rather than answer.
“It’s late,” he said. “We should split.”
He paid the bill and they stepped outside. It had begun to drizzle again, and the street was quiet now, except for a few stray people rushing through the dark, as if hoping to beat a potential downpour.
Kelman turned left, in the direction they’d come, and she sensed by the way his body led that he had every intention of accompanying her. Not so fast, she thought.
“I’ll take it from here,” she said.
“I can’t let you go alone. I’ll walk you most of the way and then watch to make sure you get in okay. So if someone’s lurking around your building, they won’t see me with you.”
That was funny, she thought as they started to walk. She was being escorted home by someone she’d just considered might be a cold-hearted killer. But at least for now he scared her less than the unknown, the person or persons who had broken into her apartment, who might be the real ones behind Healy’s death. Besides, she still had a question, and she could ask him it as they walked.
“Did you follow me that day in Islamorada?” she asked, after they’d gone half a block. “Into the shop where we talked?”
“Why do you ask that?” Even in the dark street, she could see his expression grow perplexed.
“Ungaro wanted to know. It’s clear he thought you might have.”
“Really? You mean to force an encounter with you for some reason?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, I get it. Healy told them that I was claiming you’d stolen the flash drive, but they might have entertained other explanations—that I could have marked you and used you as some kind of unsuspecting mule to sneak the flash drive out of the area.”
That, she realized, could explain their interest in the fact that she and Kelman had literally run into each other early in the day.
“So you didn’t follow me that day?”
A pause. The only sound was from her boot heels scuffing the pavement.
“I didn’t say that. The truth is I did follow you. But not for the reason Ungaro suggested. I saw you go into the store, and that’s why I went there, too. You’d intrigued me from the moment I saw you that morning. I should have left you alone, Kit, but I didn’t. I wanted you.”
His voice was seductive. It was a kind of quicksand, she told herself, and she needed to be careful. She ignored the comment and picked up her pace, anxious to be home.
A half block from her apartment building, Kelman touched her arm, signaling for her to stop. “I’ll watch from here,” he said.
She nodded and started to turn.
“Wait,” he said, suddenly. “This is yours.”
She turned back. In his hand was the pen, the one her father had given her. As she accepted it, his fingers brushed against her own. She met his gaze. Under the street lamp, his eyes were back to being that piercing blue. It was utterly crazy, she thought. After everything, there was still something about Kelman that made her want him, too.
“Text me when you’re in your apartment,” he said as she started to turn again. “I want to know you’re safe.”
“You know when I’ll feel safe?” she said. “When you call to tell me you’ve been to the SEC and the police. And not a second before then.”
“Point taken. I know it’s hard for you to trust me, but I’m going to make good on what I’ve said. All I’m asking is that you give me a few more days.”
She nodded tentatively and then darted across the street. As she covered the last yards to her building, she could almost feel his eyes on her back, like a magnetic force.
As soon as she’d slammed the apartment door behind her, she flipped on the lights, checked around the space, and then set the alarm on the door. Only then did she text Kelman.
Her brain felt ready to explode from all the information she’d heard tonight, and from the constant weighing she’d done of Kelman’s words, trying to assess the veracity of everything he said. She was also frustrated. She’d gone out hoping that it would be a turning point for her, that she’d somehow be able to dig out from under, but as she’d told Kelman, little he’d said was truly of help to her.
And she felt scared, too—more than earlier. If Kelman’s story was legit, they were both up against a powerful entity, one with the money and resources to truly