As I neared him, I heard someone yell, “Tristan?”
I saw two men at the top of the hill, one blond and a little shorter, the other one older with brown hair.
“She’s okay, Seth! They’re both okay,” the young man holding the little girl called.
I froze when I heard the name Seth. My heart leapt into my throat as I watched the blond run down the hill towards us.
“What happened?” the man, Seth, asked as he reached us and took the little girl into his arms. I felt bile creep up the back of my throat as I took in his features.
It couldn’t be.
But it was. I’d never forget those eyes. Even if I hadn’t seen a recent picture of Seth Nichols, now known as Seth Grisham, I would have recognized those eyes anywhere. The ones who’d pleaded with me for help.
The ones I’d had to look into as I’d done nothing.
“Daddy Seth,” the little boy called, his voice heavy with tears.
“Come here, buddy,” Seth said as he held out one arm for his son.
He had kids.
I was too shell-shocked at first to move, but when the little boy began squirming in my hold, I quickly carried him over to Seth and put him on his feet. The girl, Nicole, had calmed and was leaning against Seth’s chest. He was kneeling in the grass so when Jamie reached him, he tucked him up against his body and asked him if he was okay.
My eyes fell on a man standing just behind Seth. He was muscular with cropped, light brown hair. He was wearing what looked like black military pants and a black T-shirt. But what unnerved me were his eyes.
Because they were fixed on me and it looked a lot like he either recognized me or was trying to figure out if he did.
But that wasn’t possible, was it?
Then I remembered the other young man, Tristan, talking about Phoenix. That Seth had been with Phoenix.
As I put two and two together, I shook my head in disbelief.
Phoenix and Seth knew each other. What did that even mean?
“He saved Nicole, Seth…I couldn’t get to her in time. Sorry, I don’t even know your name.”
I realized the young man, Tristan, was talking to me and I glanced at him. But I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t do anything but stand there and try to make sense of things. But as soon as I looked back at Seth, everything fell into place.
Because he most definitely recognized me. I saw it in his stunned expression. And I saw the way he hugged his kids tighter.
And if he knew who I was, it meant Phoenix did too.
Fear speared through me and I took several steps back. “I have to go,” I said and then I turned and began walking towards my car. Within a few steps, I was running.
“Reese, don’t,” I heard someone, Seth probably, say, “Let him go.”
I no longer felt the pain in my shoulder as I sprinted to my car. All I could think about was one thing.
And it wasn’t that Seth Nichols knew who I was.
It was that Phoenix had lied to me.
I’d only been sitting in the church for about twenty minutes before I heard the door behind me open. I knew it wasn’t Father O, since he’d mentioned going to the hospice this afternoon to visit patients there and wouldn’t be back for a while yet. Since I’d told him I was going to the rehab center to check on Phoenix, he’d said he’d have Patrick and Sherry come in early to prepare the meal so Phoenix could focus on his daughter and I could focus on Phoenix.
Phoenix, who’d lied to me.
From day one.
Though I had no idea why.
And in truth, I didn’t care why. I wanted to know how.
After everything he’d said to me…after last night…
My eyes burned, even though I hadn’t shed a single tear since leaving the rehab center. Probably because my body had nothing left to give. I had nothing left to give. Which was why when I turned around and saw a dark-haired man standing just inside the church doors, I felt only relief.
Not because he wasn’t Phoenix.
But because I knew who he was. His picture had been right next to Seth’s in the article I’d read about Seth’s wedding to a trauma surgeon named Ronan Grisham.
The gun hanging loosely in the man’s hand at his side had me guessing he wasn’t just a trauma surgeon. Another piece clicked into place for me as I remembered Phoenix telling me he worked in security. Perhaps that was his link to Seth.
It didn’t matter.
I stood and turned around, but didn’t step out of the pew, mostly because I didn’t know how these things were done. Would he shoot me right here? Was he going to take me somewhere and get rid of me so my body would never be found?