The Promise of Rayne Read online

  She squeezed her eyes closed and replayed Levi’s words again—hearing the pain laced in his voice, the hurt etched into his face.

  “Trust me when I say, you’re the easiest mark he’s ever had,” Cal continued, flicking the brass closure on the cigar box open and then lifting the lid. “He doesn’t want you. He wants the same as everybody else—connection, power, money, a slice of your inheritance. Sound familiar? It should.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “Stop trying to make this about Levi.” She wished she could cut the fear from her voice. “This is about what happened eighteen years ago. What you did.”

  Cal slammed the lid and her body jerked upright. “What I did eighteen years ago saved this family!”

  She gripped the arms of her chair. “From what?”

  “From the same spineless betrayal you’re exhibiting right now. I saw the way you reached for him, the way you looked at him—I hear the way you’re protecting him even now. Do you think that because your daddy is governor you don’t have to abide by our rules? That you can behave however you please, sneak around with whomever you want, share a bed with whomever—”

  “How dare you assume—”

  “You live as if consequence doesn’t exist!”

  She pushed forward. “No, I live as if consequence is the only thing that exists! Every decision I make is weighed and measured against my last name.” A sob caught in her throat. “You’ve known me my entire life. You gave me my first job, wrote my letter of recommendation to Gonzaga University. You groomed me to be your successor and yet you still won’t trust me enough to tell me the truth about our family.”

  “You haven’t earned my trust. I told you to stay away from that farm. You ignored my warning. Twice.” He tipped his head to the side, his chest heaving in uneven pumps. “It’s time you figured out how to live without the Shelby safety net. You have two hours to vacate my property.”

  Her grip on the chair slackened.

  “You’re fired.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Icy water lapped over her naked toes, numbing her feet the way she wished to numb her heart. A vastly different reality from the last time she had stood here. With Levi. Possibility had seemed as deep as the attraction they’d felt. As the kisses they’d shared. As the promises they’d spoken.

  The sun’s dying light, suspended in a smoke cloud, stretched across the water, the hues dull and lifeless like the vegetation all around her. Limp weeds dragged behind the pull of a slow-moving current, while brittle pine needles spiraled to the ground below. No birds chirped nearby, and the only scents tainting the air now were of soot and decay and the ashes of dreams set aflame.

  The most sought-after view in Shelby Falls had become nothing more than a grainy blur, much like the last three hours of her life.

  Cradling a rock in her palm, she peered into the haze across the narrow shoreline. How many times had she held a stone in her hand just like this one—hoping her practice paid off, hoping her efforts would be seen, hoping her best would be enough.

  Hoping she would be enough.

  She plopped the dead weight into the water and watched it sink to the bottom.

  How foolish she’d been to hope.

  “There you are.” Gia meandered across the rocky terrain. “I was beginning to think you’d sent me on some kind of smoky goose chase.” She coughed in the crook of her elbow. “I was finishing up a glaze when I got your text and . . .” Gia’s words died out. “Rayne, what’s going on?”

  “What do you know about Granddaddy’s will?” The question seemed as haunted as her voice.

  “His will? Why? What’s this about? And where are your shoes? That water has to be freezing.”

  She’d abandoned her shoes and overcoat somewhere along the trail, not bothering to note where. She didn’t budge. All feeling below her ankles had died before she’d even had time to care about the pain. “Did Aunt Nina ever mention how the land was divided or how the inheritance was split?”

  “I don’t think so, although I make it a point not to dwell on anything prior to nineteen ninety-nine. Messes with my creativity. Again, why is this important?”

  “Cal lied.”

  “Cal makes a living off his lies. He works for your father, remember?”

  “This is different. This isn’t about politics; it’s about us. Our family. Something happened eighteen years ago. Something big.”

  Gia twisted her hips, her face a mask of confusion. “Like what?”

  Rayne wished she knew. “Levi came to the lodge tonight.”

  “Like . . . inside the lodge? You told me your fling was over.” Gia’s irritation sparked through the humid air.

