Read Online Jagged Hearts by Lacey Thorn - Free Book Online Page B

day, checking in with wardrobe, stuff like that.”
    “Then what?” Bare prompted.
    “Gym,” she said. “I spent my days in a bikini. That meant eating right and maintaining my body with a rigorous gym routine. The camera isn’t kind. I’ve put on twenty pounds since I left.”
    “And you’re still too skinny,” Bare grouched. He glanced down at her, and she swore she saw uncertainty in his gaze. “Do you miss it?”
    She shook her head without delay. “No. I never wanted to be an actress. That was my mom’s dream.”
    “What was yours?”
    “Writing,” she admitted. “I planned to entertain the world in a completely different fashion.”
    “Have you done any since you’ve been here?”
    “Just journaling. My attempt at working through the grief and pain.”
    “It must have helped,” he said. “You’re here.”
    She nodded. Maybe, it hadn’t been the best way, but it had been hers, and it had helped. Grief was different for everyone. For some, five years might seem like forever, for others not nearly long enough.
    “After the gym,” he said. “Did you head home then?”
    “After I stopped to check on Vivian. It was my way of trying to keep track of what she’d planned. I’d stop by, make sure she hadn’t booked me into anything I wasn’t comfortable with. It was a bone of contention for Lance. He hated Vivian, hated the way she dictated my every move. He wanted me to cut ties completely with her. He knew she tied me in knots.”
    “Smart man,” Bare said.
    “He was,” Paisley admitted, and though her heart ached at the thought of Lance, it didn’t paralyze her as it had so often in the past. Then her mind went beyond Lance and locked onto what Bare was trying to get her to figure out.
    She shook her head. “I wouldn’t have normally been home, but the attacker was on the stairs when I saw him. He knew I was there.”
    “So maybe he was watching the house. Or someone told him you’d be there,” Bare offered, watching her with a hooded gaze.
    “What are you saying?” Paisley asked, but Bare didn’t say anything else, letting her figure it out for herself.
    She pushed away from his chest and sat up in bed beside him. “My mother is a lot of things, but even I don’t think she’d be capable of murder.”
    “Sounds like she had a good reason for wanting Lance out of the picture,” Bare said.
    “Still, murder isn’t her style. Too messy. She would have found another way. Framing him for having an affair. Framing me for having an affair.”
    “Can you think of anyone else who would have been motivated to want one of you gone?”
    She shook her head. “Like I said, everyone loved Lance. Everywhere we went, people gravitated to him. He was that type of person. Warm and inviting. Affectionate and happy. You couldn’t be around him and not smile.”
    “Were any of those people upset you were going to marry him?”
    “Probably every female he met,” Paisley said with a smile. “And half the men. But enough to kill?” She shook her head again. “I can’t see it.”
    “We’ll just have to keep our eyes open then. I won’t let anything happen to you again.”
    “We don’t even know this person will resurface. They’ve been content to leave me alone for five years. I don’t believe for an instant they couldn’t have found me if they wanted to. Especially if Gilly is right and the attacker was a professional.”
    Bare sighed. “You could be right. All this concern could be for nothing.”
    “My dad will still worry,” she said.
    “He will. We all will. Your dad. Tuck. Me. We all remember what you looked like in that hospital bed. We’ll do whatever it takes to make sure it never happens again.”
    “Who did you lose?” Paisley asked softly and saw the surprise in Bare’s gaze. “Sometimes, I glimpse shadows in your eyes.”
    Bare sighed. “Come here,” he said and patted his chest again.
    Paisley lay back down beside him. He tugged her closer until her head lay