Hard Edge - Tess Oliver Page 0,70

grew to love her, but it never came between you. Then you both had to watch her move on and nearly marry someone else. I think Grady would be relieved to know that Kenna ended up with the brother he loved and admired.”

I looked at him. He’d gone through a life-changing experience and it had altered him physically. The emotional scars were permanent too. As a teen, I’d underestimated how much I meant to him and how much he meant to me, but now I was glad as hell to have him back in my life. “Dad, sometimes I don’t give you enough credit for being a great dad.”

“That goes both ways, Caden.” He stood up from the table. “Well, I’m finished handing out fatherly nuggets of advice for now. I’ve got a Twilight Zone marathon taping in the next room, and I’m going to sit on that couch and watch the whole damn thing. Join me later if you have time.”

Chapter 33

Kenna

I pressed my arm against my tender ribcage hoping to staunch the flow of pain as I entered the building. After a night of no sleep, listening to an endless argument in the apartment next door intermingled with the screeching sirens on the street below my bedroom window, I had climbed onto the crowded subway half-dazed and bleary eyed. When the subway car stopped unexpectedly, the woman standing next to me fell back into me. Her sharp elbow struck my ribcage so hard, I’d lost my breath for a moment. She’d hardly taken the time to mutter an apology before she stepped off at the next stop. I spent the rest of the ride in tears and ready to throw up from the pain.

The walk from the subway to the high rise office building, where I was destined to spend another nightmarish day being insulted and ordered around by Voldemort’s twin sister, Ms. Bridger, had helped me feel better, but I was sure I had a big bruise.

I stepped into the elevator, rested back against the polished wood walls and closed my eyes. Soothed by the music and movement, I nearly fell asleep.

I groaned as the elevator reached the sixth floor. The doors opened. It took all of my will to step out. Two more unlucky suckers had been hired as interns. They were assigned the other two lawyers. I’d lost and ended up with the worst of the bunch.

Ms. Bridger was already hovering around my desk like a vulture waiting to pick dry my bones. This morning, her questionable fashion sense had prompted her to wear a neon green blouse paired with a tight black pencil skirt. She had her hair pulled back tight, making her look even more severe. She wasn’t much older than me, but she wore all her years as if she’d rarely smiled or laughed through any of them.

Her angry scowl snagged me as I walked slowly and slightly hunched over toward my desk.

“Christ, Ken, didn’t anyone ever teach you not to slouch?” She looked at her watch. “You’re late.” She pointed to the files she’d piled on my desk. “I need you to enter these into the computer files for the Torkelson case. And hurry up because I have some errands for you to run.”

I avoided looking at her as I circled around to my chair and lowered myself into it as if I was a hundred years old.

“What the hell is wrong with you? I told you that you need exercise. You move like my grandmother.”

I found it hard to believe that the woman had a grandmother or a mother or a family, for that matter. I imagined her just popping out of an alien pod in some dark, creepy place.

If she’d been a normal person I could have relayed to her my morning sob story and gotten some sympathy and understanding. But she wasn’t normal or a person.

“I’ll get right to these files.” I stuck my purse in the desk drawer and sighed with relief when she finally stomped away.

It had taken two aspirin and a good three hours to get halfway through the pile of work on my desk. The boss had been in meetings all morning, which had been like a vacation. But all vacations had to come to an end. I cringed as I heard her snotty voice coming around the corner. Her phone rang just as she reached my desk. Instead of doing the polite thing and walking into her office to take the call,