ball. “Completely? Delays have already put us behind schedule.”
“It’s only temporary, until we can determine that this is indeed the weapon used in your attack.”
“Of course it’s the weapon. It’s exactly the same. How many bats have you seen with ‘killer’ written on the grip like that?”
So matter-of-fact and unemotional. How did she do that? But he knew. As her training partner so long ago, he’d helped make her the player she’d been, the woman she seemed to be now. Cool, focused, driven.
“It still has to be tested,” he said. “Your description of it was common knowledge back then. Someone could have, well, made one based on that.”
“Like some kind of joke?”
The crack in her voice hit Chase like a soft blow to the gut, and suddenly he hoped like hell she’d get her game face back and fast. She’d been broken ten years ago, but he’d never seen her broken. He suspected no one had.
“The whole site is a crime scene,” he said. “It has to be off-limits to everyone but the crime scene investigators.”
“How long is this going to take?”
Steady again. He almost let out a sigh of relief. “If we don’t find any evidence on the bat or shirt that connects them to your attack, we’re looking at a day.”
“And if you do?”
“We’ll have to search the site for more evidence. Best-case scenario: a couple of weeks.”
Nothing in her face moved, but the set of her shoulders firmed. “A couple of weeks” was not a good answer. “Worst case?” she asked.
“A couple of months.”
She looked away for a moment, a muscle flexing at her temple. “I can’t afford that much of a delay.”
“Don’t you want to know who did that to you?” He gestured none too smoothly at her braced knee.
She looked at him, eyes well hidden behind dark shades, but he sensed their narrowing. “Finding out who did it won’t change anything.”
“Might be nice if the bastards paid for what they did.” Nice was a major understatement. He wanted blood. A shit-load of blood. And some screams for mercy.
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves here,” Sam said. “Kylie, can you at least shut things down for a day while we test the evidence? We’ll go from there.”
Chase had to give him credit for making it sound like she had a choice.
She nodded reluctantly. “I’ll let the foreman know.”
“Thank you,” Sam said. “We’ll be in touch.”
She’d taken only a few steps when Chase went after her. “Wait.”
She faced him, and he saw from the angle of her head that she darted a glance after Sam, as if she’d lost her buffer. “Yes?”
“Are you okay?” So lame, he thought. Of course she wasn’t okay. Why was he asking anyway? They hadn’t parted as friends, and every time they’d run into each other since she’d returned, they’d danced around each other as gracefully as newborn colts.
She gave him a thin smile. “I’m fine. Great, really. Couldn’t be better.”
Before he could snap back with something equally sarcastic, she blew out a huff of air as a small, contrite smile softened her features. “Wow, that was bitchy.”
The stiffness in his shoulders eased some, and he smiled back. “I won’t argue with that.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve had . . . well, this day . . .” She trailed off, eyebrows cinching together above the rims of her sunglasses.
“It can’t be easy.”
The splash of puddles in the parking lot had them both looking in that direction. As a news van parked next to Chase’s SUV, she sighed. “Terrific.”
“Media hell all over again, huh?”
She nodded without looking at him. “It never seems to end around here.”
“So you’re taking off soon then?”
He knew it was a dig, and part of him, the ugly, still-ticked part, meant it as one. When the going got tough, and the spotlight switched on, Kylie got packing. Why would now be any different than ten years ago? And, really, who could blame her? She had a past the press loved to rehash. Nothing sold newspapers like blood and guts and brutalized, pretty women.
She glanced at him, her smile hard now, forced. “I’m staying. Dad wanted a tennis center in Kendall Falls with the family name on it, so that’s what I’m doing. Sabotage didn’t chase me away. And neither will a ten-year-old baseball bat and endless media attention. Any other questions?”
He was glad she couldn’t tell by looking at him that the determination in her voice had sparked awake something long asleep inside him. He’d always been so turned on by her