Chapter 49
FORTY-NINE
Ramsey
A week later, at my insistence, we’re standing in front of the vault at The Avarice, waiting for Levi to bring the courier down for the reliquary. Grant has it sitting out behind the heavily barred gate, and I roll my shoulders. Performance anxiety is rolling through me in waves. I’ve been able to adapt to the idea of being a killer, but the idea of exchanging goods in a clandestine tête-à-tête in the basement of The Avarice is, apparently, a bridge too far. The fitted suit I’m in isn’t helping. I thought I might have been done with them when my pro career ended with my prison sentence, but instead, I’m in one Grant’s tailor fitted to within an inch of my life.
“You’re the one who insisted on being here.” Grant flashes a look at me, warning me not to embarrass him.
“You wanted me back in the family business.” I hold my ground. “This is what it looks like. ”
“Well, I retract my statement. Stay on your ranch with your mud and your horses.”
A moment later, we hear footsteps coming down the hall, and I don’t get to respond. Levi appears with a tall brunette woman. Her hair falls around her shoulders in thick waves, and her pale green eyes are hauntingly stark against her pale skin and dark lashes. She’s dressed in a fitted, white blouse and wide-leg trousers that hide her heels. Another tall woman, even taller than the first, trails behind her, with dark-auburn hair bluntly chopped at her shoulders and ocean-blue eyes. She’s wearing black leather pants and a black sweater with spiked heels that make her look deadly.
“You must be the courier…” Grant takes a step forward, holding out his hand to the brunette. Her eyes flash over him, but I can’t read if it’s interest or pure assessment that’s dancing behind them.
“I am.” She smiles, flashing a bright smile.
“Grant.”
“Charlotte,” she answers him and then turns to me, a small smile appearing on her lips like she’s registering how uncomfortable I am.
“Should we be exchanging names?” I ask.
“No,” the auburn-haired one says bluntly, looking between the three of us brothers like we’re the worst excuse for men she’s ever seen.
“Ramsey, right? I’ve seen you around.” Charlotte smiles at me politely, and the face Levi makes behind her makes me regret I ever had such a public career.
“Around?” I ask, but she ignores my question and turns to Grant again.
“Do you have the item?”
“Yes.”
“As we discussed, my policy is to leave a deposit with you worth one half what the item will reasonably fetch on the market. Are we still agreed?” She looks at Grant as though he might say no.
“We’re agreed.”
“Good.” She smiles. “The money.” She nods to her assistant who presents a bag.
The exchange happens so quickly that I barely know why I came at all. I suppose this way, I’ve at least seen the reliquary, and I’d be able to identify the party who stole it if she never returns with it—a risk we have to take to dig deeper into this pit of vipers my brothers have stirred up.
“Now what?” I ask Grant when Levi disappears with the women up the elevator again.
“We wait. Hopefully she draws them out.”
“And if there is a buyer?”
“We pay extra to find out who they are,” Grant answers bluntly.
That night, when I get home from The Avarice and pull into the drive, my phone dings with a text. It’s Cooper asking me to call him. I glance at the clock and see I have a bit before Haze is off her shift at the inn, so I hit the button to return Cooper’s call.
“Hey, cowboy. How’s it going?” Cooper greets me warmly. It feels strange, like he and that world are a lifetime away, and I’m somehow able to time travel with a phone call.
“Good,” I lie. I can’t drag Cooper into any of this.
“Well, I’m glad you’re good because I’ve got even better news. Well, actually, that’s fucked up… I shouldn’t say that, but it’s good for you. We’ve got a DE position open. One of the guys just found out he’s out for the season, and the rookie was di smissed for misconduct. They’re looking for someone, and they’re willing to call you back to the practice squad if you think you can get into shape. It’ll give you a chance to compete for a starting spot again. Coach Undergrove is planning to call you.”
My heart skips a few beats at that news. The idea of being away from the death and destruction around here. Not having to be part of whatever game Grant and Levi are playing. Running down a field on a Sunday autumn afternoon. I don’t hate the idea, but it feels too good to be true.
“I thought they weren’t sure if I’d be a liability.”
“I’ve been talking you up. So has Quentin, and you know he’s got a lot of sway here. Plus, the PR team isn’t worried. You’re a hero around here, and they’d just be grateful to have someone healthy and formidable out on the field, you know?”
“Wow. I just… didn’t think it was a real possibility. I thought you were just trying to give me some hope to get through things. I’m not sure what to say.”
“Do you want to come back?”
“I do, but I don’t want to leave Haze. I can’t go through that again. Neither can she.”
“I can understand that.” I can hear the disappointment in Cooper’s tone, but his love for Bea has made him see the world differently too. “Well… talk it over with her and let me know? I’ll let Coach know you’re thinking about it. Just… think quickly? They’ll want to move in the next day or two.
“Of course,” I say, looking out the truck window to see Haze making her way to the front door of the house from the inn.
“All right. Talk with you soon then. Later.”
“Later, man.”
We hang up, and I take a deep breath. I have no idea how to break this idea to Haze—if I even should. I don’t want to put everything we’ve been building the last few months into jeopardy by making her think I’d leave her again. But with everything that’s happened here, I have to wonder if she’d reconsider it. If we could let someone else run the place for a few months a year while I played and come back here in the offseason. Maybe it could be the best of both worlds for us.
By the time I walk inside, I’ve worked myself up to the idea of telling her. I’ll caveat it by telling her nothing would make me leave her, and she has the final say in the decision we make. It’s our future, not just mine anymore, and I can’t imagine her not at my side, even if it means I get to play again. I know if I explain it that way, she’ll understand. She knows I love football the same way she loves the inn.
When I find her in the dining room, though, she’s reading a piece of paper from the mail and startles when she sees me. I hope it’s not another bill. They’ve been piling up lately, and there’ll only be more in the future as we work to rebuild the stables and hire more staff. That might have to be part of my pitch for playing again.
“Hey, sugar. How was your day?”
“Not terrible. Yours? Your brothers pull you in deeper?” She’s agreed I need to sort things out with them and stay close to what’s going on. But she’s not thrilled it means I’m getting dragged deeper into the criminal underbelly of their business.
“Not terrible. I managed to mostly observe. I thought one of their couriers recognized me.”
“I see.” She frowns as she looks at me, and I’m worried she can tell how anxious I am about Cooper’s news.
“I need to tell you something,” I admit.
“Me too. ”
“Can I go first?”
“Um… I think I need to.” Her lower lip wavers, and her eyes look down at the paper. “But you may not want to speak to me after I show you this.”
“Sugar, there’s nothing you could do that would make me not want to speak to you.”
She turns the piece of paper around silently, and I skim the words. My heart stops, and my world bottoms out.
It’s a final decree of divorce, signed and sealed by a judge.