Tethered (A BirthRight Novel) (23 page)

A heavy sigh escapes his lips. “I understand. I’ll leave you alone then. But I need to say one thing before I go. The
only
thing I ever lied to you about was my job. Everything else was the truth, Chloe. I never planned to f....” He hesitates. “I never planned to fall for you, but I did.”

His gaze turns back towards the windshield.

What? I wasn’t expecting him to say something like
that
. The sad part is, all I wanted was to know how he feels about me. But now that he’s told me, it doesn’t matter. How can it?

My heart is irrevocably broken from his betrayal. The only thing I want is to crawl in a hole and die.

How could he do this to me? How could he
use
me this way?

The reservoir I’ve been protecting finally breaks, tears stream down my face as I replay his last words again in my head. Words I would have done anything to hear only an hour ago.

But I don’t have the strength to face him any longer.

I reach for the door handle. “I have to go.”

I push the door open and step out of his SUV, but look back as I fling the door shut. I don’t even care that he’ll see my tear-stained face. If anything, I
want
him to see just how much pain I’m now in because of
him
.

My legs move to carry me up the sidewalk, but the squeak of the window going down behind me reflexively forces me to stop.

“Chloe.”

With what little energy I have left, I turn my head back.

“I’m so sorry.” As the words leave Hunter’s lips, tears begin streaming down his cheeks.

Oh my god, I can’t look at him like this. I spin around a
nd run to the house as fast as my size eights will carry me.

Quietly, so as not to draw attention to the front door, I close it behind me with a nearly inaudible squeak. Leaning
my back against it, I lose control of my emotions as I inch my way to the floor. The second my butt makes contact with the ground—I roll on my side—curling up into fetal position.

Somehow, in the midst of my immeasurable heartache—I manage to cry myself to sleep—right there on the cold, marble tiles.

*  *  *

“Chloe, wake up, dear. What on earth are you doing on the floor?”

I sit up, rubbing the fuzziness from my eyes.

Gram squats down next to me. “Oh my goodness, what happened to you, dear? You’re a mess.” She brushes something from my cheek with her thumb.

“Sorry Gram, I’ll get up.” Pain crashes into my chest like a freight train, the reality of what transpired earlier rearing its ugly head again.

I could swear there’s a huge hole in my chest where my heart used to be. My palm lifts to cover the wound.

“Let’s go sit on the couch so you can tell me what happened.”

No, I can’t talk about it. It hurts too much to say it aloud. I shake my head. “I don’t think I can, Gram. I don’t even know where to start.”

“That’s okay, dear. One thing at a time. Let’s just start at the beginning. Did something happen when you were with Hunter?”

Hearing his name forces the image of his face into the forefront of my mind. The way his face looked just before he drove away. “Yes,” is all I manage to say.

Gram nods. “Okay, that’s a start. Where were you?”

I replay the evening.

I remember how incandescently happy I was before my vision. “We were at Bryant Park for a special summer poetry reading. It was perfection, Gram. Pap would have loved it.” My head falls forward, suddenly too heavy to hold up.

“That sounds
wonderful
, dear. What on earth could have happened
there
?” She pauses. “Oh! Let me guess. You ‘saw’ something, didn’t you?”

I lift my head back up, peering into her wise powder-blue eyes. “I did...and I’d do anything in the world to take it back. I was having the best day of my life before this
stupid
vision had to ruin everything.”

As if regaining my memory from amnesia, I remember the other part of the vision—the part that could potentially hurt my family. How could I forget about Mr. Russo?

“What is it, dear? You were just seeing something. What was it?” She lays her hand on my knee.

My heart begins pounding out of control. “I was remembering part of my vision. Something you
really
need to know.”

“What dear? What is it?” Her voice softens.

I take a deep breath. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but the night we saved Pap—when things were flying through the air and the ghosts appeared—well, Mr. Russo was standing outside watching
everything
.” My eyes scrunch up. I look at her face for a reaction.

“
What
?” All color disappears from her face.

“Well, he didn’t see
everything
. He ran away before Mom spoke, and before we realized we healed Pap.”

“Thank goodness for small miracles I guess,” she snaps.

“There’s quite a bit more I’m afraid. It gets worse.” I pull my feet up on the couch.

“Worse? How could it get any
worse
than Mr. Russo confirming decades of suspicions?” She shakes her head, disbelief etched across her furrowed brow.

I take another deep breath in, leaving it out as if on a tight leash. “My vision was in three parts. The first part was when he sees everything. The second part, he was talking to a Federal Agent about what he’d seen. He told him everything, Gram. Turns out, the governor pulled a few strings and they’ve been investigating us for some time now. He’s friends with the Russo’s. But there’s something else, Gram. So much worse....” I hang my head as the image of Hunter and Mr. Russo talking flashes through my mind.

“You might as well just spit it out, dear. Nothing will surprise me at this point.” Gram leans on the arm of the couch, bracing herself. The side of her head in her hand, waiting for the preverbal other shoe to drop.

God I hate this. “It’s about the agent who’s been investigating us.” I hesitate. “It’s.... It’s.... It’s
Hunter
, Gram!” I half shout.

“What?” Gram’s voice shoots up a few octaves.

“He’s not a fireman, Gram...he’s an undercover agent who’s been investigating us for God knows how long.” The omission stings as it crosses my lips.

