Page 8 of Hushed

With her degree in marketing, she could have gone to work for any number of big companies in Manhattan working in an office all day, but she would have gone crazy, and Reggie neverwanted that. He never told her to get a better job or scolded her for how she spent her money. Instead, he transferred whatever money she needed, or showed up on her doorstep with groceries and a hug. Even when she would apologize for needing his help, he would tousle her hair and flash her that lopsided grin and say, “It’s all good Gabs-a-lot. Your dreams are important. I just need you to keep following them, and I’ll do my best to take care of you when you need it.”

And he was damn good at taking care of her.

Even in his death—a concept that still seemed impossible—he sent someone to be there for her. More specifically, he sent Gage. It made sense. Of all the men Reggie worked with, he and Gage were closest.

Somewhere in her teenage years, Kenzie had developed a crush on Gage. She made the mistake of confiding in her big brother that she thought Gage was cute, and Reggie forbade her from showing any interest. Aside from him being her big brother’s best friend, Gage being fifteen years older than her made the crush completely inappropriate, but it didn’t change things.

Now he stood in her living room, looking as handsome as he always had, and the attraction still simmered. Kenzie was angry at herself for even acknowledging her crush on the tall Texas native. Reggie had just fucking died, for fuck’s sake. She had no business thinking about how hot Gage looked in her living room.

She scrubbed her eyes, struggling to focus on the logo design open on her screen. In an attempt to drown out her intrusive thoughts, she cranked up the volume on a half-finished playlist for a birthday party she was scheduled to DJ next weekend.

Shit. Did she need to cancel that gig? The clients were high profile, and the pay was incredible. Good enough to dig herself out of the hole she found herself in. She didn’t really want to give it up at all.

But she had to do right by Reggie. If it came down to it, she would make the playlists and send one of her DJ friends in her place and split the earnings. She shook her head and tried again to concentrate on the logo.

It didn’t work. Gage stood behind her, probably staring at the back of her head. If she ignored him long enough, would he leave? Kenzie could only hope. Then she could go back to pretending this was all one big nightmare.

The minute he called to tell her he’d boarded a train to New York, Kenzie’s brain went into overdrive, imagining every possible nightmare scenario. Good news rarely required someone to take a train ride in order to deliver it.

Reggie had been in and out of the country most of her life, working on covert missions for the government. He would sometimes go months without contact. But they’d spoken less than two weeks ago, and it sounded like he planned to stay home for a while and see how retirement worked.

After Gage’s phone call, she convinced herself that he was coming to tell her that retirement wasn’t a good fit for Reggie and that he was going to be out of the country for a while. The bad news was he wouldn’t be home for Christmas.

Instead, the news was worse than she imagined. Her big brother was dead, and she didn’t even get to say goodbye.

She tried to think about the last time he’d visited.

Four months ago? He’d been gone for a while on some no-contact mission. But he finally showed up at her apartment, looking worn out and wanting to crash on her bed until he was awake enough to drive back home to D.C. She’d let him, of course, and stayed up working while he slept.

He wanted her to move to D.C. with him, but never pressed the issue when she pointed out that it was harder to do her job anywhere but New York or Los Angeles. Especially the way she liked doing it.

He was always good about respecting her career choices. Though she imagined if she’d chosen Los Angeles for her base of operations, he might have pushed harder. At least D.C. was a short flight or train ride away.

The screen blurred, and she realized tears were streaming down her face. She lifted the hem of her black tank top and wiped her eyes in frustration.

A hand on her shoulder made her jump before she remembered Gage. She whirled to glare at him only to find him glaring right back. Butterflies swarmed in her stomach as they stared at each other.

“See. That’s why you shouldn’t wear those things when you’re home alone.”

The butterflies stopped, and she let out a petulant huff. “Fine. You’re right. Is that what you want to hear?”

“It’s a start,” he said with a shrug.

“What do you want?” She knew she sounded like a bitch, but she didn’t care.

“I’m hungry. Do you want to grab a bite to eat and talk about this?”

She’d been sitting in her apartment for two days working on a project. That’s probably how long it had been since she last had a decent meal. It was hard to remember when she got lost in her work.

If she was going to have the strength to be there for Reggie one last time, she needed to eat.

“Sure. Give me five minutes to change.”

She walked over to the dresser and opened it. Without a thought for Gage, she lifted her shirt over her head with her back to him and pulled a bra out of the drawer. It was a tiny apartment, and she’d never been shy.

“What the hell are you doing?” he growled.

She laughed and turned around as she hooked the bra in place.

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