Asking For It by Alyssa Kress

friend. "It was over a hundred grand he ripped off his Harley dealership." Yes, and he'd involved her barely eighteen-year-old younger brother in the process.
    Or perhaps it was more accurate to say she'd involved her brother. She'd been the one who thought to ask her handsome, attentive boyfriend if he'd be willing to give her brother a job. Her brother, who she'd admitted was an utter screw-up. In effect, she'd told a busy embezzler that her vulnerable younger brother was available as an accomplice. And she'd done so believing she was being constructive. Helpful.
    She'd been as horrified and shocked as her honest, hard-working parents when, six months later, their little Johnny got caught in the big arrest. They were still absorbing the shock of that when Johnny tried to escape from a sheriff's bus. He was shot in the back and killed.
    Now Arnie was watching Kate, his gaze shrewd. "You're still blaming yourself for that whole fiasco, aren't you?"
    Kate lifted a shoulder. Who else was she to blame? She'd practically handed her brother to Eric on a silver platter. She'd been blind, under the spell of 'romance.' Since Eric, eleven years ago, she hadn't come close to falling under that spell again.
    Her life had shifted onto an altogether different track. After the disaster, she'd reeled back to ponder what could possibly make her feel better about her part in the tragedy. Eventually she'd hit on the idea for this camp. Renouncing the luxury of graduate school, she'd jumped right in to the 'business' world, learning on the job how to write grants, find funding, and eventually create the kind of place that could help boys like Johnny, boys who for some reason had difficulty viewing themselves as achievers. She wanted them all to be able to imagine their true potential.
    Kate looked over to see Arnie regarding her with wise and disapproving eyes. She smiled. "Assigning blame is a waste of time." Besides, she'd already shouldered her share and decided what to do about it. She shook her head, still smiling. "But don't expect to see me develop a romantic interest in Griffith Blaine."
    Arnie merely grinned. "Never say never," he quipped.
    Kate had to laugh, for it was one of the phrases she often said to the boys. She looked over at Griffith, all bruised and rumpled and...dangerous. Looking at him made her feel uneasy inside.
    But not attracted. Hardly!
    Kate pulled a bowl of orange sherbet toward herself with an easy smile. "In this case, I think it's safe to say 'never.'"
    ~~~
    Ricky did his best to look casual as he bent sideways over Deirdre's desk and flipped open the top of a report entitled, "Under Development." As usual when he was inside the super-elegant rooms of Blaine Development, he could feel his viscera stir, a primeval call to battle.
    He was in the belly of the enemy.
    It was nine p.m. and, except for Deidre, he was alone in the office. While she flitted about, collecting things before leaving, he idly turned over one page of the report after another. He halted with his heart pounding on a page entitled "Sagebrush Valley." Unfortunately, it contained nothing except some banal numbers regarding sale prices. Nothing dirty, nothing of the sort Ricky needed to stop Griffith in his rotten tracks.
    Something illegal would be nice. Something fraudulent or even larcenous.
    Ricky flicked through the rest of the pages of the report, hoping against hope, and felt the familiar rage and frustration rise in his chest. If he didn't find something sufficiently dirty on Griffith, professional or personal, the bastard was going to start building that channel. He was going to take Kate's water.
    "Nearly there," Deirdre said, shooting him a nervous glance and pulling open a file drawer. "I just wanted to take home a couple... I'll only be a few more minutes."
    "No rush," Ricky wouldn't mind a few more minutes, himself. He'd been to Deirdre's office four times now, and not yet found a sniff of the requisite dirt. He'd spent thirty-some