He zipped up and moved to the sink where he scrubbed his hands hard enough to remove a layer of skin.
“So, your routine hasn’t changed, even after the murder. You’re a creature of habit.”
Their eyes met in the mirror and it extinguished any of the vertigo he’d felt moments earlier. “And a victim of circumstance.”
Reynolds averted his gaze. The desired result. He approached to wash his hands but Dayton acted as a barrier between him and the industrial basin.
“If you’re going to arrest me for something, arrest me. Or maybe you can’t and that’s why you’re following me around, hoping I’ll mess up. You have no real evidence against me. Sanders’ face is the one plastered all over the news night after night, not mine, and I refuse to fall for your intimidation tactics.”
His face was neutral. Tone even.
“We’ll see about that, doctor.”
Dayton’s vertigo came creeping back, tingeing every one of his senses, but he managed to text Kenna as he re-emerged in the bar area.I need to see you. Tonight.
No reply came.
26
ACCESSORY
Kenna climbed the stairs in Duniway Hall. Her eyes stayed glued on her boots.
There was no avoiding the snide remarks as she passed other students but she was thankful that she didn’t catch their nasty, accompanying expressions. She reached the second-floor landing and headed for Research Methods I, heart beating wildly in her chest, cheeks flushed.
Her involvement with Dayton was the scandal of the century at Ponderosa. Word of their affair had survived more than two semesters. Summer break. Fall break. Winter break.
The students didn’t forget.
She had no right to be livid. The rumors were true. Perhaps she was more outraged that everyone on campus knew about her sex life. That she’d done the deed with the dark doctor.
Even her professors regarded her with outright disdain. Weren’t they supposed to take her side, believe she had been taken advantage of and condemn Dayton?
Instead, they treated her like a lecherous temptress. She had done this. He was not to blame. Powerless to resist.
Her fingers flew to her neck to relieve the itching skin beneath her scarf. Scarves were not an article of clothing she favored, but she had been all but forced to go out and buy one to disguise her black and blue skin or risk further humiliation.
When she’d examined the dark and mottled mark in the bathroom mirror the previous evening, she feared the skin was broken. She cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide before sinking to the floor, where she cried like an inconsolable child until Liza knocked on the door, politely inquiring about the possibility of a shower.
A hand clamped on her shoulder and she spun around so fast, it took her vision a moment to catch up. Kenna was caught off guard by the guy who stood before her with stiff curls and blue eyes. Seeing him now triggered a cruel but concise montage. The bar, the drinks, the warnings, the good times in between. But she’d alienated herself from all of that.
From them.
“Will.”
“It’s been a while. Kind of weird our schedules haven’t overlapped since grad school started, considering we’re in the same program.”
“Yeah, it is weird.”
She was in no mood to chat, especially not with someone who witnessed her emerging romance with Dayton firsthand.
“You alright? You look exhausted.”
Despite the slow nod she managed, Kenna failed to convince even herself. She knew her fatigue betrayed that assurance. Balancing all of her obligations and dealing with the stress of the investigation was running her into the ground. She’d never worn concealer in all her life until a few weeks ago, when the rings beneath her eyes had grown too dark to cover with powder.
They moved at a snail’s pace toward the east hallway; she presumed Will’s class was also housed there. His brows pulled together but his gaze was focused ahead, as if he were afraid to look at Kenna.
One look at the temptress, purveyor of academic ruin, might sully one’s reputation.