Chapter 23 #2
“What happened?” the man, Seth, asked as he reached us and took the little girl into his arms. I felt bile creep up the back of my throat as I took in his features.
It couldn’t be.
But it was. I’d never forget those eyes. Even if I hadn’t seen a recent picture of Seth Nichols, now known as Seth Grisham, I would have recognized those eyes anywhere. The ones who’d pleaded with me for help.
The ones I’d had to look into as I’d done nothing.
“Daddy Seth,” the little boy called, his voice heavy with tears.
“Come here, buddy,” Seth said as he held out one arm for his son.
He had kids.
I was too shell-shocked at first to move, but when the little boy began squirming in my hold, I quickly carried him over to Seth and put him on his feet.
The girl, Nicole, had calmed and was leaning against Seth’s chest. He was kneeling in the grass so when Jamie reached him, he tucked him up against his body and asked him if he was okay.
My eyes fell on a man standing just behind Seth. He was muscular with cropped, light brown hair. He was wearing what looked like black military pants and a black T-shirt. But what unnerved me were his eyes.
Because they were fixed on me and it looked a lot like he either recognized me or was trying to figure out if he did.
But that wasn’t possible, was it?
Then I remembered the other young man, Tristan, talking about Phoenix. That Seth had been with Phoenix.
As I put two and two together, I shook my head in disbelief.
Phoenix and Seth knew each other. What did that even mean?
“He saved Nicole, Seth…I couldn’t get to her in time. Sorry, I don’t even know your name. ”
I realized the young man, Tristan, was talking to me and I glanced at him. But I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t do anything but stand there and try to make sense of things. But as soon as I looked back at Seth, everything fell into place.
Because he most definitely recognized me. I saw it in his stunned expression. And I saw the way he hugged his kids tighter.
And if he knew who I was, it meant Phoenix did too.
Fear speared through me and I took several steps back. “I have to go,” I said and then I turned and began walking towards my car. Within a few steps, I was running.
“Reese, don’t,” I heard someone, Seth probably, say, “Let him go.”
I no longer felt the pain in my shoulder as I sprinted to my car. All I could think about was one thing.
And it wasn’t that Seth Nichols knew who I was.
It was that Phoenix had lied to me.
I’d only been sitting in the church for about twenty minutes before I heard the door behind me open.
I knew it wasn’t Father O, since he’d mentioned going to the hospice this afternoon to visit patients there and wouldn’t be back for a while yet.
Since I’d told him I was going to the rehab center to check on Phoenix, he’d said he’d have Patrick and Sherry come in early to prepare the meal so Phoenix could focus on his daughter and I could focus on Phoenix.
Phoenix, who’d lied to me.
From day one.
Though I had no idea why.
And in truth, I didn’t care why. I wanted to know how.
After everything he’d said to me…after last night…
My eyes burned, even though I hadn’t shed a single tear since leaving the rehab center. Probably because my body had nothing left to give. I had nothing left to give. Which was why when I turned around and saw a dark-haired man standing just inside the church doors, I felt only relief .
Not because he wasn’t Phoenix.
But because I knew who he was. His picture had been right next to Seth’s in the article I’d read about Seth’s wedding to a trauma surgeon named Ronan Grisham.
The gun hanging loosely in the man’s hand at his side had me guessing he wasn’t just a trauma surgeon. Another piece clicked into place for me as I remembered Phoenix telling me he worked in security. Perhaps that was his link to Seth.
It didn’t matter.
I stood and turned around, but didn’t step out of the pew, mostly because I didn’t know how these things were done. Would he shoot me right here? Was he going to take me somewhere and get rid of me so my body would never be found?
Not that anyone would look too hard.
“Do you know who I am?” Ronan asked as he stepped forward.
I nodded. “You’re Seth’s husband.”
Ronan’s jaw tightened and I wondered how my simple statement could have caused the reaction.
“Are you going to do it here? Or someplace else?” I asked. “Father O doesn’t deserve to have it happen in his church,” I said, though I knew this man wouldn’t give a shit about that.
“So you know why I’m here?”
I nodded.
“You don’t deny it?”
“No,” I said. “I did it.”
“I knew giving you a second chance was a mistake,” Ronan murmured. “I told Seth as much, but he was adamant that people can change…that you could change.”
His comment confused me, but I kept quiet. What did he expect me to say? Did he expect me to defend myself? Beg for mercy?
“There’s an alley outside…can you do it…do it out there?” I asked. I knew my priorities were fucked up that I was more worried about messing up Father O’s church, but I wasn’t exactly at my best.
