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.Wherever she’s hiding her guns, it isn’t at her house.”“Maybe because she doesn’t own any,” Kai insisted.Fine shrugged.“At this point I don’t have strong enough proof, at least not enough to convince a judge to give me a search warrant for her business.”“So Kai is a sitting duck then.” Jonathan didn’t try to hide his disapproval.If they really thought Kai’s life was in danger, they should take stronger actions.Fine rallied quickly, but his eyes gave away his dislike of Jonathan’s words.“We’re doing what we can.I suggest, Mr Stromwell, that you keep Mr Stevens close.He might be the only thing stopping her from killing you.From what I’ve seen, she doesn’t want any witnesses because she needs your money,” the detective concluded.Jonathan didn’t know what to say to Kai.The detective certainly had a lot of unfounded accusations and only circumstantial facts.He squeezed Kai’s shoulder.“Hey, we’ll get through this.I won’t let her near you until I’m sure she’s innocent.”Kai didn’t speak.He sat staring blindly.“Look at me,” Jonathan demanded.Kai shook his head.“Now.” Jonathan’s hard voice didn’t invite denial.He glanced up.“This isn’t your fault.Nothing you did caused this,” Jonathan insisted.Kai took a long slow breath.“She’s always come to me if she had problems.Why wouldn’t she come to me? I guess I’m not as good a brother as I always thought.”“It’s not you,” Jonathan assured him.“I’m not completely positive she’s the one trying to kill you either.”Jonathan’s gut didn’t agree with the detective’s conclusion.He couldn’t help thinking they were missing something.Fine’s facts appeared circumstantial to Jonathan and certainly not enough to summarily decide Jeni’s guilt without additional evidence.Kai set his chin on the heel of his hand, propping his elbow on the table.“If it isn’t Jeni who’s trying to kill me, then who is?”“I don’t know, babe”—Jonathan wrapped an arm around Kai’s shoulders and squeezed him tight—“but I won’t leave you alone until we find out what really happened.”The sound of someone clearing his throat snapped them back to reality.Kai separated himself from Jonathan then faced the detective.“I hope you’re wrong about this, Detective.”“Me too,” Fine stated.“But if I’m wrong then you’ve got someone else stalking you.If the boyfriend’s been dead for over a week, he’s not your attempted murderer.”“They don’t send you often to give out bad news, do they?” Kai asked.Fine shook his head.“I’m not good with people.I do better with facts.”“I, for one, appreciate you looking at the facts and telling me the truth.I don’t think there is any way to sugar-coat ‘your sister wants you dead’, so I appreciate you just telling me straight out,” Kai stated.The detective’s expression went from cautious to pleased, as if no one had ever taken the time to compliment him before.Maybe they hadn’t.Most people probably didn’t thank the bearer of bad news, no matter how gracefully conveyed.“I’d best be going.” If he hadn’t been watching the detective carefully, Jonathan wouldn’t have seen it—the long, admiring glance Detective Fine gave Kai.Jonathan stepped between them so he broke that line of vision.He held out his hand.“Thank you for your help, Detective.Please keep us informed.”“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Jonathan vowed.“You do that, Mr Stevens.Let me know if there is anything else your people come up with.We’ve worked together before and they do good work.Give Patrick and Sin my regards,” Detective Fine said, heading for the door.“Goodbye, Detective.Let me know if you get any other leads.” Jonathan could see Kai didn’t believe in his sister’s guilt.It would likely require an entire worldview shift for him to think that Jeni had plotted his death in order to get money.They watched the detective leave.Jonathan gripped his shoulder.“We’ll keep an eye out for him.”“Thanks,” Kai said.“I don’t know what I would do without you.Jeni is the last person I would suspect of trying to kill me.”Jonathan continued, “Now, I’m not saying your sister is guilty of anything, but just to be safe we should get your locks rekeyed and get her security pass to the building pulled.Now that she’s back in her own home, she doesn’t really need it.”After they’d enhanced her security system and assigned her a bodyguard, she’d returned to her place, because, as she’d said, ‘All my shit is there’.After a long pause, Kai nodded.“Consider it done.” Jonathan pulled out his phone and began making calls.After he had finished, Kai stood and approached him.“Remember, we’re not completely certain it is her,” Kai cautioned.He straightened his tie and stared down at his shoes.He didn’t meet Jonathan’s eyes.Jonathan knew Kai clung to the hope that his sister didn’t want him dead.“You should be all set when you return home later,” Jonathan assured him.“Thanks.” Kai’s smile lacked its usual vibrancy.The tinges of sadness yanked at Jonathan’s heart.“Anytime.I…” Jonathan cleared his throat.“Anytime.I know how hard it was to hear that about your sister.”“I don’t believe it,” Kai said.“Maybe it’s sheer stubbornness on my part, but I can’t believe she would try to kill me.Not to mention, why would she go from a pacifist to a person who was willing to kill me for money?”Jonathan put his hands on Kai’s shoulders.“Maybe Detective Fine is wrong.I can ask Patrick to investigate deeper if you’d like.”Kai nodded.“Yes, please.I really want to be sure.Cops look for people to be guilty.If he can fit the facts to match the case he’s trying to build, he might not look deeper.”“Then we’ll double-check everything Fine concluded.Patrick is really discreet.He can look into stuff and discover if he comes to the same answer the detective did.”“Do you think he’s wrong?” Kai asked.It hurt to see the hope in Kai’s eyes.Jonathan didn’t want to crush his lover’s spirit.“I don’t know.I barely know your sister.What you’ve told me of your childhood doesn’t have me jumping to the conclusion she’s a secret psycho,” Jonathan said.Kai laughed at Jonathan’s phrasing.“Thanks.I didn’t think so either.I’d appreciate it if you’d ask your boss.I’d be happy to pay him for his time.”“I’ll tell him,” Jonathan promised.He hoped the update by the police would buy him some more time off
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