Dancing With the Devil (29 page)

“So instead she takes up with the first man to walk through the door?”

“Rhea.” Colin’s rebuke went ignored.

“It wasn’t like that,” the judge said slowly. “I loved your mother from the first day I met her. She loved me, too, but even after she found out about your father and the Miller woman, your mother continued to honor her vows.”

“Until you convinced her differently.”

“Yes,” he confirmed. “I did. I pushed her until she couldn’t resist anymore, and once your father’s child was born…”

The mention of Ernest drained all the remaining strength from Rhea’s body.

“I don’t expect you or your brother to understand or to forgive me for what I did,” the judge said. “But I will never regret one minute I spent with your mother. And to this day, I feel her loss as if she’d been my wife instead of your father’s.”

It took her a long time, but eventually Rhea had to offer him a grudging nod. At least he’d loved her mother. That made it a little easier to accept. Not much, but a little.

“Okay,” Judge Hicks breathed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Rhea clamped her mouth shut until Colin prodded her on with a pointed look. What did any of it matter anymore? She wasn’t about to pretend Deacon was her husband for another minute, so none of this mattered anymore.

Five minutes later, she’d retold the entire story about how she forged the marriage certificate and why.

“Seems even more foolish now”—she sniffed—
“given what I’ve learned about my parents and how they deceived all of us.”

The judge’s face remained stern. “Regardless of what your parents may have done, or didn’t do,” he said, “the one thing you have to believe, Rhea, is that they loved you and your brother more than anything else.”

Colin rolled his eyes and snorted loudly, but the judge ignored him.

“Why do you think they tried so hard to keep this from you? They didn’t want to hurt you.”

“Well, they did.”

“Yes,” he agreed over a frown. “They did. I did. And I’m more sorry about that than anything else I’ve ever done, as I’m sure they both are.”

“What happens now?” She shook her head and brushed away the last of her tears. “If I’d known the truth about my parents and what went on in that store, I would have gladly sold it and never gotten in this mess in the first place.”

For the first time since she’d walked in, the judge actually smiled at her, then turned an angry frown on Colin.

“If memory serves,” he said, “the store was willed to both of you in equal shares, is that right?”

Rhea nodded, but Colin didn’t even seem to be breathing.

“As such,” the judge continued, “neither one of you can sell the store without the consent of the other.”

“But that means…” She blinked up at him, then at Colin. “Colin couldn’t have sold it to the Dietrichs unless I agreed.”

“That’s correct.”

Rhea shot out of her chair and stood toe to toe with her brother. “Did you know this?”

He didn’t answer, nor did he look at her.

“You knew!” She reached up and slapped his face so
hard the sound repeated through the room for long seconds afterward. Colin didn’t move, but he did finally look at her.

“I was trying to protect you,” he said quietly. “I thought you’d be better off somewhere else, somewhere far away from the gossip.”

The urge to slap him again was almost overwhelming. “I’ve made some horrible mistakes this past year,” she forced out. “And I’m not proud of them. But they were my mistakes, Colin. My life, my mistakes.”

“But I—”

“I know.” She closed her eyes, breathed in slowly and then opened them. “But I’m not a child, and you have to stop treating me like one.”

Her own words echoed through her brain until she saw the truth in them. “And I, likewise, will stop treating you like one.”

The corner of Colin’s mouth tightened, but he didn’t respond.

“If I need your help, I’ll ask. If I need your protection, I’ll ask. Otherwise, my mistakes are mine to fix. Deal?”

Grudgingly, Colin finally managed a short nod.

A small wave of relief coursed through her, but it was short-lived. She still had one other thing to sort out.

She turned back to Judge Hicks. “What about the marriage certificate?”

“Well, that depends.” Judge Hicks shrugged casually.

“On what?”

“On how much value your ‘husband’ puts on that piece of paper.”

Deacon
.

“It’s over between us,” Rhea said. “So that won’t be an issue.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Colin muttered, nodding toward the window.

She followed his gaze to find Deacon peering through the window, cupping his hands on either side of his face to block the glare. The glass was too grimy to see him clearly, but there was no question it was him.

“What the—”

“Who’s that?” The judge stood up and stared out the window, too.

