Free SpareDick by Sarina Wilde Page B

came up clean
in the last two investigations.”
    “Anybody we haven’t talked to yet about Addy?”
    “Three. I think we need to wait on a positive ID that this
body is Heather Stevens before we start back through the list.”
    Adam looked at Kevin’s expression, saw the need there in his
partner to get back to his house and his woman so he could try to repair the
damage they’d done.
    “I’ll give you a ride home. You want me to grovel too? I
will.”
    Kevin shook his head. “I’ll do this one alone.” He stopped,
swallowed, looked around the otherwise empty room and back at Adam. “Last
night… Shit, Adam, it was fantastic, but…”
    Adam’s chest constricted with pain. “Not happening again. I
knew going in. I’m good with it.”
    They stared at each other for a long moment then Kevin
nodded.
    “Let’s get you home.” Adam was amazed how steady his voice
was when inside he was falling to pieces.
    * * * * *
    Kevin’s gut was in knots. In all the years he and Jill had
been together, they’d had some ups and downs, but nothing serious. Nothing
either of them would have called a deal breaker. But now as Adam pulled into
the driveway, Kevin’s hands shook a bit when he released his seatbelt.
    “You want me to wait?” Adam’s voice was quiet, calm.
    Kevin sucked in a shaky breath. “No. I’ll…see you tomorrow.”
    He waited for Adam’s car to reverse down the drive before he
walked around the side of the garage and let himself in the door. When he
stepped into the kitchen, the first things he saw were his suitcases lined up
next to the counter separating the kitchen’s working area from the breakfast
area.
    Shit. Shit. Shit.
    “Jill?”
    When he got no answer, he cut through the kitchen to the
family room. She was curled up on the love seat in the glassed-in porch off
that room. He stopped, staring at her. Although she had a book on her lap,
she’d turned it facedown and was staring off into space as though her mind were
elsewhere. Wherever she was, it wasn’t a happy place. Her mouth drooped and her
eyes were red-rimmed as if she’d been crying.
    Kevin gulped, blinking the moisture from his own eyes and
rubbing the knot in his chest. How had everything gone so wrong? But he knew
the answer. He hadn’t been honest with her. Come on, Ramsey. Man up and get
this over with. With another deep breath, he stepped forward and opened the
French doors leading onto the porch.
    Jill didn’t look at him. “I’ve packed your bags. I want you
to leave.”
    “Jill…let me explain.”
    She turned to him then, her eyes blazing. “Explain what? You
lied to me? You and your partner worked together to deceive me?”
    “It’s not the way it seems.”
    Her laugh held bitterness and hurt. “Are you going to tell
me the email from Adam Gregory was coincidence? Was it also a
coincidence it came in while you and he were together…” Her voice trailed off
and her eyes widened. “Oh my God…”
    He took a step forward and she shrank back into the depths
of the chair. “Jill! It’s not like that!”
    “Do you think I’m so stupid? Do you think I couldn’t see the
connection between you two? Oh my God!” She jumped to her feet, stalking toward
him, her fists clenched. “Get out, Kevin! Even if I believed you, what you did
was a deal breaker. You knew I wanted this to be with someone unknown to us.
You knew. Yet you deliberately involved not only someone you knew, but your
partner ? I want you to go.”
    He’d never seen her so close to hysterics. Jill had always
been the calm one—one of the things that made her such a wonderful asset in an
emergency room. Nothing fazed her. But this had. Kevin knew they wouldn’t get
anything accomplished right now. All he could do was make it worse and he
needed time to think. That was his nature.
    He backed up, raising his hands. “I won’t give up on us,
Jill, but I will go. Maybe we could both use some time to think.”
    She looked at him with such contempt he