  “He confronted Cal, Gia. He threatened to expose him in front of the entire shelter if Cal didn’t admit to lying about the will—about how Ford Winslow really acquired the farm.”

  For a girl who never missed an opportunity for a snarky comeback, Gia’s silence said she didn’t know what to make of it either.

  “I’ve never seen Cal look so”—a shiver feathered over Rayne’s skin—“terrifying.”

  “I don’t understand what you’re telling me.”

  How could she possibly help her cousin understand what she couldn’t even put into words? “I don’t have the answers, Gia. I just know what I saw—what I heard.”

  Unbidden, the memory of Levi’s apology whispered from the hollows of her heart. I’m sorry, Rayne, but this is the only way. And for the thousandth time since packing up her cabin, she pushed his voice away.

  Pushed him away.

  The feelings inside her were too strong—too confusing—too tangled for her to sort.

  “Why wait—I mean, if Levi knew a secret about our family, why wouldn’t he tell you sooner?”

  Rayne had asked herself that same question. Over and over again. “I don’t know. At first I worried he showed up to expose us, to hurt me for hurting him.” Her throat tightened around her impending vulnerability. “But now I wonder if he was trying to warn me.” Rayne focused on the obscured mountain peaks and exhaled. “Do you remember him, Gia?”

  “Who?”

  “Ford.”

  Gia’s top lip curled. “Not much, and that’s how I prefer it.”

  “I saw him. The night I ended things with Levi. I saw Ford, talked to him.”

  Her mind drifted back to that night, to Ford’s tranquil demeanor, to the steady cadence of his voice, to the question that haunted her for days. What had she asked him in the grocery store?

  “I may not remember much about him, but I definitely remember the lectures from my parents after the funeral,” Gia admitted. “To never wander over to the farm and to stay away from Ford and his employees.”

  Rayne remembered the same, only there was something more, something scratching at the corner of her mind, a memory she couldn’t quite retrieve, a dog-eared page too faded to decode.

  They fell into a pensive quiet, each lost to some piece of the past.

  “Handcuffs,” Gia said absently.

  Rayne turned. “Handcuffs?”

  “Yeah, I remember my dad used them the day of Grandpa’s funeral. I asked him about it when he tucked me into bed that night and he told me not to worry, to go to sleep, but I snuck onto the stairs and overheard my parents recounting the story. My dad cuffed Ford. For trespassing.”

  “Trespassing?” Her disbelief tangled with surprise.

  “Don’t look so shocked, Pollyanna. You know what kind of person he is—”

  “No, I’m not sure I do.” The thought slipped out of her mouth unfiltered.

  “Listen, Rayne, I know this may be hard for you to believe, but scorned lovers do a lot of crazy, stupid things after they’ve been rejected. You’re giving Levi too much credit. Maybe you’re overthinking this whole thing.”

  But Levi’s face hadn’t been crazed or wild. He’d been intent, focused, determined . . . so why had he put her at risk? Why had he gone to her uncle? Why, if he loved her, hadn’t he to
ld her the secret? Unless Gia was right and there was no secret. “Maybe so.”

  “Cal’s a power-hungry rat for sure, but even he has his limits. If there were some big discrepancy in Granddaddy’s will, he wouldn’t have been able to hide it this long. Not in this town. Whatever happened tonight between Levi and Cal isn’t enough to lose sleep over.”

  The irony of Gia’s statement penetrated the last of her emotional armor. “I lost my job.”

  Gia’s curls whipped behind her back. “What?”

  “Cal fired me. After Levi left, I questioned him too, begged him to tell me the truth. And he fired me.”

  The shock on Gia’s face reflected the shock protecting Rayne’s mind from processing the implications of her statement. Only now that it was out, now that she’d spoken the words with her own mouth and heard them with her own ears, a suffocating panic tore at her chest from the inside.

  She’d lost the lodge.