Deacon continued to look in until his gaze locked on Rhea’s. Then he dropped his hands and turned away.

“That,” Colin answered, “would be the ‘husband.’ ”

“Doesn’t look like it’s over for him,” the judge said, his gray eyes worried. “Are you sure he won’t want to press charges?”

“Yes.” Rhea nodded for emphasis. “He’ll be just as happy as I am to find out he’s free of this so-called marriage.”

“Seems odd that someone who doesn’t care would be pacing outside the way he is.” The judge cocked a small grin at Colin.

Before Rhea could open her mouth, the judge was out the door and ushering Deacon inside.

His bottom lip was split open, his nose had obviously been bleeding and a huge bruise had started to develop around his left eye.

She started to go to him, then stopped. His injuries were physical; he’d recover as he had so many other times. But her wounds were on the inside, and this time, her shattered heart would never heal.

“What the hell happened to you?” Colin asked, squinting at Deacon’s injuries as though he’d suffered them himself.

“Ernest happened to me.” Deacon walked straight
past the judge and Colin and stopped in front of Rhea. “Are you all right?”

She folded her arms over her stomach and lifted her chin. “I’m fine,” she said. “And you’ll be glad to know you are free of me now, unless you want to press charges against me for forging the marriage certificate.”

He started to turn to the judge, but decided against it, and turned back to Rhea instead. “What about…how will you explain…”

“You?” she asked. “I won’t. If anyone asks, I’ll tell them what I did. If they choose not to shop in my store anymore, there’s nothing I can do about that.”

It was shocking to hear the confidence in her own voice, because every inch of her was trembling inside, especially as she forced out her next words.

“I don’t need you anymore.”

The only way to describe Deacon’s expression was devastated. Her hands itched to reach for him; her heart begged her to say something, to do something to ease his torment. But her head flat out refused.

“Thank you for your help,” she said quietly, stepping around him. “Given what’s happened this week, I believe you’ve exacted enough payment from me, so we should be square now.”

She pushed past Colin, who tried to slow her escape, and ran outside. Where was she going? She didn’t want to go to the store, and she wouldn’t go to either of the rooms she’d shared with Deacon. As usual, that left Colin’s.

Step by hurried step, she found herself in the barn, sitting in the stall next to the cow’s. She had no tears left. In fact, she’d never felt so completely empty in her entire life.

“I was beginning to think you’d never give up on him.”

Rhea didn’t need to look up to know it was Kit. The woman’s voice was unlike any other, and her denim trousers scratched together as she moved around Rhea in a wide circle. One quick glance at the cow explained why it wasn’t balking at Kit’s presence. It seemed to be locked in its position, unable to move or blink.

“It’s fine,” Kit said. “I just didn’t want to listen to it carry on while I’m here.”

“What do you want, Kit?”

“Not a thing,” she said. “I’m just here to help.”

“I don’t need your help,” Rhea snorted, finally looking up at the other woman. “You and your brother have done quite enough, thank you very much.”

“Ah, yes,” she said. “My brother.” She dragged the stool over and plunked down on it as though she were going to do the milking. “I’m afraid you’ve made him soft. He’s nothing like what he used to be.”

Kit wasn’t the least bit put off by Rhea’s silence. “There was a time, not so long ago, when he’d do whatever was asked of him, but now…” She shook her head and sighed. “Now he’d rather dance around the truth than just spit it out like I do.”

Without even looking at Kit, Rhea could feel the other woman’s gaze on her.

“Come on, Rhea,” she said after a pause. “You must have questions about all of this, and knowing how Deacon feels about you, I’d wager he’s too busy trying to save you from the truth, isn’t he? So go ahead—ask me anything.”

Kit was Deacon’s sister; she could only be there for one reason, and that was to make everyone around her miserable, including, or probably especially, her brother.

And the best way to make him miserable would be to spill the secrets he’d been keeping.

Heavy footsteps sounded outside. How did he get here so fast?

“When did he get his powers back?”

“The day after Kit stood and watched me take twenty lashes in the old feed store.” Deacon stepped between Rhea and Kit and stood with his feet slightly apart, his arms over his chest. If he had any hope of this going well, he needed Rhea to see him, to listen to him, not Kit.