“Ronan.”
The sound of Phoenix’s voice had me closing my eyes.
I forced myself to open them and saw Phoenix standing in the doorway to the right of the altar that led to the back of the church where the soup kitchen was housed.
The sight of him had my heart swelling with love and that feeling was instantly followed by a cruel, sharp pain at the reminder that this man had betrayed me.
Like Ronan, Phoenix was armed, but his gun was also at his side as he moved farther into the room.
By the time he was standing at the other end of the aisle, I felt like I was caught in some fucked up O.K. Corral showdown.
The men stared each other down. Phoenix never took his eyes off Ronan as he said, “Levi, get behind me.”
I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.
“You know each other?” I asked.
“I work for him,” Phoenix said.
I shook my head. “So that day in the alley, you weren’t going to your car, were you?”
“No,” he responded quietly. He still wouldn’t look at me. “I was hired to follow you…and to eliminate you if you stepped out of line.”
He was a hitman.
I did laugh then, but it was because my emotions were so far beyond my control that I could do nothing else. I’d been played for a fool and I’d fallen for every line he’d fed me.
“So it was all a lie?” I whispered, though I hadn’t meant to ask that. Because it changed absolutely nothing.
“No,” he said and then he did look at me. “It wasn’t. Please get behind me, Levi.”
I finally saw the fear in his eyes and I looked back and forth between the two men. I let the sting of betrayal fade away for the moment as I realized what was happening.
Phoenix was choosing me.
For whatever reason, he was going against his boss. Even knowing everything I’d done to the man’s husband, he was still siding with me.
I stepped forward out of the pew, but I didn’t go to him. I backed away from him so he couldn’t easily reach forward and grab me. “I don’t want to run anymore, Phoenix. I’m tired,” I said softly. “So fucking tired.”
“I know you are, baby, but we can figure this out.”
I shook my head as he stepped forward and I took several more steps back, putting myself closer to the man behind me. His eyes went from me to Ronan.
“Ronan, don’t do this! He’s no threat to Seth anymore.”
I turned to face Ronan and saw his cold eyes shift between me and Phoenix. “If you knew that for a fact, you would have proved it to me,” he said.
“I do know it! But I knew you wouldn’t listen. I knew you wouldn’t see reason-”
Ronan suddenly lifted his gun and pointed it at me. “You come talk to me about seeing reason when the man you love’s life is at stake!” he snapped.
“I am!” Phoenix retorted and a glance over my shoulder showed Phoenix had raised his gun too and he’d shifted enough so that he could shoot around me if he had to.
Fuck, this was getting out of control.
Before I could say anything, the church door opened and I stiffened at the sight of Seth entering the church, followed by a tall, dark-haired man. It wasn’t the same man from the rehab center.
“Ronan?”
Ronan flinched at the sound of his husband’s voice.
“What are you doing here, Seth?”
Seth walked to his husband’s side and then stepped in front of his raised arm without any kind of hesitation. Ronan instantly lowered the weapon, but kept his eyes on me.
“I called Memphis after I recognized Levi. Reese called you, didn’t he?”
Ronan nodded. “He told me he ” – Ronan motioned towards me with the gun, but kept it lowered – “was there.”
“And did he tell you that he saved our daughter’s life?”
Ronan’s eyes snapped to his husband. “What?” His gaze came back to me for a moment. “I…I hung up on Reese after he told me ab out Levi. I didn’t answer when he tried to call me back. Is Nicole-”
“She’s fine. She and Jamie are with Tristan and Reese. I asked Reese what he was doing there and he told me you’ve been having him shadow me for weeks. When you wouldn’t answer your phone, I called Memphis and told him what had happened. He knew what you were planning and tracked your phone.”
Ronan glanced over his shoulder at the dark-haired man before looking back at Seth. “What happened?” he asked.
“There was an accident with some construction equipment near the spot the kids were waiting with Tristan for me. The chain holding some culvert pipes snapped and the pipes rolled down the hill towards the pond. Nicole was feeding the ducks so she didn’t see what was happening.”
I heard Seth’s voice crack and Ronan’s free hand immediately came up to grab one of Seth’s.
“Tristan was too far away to reach her. If Levi hadn’t…if he hadn’t gotten to her in time, we would have lost her, Ronan,” Seth whispered.
Ronan swallowed hard and then he pulled his husband against his chest. They held on to each other for a long time before Seth stepped back.