The Cost of Betrayal

by Dee Henderson

  Teni opened her eyes to a pine-paneled ceiling and blinked. Callen’s guest room. She was in Callen’s place. His mom still lived in the family home, but she’d heard through the gossip mill on Talbot that Callen had purchased Old Man Miller’s place when he passed on and had spent the past three years renovating it on weekends. The two-story, New-England-style house with weathered, gray-painted cedar shingles, traditional tin roof, and green trim was gorgeous. It was so like her ancestral home, apart from the shingle color—hers a maritime blue with glossy white trim—the nautical colors soothing her soul whenever she’d spotted it.

  Thoughts of the loss of a home that had been in her family for generations broke her heart anew.

  She rolled to face the window. Rain pelted, bouncing off the double-pane glass. Light filtered through the white gossamer curtains, signaling it was time to get up. She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. 8:38. She should have been up at dawn, ready to continue the investigation that had started with finding Julia on the beach. Flashes of her cousin’s body tracked through her mind, and she grabbed her stomach at the sudden onslaught of nausea. She squeezed her eyes shut, saying a prayer for her cousin, and for once, not second-guessing why. Julia deserved as much, and Teni . . . She’d come to the end of herself. She was tired and worn and had nothing left to give. She surrendered in that moment, crying out to God to forgive her anger and to engulf her in His arms as He had so many years ago.

  I’ve been here all along, resounded through her mind, whispering words of deep comfort to her crushed soul. I have loved you with an everlasting love.

  A deep peace amid the horror of her circumstances swelled inside, not erasing the pain, but cushioning her in it.

  I will hide you in the shelter of my wings.

  Truth continued to flow through her, and she sat in silence, letting it flood her being.

  Thank you, Jesus, for never leaving me. Though I do not understand why all this is happening, I will trust you in the trial. Forgive me for turning my back all these years. I’ve come to the end of me and I need you. Help me find Julia’s killer and my attempted one. And please guard my heart. It feels as though Callen and I have never been apart, but I don’t understand how that can be. What are you trying to tell me? Surely not to trust him again? He hasn’t even apologized. And why am I worrying about my relationship with Callen during a time like this?

  Because outside of God, Callen had been her rock—her constant for most of her life. She’d never really recovered from that sudden loss of someone she loved so deeply, and being in his presence again, all the feelings she’d had for him were flooding back. Was he the reason she’d never fully connected with Alex? Somewhere deep inside, did she still love Callen Frost?

  Shaking her head, she rolled over, yanked the covers off, and stepped on the cool floor. Enough of that line of thinking. The temperatures had definitely dropped with the storm surging in, and the cloud cover smothered out the sun, leaving the sky a charcoal gray mixed with patches of light, but still predominately overcast. If her grandpa Pete’s lessons in reading the skies were any indication, they had less than twelve hours before it fully hit Talbot head on. She wondered what the official weather reports were saying, but she’d learned never to doubt a mariner’s ability to read the skies and smell the air to determine a coming shift in the weather.

  Red at night, sailor’s delight. Red at morn, sailors be warned.

  The adage had been drilled into her head since her earliest memories.

  She tiptoed out of the bedroom, hoping to make it to the bathroom and have some semblance of not looking as disheveled as she felt before greeting Callen, but two steps into the hall, she heard his door creak open behind her.

  “Morning,” he said.

  She turned, praying she didn’t look as awful as she felt.

  He leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, a soft smile curling across his handsome face, which was smooth as could be. He blamed his Pocomoke roots for his inability to grow facial hair, but he loved his roots and his family’s traditions. He was proud of his heritage—both as a Pocomoke and a native Talbot islander—despite the fact he lived and worked in DC. What a culture shock that had to be—Talbot compared to DC. It was cool he fit with both, just as she did with her life in Annapolis and Talbot.

  Not bothering to try to rake a hand through her tangled knot of hair, knowing it would only draw more attention to it, she simply responded with, “Morning.”

