Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
Zephyrine
In the morning, there’s a spread of eggs and toast and bacon that he’s fried up in the cast-iron skillet alongside fresh coffee and plenty of cream.
He fills my mug with a fresh cup of coffee and drops two spoons of sugar and a heavy splash of cream in mine and one short one in his before pulling it up to his lips.
I grin at the way he knows how I take it.
I’m not saying stalkers are healthy, but I am saying it’s nice to wake up to my coffee exactly the way I like it every morning.
“Morning.” His eyes meet mine over the rim of his mug.
“Morning,” I answer. “Quite the spread here.”
“Yeah, I went a little overboard. It feels strange to be so well rested in the morning, and I wanted to get an early start on things.”
“You have a plan in mind?” I nibble a bite of my toast.
“You still know where the ranch Corey was talking about is?”
“Yes. I know it well. Or I did. It’s been a while, but we vacationed there in the summer when I was younger. It’s a ranch in the mountains. There’s an old western mining town at the center of it. He built a large house there. Said he needed a quiet retreat away from the city.”
“Fortified?”
“Not back then, but I could see how he might be able to. Although it’s huge. He’d only be able to protect the house and some of the outbuildings that are close. Not all of it. But if the vault is in the house, it makes sense that he would.”
“So you haven’t been there recently?”
“Not for a few years before I left the country. The security measures at the time were minimal. That was before he was governor.”
“What about the house?”
“I know the house pretty well. Or again, I remember it well. If he changed things, it’s possible it’s different.
He was still finishing it. There was always some new project going on there.
He was always planning new things. He said he wanted to retire there someday. Make it his own personal resort.”
“If I could get video of it, could you make it out still do you think? Help sketch a floor plan?”
“Maybe. But how would you get video?”
“Leave that part to me. I have a few ideas, but I need to try some things first. I just want to make sure whatever we get is useful.”
“Are you planning to go up there?”
“Possibly. We need the relics out of that vault. Something as leverage.”
“Since he doesn’t care about me, you mean?”
“I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m still hoping he'll do the right thing and confess to my parents' murder, then I can release you back to the real world early. You can start your life over without that useless piece of shit hovering in the background.”
Except after last night, I'm not sure I’m as excited to be released as I thought I was. I might like it here a little too much. I might have my own plan beginning to form in my head. But first, I have to figure out how I can help. I owe him that much.
“Well, I hope that too, but I doubt it. Not after how he treated my mother. That’s one of the things I’m hoping you can find in the vault. Any proof of what he did to her. Hospital records. Information on how he wrestled custody away from her. There has to be something somewhere.”
My mother was my father’s mistress when his sons were still young, long after he married his current wife.
He considered them his real family and brought me into it after he had her sent away.
I only saw her a handful of times when I was very little, and my grandfather a few more than that.
Even though I was young, I saw enough arguments between them and my father to know something was wrong.
I’ve always wanted to know more of the truth that he never gave me.
“If there is, and we get into that vault, I’ll find it for you if I can,” Levi promises. “Do you know what happened to her?”
“I suspect he drove her to her death. Emotionally, if not literally. My grandfather said she wanted to raise me, and my father wouldn’t allow it. He didn’t want her near me or his family. He was worried that having a mistress and a child—a whole other family—would ruin his chance in politics.
“So he used the power he had to push her to the brink of sanity. He had her committed after she tried to run away with me, and he nearly killed us both in a car accident. Had them treat her like a criminal, no visitors, hours and hours every day alone, refused to tell her where I was or even how I was doing.” My heart hurts just remembering the little I learned about her from my grandfather and her records at the hospital.
They were limited, painting a bleak picture of her life.
But when I balanced them with what my grandfather had told me as a child, it was obvious that she was just another one of my father's victims.
“Fuck.” He grimaces and shakes his head. “That’s fucking awful. I’m sorry.”
“Me too. She didn’t deserve it.”
“I just can’t fucking believe the lengths some people will go to just to have things their way.”
“Well, my father knows no bounds.” I take a sip of my coffee, satisfied it’s cooled enough not to scald my tongue. “You want the relics then? That’s what you’re looking for in the vault?”
“Yes. He has at least two of them in his possession. One, he paid my father to steal from a rich collector, and another, he presumably hired someone else to steal from Hudson Kelly’s family.
He murdered my parents rather than waiting for it to be delivered, and he burned the house down with Hudson’s grandparents inside to cover the theft of the other.
So we’re alike because I want to use that history to tear his entire world asunder. ”
“Asunder.” I can’t help the smile that comes to my lips. “You have an interesting vocabulary for a cowboy. I like listening to you talk.”
He returns the smile, his eyes drifting over me and the tank and shorts I have on, both emblazoned with “Seven Sins Saloon,” before they come back to meet mine.
“It’s mutual.” The smile on his face curls up one side, and he takes another long drink of his coffee.
“You like listening to me talk?” I give him a curious look because I don’t think there’s anything particularly interesting about the way I speak.
“Yes. I did a lot of it when I was stalking you. Feels like you’re another voice in my head now.”
