“Faith,” I said.
Goddamn it. She was even more stunning than I remembered. Her eyes were like sapphires, deep blue sparkling inside them like jewels. Her make up was smokey. She was wearing a low-cut, black dress that made her look like she knew what she was doing. I could see just enough cleavage. Fuck me, I couldn’t have been more stunned if she’d pointed a gun at me and pulled the trigger.
“Jackson?” she said.
The tears spilled from her eyes and fell over her cheeks. She couldn’t believe what was happening. She was in shock. She put her hand over her mouth and stared into my eyes, drinking me in. Drinking in the twelve years of age and scars that had appeared on my face.
“Faith,” I said again. It was the only word that would come to my lips.
“What’s going on?” she said, unable to believe what she was seeing.
“I know it’s been too long,” I said.
Faith looked at Lacey. “Did you know about this?” she said.
Lacey nodded.
Faith just stared at me as if I’d risen from the dead.
“Is it too late for us to have a second chance?” I said.
There was complete silence.
Faith took a long look at me, taking in all the details. I was a mess. Unshaved. Fresh scars since she’d last seen me. My white shirt had dust stains on it. My jeans were worn out.
Finally, Faith spoke. “I waited,” she said, and then her words trailed off.
“I know you did,” I said helplessly.
She couldn’t take it. It was too much of a shock. After all the time I’d been away, I couldn’t just walk up to her like this, as if nothing had happened.
“I waited through everything,” she said.
“I know, Faith.”
“I thought you were dead, I waited. I thought you weren’t coming back, I waited. I thought you’d forgotten about me, I waited.”
She was shaking her head. I didn’t know if she was happy to see me or mad. I didn’t have a clue what she was thinking. All I knew was that I loved her. I loved that woman like an animal loves it’s life mate. There are animals in nature that mate for life. If their mate dies, they’ll wail over the body till they die themselves. That’s the way I loved Faith.
“You were in my car,” she said. “Last week. That was you.”
“Yes, that was me.”
“I felt as if I’d seen a ghost after you left,” she said. “You used my name. You left the necklace.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Why did you return it?”
“You asked me to.”
“No I didn’t.”
“The very first time I met you, in the Los Lobos bar in Reno, you asked for it back.”
She cast her mind back. Her eyes lit up when she remembered the moment. “That’s right,” she said.
“I said I’d give it back to you when you forgot I had it.”
“You did.”
“I kept my promise.”
“You didn’t want it anymore?”
“Didn’t want it? No. Of course I wanted it. I treasured it every single day.”
“Then why return it?”
“Faith, I waited twelve years to come back to you. I’ve thought about you every single day.”
Faith looked at Lacey then back at me. I needed her to know that much. If she hated me that was fine, but I needed her to know the truth—I’d kept my word.
I’d been hers the entire time—hers and no one else’s.
“It was you assassinating Los Lobos members these past years, wasn’t it?”
I nodded.
“So you’re a killer.”
There was nothing I could say.
“Do you even know you have a son?” she said.
“Of course I know. That’s why I’m here, Faith. For you, and the boy. That’s why I came back.”
“You were gone so long.”
“I should never have left you, Faith.”
She was crying. Tears were falling down my face too.
“No, you shouldn’t have.”
“I had no idea it would take so long to make things safe.”
“Don’t talk to me about it.”
“I wanted to come back to you every single day. All I thought about was you.”
“Then why didn’t you come back?”
I looked from her to Lacey.
Faith got up.
“Don’t leave,” I said, desperately.
She walked straight for the door of the bar.
I watched her go.
“What the hell are you waiting for?” Lacey said.
I ran after her, catching up in the parking lot.
“Please don’t leave,” I said. “We’ve got so much to say to each other.”
Her eyes were filled with tears. She was still looking at me incredulously, as if asking how all of this was possible.
“And how can we say it?” she said. “How can we say twelve years of pain? Of loneliness? Of heartbreak? How can we put that into words?”
“Perhaps we’ll never be able,” I said.
“Are you even the man who left me?” she stammered.
I took a step toward her, I wanted to hold her, but she drew back from me as if I was a dangerous animal.
“Faith, I was doing what I thought I had to do. I was taking out the men who were a threat to both of us, to our son.”
“Our son?” she gasped.