  “I left some towels, toothbrush and paste, brush, etc. on the guest bathroom sink for you. I’m thinking that after I finish my investigation of the fire, we should head into town and grab you some clothes that fit at Jones’s before we get started on our search.”

  The Jones family’s general store—which sold everything from clothes to food to deicer to premium-priced gasoline—had been in their family since their original settling ancestor, who had begun it as an apothecary shop selling necessities on the side. It still held the original pharmacy, though restored many times over, and Teni still loved the antique dark walnut apothecary cabinet full of tiny drawers, which had once held the only type of medicine available to the locals—tinctures brought over from England and herbs grown on the island.

  “Sounds good, but we should stop by the boathouse too. I always keep an extra outfit and some toiletries in the bathroom there. We can run by and grab them before we head into town.”

  “Only if you promise to stick by my side this time.”

  This time? She’d stuck by his side for years, until he’d severed the bond that day on the beach—or at least it felt like the bond had been severed. Though, being back with him now, she felt the bond resurrecting in a way she hadn’t thought possible.

  He pushed off the doorframe. “Deal?”

  Just standing by while he finished his arson investigation would be difficult—but she wanted his investigation to be completed asap, so the findings could be documented and proven beyond a doubt.

  “Deal,” she finally said.

  “Good.” He smiled. “I like having you back by my side.”

  She swallowed, unsure of what to make of that statement.

  He stepped closer, slipping a strand of her hair behind her ear. His touch felt so good, so comforting. She’d thought she would never feel that again.

  He swallowed, inching closer still. “I never apologized the way I should have for what I did. I was just so embarrassed, so ashamed of what I’d done. I felt there was no way I deserved you any longer—no way you could possibly forgive me.”

  They were doing this now? She fought to stem the tears threatening to fall. “You didn’t even give me the option. You just said you’d messed up horribly, you were sorry, and you’d stay out of my life. That was it, and you were gone.” Hot tears tumbled down her cheeks. “You never even tried.”

  “I know, and I’m so sorry. It was the worst mistake I’d ever made on top of the already worst mistake. That night, I was trying to drown the sorrow over losing my dad with alcohol, and one of my roommates was slipping something in the drinks. I saw it go in. I knew better, but I drank it anyway. Next thing I know I’m waking up in bed with some girl and I don’t even remember what happened. Before I could get out of bed, Everett came in and saw us.

  “I stopped hanging out with those guys that day, switched dorm rooms, and turned my life back around. But all that is beside the point. The point is, I know I’m a decade late, but after everything that happened . . . After I heard the explosion and thought you were . . .” He swallowed. “I knew I needed to tell you how sorry I am. And if there’s any way you can find it in your heart to forgive me, I’d love the chance to win you back, to love you the way you truly deserve.”

  She stood there dumbfounded—all the emotions of the last day wrapped up in a knot in her stomach. She’d finally heard the words she’d longed to hear from Callen for over a decade. But . . . how did she? How did they . . . ?

  “Look, I know that’s a lot to spring on you.” He backed
up and she regretted his withdrawal the minute he moved. “I’ll go make us some eggs while you get freshened up.”

  “Okay.” She nodded awkwardly, still stunned.

  He headed for the wooden stairs, ducking under the low ceiling at the top of them before proceeding down.

  She rushed into the restroom, shut the door behind her, and then leaned against it for support as her legs wobbled beneath her.

  What do I do with this, Father? I feel like you just answered my prayer, but where do I go from here?

  Collecting herself, she pushed off the door and braved a glance in the mirror.

  Yikes!

  Her hair was a tangled, tousled strawberry-blond mess—half still loosely in a braid, half all over the place. Mascara, what hadn’t come off when she’d washed her face last night, clung in little flecks about her eyes, and she looked as pale as a sheet of paper. Of course, she’d be the one person on Talbot Island with fair skin—even fairer than Paul and his entire redheaded family.