“Is that a good or a bad thing?” I laugh.
“Time will tell.”
“Should we talk about the elephant in the room then?”
His eyes shift from one side to the other and up to the ceiling, pretending to be looking for the creature.
“Which one is that? The pink one or the purple one? I’m partial to the pink one if you ask me.” His eyes light with amusement.
“I didn’t know there was more than one.”
“Ah, well… Which one are you interested in discussing?”
I shift in my seat. I want to talk about this, need to. But I'm out of practice talking to men in general, let alone crushes. The last time I had one, I was a teenager. I have no idea how to navigate this with a man. Especially one a decade older than me.
“It feels like there’s something here. An attraction…”
“You admitted as much in the confessional. How did you put it again? Acting on it alone.”
My cheeks pink with the reminder of having admitted something so personal to him.
“Well, I didn’t act on it alone last night.”
“No, you didn’t.” He sets his coffee down. “And if that’s bothering you this morning, you can tell me. I’m teasing you about the elephants, you know? I just know yesterday was heavy for you.”
“It’s not bothering me. The opposite actually. I wouldn’t mind if it happened again.” I risk a glance up at him, and his brow rises and falls almost as quickly, descending too much for my liking.
“I wouldn’t either, but I don’t know if it’s wise.”
“Why not?”
“You’ve been through a lot. You’re going through even more right now.
I don’t want to make things any more complicated for you than they are.
Or for me, for that matter. Especially with us working together.
I don’t want to lose focus, and nights like last night steal all of mine.
We’ve got a lot on the line, other people counting on us too. ”
“When you put it like that, it sounds sensible.” I can’t argue with his logic.
“It is, and I know you know that. You’re smart. Cunning even. I wish I had half your brains and self-control when I was your age.”
“It gets dull always choosing self-control. I’m sure you were far more interesting.” If this is what he’s like now, I can only imagine what Levi in his twenties was like.
His smile fades as he remembers, and he shakes his head. “I made a lot more mistakes. If I can spare you one, I’m happy to do it.”
I hate that his dismissal only makes me like him more.
That’s the thing about him. He’s a rare blend, sadistic and methodical, but careful with his words and gentle in his execution of them.
Cruel and kind, sometimes all in the same breath.
I imagine he could talk a person into just about anything if he were given the inspiration to do it.
“You’re right,” I admit. It’s a bad idea, and given that there’s zero chance for a future between us, muddying the waters with attraction will only make a mess of our plans. “It’s the cabin fever and the adrenaline. Hopefully, we got it out of our systems.”
“Exactly,” he agrees. “So, now that we’ve slayed the elephant. The plan?”
“Yes. The plan.”
“We’ll need to figure out how we can get to that vault. I have a feeling it’ll have a lot of useful material inside for both of us.”
“If we can get past the mountains, the gate, and the guards.
Then into the house, down to the vault, and break the lock, carry everything out with us—without being seen or heard.
And then we'll have to get out again without being captured or killed while carrying the relics with us and somehow not damaging them in the process.” I outline the impossible task in front of us.
“It’s a tall order, but I was up early this morning thinking about it. I’ve got ideas. We'll still need some help and a couple solutions I don’t have just yet. But I have the start of a plan. I need to run it past the rest of our team though. You up for heading down to the ranch house today?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Yesterday was a lot.”
“You did the majority of the work, and you’re up all bright and raring to go. I’ll be just fine.”
“Well, drink your coffee, and then we’ll head out. Jack already brought the truck over this morning. We should bring the ATV back. It can make it up the terrain out here, and then we won't have to hike it in if we don’t feel like it.”
“Sounds like a plan as long as you’re the one driving.”
“No horses. No ATVs. Next thing you’ll say, no trucks.”
“No trucks.” I give him the ammunition he’s seeking.
“You sure you grew up in Colorado?” He gives me an amused look.
“A very different version from you, apparently.”
“Understatement of the year.” He drinks the last of his coffee and then moves to pack his day bag. I do the same, gathering the few belongings I have and tucking them in the oversized purse Dakota had been kind enough to get me.
“Do you think it’s possible I can go to the store?” I’d love to just be able to pick out a few essential items, but given that I don’t have money, know where a store is, or have the ability to get there, I’m at his mercy on the subject.
“I think it’s possible but risky. Dakota or I can run for you. I’d be worried someone would recognize you otherwise. The governor has an APB out on you.”
“You don’t think he already assumes I’m here?”
“There’s a difference between assuming and knowing.
He might assume. But he might figure having you here would be too obvious.
My uncle runs the sheriff's department, and he can turn a blind eye when he doesn’t have any facts.
If citizens start calling in reports, he won’t have a choice but to investigate.
He knows this ranch well. Your father won’t believe he can’t find you if we give him a reason to search it. ”
“All right. I’ll put a list together then.”
“We can make that happen. Let’s just hurry up and get down there.”
“You’re awfully excited.”
“This is the closest I’ve ever been to turning the tables on him. So yeah. Like a kid in a fucking candy shop.”