Chapter Sixteen
Sixteen
It had been two weeks since Levi had last seen Faith.
And in that time, ground had been broken on the new house, he’d had several intensive conversations with Jonathan Bear and he’d done one well-placed interview he knew would filter into his ex-wife’s circles.
He’d had the reporter come out to the house he was currently staying in, and the man had followed him on a trail ride while Levi had given his version of the story.
It had all gone well, the headline making national news easily, and possibly international news thanks to the internet, with several pictures of Levi and his horses. The animals somehow made him seem softer and more approachable.
And, of course, his alliance with Faith had only helped matters.
Because she was a young woman and because the assumption was that she would have vetted him before working with him.
What surprised him the most was the quote that had been included in the story from GrayBear Construction.
Which, considering what Levi knew about the company, meant Faith’s brother Joshua.
It surprised him, because Joshua had spoken of Levi’s character and their excitement about working on the project with him. On this chance for a new start.
For redemption.
Levi wasn’t sure what the hell Faith had told her brother, but he was sure he didn’t deserve the quote. Still, he was grateful for it.
Grateful was perhaps the wrong word.
He looked at the article, running his thumb over the part about his redemption.
And in his mind, he heard Faith’s voice.
You never walked out of that prison.
She didn’t understand. She couldn’t.
But that didn’t change the fact that he felt like he’d been breathing around a knife for the past two weeks. Faith—his Faith—had left a hole in his life he couldn’t imagine would ever be filled. But that was...how it had to be.
He had his path, she had hers.
There was nothing to be done about it. His fate had been set long before he’d ever met her. And there was no changing it now.
He had gone out to the building site today, just to look around at everything. The groundwork was going well, as was the excavation over where he wanted to put the stables. She had been right about Jonathan Bear. He was the best.
Jonathan had assembled a crew in what seemed to be record time, especially considering that this particular project was so large.
It looked like a small army working on the property.
Jonathan was also quick and efficient at acquiring materials and speeding through permits and inspections.
He also seemed to know every subcontractor in the state, and had gotten them out to bid right away.
Levi had already built on a property where money was no object, but this was somewhere beyond that.
He turned in a circle, watching all the commotion around him, then stopped and frowned when he saw a Mercedes coming up the drive. Bright red, sporty. Not a car that he recognized.
The car stopped, and he saw a woman inside, large sunglasses on her face, hair long and loose.
Flames licked at the edge of his gut as a sense of understanding began to dawn on him.
The blonde got out of the car, and that was when recognition hit him with full force.
Alicia.
His ex-wife.
She was wearing a tight black dress that looked ludicrous out here, and she at least had the good sense to wear a pair of pointed flats, rather than the spiked stilettos she usually favored.
Still, the dress was tight, and it forced her entire body into a shimmy with each and every step as she walked over to meet him.
He’d loved her. For so many years. And then he’d hated her.
And now... His whole chest was full of Faith. His whole body. His whole soul. And he looked at Alicia and he didn’t feel much of anything anymore.
“Are you really here?” he asked, not quite sure why those were the words that had come out of his mouth. But... It was damn incredulous. That she would dare show her face.
“I am,” she said, looking down and back up at him, her blue eyes innocent and bright. “I wasn’t sure you would be willing to see me if I called ahead. I took a chance, hoping I would find you here. All that publicity for your new build... It wasn’t hard to find out where it was happening.”
“You’re either a very brave woman or a very stupid one.”
She tilted her chin upward. “Or a woman with a concealed-carry permit.”
Suddenly, the little black handbag she was carrying seemed a lot less innocuous.
“Did you come to shoot me?”
She lifted a shoulder. “No. But I’m not opposed to it.”
“Why the hell do you have the right to be angry at me?”
“I’m not here to be angry at you,” she said. “But I didn’t know how you would receive me, so self-defense was definitely on my mind.”
He shook his head. “I never laid a hand on you. I never gave you a reason to think you would have to protect yourself around me. Any fear you feel standing in front of me? That’s all on you.”
“Maybe,” she said. “I didn’t really mean for them to think you killed me.”
“Didn’t you? You knew I went to prison. Hell, babe, you siphoned money off me for a couple of years to fund the lifestyle you knew you wanted to live out in the French Riviera, and you only got back on police radar when you had to dip into my funds. So I’d say you knew exactly what you were doing.”
“Yes, Levi, I meant to steal money from you. But I didn’t want you to go to jail. I wanted to disappear. And I needed the money to live how I wanted. When you got arrested, I didn’t know what to do. At that point, there was such a circus around my disappearance that I couldn’t come back.”
“Oh, no, of course not.”
“People like us, we have to look out for ourselves.”
“I looked out for you,” he said. “You were mine for twelve years, and even when I was in prison it was only you, so, for me, it was seventeen years of you being mine, Alicia. I worried about you. Cared for you. Loved you.”
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“You’re sorry? I spent five years in prison and had my entire reputation destroyed, and you’re sorry.”
“I want you back.” She shook her head. “I know it sounds insane. But I... I’m miserable.”