  She brushed her teeth and washed her face, scrubbing it hard and pinching her cheeks for a little color, and then tackled her hair. Finally confident she didn’t look a total wreck and telling herself to keep the circumstances in perspective, she headed downstairs—how she looked was the last thing she ought to be worried about.

  Callen turned and smiled at her, an iron skillet in hand. “Eggs?”

  “Please.” She’d been too upset to eat much of anything yesterday since breakfast.

  Yesterday when she awoke, life looked so different. She was headed out with her fiancé for Talbot Island to discuss their wedding with her pastor. Now the engagement was broken, but that was the least of her worries. Someone had tried to kill her, and Julia was dead and her body missing. She hurried her pace, anxious to get started asking questions and searching the island. She wouldn’t rest until she retrieved her cousin’s body for a proper burial.

  “Easy there,” Callen said. “We’ll get started soon enough.” He sat across from her and added salsa to his eggs.

  “How can you sound so nonchalant?” He’d always been that way, once something was fixed in his mind.

  “I’m not taking this lightly at all, but you need to eat. You need to take care of yourself.”

  “Not now. Not while someone has Julia’s body.”

  twelve

  CALLEN COMPLETED HIS INVESTIGATION in the pouring rain, but he confirmed the gas line had been cut on purpose, and her house had been rigged to explode with her in it. Thankfully, she’d heard a noise and gone to investigate or she’d no longer be alive—which made her realize that life was too short and that no one ever knew when their last breath was coming. It made her decision to respond to Callen’s questions and apology much easier. Between that realization, the time spent with him over the last day, and a strong direction from God as she prayed, she was ready to forgive him and to move forward again.

  As they skirted her property down to the boathouse, she took hold of his hand and stopped next to the tree where he’d carved their initials when their friendship shifted to a romantic love in their teens.

  “I still remember the day you carved this,” she said as rain fell around them—though they were sheltered somewhat by the trees. She pointed to the carved lopsided heart with Callen’s and her initials inside.

  “We had a picnic at its base”—he looked up—“and I got walloped on the head with a black walnut.”

  She chuckled. “That’s right. I’d forgotten that part.” Back then all she’d seen was Callen.

  He chuckled as thunder shook the ground. “There I was, trying to be all romantic at what . . . ? Seventeen? My idea of a grand gesture was to pack cold-cut sandwiches and Doritos. What was I thinking? God probably dropped that walnut on my head to try to knock some sense into me.”

  “I think it was very romantic,” she said, stepping closer to him as wind and rain swirled around them.

  His brows arched as pleasant surprise shifted across his handsome face. “Is that so?”

  “Yes.” She hovered closer still, tilting her head to look up to him, rain sprinkling across her eyes, its full force softened by the leaf canopy overhead. “And don’t forget the Hershey’s kisses.”

  “My lame segue into our first kiss.”

  “It wasn’t lame and the kiss hardly was.”

  His gaze locked on hers, and the storm raging around them faded as she focused on the feel of her heart beating in her chest, her breathing rising and lowering, the blink of Callen’s thick lashes . . .

  “And I took to heart what you said this morning,” she continued as his face lowered closer to hers. “I forgive you.”

  A weight visibly lifted from his countenance, hope springing in his deep voice. “You do?”

  “Yes.” She nodded, glancing to his lips and then back to his eyes. “I’d like to try again.”

  He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “You would?”

  “Very much.”

  His lips descended on hers before she could blink, and he enveloped her fully in his strong arms. The feel of him against her was like she was home again. Why had she ever thought she could get over so deep a love despite the crushing betrayal that had tested them for far too long? That was in the past. This was the present, and she wanted her future to be spent just like this. She’d been attempting to force a relationship with Alex when her heart, unbeknownst to her, had still been deeply tied to another—to Callen. But now the years they’d lost faded away as he deepened the kiss—his hands spreading through her hair, massaging, pulling her closer still, until it felt as if no space existed between them.

