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I see her waver ever so slightly.
“Maybe in time I can learn to trust you again,” she says quietly.
It feels like a small victory of sorts. It’s not what I wanted but Avery is entitled to her emotions and reactions. As much as I hate to admit it, she’s right. We should’ve been the ones to tell her the whole truth about Charlene, about how she inserted herself into our lives and made us think we could really have something together. About how we actually believed she was happy to be shared by three men in every possible way. She had ulterior motives, backup plans and long-term strategies. Charlene got close enough to try and keep us blind from what she was doing—with her shady financial dealings, with my parents, and with other nefarious players in Lincoln County. Toobad we couldn’t see then what we can so clearly see now.
Her web of deception stretched far and wide, which is why we haven’t been able to prove her involvement in certain crimes. The fact that we haven’t been able to link her to the Iran incident hurts the most, particularly for Luke. But all that aside, it was our pride that got in the way this time around. We should’ve bitten that fucking bullet and told Avery everything from the beginning. It’s too late to change anything now. What’s done is done. We can only concentrate on moving forward.
I don’t feel bad for intimidating Toby the way I did. He’s hiding something. A whole side of himself that I can’t yet see. I don’t like how close he’s gotten to Avery, either. And no matter how much I insist, Avery will do what she feels she has to do in order to protect herself and the girls. At this point, I think she may be trying to protect herself and the girls from us, too, the three men who betrayed her trust. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but this is what we’re dealing with.
We need to be smarter than Charlene, quicker than Toby, and especially patient with Avery.
“Alright,” I say, nodding slowly. “Can we at least come visit? Say hello to the girls and let them know we still love them?”
“I guess so,” Avery concedes, the anguish in her voice loud enough to stab me right in the heart.
Luke offers a timid smile, a tad more pleased than Fallon with this conclusion. “We’ll fix this,” he says. “We’ll rebuild everything and we will talk about it, Avery. You deserve to know our side of the story. Just… please be careful about Charlene. She’s not what she seems.”
There’s that flicker of doubt in her eyes again and I fucking hate it. It’s got Fallon’s fists balled tightly at his side. He’s got a mind to drive out and find Charlene and put a bullet in her head if that’s what it takes to keep Avery safe. But he knows that’s not right or smart. Charlene has done enough damage already. I squeeze his shoulder and give him a reassuring nod.
All we can do is bide our time, be thankful for the small wins, and rehash our strategy in order to get our woman and our girls back. Every day they spend away from us is a day they’re dangerously close to an enemy we can’t yet crush.
16
Avery
Ifind Toby waiting outside my rental place as I pull into the narrow driveway. Spring is finally starting to show up more as bright green buds fill the branches of every tree. The front garden is riddled with flower sprouts, the first bulbs of the season as the last of the snow begins to melt away. It’s getting warmer, too, which makes my days a lot easier, especially when it comes to dressing Annie and Miley for school. I’ll be picking them up in a couple of hours. Until then, however, I need to figure out what I’m going to do with Toby and Charlene after the coffee shop conversation.
“What are you doing here?” I ask Toby as I get out of the car.
“I was worried about you,” he says. “Avery, I know you trust your boyfriend and whatnot, but that was not the kind of behavior I’d expect from the county Sheriff.”
My cheeks burn hot. If I’m to go on what Kellan and the guys said back there, Toby definitely knows about our complex relationship. Is he pretending to be ignorant to that whole discussion, or is he playing a part? Not knowing who to trust absolutely sucks.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” I say. “Toby, whatever happened between Charlene and the guys, I think we can both agree that we somehow got dragged into it. Regardless of intentions on both sides here, I’d rather keep the conversation focused solely on the home remodeling project.”
“You’re right,” Toby concedes.
“Listen, Toby, about the project—”
“They talked you out of it,” he sighs with visible disappointment.
“No, they didn’t. I just need a few days.”
He nods and takes a couple of steps back, hands in his jacket pockets and a half-smile lingering on his face. “I understand, Avery. Believe it or not, I understand the complications of love, more than you might think. I’ll let Charlene know that you’re not ready to restart just yet.”
“I can still refund the advance if she doesn’t want to wait.”
“No, no, that’s out of the question. You need that money more than Charlene. And like I’ve said before, you’ve done work on the house already,” he replies. “It wouldn’t be ethical. Besides, we want you back. Just take care of yourself, yeah?”
“Thank you for your concerns, Toby. I’ll keep them in mind, I promise.”
“I’ll talk to you soon, then,” he says.
The uncertainty of every dynamic in this situation has my nerve endings flaring, my reflexes shaken, and my core beliefs lost under a thick shadow. Who do I trust?
17
Avery
