make him pay.”
The table goes silent. The air in the diner goes stale much like the coffee, and my stomach boils in its own acid. Kennedy admitting fault to her father is one thing, admitting fault toSlade the Savageis another. I’m not sure what the hell just happened. He has a reputation for being brutally good, but would he stoop this low to save his client’s neck?
“Maybe we should leave.” I try to pull her up, but she resists. “He might be setting you up.”
“Someone is trying to set me up, that’s for sure, and I can’t figure out who.”
“Um,hello?” Kam openly mocks her once again. “Has the victim of this situation ever crossed your mind?”
“He passed the polygraph,” Peter asserts.
“And he’s not a victim,” I correct. “He recorded those videos without your sister’s knowledge. I think that wipes the patina of innocence off him.”
“Is that true?” Kamryn presses into her sister with a scathing tone.
Kennedy turns her head, offering a silent admission that stuns each of us at the table.
Shit. It’s like her father slipped her the fucking truth serum, and now everything that comes from her mouth is ironically tough to believe. This has become a nightmare unfolding into another nightmare.
“You knew?” It’s my turn to hold her gaze. Kennedy shifts in her seat, stirring her posture uncomfortably away from mine.
“I knew.” Her voice is less than a whisper.
Never before have I wanted to get up and leave. I’m not sure who the piranha is anymore, Kennedy or her father.
“So what about the rest of it?” I’m hoping her ability to offer up the truth doesn’t end at the sight of me.
“I said I didn’t do it.” Kennedy steadies those watery gray eyes over mine, pleading with me to believe her. “I took the polygraph for you, Caleb. I want you to know you can trust me. I swear I was going to tell you everything.”
“Did you dothis?” Her father slides over his phone, and I pick it up holding it between us. It’s an obituary for Keith Ryan Stearns. The interesting thing is he doesn’t die until tomorrow.
I glance to Kennedy as she shakes her head.
“No.” Her chest heaves as she backs away from it. “But someone is going to kill Keith, and they’re going to pin it on me.”
“Who would do this?” I drill the words out in anger.
Her sister slaps the table. “Who would hate you enough to go the extra mile?”
