“Yes. It’s handled.”
“Well, I don’t know how you managed that, but I’m damn glad. I’m concerned about his connections on this mercury though. I have some people looking into it.” He gives me a level stare. “It’s okay to want to focus on your art and just sell. You know that, right?”
“I don’t want to sell,” I say, making that decision as I speak the words. This place is stability for me. I need it, but what I say to him is also true. “I will protect this place, just like my father wanted to protect it. And I have a good team. I’m okay.”
“Are you sure? Because I could buy it and protect it for you. And heck, I’ll do some improvements and get a tax write off.”
He says it so lightheartedly that it feels innocent, but I don’t know. He does like money and he too might find a hundred million dollars appealing. “I’m not selling. More now than ever, I know that’s the right decision.” A thought hits me. “You know, you sent me that Vegas photo with a note.”
“I just wanted you to know that yes, your father did some things with, and for, your mother that went against his grain, but he loved her deeply. And she loved him, too. She just had issues. And as much as I hated to see him hurt, I often thought that few people love like he loved.” He knocks on the counter. “I forgot a meeting I have this morning, but I wanted to see you. I am going to leave you to enjoy your Saturday on your own. If you need me, I’m here. I’ll show myself out.” I stare at his spot for several moments, remembering a conversation with my father. It had been just him and me at the kitchen table:
“I want to go to Vegas for my twenty-first birthday and I want you to come,” I’d said.
“Honey, I hate that place. I went once when I was twenty-five and bad stuff we won’t talk about happened. It’s bad luck. I won’t go back. Ever.”
“But Mom loves Vegas.”
“Yeah,” he’d said tightly. “I know.”
He’d gotten up and given me his back as he walked to the sink.
I grab my cellphone and tab through the photos Bill sent me and there is only one of my mother and my father, and that’s the Vegas shot. I study it now, and I can’t be sure that’s my father and not Bill. Did Bill send me a photo of him and my mother, cheating on my father, as a way to lure me into meeting him?
Nick’s words come back to me: Nothing your uncle told you about me is the truth. Was Nick telling the truth? I shut my eyes in frustration. He’s Nathan Mark’s son. That is the absolute truth and Bill told me that truth. I shove a hand through my hair. “Stop, Faith. Stop looking for a reason to forgive Nick.” No matter what, I add silently, I remind myself that Nick lied to me. I know he knew that his father was my enemy. So the bottom line is that Nick feels right and good while Bill still feels bad and even a little scary. But Nick is the one whose carved out my heart.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Faith
Nick haunts me the rest of the day.
I can’t get him out of my head, but I try. I spend most of the day packing up the house even though there really isn’t much of what I pack that I want to take with me. I don’t go to my studio, but once I’ve thrown on dressy jeans and a sweater for dinner with Kasey, I am ready early. I walk upstairs and stand in my studio. And I see Nick everywhere. I painted him here. I got naked with him here. I fought with him here. God, I love him. This is gutting me. I need to understand. Maybe then I can move on.
I sit down against the wall and unblock Nick’s number on my phone. I sit there, trying to decide if I really want to do this, and the answer is yes. I’m ready now to do this. I dial Nick. “Faith. Sweetheart.”
I love his deep, rich voice and I love when he calls me sweetheart. “I need to understand.”
“Let me to come to you.”
“No. Because when you touch me I forget everything else and don’t tell me that’s a good thing. It’s not. Not right now.”
“I need you to look into my eyes and see the truth.”
“Please just tell me.”
“My father was giving your mother large sums of money. It made no sense. And then he was dead, and he’d never had a heart problem in his life. It didn’t add up. I thought your mother killed my father, but then she was dead of the same cause.”
“Oh God. You thought I did it and yet you fucked me?”
“I knew you didn’t do it as soon as I met you.”
“Did you?”
“Yes. I felt it. I didn’t want to admit it at first, but I know now that I felt it from the beginning.”
“You thought I was a killer,” I press, still stunned by this news.
“For a hiccup of a moment, Faith. But no more lies. I didn’t come to you with good intentions and I damn sure didn’t come to you planning to fall in love. But I did. I love you, Faith Winter. So fucking much. Which is why I couldn’t tell you.”
“Lies are not love,” I say, unable to even try and mask the anger and pain in those words.
“If there was a murderer on the loose, I was afraid they’d turn to you. I needed you close. I needed to keep you safe. I knew you’d react like you did this week. I know you. And I don’t blame you, but, Faith…I had an autopsy done on my father.”
“And?”
“It’s being referred to the DA.”
“He was murdered.”
“Yes. Which means so was your mother.”
“I don’t know how to digest that fact. My mother was murdered.”
“I know. I feel the same way about my father. I wasn’t close to him, but nobody was supposed to take down that bastard but me. And full disclosure. Beck has men watching you. To protect you.”
“I’m suddenly comforted by that news. You should have told me. I would have been angry but I would have understood. Finding out how I found out was pretty horrible. It cut me.”
“I know. I don’t know if I’d do it differently though, Faith. Protecting you was everything in my decisions.”
“The mercury?”
“I knew nothing about that until you said something about it. And Beck thinks there’s a connection to a man I saw with a flag tattoo that afternoon we went to lunch.”
“Flag? There was a flag on the money clip I found.”
“Yes. We believe that was his.”
“Which means he was at my house.” I don’t give him time to reply. “Who is he? What is he?”
“Jess Wild is his name and he’s ex-CIA.”
Alarms go off in my head. “Bill said he hired someone that was ex-CIA to help him with the men who wanted to buy the winery for the mercury. He came here today. He tried to buy the winery.”
“As I predicted, he would.”
“Do you think he wants to sell it for the mercury?”
“Yes. I do. And sweetheart, he would have a strong claim to inherit if you were dead.”
I shiver. “He gave me the creeps today. Are you sure Beck has someone watching me?”