  All time evaporated until somehow—she wasn’t sure how much later—they managed to disengage from the kiss and take a step back. Then, just as shockingly to Teni, she managed to walk straight, for the most part, to the boathouse, despite her jellied legs.

  Excusing herself, she stepped into the boathouse bathroom and changed into a pair of yoga pants, a T-shirt, a fleece, and running shoes. She tried not to think about how only hours ago she’d been here with Julia, laughing at Julia’s attempts to make her smile despite the breakup with Alex and the harsh confrontation with Jared and his mother.

  Julia’s attempts at humor always worked, and she’d managed to make Teni belly laugh as they slipped on goggles, preparing to dive into the deep greenish-blue water and race. Teni braced her palm against the white paneled wall for steadiness. How could her cousin be gone?

  “You okay?” Callen asked outside the door. The man had a sixth sense when it came to her—always had.

  “Yep.” She wiped the tears from her eyes, attempting to resist the encroaching sadness threatening to swoop in and engulf her afresh. Her life had changed, yet again, in the blink of an eye. She took a steadying breath, slowly releasing it and repeating the pattern until her heart began to slow back into a normal rhythm. “I’ll be right out,” she managed.

  Taking another deep breath, she tucked her toiletries bag under her arm and opened the door to find Callen waiting with that I’m-not-buying-it expression on his face. His skin was smooth—the color of light molasses. His eyes the dark, deep brown of rich chocolate, his hair the shade of a bold cup of coffee but cropped shorter than the shoulder-cresting haircut he’d had when they were teens.

  Callen was ruggedly handsome, and she’d always been a fool for his stunning good looks, but it was the man inside—the intelligent, funny, strong, bold, adventuresome man—that she’d fallen in love with all those years ago. He had her heart and soul, apparently never letting go despite how it appeared on the surface.

  She exhaled, her shoulders dropping as her mind flashed back to Julia and their last moments in this very place—such a roller coaster of events and emotions. She didn’t know whether to laugh at the pain threatening to consume her or cry from the joy she felt being back with the man she loved but was too foolish to realize she still did until today.

  Callen held his arms out, and she rushed into his hold so forceful
ly he swayed back for a moment. “She and I were just here together,” she said as tears tumbled down, her emotions raw and bleeding at the surface. “We were goofing off before the race, like always. Jules smiling, her freckles dancing the way they did.”

  “The way yours do.” He caressed her cheek, and she leaned deeper into his hold.

  “It’s not fair.” None of it—her parents, her cousin, her house . . . so much gone in the blink of an eye.

  “No, honey, it’s not. Everything you’ve been through hasn’t been fair.”

  “Then why does it happen?” Why did God allow it?

  “Because we live in a fallen world with fallen people. Evil exists and tragedies, unfortunately, happen here. But nothing touches us that God hasn’t allowed or equipped us through His Spirit to endure, and when tragedies like this happen it reminds us that our home and our hope is in heaven. There everything is fair. There are no tragedies, no death, no separation, and no sorrow.”

  She inhaled the scent of cedar always swirling about him, and exhaled slowly. “I wish we could just be swooped up and taken there now.”

  “Me too—a lot of the time—but I’m still here and I know that means God’s got more for me to do, more for me to become, more time to grow into Jesus’ image and serve Him.”

  “Do you really think I’m serving God?”

  “Absolutely. As an NRP cop, you save lives and you put criminals behind bars. You combat evil. I absolutely believe you’re serving God, and not just there, but here.”

  “Here?”

  “You steward Talbot like a champ. You care about preserving our way of life, while also making sure everyone is taken care of and has a source of income. You care about this island, about everyone on it. Even the Connors. I can’t fathom why you haven’t kicked them off after all the trouble Jared and his mom have made—though, I guess that wouldn’t be you. You’re too kind. You put up with their anger and threats because you realize this is their home too. But if Jared is behind all this he belongs behind bars, and he’d better get there quickly because if I lay my hands on him . . .” His face tightened.