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Sam had really hoped that he wouldn’t have to visit this jail again anytime soon, but here he was, sitting across from Nix with plexiglass separating them.
“At least you don’t look like a punching bag this time,” he said as Nix picked up his phone so that they could talk.
Nix didn’t laugh. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he was pale. He looked even more miserable than last time when he’d been knocked around.
“Fuck, I hate that you ended up here again,” Sam said with a pang of guilt for trusting the wrong person.
“It’s not your fault. I got a letter from Layla this morning. She sent it before she left town.”
“Left town?”
Nix sighed, looking more broken than Sam had ever seen him. “She’s gone into witness protection.”
It took a moment for what he was saying to register, and when it did, Sam felt as if there was a band tightening around his chest, making it hard to breathe.
“She ratted you out?”
Nix nodded. “I told her about the DA’s affair. I trusted her witheverything.”
“She admitted to snitching?” Sam asked, hardly able to believe it. He’d been so wrong.
“Calloway threatened her, and she was convinced that it was best for our baby if she took the way out, even if it meant betraying me.”
Holy shit.That meant that Nix would never see his child. If Layla was in witness protection, she was gone forever.
Sam didn’t have words of comfort for Nix. There was nothing he could say to make this better, especially not when his own mind was reeling over the fact that he’d fucked up everything with Lexi because he assumed the worst.
“I’ve got to go,” he said, standing. “I’ll be back tomorrow, I swear. But I have to go take care of something.”
He slammed the phone back in the receiver and rushed out of the jail. Breaking every speed limit, he hurried home, hoping that he’d find Lexi there.
But even if he did, would she hear him out? Forgive him?
The amount of shit that he had to make up to her just kept growing longer. If he were a better man, he’d leave her alone so that she could find someone better, someone that wouldn’t let her down so much. But he wasn’t a better man. He was weak and if she gave him a chance to make this up to her, he was going to take it.
His heart felt like a lead ball dropping into his stomach when he reached the apartment building and found her in the parking lot, shoving a suitcase into the trunk of her car.
“Where are you going?” he asked, parking behind her and hopping out of the car.
Lexi rolled her eyes. “I’m not telling you that. I’m leaving to flee the fucking Bratva.”
She wouldn’t meet his eyes, but hers were red-rimmed, and he felt like a knife was driven into his gut at the realization that she’d been crying. He had no doubt that he was the cause.
“Don’t go,” he said, moving to stand in front of her, blocking her way back to the building, probably to get more luggage. He grabbed her hands and held them with his own. “I’m sorry, Lexi. I’m so fucking sorry.”
She blinked. “What?”
“I know that it wasn’t you. Someone else betrayed us.”
“Iknow,” she snapped, finally looking directly at him. He almost flinched at the fire in her eyes. “I told you that, you asshole.”
“Yes, I’m an asshole,” he agreed. “I fucking idiot with trust issues. But please, don’t go. No one is going to come after you.”
The look on her face made it clear that she didn’t believe that one bit.
“I swear,” he continued. “No one knows that you talked to the FBI at all.”