“You’re broke,” he spat. “And you’re afraid of what I’m going to do.”
The way she looked up at him, the slight flash of anger in her eyes before it was replaced by that dewy innocence, told him he was definitely on the right track. “I don’t have money, I’m not going to lie to you.”
“And yet, that’s a nice car.”
She shrugged. “I have what I have. I can hardly be left without a vehicle. And I was your wife for all that time, you’re right.
And that’s basically all I was, Levi. I enhanced your image, but being your wife didn’t help me figure out a way to earn the kind of money you did, and now no one will touch me with a ten-foot pole. My reputation is completely destroyed.”
“Forgive me for not being overly concerned that you faking your death has left you without a lot of options.”
“In fairness, I didn’t fake my death. I disappeared. That the police thought I was dead is hardly my fault.”
“Alicia, are you honestly telling me you thought I would say I wanted you back?”
“Why not? You want a redemption story, and getting back with me would benefit us both. I don’t think either of us were ever head over heels in love with each other.
We both wanted things from the other. And you know it.
Don’t go getting on your high horse now.
We can come back. You don’t need to be vindictive,” she said.
“I don’t need to be vindictive?” He shook his head. “This, from you?”
She was standing in front of him, imploring him to rescue her. That was what she wanted. For him to reach down to lift her out of this hell of her own making.
It was this exact moment when he knew he had her under his heel.
He could take her in, make her think he was going along with her plan and maybe get some information about what exactly she had done that was illegal, and get the exact kind of revenge he wanted.
Or, if not that, he could finish it now, devastate her.
And then what?
That question echoed inside him, hollow and miserable.
Then what?
What was on the other side of it? What was feeding all that anger, all that hatred?
Where was the freedom? Where was the reward? Nothing but an empty house filled with reminders of Faith, but without the woman herself inside it.
Somehow, he had a vision of himself standing by a jail cell holding a key. And he knew that whatever he decided to do next was the deciding factor. Did he unlock the door and walk out, or did he throw the keys so far away from himself he would never be able to reach them again?
Faith was right.
He had been given a life sentence, but he didn’t have to submit to it.
Faith.
He had been looking for satisfaction in this. Had been looking for satisfaction in revenge. In hatred.
And maybe there was satisfaction there. Something twisted and dirty, the kind of satisfaction his father would have certainly enjoyed.
But there was another choice. There was another path.
It was hope.
It was love.
But a man couldn’t straddle two paths.
He had to choose. He had to choose hope over darkness, love over hate.
And right now, with dark satisfaction so close at hand, it was difficult. But on the other side...
Faith could be on the other side.
If he was strong enough to turn away from this now, Faith was on the other side.
“Go away,” he said, his heart thundering heavily, adrenaline pulsing through his veins.
“What?”
“I don’t ever want to see you again. I’m going to write you a check.
Not for a whole lot of money, but for some.
Trade in your car, for God’s sake. Don’t be an idiot.
I’m not giving you money for you, I’m doing it for me.
To clear this. Let it go. Whatever you think I did to you.
.. Whatever you really wanted to do to me.
.. It doesn’t matter. Not anymore. We are done.
And after you cash that check I want you to never even speak my name again. Do you understand me?”
“I don’t want a check,” she said, taking a step forward, wrapping her hands around his shirt. “I want you.”
He jerked her hands off him, his lip curling.
“You don’t. You don’t want me. And I sure as hell don’t want you.
But I’m also not going to let you suffer for the rest of your life.
Do you know why not? Because everything in me, every natural thing in me, wants to.
Wants to make you regret everything you’ve ever done, wants to make you regret you ever heard my name.
But I won’t do it. I won’t let that part of myself win.
Because I met a woman. And I love her. I love her, Alicia.
You don’t even know about the kind of love I found with her.
The kind of love she has for me. I don’t deserve it.
Dammit, I have to try to be the kind of man that deserves it.
So I want you to walk away from me. Because I’m choosing to let you go.
I’m choosing to get on a different road.
“Don’t you dare follow me.”
“Levi...”
“Leave now, and you get your money. But if you don’t...”
She stared at him. For a long time. As if he might change his mind. As if she had some kind of power over him. She didn’t. Not over any part of him. Not his anger. Not his love. Not his future.
It was over, all of it. Her hold on him. The hold his childhood had over him.
Because love was stronger.
Faith was stronger.
“Okay,” she said, finally. “I’ll go.”
“Good.”
He watched her, unmoving, as she got back in her Mercedes and drove away. And as she did, he looked up into the sky and saw a bird flying overhead.
Free.
He was free.
Whatever happened next, Faith had given him that freedom.
But he wanted her to share it with him. More than his next breath, more than anything else.
He’d lived a life marked by anger. A life marked by greed. He’d been saddled with the consequences of the poison that lived inside other people, and he’d taken that same poison and let it grow and fester inside him.
But he was done with that now.
He was through letting the darkness win.
He was ready. He was finally ready to walk out of that cell and into freedom.
With Faith.