The Fall of Lucas Kendrick Read Online Free Page B

Hagen only temporarily; this wasn’t, apparently, the usual sort of job he undertook for Long Enterprises.
    She had instinctively trusted Lucas ten years ago, and the results of that betrayal of trust had been devastating. Now he was back in her life,however briefly, asking for her trust again. Kyle felt more alive and aware than she had in too many years. But she was terribly afraid of trusting him. Afraid of allowing him back into her life. And that had nothing to do with Martin Rome and his alleged criminal activities.
    She was afraid Luc would turn her life upside down again and then leave her, with no warning, to pick up the pieces alone. Again.
    After she had talked to Josh Long, Lucas had asked for her decision, and she had stalled—there was no other word for it. The party was two weeks away, she’d said, and she wanted to think about it for a day or so. It had not been spelled out that he would remain here in her home until then, but both of them knew he would.
    Feeling chilled, Kyle crept back to her bed. She knew why she had stalled. Because she needed time to work up the courage to face him with what had happened ten years ago. It wasn’t possible to pretend to herself it didn’tmatter. She had to understand the series of events that had haunted her since then.
    He had said he loved her, and in the morning he had been gone. She had to know why.
    The faint sound of the shower woke her, and Kyle listened until she heard Lucas moving about downstairs in the kitchen. Then she rose and dressed, feeling edgy and tense. There was no conscious decision to confront him now, this morning, but when she went downstairs and into the kitchen, finding him leaning against the counter drinking coffee, the words emerged unbidden.
    “Why did you leave me?”
    And it seemed that he, too, was ready to talk, because he answered immediately.
    “You know why.”
    “No. I don’t. I’ve never known.”
    Lucas gave her a look of disbelief, something hard in his eyes, his jaw tense. “All right, maybeyou didn’t know why. Not completely. But you had to have a damned good idea when you found the suitcase missing. You had to know my leaving was connected to that.”
    Kyle shook her head slowly, confused. “Suitcase? What suitcase?”
    “Oh, hell, Kyle—the heroin!”

T WO
    T HE SUPPRESSED VIOLENCE of his rough outburst went through Kyle’s body like an icy knife, leaving her numb. And his words made no sense at all.
    “Heroin? Luc, what are you talking about?”
    His eyes were hard, glittering, his face so wiped of feeling, it was like a mask. And when he answered, his voice was no longer violent but something far worse, because it was as empty as his face. “I’m talking about the suitcasestuffed full of white powder I found in your closet, Kyle.”
    Her mind was anesthetized; she could think of nothing but trivialities. “What were you doing in my closet?”
    “Looking. Searching.” His tone became clipped. “Trying to find evidence to clear you.” He lifted his coffee cup in a jerky, mocking toast. “That’s not what I found.”
    The gesture focused her scattered thoughts, and she moved automatically to find a cup. Coffee, of course. This would all make sense when she’d had some coffee. She always needed coffee to wake up. She poured some and sipped, barely feeling the pain when she burned her tongue. Then she looked at Lucas and found that coffee didn’t help at all.
    She heard a stranger’s voice emerge shakily. “Clear me of what?”
    “Selling heroin to other students. Pushing.”
    “I didn’t.” Her denial sounded strangely weak and unemphatic to her own ears, just the way an innocent’s denial always sounded whenthe accusation was one too wild and horrible even to contemplate.
    “I
saw
you, Kyle.” His voice was roughening, the words coming more rapidly. “I had photographs. A dozen times I watched while you met a supplier and exchanged money for drugs. I never saw you pushing, just buying, but