  Her cousin’s olive complexion paled under the strain of silence. “Oh, Rayne. What have you done?”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Levi pressed his free hand to his ear to block the sound blaring from Ford’s living room. His phone had been permanently affixed to his head since midmorning. “Tom, listen, I can assure you that Second Harvest’s numbers look great for next year. Our vendors are producing double their—”

  “I’m sorry, kid. It’s just business.”

  But Levi had the distinct feeling that it wasn’t. It wasn’t just business that had caused nearly every one of his handpicked investors to pull out of the expansion launch in the last thirty-six hours. It was personal. Very, very personal.

  He slammed his phone onto the desktop and vented with a few choice words.

  The volume on Ford’s television ratcheted higher. Tina Tucker’s mousy voice seeped through the walls. More fire updates. More recruits coming. More aid en route.

  Levi stalked down the hallway to deliver some news of his own. “We’re in trouble.”

  Ford didn’t shift his eyes from the talking head on screen. “Whole state’s in trouble, son.”

  “I’m not talking about the fires. I’m talking about the farm.”

  “Good, ’cause I hoped you weren’t in my office praying to God with that language. Although, even if you were, He’d still hear you.”

  Levi exhaled through his nose. “I wasn’t talking to God. I was talking to Tom Hutchinson. He’s out, Ford. Just like John Matters and Sam Potter and Bobby Rothschild. We have two left standing. Two.”

  He should be used to Ford’s delayed reaction time, used to the way he processed information like he was eating a fine steak dinner. The man savored every bite, dissected every flavor, and then chewed and swallowed with care. In their nine years together, Levi had appreciated the man’s patient personality more times than he could count.

  Today was not one of them.

  “If we don’t have investors, I’ll have to cancel all the orders I’ve collected over the spring, tell our biggest clients to find another distributor. We don’t have enough margin to cover the costs of the expansion on our own. Not long term.” Levi spliced his fingers through his hair. “What should I do? Do I scout for new investors? Do I inform our vendors? Do I push the launch date back a few months?” Levi rattled off the questions while Ford remained in the same relaxed position on the sofa. “Ford, this is important. Tell me what to do.”

  “Pray. We need to pray for rain.”

  The statement ripped through him. He was certain Ford hadn’t meant Rayne Shelby, but she was the only Rayne on his mind. Had been for three deafeningly silent days. Not that he’d expected anything less. The minute he’d charged into the Great Room, he knew she’d begin to question everything—his integrity, his motives, his heart. But she’d also question Cal, fight for the answers Levi couldn’t provide. And he’d do it all over again if it meant Rayne hearing the truth from a source she trusted, even if Levi believed Cal Shelby to be the least trustworthy man on the planet. At least she would know.

  What happened next would be her choice.

  Ford eyed him. “Without rain, these fires—this drought—will kill everything you’ve banked your future on.”

  Levi gripped the back of the sofa chair, his fingers digging into the worn fabric. “We need to make a plan.”

  “Prayer is the plan.”

  Levi opened his mouth, but his words stalled. The voice charging from the speakers could make his blood curdle in under ten seconds.

  “. . . in the best interest of our community to close the shelter at the lodge and divert all remaining and future evacuees into the shelters in town. Unfortunately, our remote location puts our guests at too great a risk, so as of tomorrow morning, our doors will be closed to the public. We apologize for the inconvenience but must comply with safety protocols . . .”

  The left side of Cal Shelby’s cheek ticked as he spoke, his eyes skating to the upper right before blinking.

  “He’s lying.”

  “Yes,” Ford concurred with brows drawn. “He is.”

  “Why would he close the doors?” Levi muttered more to himself than to Ford. “Rayne’s put everything she has into that shelter. He doesn’t do a darn thing to help her run it, so why would . . .” A cold, clawlike grip latched onto his gut. No.

  No, no, no! He tore down the hallway toward the office again, bumping into the doorjamb, and then scrambling for where he’d so carelessly tossed his phone. He fumbled through his recent call list and tapped Travis’s name. If there was information to be collected, his friend would know it.

  Travis answered on the second ring. “Hey, what’s—”

  “What have you heard about the shelter closing at the lodge?”

