Dead Silence by Brenda Novak Read Free Book Online

empty.
    Allowing herself a small sigh of relief, Grace ignored the food that had grown cold at her own table and went swiftly outside. She dug through her purse for her keys while she walked, telling herself she’d be back at Evonne’s in a matter of minutes. But the moment she glanced up, she saw that Kennedy Archer wasn’t gone, after all. He was leaning against the front bumper of a Ford Explorer that was parked next to her Beemer.
    It looked as if he was waiting for someone. She hoped it wasn’t her.
    For a few seconds, her footsteps faltered. She’d have to walk around him to get in. But she wasn’tabout to let the sight of him stop her. She wouldn’t let him or his friends hurt her ever again, she thought, and picked up speed.
    As she stepped off the curb, he shoved away from the Explorer as if to intercept her, but she circumvented him easily enough.
    “Excuse me,” she murmured and unlocked her car. She might have been talking to a stranger.
    Throwing her purse into the passenger seat, she slid inside, welcoming the feel and smell of the familiar leather. But when she pulled on her door, she realized it wouldn’t close because he was holding it.
    She looked into his face, and let every ounce of the derision she felt for Stillwater’s spoiled, selfish, insensitive men show in her eyes. “Is there something I can do for you?”
    The look registered. He stepped back as though she’d slapped him, but didn’t release her door.
    “I just wanted to say—”
    “Don’t bother.”
    “But—”
    “I know you, remember? I’m sure you and your friends can recall a great many things about me, and I don’t blame you for not being impressed. But I also remember a great many things about you and am equally unimpressed. So save your feeble attempts to be a nice guy for someone who can’t see the shriveled heart behind that phony smile.”
    With that, she glanced pointedly at the hand holding her door, and he finally let go.
     
    Kennedy watched Grace pull out of the lot. Obviously, she wasn’t the “I’ll do anything to make you like me,” girl she’d been in high school. He wanted to believe she’d confused him with Joe, or maybe Tim, but he knew she hadn’t.
    As he climbed into the driver’s seat of his own vehicle, he remembered Joe bragging to the varsity football team that he could get Grace to have sex with him anytime, anywhere. To prove it, he’d convinced her to meet him in the locker room after the game the following Friday.
    Kennedy hadn’t stayed for the show, but he’d listened as avidly as everyone else to the gossip that had circulated afterward. He’d even laughed when Joe explained how he’d promised to take her to the prom only to stand her up.
    “ I never laid a hand on her,” Kennedy said aloud in an effort to ease his troubled conscience. But his conscience wouldn’t relent. Maybe he hadn’t been directly involved—but he hadn’t done much to stop the others from calling her names, had he? He’d been there, standing next to the guys who’d nudged her or tripped her. He’d chosen to ignore it when they slipped a pincher bug into her food at lunch. He’d only intervened when Raelynn was there.
    Raelynn…God, he missed his wife. He’d never known anyone so sweet, so perfect. She used to plead with him to make his friends stop mocking Grace, to persuade them to leave her alone. For Raelynn’s sake, he’d stepped in now and then. But his own mother often spoke of Grace’s family as if they had no right to breathe the same air as decent people, and he’d taken his lead from her.
    His regret tasted bitter as he shut his car door and started his engine. There’d been times he’d felt sorry for Grace, but mostly he’d tried to pretend she didn’t exist. The way she’d stare at him with so much longing in her eyes made him uncomfortable. He hadn’t been mature enough to realize that he had a responsibility to help her. Or maybe he simply hadn’t cared enough to