"Have something to show you."
"What?"
"Just come."
Lars got up from where he'd been lying beside Faith. Her eyes flickered open the slightest amount, a drowsy but content look in them.
"I've got to run to Cutty's. Go back to sleep." Before he thought about what he was doing, he leaned forward and feathered a kiss on her lips. They turned up slightly in response as she snuggled back down into the comforter.
He found he was happy he'd done that. He should do that more often. He was smiling when he walked out the door ten minutes later. Maybe he could be good at this relationship stuff.
***
His mind started cranking on the drive over as he thought of all the possible reasons Cutty would ask him to come by. The sky had just begun to lighten as he got there. Cutty always kept weird hours but normally he'd be sleeping right now, which led to even more unease. What did he need to show him that would have him up predawn?
The door was unlocked and he let himself in to find Cutty on the couch. All the lights were off but for one in the far corner, casting harsh shadows across his face. There was a glass of whiskey in his hand and it didn't look like it had been his first. That was much more alarming because of the amount of alcohol it took to have a visible effect on them.
Lars walked over and sat on the other end of the couch. "What was so important?"
Cutty took large sip of whiskey before he spoke. "Remember how you asked me to do a little digging around in Faith's human life?"
Hearing that question was as if someone had just swung a bowling ball into his gut but he responded as if nothing were amiss. "Yes."
"Well, I wasn't going to. But then Fate asked me to reach out to my connections as well. Between the two of you, I decided one of you would haunt me until I did it, so I called my guy."
Lars looked over at the bottle of whiskey nearby and resisted the urge to take a long swig, but only barely. "What did your guy in Seattle find?"
"He sent me a file. Before I give it to you, I want you to listen to me," Cutty said as he got to his feet as Lars did.
"Give me the report." He didn't know what was in it but he was already getting angry. Cutty didn't realize how feeding him this information in dribs and drabs was making the situation that much worse.
"I don't care what's in it." Cutty stood obstinately in his way. "I know what I know and I'm telling you, she's a good person."
The words were like an annoying buzz in Lars' ear as the only thing he could think of was what he was going to find out. "Get it for me or I'm going to tear your house apart looking for it."
He started to step around Cutty, planning on doing exactly that, but Cutty mirrored his steps, holding his hands up. "Okay, I'll get it. Just try not to do anything rash."
He disappeared into another room and then came out and handed him a tan, legal-sized envelope.
Lars pulled out several sheets and scanned them quickly. On page three he saw what had Cutty nervous. "Fuck." He dropped them to his side for a minute but didn't let them go as he took a couple of steps around Cutty's place. He leaned a hip against his dining table as tried to get a handle on what he'd just seen. Cutty didn't say anything as he stood there in silence for a minute.
It looked bad. Really bad.
"Did you show these to Fate?" Lars asked, feeling oddly protective of her even faced with damning evidence.
"No."
"Don't."
"I won't."
Lars didn't say anything else. Just took the envelope and papers and walked out.
"Lars, don't be stupid," Cutty called after him from the door as he got in his car.
***
Faith was laying on the bed awake when Lars came in. She looked at him and swallowed back the pleasant greeting she'd been about to offer. From the way the door shut to the sound of his footsteps as he walked across the room, everything about him screamed something was wrong.
She sat up just as he stopped by the foot of the bed and dropped an envelope by her feet.
"What is that?" she asked, already knowing she wasn't going to like it. He obviously didn't.
He stood there, arms crossed and staring at her. "Look at it."
She looked at his face and felt a pure, one hundred percent undiluted dread settle into her chest. She didn't know how he'd found out but he had. She didn't have to ask what he thought. His scowl declared his feelings better than any words could.
She shook her head as she steeled her heart, preparing for the hurt she was already feeling to get worse. "I don't need to."
He lifted the envelope and tossed it closer to her chest. "You aren't going to bother looking?"
"No."
"No defense?"
"There is no defense good enough to make you think I'm not this horrible person you've decided I am. You've already judged and condemned me. What's the point?" And she couldn't do it-beg him to believe she wasn't a monster. There was nothing worth what that would do to her.
She got out of the bed, feeling too vulnerable there but not sure where else to go once she did. She was thankful she'd thrown a t-shirt on and she wasn't still naked as he followed her over to where her bag sat. She reached in, grabbing a clean outfit as he came to stand next to her.
"You've got nothing to say?" he asked.
She'd let him think whatever he wanted but she couldn't stop the urge to attack that was building fueled but the anger at him for always thinking the worst of her.
"Obviously I'm in cahoots with him. Why else would Keith kill my brother?" She couldn't have sounded more toxic if she'd dipped her tongue in cyanide.
"I'm not saying you're with Keith. I'm saying you knew him."
She stopped dodging what she knew was in the folder and just laid it out there. If she told him more than he already knew, oh well. She didn't care anymore. "Because he bought some artwork from my gallery? Because I had lunch with him when I had no idea who he was? Because that's what you do when you have a business and clients?"
"You've been here weeks and in all that time you don't say one word? There wasn't one opportunity as we sat here night after night? Not a single chance to squeeze in, oh yeah, I might have known him in my previous life? You never say anything until you're forced to. Not about this, not about Keith-"
"And how did you know? What were you doing? What about how long it took you to tell me you were the fucking grim reaper? You took plenty of time divulging that and I said nothing."
"I also told you before I slept with you."
"Good thing, because I wasn't having you investigated."
"You should've told me," he said, as if nothing else she said mattered.
She looked at him. He was filled with distrust and anger. A few simple lunches with a client she had thought liked art and her gallery and she was a monster. That's all it had taken. The anger drained out of her, replaced only by a deep disappointment, the likes of which she'd never felt so strongly before. "You know, for some reason I knew I'd get crucified for it. I knew this was how you'd react," she said, not caring how he'd respond to that.
She sat on the floor next to her bag. Her entire life had been spinning out of control, somehow culminating to this very moment. She didn't want to fight with him. Didn't see a point in it. Just sat there on the floor with her only bag of possessions and wondered what she should do. She knew she should leave, even if it were to just go back to Cutty's, but she couldn't get up the energy to do anything but sit there.
And then the worst possible thing that can happen to a relationship occurred. They both fell silent and he walked away, and it wasn't to take some space because things were getting too heated. It was because he didn't have anything left to say and neither did she. She watched him walk to the door and that was the last time she saw him that day.
Chapter 30
Faith woke to Lars' phone vibrating on the living room end table. It was the wee hours of the morning, and even the sun had refused to show its face yet. She didn't know when he'd come back but in the hours that had passed, she'd grabbed her bag and walked out the door more times than she could count. But she'd always walked back in.
As pathetic as it might be, she found she couldn't walk away from him that easily, no matter what he might think of her. She kept hoping somehow he'd come around, that the shock of what he'd seen had made him temporarily lose his judgment and that in the deep recesses of his mind-his heart-he knew who she really was.