  “You mean how they’re kicking everybody out tonight? They’re making them stay in the high school gymnasium or in the basement of the Baptist church downtown.”

  “And Rayne?” It hurt to say her name, to ask such an exposing question, but what choice did he have? “Have you heard anything about her? Anything at all?”

  A pause.

  “Travis, tell me what you know.”

  “She’s not there.”

  “Not where—at the lodge?”

  “Their night-shift guy, Teddy, he’s good friends with my boss. I overheard them talking this morning. She hasn’t been around in days.”

  Days. A blinding pain radiated from the back of Levi’s eye sockets and stabbed into his temples. Travis’s voice faded out as the phone slipped away from his ear, his spine as rigid as Ford’s bookcases.

  Suddenly, Levi could think of every reason in the world to petition God.

  He freed his keys from his jeans pocket and started for the driveway, one question wreaking havoc on his mind.

  What have I done?

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  On Levi’s third knock, Gia jerked the gallery door open, her face shadowed by the “Sorry, We’re Closed” sign.

  “Do you realize that in the state of Idaho I could shoot you on my doorstep for trespassing and walk away with clean hands?”

  Okay, he deserved that. “Gia, please. I need to see her.”

  Her laugh was a mix of intrigue and outrage. “For what? To fill her head with your hogwash? To crush her dreams? Or maybe you just want to expose her sins and then run like a coward. Wait—you’ve already accomplished all of those.”

  He splayed his fingers wide. “Five minutes. That’s all I’m asking for.”

  She flattened her hand to the doorjamb. “You have exactly one try to convince me why I should even give you another five seconds.” She stopped him with her palm. “But here’s a disclaimer: I’m immune to romance. So any gag-worthy line about being star-crossed lovers will result in a swift kick to the groin.”

  In record time he sorted through his entangled regrets, searching for an answer that wouldn’t leave him limping. “I only wanted Cal to be honest with her. I never thought he’d—”

  “Buzz. Wrong answer.” She slapped the back
of the door, but he caught it an inch before it latched.

  “I never told Travis what I saw the night your dad found you together. I never told a soul.”

  She rocked back on her heels, her eyes widening before her man-hating scowl returned. “So what? If I don’t let you in, you’ll—”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I’m saying I know the difference between exposing a secret for the purpose of shock value and exposing one for the purpose of truth.” He glanced over Gia’s shoulder inside the dark gallery. “Please.”

  “Five minutes.”

  He nodded, his chest sagging under the relief of her compromise. “Five minutes.”

  The unfriendly toad at the base of the door croaked Levi’s entrance as he followed Gia past several mediums of art before taking the narrow staircase to her apartment. His heartbeat thudded in time with his footsteps. Clearing the guard at the gate was only the first blockade.

  Gia pushed through the doorway. “You have a visitor, but don’t worry, I’ve already given him the third degree.”

  And the fourth and the fifth.

  Levi rounded the corner, and Rayne pushed up from the sofa. A littering of yellowed paper and curled photographs lay in piles all around her, yet it was the medley of expressions that crossed her face that transfixed him. Shock. Hurt. Anger. And then the one that cut him deepest: uncertainty. The emotions of self-preservation were often quick lived, but losing someone’s trust? There was no quick fix for that. The feelings of betrayal couldn’t be outtalked.

  Need pushed him toward her. “What did Cal do to you?”

  Gia caught his sleeve and yanked him back. “Hold on there, bucko. I didn’t give you an invitation to roam. You can talk from here.” She folded her arms and eyed him as if she were six foot four and not five foot jack.

  Stray pieces of hair framed Rayne’s makeup-free face. “Nothing you can change by being here.”

  “What did he do, Rayne?” he asked again.

  Gia threw her arms up. “What do you think he did? He cut her off—fired her. Thanks to you.”

  Every self-justifying explanation he’d concocted on the drive over shriveled away like a diseased houseplant. The revelation hammered against his chest. She’d been fired from the lodge, fired from her dream. All because he’d unlocked Pandora’s box and left her to open it alone.