Page 41 of Rival for Rent

If he noticed the jab, he didn’t comment on it.

“You didn’t have to cook for me,” he said instead.

“I wasn’t going to make all this and then not invite you. Just sit and eat.”

I’d set the plates so we didn’t have to look directly at each other. It was still awkward, but manageable. We ate in silence for a while. I caught him sneaking a few surprised looks at his plate, like he couldn’t believe it tasted good.

“What are these?” he asked finally, spearing a little green sphere. “Some kind of pea?”

“Capers,” I said. “You’ve never had them?”

“I don’t really cook.” He shrugged.

“You don’t have to cook to know what capers are. They’re classic rich people food. I can’t believe you’ve never heard of them.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” he said flatly.

I was starting to realize that despite the amount of money he clearly had, Kai didn’t spend much of it on himself. He certainly wasn’t spending it on gourmet meals, not if the moldy takeout I’d seen was any indication.

We finished the meal without another word. Afterwards, he helped carry dishes to the kitchen. I found out fast that he didn’t know how his dishwasher worked. I handed him the job of storing leftovers, only to learn he didn’t own a single storage container. So we dumped the food into Ziplocs. I made a mental note to add containers to the next grocery list.

We didn’t talk much, but the cleanup had its own kind of rhythm. Shared work built camaraderie—even something small, like cleaning up after dinner. By the time we were done, Kai had even stopped glaring at me like I was a roach in his cereal.

He was heading for the stairs when I called out, “Hey, actually, I wanted to talk to you.”

He turned, one eyebrow lifting. “That sounds ominous.”

“It’s not. But I wanted to follow up on some of the things the cops said.”

I walked over to the couch and sat, trying to look relaxed. Kai hesitated, then sat at the other end. Bella flopped on the floor between us with a little sigh.

“Okay…” Kai said, eyeing me warily.

“You keep saying you can’t think of anyone who might be behind this—”

“I can’t,” he interrupted.

“I know. But I wanted to take you through the process again.”

“What, you wanna play detective now too?”

“No. But I’ve got experience getting information from people who are sure they don’t know anything. Sometimes asking on a different day, or having a different person ask, can yield the intelligence you need.”

“Jesus, what were you, a spy? An assassin?” Kai scoffed. “‘Yield the intelligence you need.’ Who talks like that?”

I reminded myself that I was trying to help him, not throttle him, and said, “Humor me, would you?”

He let out a long, dramatic sigh, clearly putting on a show about how little he wanted to participate. But eventually, he said, “Fire away.”

“Okay, let’s start with your family. You’re still on good terms with both your parents?”

“Yes.”

“Do either of them have any enemies?”

He stared at me like I’d asked if they’d taken up naked skydiving. “Enemies? You realize how insane you sound, right? Normal people don’t have enemies.”

“Your dad’s a congressman, isn’t he? Could this be the work of one of his political opponents? Or a disgruntled coworker? Or some crazy person who dislikes your mom? She’s still on TV, right?”

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