Page 92 of Smoke and Fire
"And you're trying to find Brooke here," I murmured.
Her chin tilted higher, forcing her to look at me down her nose. Despite my own wariness around Katrina/Lolo, I couldn't deny the real fear in her eyes.
"Yes." She swallowed. "It's been so long now. I don't want to live without an explanation any longer. I need closure. I’ve obsessed over this too long."
"Where do you live, Katrina?"
"New York or LA. I bounce between the two. I came here from New York."
"You came all that way?"
She nodded.
I sighed. "Have a seat," I murmured. "And I'll tell you what I can.”
Relief, coupled with fear, filled her expression as she lowered into a nearby chair. The cagey energy she'd brought into the store subsided as I walked around the counter and sat down across from her. Now that her secret was out, she seemed a little more at ease. Terrified, but not so . . . odd.
The strangeness of this entire situation had set me off balance, and I struggled to pull my thoughts together. We sat there for several long moments. As if the world burning by fire outside wasn't enough, now Katrina had morphed into a lovesick woman seeking her lost mate.
A heart drawn underneath an author signature was hardly a rare idea, particularly in the romance world. Her timeline didn't really line up, either. Brooke had been looking for a publisher when it sounded like Jess's romance books were already out.
Somehow, Katrina allowed reality to line up in a deceptive way . . . or maybe her heart had just been so broken shesawthe things she wanted to see. Either way, Bastian was not her Brooke.
All of this happened to be the whim of extraordinary circumstances that seemed almost too far to believe possible.
Somehow, I had to make her see that without outing Bastian.
My thoughts ran to Bastian and Inessa and his father and the careful balance on which Bastian lived his life. Precarious, at best. Although things remained tenuous between me and Bastian, his secret wouldn't topple on my watch. Neither did Katrina have to be villainized either. Heartbreak drove people to dire straits. I remembered that.
"I do know Jess," I said quietly.
Her expression thrilled until I held up a hand.
"You are right. Jess does work here sometimes. Not a lot, but sometimes. I can tell you, however, that Jess is not Brooke."
The structure of her face slowly crumpled.
"You don't know Brooke," she said quickly. "Jess could really be Brooke but she'd been catfishing me. Remember? She was hiding. I just need to hear her voice and then I'll know. Then I'll . . ." She choked up. "Then I'llfinallyknow."
I reached out, put my warm hand on top of hers and said, "I'm sorry, Katrina. There is no way that Jess is really Brooke. There's nothing more I can say because Jess's story isn't mine to tell, but I can assure you that all of this is . . . mere happenstance. I'm sorry. Brooke broke your heart and that is the last of it."
Tears filled her eyes. Her nostrils flared. "You're trying to tell me that a total stranger wrote me into a book, gave me the same signature as my beloved Brooke used to do, and has no idea who I am? It's impossible. Jesshasto be Brooke."
"What if she isn't?" I asked quietly.
"She must be!" Katrina cried. She shot to her feet, a mess of tears on her face now. "Because if Brookeisn'tJess, then she just left me. She let me go. She just . . . she just let me go. She was my person. How could she do that?"
Her stark whisper left a crater in my chest. I stood up slowly, matched her in height. "Katrina, I'm so sorry. Brooke is gone. You'll never find her by seeking Jess."
She breathed heavily now. Her hands trembled at her side as a sob collapsed her chest. I held out my arms and she crumbled into a sob. I stroked her hair and murmured words that didn't make sense. She cried in my arms for several long minutes while I tried to puzzle my brain back together. My phone buzzed on the counter, incessant.
Outside, several people congregated at the windows. They didn't come in, just peered at us. The weird way they lingered outside so early in the morning set my hair on edge.
"Oh no," Katrina whispered. She pulled away, tear stained cheeks bright. Panic filled her gaze. "Oh no."
"What?"
She wiped her tears with shaky hands. "I might have . . . I wanted Brooke to reveal herself so I . . ."