Her mouth falls open. “Well, I just don’t even know what to say. I mean, we were so convinced he was in love with you.” She shakes her head.

“Yeah well, he said he never meant to fall for me, and that he
planned
on telling me the truth, but he was waiting for the right time. He also claims the only thing he lied to me about was his job, and everything else he’s ever said was the truth.”

“I see. Well, what else did he say?” Gram lifts a quizzical brow.

“Not much. I told him I was too upset to talk about it tonight. Then I started crying...he started crying...then I ran in the house because I couldn’t handle seeing him like that.”

Why does the image of his tears hurt me so much? I’m pissed. He deceived me. It shouldn’t hurt to see
him
in pain.

Neither one of us say anything for a few minutes as we think about what I just said. Then Gram looks up with a twisted face, eyes wide with the tip of her tongue sticking out. “Let’s back up a bit. What happened in your vision when you saw Mr. Russo talking to him? What did Hunter
say
when he heard everything? And what’s the third part of the vision? You said it was in three parts?”

I nod. “Well, he asked Mr. Russo if he had any evidence...but he didn’t. Hunter told him he was already planning to close the case because he doesn’t believe we’re the kind of people Mr. Russo thinks we are. He said he’s spent a lot of time with us, and he thinks we’re good people. The thing is though, Mr. Russo was pissed when he heard the FBI wasn’t going to help him, so he said he’d find someone who
would
. I’m not sure what he meant, but it really made me nervous. He’s full of so much rage, Gram.

“After that, it flashed to the third part, which was Mr. Russo talking to Father Gabriel. The next thing I knew, there were flames everywhere...and then I think they die. The vision stopped right after that.”

She shakes her head, fiddling with the buttons on her satin nightgown. “Wow. That’s a lot to take in, dear.”

I tilt my head to the side. “Not to mention the fact that
I
was actually Mr. Russo in the vision. I saw everything through
his
eyes. Felt everything
he
felt. He’s so afraid of us, Gram. He told Hunter we worship Satan and he saw us conjure demons. He thought the person on the table was some innocent we were planning to sacrifice. He has
no
clue who we are.

“What’s even worse is, the whole reason he’d come over to the house in the first place was to apologize to Morgan and the boys. He was filled with so much guilt for what he’d done to them.” Not that it matters now.

“Morgan will be
shocked
when she hears this.” Gram pauses. “Were you able to get an idea
of when
the meeting with Father Gabriel takes place?”

“No, I couldn’t tell. But now that I think about it, I’m not even sure if the meeting with Hunter and Mr. Russo already happened, or if it’s in the future.”

“So then you never told Hunter about your vision?”

“No. Once I saw it, he kept bugging me to tell him what was wrong, so I made a smart crack and called him ‘
Agent Payne
’.” I lower my head.

“I know you won’t like this, dear, but we
need
to talk to him. We need to find out what he knows. It’s quite possible his feelings for you have gotten in the way of his job and he’s trying to protect us.”

What? “Wait a minute. Say that last part again?”

“That he’s trying to protect us?”

“No, before that.”

“Um...his feelings have gotten in the way of his job? That part?” Gram’s eyes narrow on me.

“Oh my god, that’s it!
That’s
what he meant that day.” I’m such a moron.

“You lost me, dear...back up.”

I readjust my weight on the cushion. “The first time he was here, when he showed up after I’d ditched him on the beach, we had a heart-to-heart. He said something about his feelings for me might ‘compromise his work’. When I asked him what he meant, he got a little weird, but then said something about being hurt if he can’t focus. Now I understand what he
really
meant.” I should have
known
there was more to it.

“So what are you going to do about him?”

I shrug. “What
can
I do, Gram? He lied about who he is. He conned me from the first second I met him. Regardless of how he
feels
about me, how can I ever trust him again?” I should have never trusted him in the first place.

She reaches over, laying her hand on my cheek. “Sometimes things aren’t always as black and white as they appear, dear. At the end of the day, he’s a good man who had a job to do. If this was his assignment, he was going to investigate us whether he developed feelings for you or not. Something tells me
he
didn’t plan for it to happen, any more than
you
did.”

“So you still think he’s a good person?”

“Chloe, nothing about him seems disingenuous. Is he charming? Well of course he is. But when he says something, I believe him. You know I’m an excellent judge of character...that’s part of
my
gift. Believe me when I tell you, Hunter Payne
is
a good man who cares for you deeply. Of that, I have no doubt. Besides, weren’t you also lying to him about who
you
are? Who we
all
are?”

God, I hate it when she’s right. “True, but that was to protect the family. It’s not
my
secret. It’s
everyone’s
. I guess I won’t make any decisions while I’m upset. I’ll call him in the morning to see if he’ll come over.”

“Before that happens, dear, we need to fill the family in on
everything
. Plus, we need to figure out what the Russo’s are up to. The family needs to be
extra
vigilant now, so if anyone needs to use any
visible
magic, we’ll have to find a place where there’s no chance of being seen.”

I nod. “I couldn’t agree more.”

“Well, we should probably go to bed. It’s getting quite late and tomorrow will be a tough day.”

“Sounds good. I’m exhausted anyway. Crying always has a way of wiping me out.” I stand up and stretch.

Gram stands beside me. “So before your vision, you were really having the best night of your life?”