AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The hollow, flat words hit Miles straight in the chest, striking him in a heart that had gone numb over years of dealing with the worst of mankind. Although the damn thing wasn’t as numb as he’d like. It had been causing him a lot of trouble over the past few months, all because of this kid, and the girlfriend.
Isabel Steele.
Ever since he’d seen her in the hospital and she’d started to talk, he’d been slowly choking on the poison of his own rage and guilt. His mother had often told him growing up that hatred could be a poison you fed yourself and he’d lost sight of that in his determination to wipe Wilson Steele off the map—that hate had blinded him to who and what Wilson was capable of, blinded him to the point that Miles hadn’t realized just who Wilson would sacrifice if he saw fit.
Like his own daughters.
If it was the last thing he did in his life, Miles would fix what he’d done to these two.
“Travis.” He dredged up a smile. “I wondered if I could have a few minutes.”
Travis set his jaw, the line hardening until it looked to be made of pure granite. “Why? I’m pretty sure there’s nothing me or my family can do to help an FBI agent.”
Miles smoothed a hand down his tie and shifted his gaze away. “This has nothing to do with the department, son. It—”
“Don’t call meson,” Travis said, his voice low and cold, ice all but dripping from the words.
“Of course. I’m sorry.” One glance at the younger man’s eyes and Miles knew he was running out of time to say what he needed to say. “This is about Isabel Steele.”
Travis shut down, his face going blank. “Yeah, I think we’re done. I don’t need to hear anything about her.”
He turned.
“I was wrong.”
Travis froze. His entire body was a taut line, so stiff, he looked like he might shatter, one hand on the door, the other hanging at his side, but not loosely. Each muscle clenched, the veins bulging, his hand in a fist as if prepared to fight.
“Wrong about what?” he asked, the voice barely above a rasp.
“Everything,” Miles said quietly. “I was wrong about everything.”
More than an hour later, the two of them stood on the beach. Travis had abandoned his shoes and stood ankle-deep in the surf.
Miles wore a loose canvas jacket over a t-shirt, jeans and battered athletic shoes, having left his suits and ties back in Massachusetts for the trip to California.
“It seemed for a while that she’d been the only one he couldn’t intimidate into silence,” Miles said, a few feet behind Travis. He wished the kid would say something. But there was just more silence. “Based on her testimony, we were able to get two more in his inner circle to turn. Between the three of them, we now have a rock-solid case. The trial starts in February.”
“Beresford. The ... ” Rage pulsed in every word Travis uttered, in every breath he took. “You said he’s one of the other guys on trial. He’s the guy I saw standing with her at the party—the guy she was supposed to marry. What’s his connection? What evidence did she give on him?
Miles closed his eyes. So that’s what Travis had been doing with his phone as Miles had talked. “There are some things I’m not going to tell you, Travis. It’s not my place.”
Travis flinched. Slowly, he turned and looked at Miles, the setting sun turned the waters of the Pacific to fire and casting Travis in a fiery glow. His face was stark, eyes bleak and Miles suspected he was reliving the way Isabel had flinched away from Steven Beresford the night Travis had last seen Isabel—nearly seven months pregnant, and soon to marry, according to her father.
“He hurt her, didn’t he?”
Miles looked away, but that was an answer in and of itself.
He waited until the knot in his throat eased before he continued speaking. “She’s in witness protection. But if you’d like to speak to her, I can—”
“No.” Travis strode past Miles to the car. “She’s away from him. She’s safe. She’s moved on with her life. I don’t deserve any place in that life.”
“Fuck that,” Miles snapped, grabbing onto the younger man’s arm. “I’m the one who got involved and fucked things up. If I hadn’t decided to interfere—”
“I’m the one wholistened.” Travis jerked free. “Nobody made me do that.Ilistened to you and never once tried to reach out to her and give her the benefit of the doubt, did I? I ignored her texts, hung up on her the one time she called. She’s moved on. And if she’s in witness protection, that means she needs to live a life where she isn’t calling attention to herself. I’ve got a world-famous brother, at least one more on the way with how Sebastien is shaping up and I look enough like both of them that I’m pretty damn easily recognized. She doesn’t need me complicating her life. Let it go. It’s over.”