“It could have been a lot sooner,” Kit said from behind him, “if he’d just asked.”

Rhea’s eyes widened. “He didn’t want them back?”

“No,” Kit snorted. “Can you believe that?”

Wide brown eyes stared up at him in silent question. He chewed his lip for a long moment, his gaze flicking between Rhea and Kit. Telling Rhea the truth was one thing; admitting these things in front of his sister was another thing entirely.

“I wanted you to see
me
,” he said. “Not the devil’s son—just me. I wanted to prove to you I didn’t need any of that.”

“But then you took them back anyway?”

“I didn’t take them.” He kept his eyes focused directly on hers, willing her to believe him. “They were pushed back on me to try and tempt me to return.”

Rhea’s mouth opened and closed twice. Deep lines creased her forehead. “What did you do with them once he gave them back?”

“Nothing!” Kit threw her arms in the air and pushed up from her stool. “Can you believe he went through all that and then didn’t even use them?”

“Why not?”

Kit tipped her head up to listen for Deacon’s answer, but he didn’t dare look at her. If he did, he couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t use his powers and send her back to Hell with one swift blow.

“I didn’t need them,” he said.

“I beg to differ,” Kit scoffed. “One quick twist and you could have avoided the lump that boy gave you.”

Rhea forced herself to blink. “You
let
Ernest do that to you?”

“I didn’t
let him
do it,” Deacon sighed. “But he seemed to think I had it coming, and I couldn’t honestly say he was wrong.”

“See what I mean?” Kit scoffed. “He never would have let anyone—especially a human—do something like that to him before.”

Rhea’s frown deepened. “Why did you make me believe you and Salma…”

“Had sex.” Kit tipped her head so she could see Rhea. “Sorry—would you prefer ‘had relations’?”

If she’d have given him a minute, he would have found the right words to explain, but instead, she shoved him aside and reached for the damned pitchfork. Could the woman not stand still for two minutes?

“Deacon has this…thing…for you,” Kit said, trailing behind Rhea. “Always has. Our father’s tried more than once to beat it out of him, but nothing’s worked.”

Rhea jabbed the fork into a pile of fresh straw, then leaned against it. “The scars.”

“Mm-hmm.” Kit nodded. “Didn’t have a mark on him before he met you.”

“Kit!” Deacon turned and lunged for her, but she vanished, then reappeared a few feet away.

Rhea looked as though she was going to be sick again. She gripped the fork with both hands and bent over at the waist, taking in great gulps of air.

It took Deacon a long time to find the words, and even when he did, he had difficulty getting them out.

“The first time I met you,” he began, “something changed inside me. I don’t know how or why, but
what ever it was, it’s what made me tell you the truth about who I am.”

“The first of several mistakes,” Kit muttered.

“Wrong,” Deacon said. “It was the first right thing I’d ever done.”

For less than a heartbeat, the anger and confusion vanished from Rhea’s face, but it didn’t stay away long.

“When I came back last summer,” he said, “I knew I wouldn’t be staying. I didn’t know how long I had, but even so, I shouldn’t have let things go as far as they did.”

“Selfish beast,” Kit muttered, shaking her head.

“Yes.” Deacon nodded freely. “I was selfish. I wanted what I wanted, and that was all that mattered.”

“You should have told me.” She lifted the pitchfork and jabbed it into a spot higher up.

He nodded again.

“Why didn’t you? You’d already told me who you were; did you really think I’d find it so shocking to hear you were going back to H-hell?”

Kit snorted again but they ignored her.

Deacon looked at his boots for a long time before lifting his gaze back to hers. This was it. He could take the easy route, accept his powers and run, or he could tell her everything.

“I wasn’t just going back to Hell,” he said. “I was being sent to do a job.”

Rhea lifted a scoop full of hay, but dropped it back in the exact same spot. “What kind of job?”

“Yes, Deacon,” Kit smirked. “What kind of job? We r e you selling harnesses and bolts of fabrics to nosy humans?”

“Rhea.” He stepped toward her, but she lifted the pitchfork and pointed it toward him.