I don’t understand. Was it real? This can’t be happening.
“Chloe? Are you okay? You’re scaring me. Please tell me you’re okay?”
I glance up at him, unsure.
But then I know. It’s real. It was all real. Or at least, it will be.
He pulls me to my feet so we can leave the room. We walk to a wooden bench and he helps me sit back down.
“What just happened in there? You were shaking. I almost thought you were having a seizure or something.”
I don’t know what to do, or say. I can’t even look at him.
I’m so consumed with fear and anger by what I just saw.
But I have to say something. “I don’t feel so well. Can you please take me home?” I ask, still unable to look at him.
“Yeah, sure, whatever you want. As long as you’re okay.” The panic in his voice confuses me even more. It sounds so genuine.
“I’m fine. I just need to lie down.”
I don’t know what’s real anymore. I was having the best night of my life, but then it was interrupted by a vision that told me the man I’ve trusted, has been lying to me from the very first second.
My heart pounds, tiny explosions erupting inside my chest.
How can this be? How could I have fallen for someone who’s pretending to be someone else? And who’s pretending to care about me, just to get close to my family.
He’s investigating my family? My family? This is so insane.
They adore Hunter. My god, how can I tell them about this?
Before I know what’s happening, we’re in a cab heading back towards the parking garage.
He tries to put his arm around me, but his touch only agitates me.
I shove him away, forcing him off balance.
“Chloe, please tell me what’s wrong. You’re really freaking me out.”
I turn my head to look at him, disbelief from his words striking me like a baseball bat. “Are you kidding me?” I reply with a dry, sarcastic tone.
“Okay, what are you upset about? One minute, you’re pawing me to death from excitement. The next you look like you’re going to be sick. And now you’re angry with me? Please help me understand what I could have possibly done in the last fifteen minutes to deserve this?” The irritation in his voice sends chills up my spine.
The cab stops to let us out. Hunter pays the fair and we stand on the sidewalk for a minute before walking in the garage.
“You seriously don’t know what you did?” Are you kidding me?
“We were having a fantastic night. So, no. I have no clue.” He puts his hands in his pockets, glaring at me as he waits for an answer.
I don’t know what to say. Do I just blurt it out?
It’s apparent he knows my family’s ‘secret’, so I might as well just let him know what I saw. I’m sure he already knows I’m a Seer anyway. “Well, Agent Payne, I just don’t know what to tell you.” The tone in my voice—mixed with the one word that makes it clear I’m on to his secret—hits home.
His mouth falls open.
With his face pale white like he’s been shot in the chest, he tears his hands from his pockets then places them on top of his head. As he looks to the sky, he lets out a painful scream, dropping clenched fists to his sides.
He trembles for a minute, staring off into the distance. I’m sure he’s trying to come up with a good story since he knows I just busted him.
“You weren’t supposed to find out this way, Chloe. This wasn’t part of the plan.”
What? “The plan? So tell me, Agent Payne, what was the plan? Get me into bed then tell me you’ve been investigating my family?” Bile rises in my stomach at the thought.
“Of course not. That isn’t what I meant. I was planning to tell you...I swear. I was just waiting for the right time.”
“How could there ever be a right time to tell the girl you’ve been pretending to date, that you’ve been using her as a way to infiltrate her family?” Tears drown my eyes, no matter how hard I fight to hold them back.
“Look, I’ll tell you everything. But not here. This isn’t the place to have this conversation. Can we just get in my car?”
“Good idea. Take me home now.”
Hunter hangs his head, humiliation—or guilt—get the better of him. He pauses like he wants to say something, but shakes it off and starts walking towards the garage.
The entire drive back to Lindenhurst is in silence. I stare out the window, unsure if I want to break something—cry—or run back to California.
Thank god there isn’t much traffic.
When he pulls in the driveway, he puts the car in park but leaves it running. He turns to me. “Can I please explain things to you?”
He wants to talk now? After being silent the entire way back? Not a chance.
After considering his request for few seconds, I reply. “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now. It’s late. We’re both tired. And I’m way too angry to listen to anything you have to say.”
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 and 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?”
You have no idea. “I was. But I can’t even think about that right now, or I’ll start crying again.”
“Okay, dear. You can tell me about it when you’re ready.” She hugs me. “Everything will be okay. I promise. You just get a good night’s sleep.”
“Thanks, Gram. I love you.”
“I love you, too, dear. Good night.”
“Good night.”
Chapter 18
Secrets Revealed
I lay in my bed, watching the hands go by on my clock, hoping Gram will have everyone filled in on last night’s painful drama before I make it downstairs. I just don’t know if I have it in me to go through the whole thing all over again.
There’s no avoiding the questions, so I take a shower, slap on a little make-up, and throw on sweats, a tank, and my favorite baseball hat. Good enough.
As I walk downstairs, I hear the sound of raised voices a few rooms away. I hope they’re not upset with me, but my gut tells me it’s because of Hunter. I’d be pissed, too, if I were them.
Tethered (A BirthRight Novel) Page 21