"I'm not talking about the fires. I'm talking about the farm."
"Good, 'cause I hoped you weren't in my office praying to God with that language. Although, even if you were, He'd still hear you."
Levi exhaled through his nose. "I wasn't talking to God. I was talking to Tom Hutchinson. He's out, Ford. Just like John Matters and Sam Potter and Bobby Rothschild. We have two left standing. Two."
He should be used to Ford's delayed reaction time, used to the way he processed information like he was eating a fine steak dinner. The man savored every bite, dissected every flavor, and then chewed and swallowed with care. In their nine years together, Levi had appreciated the man's patient personality more times than he could count.
Today was not one of them.
"If we don't have investors, I'll have to cancel all the orders I've collected over the spring, tell our biggest clients to find another distributor. We don't have enough margin to cover the costs of the expansion on our own. Not long term." Levi spliced his fingers through his hair. "What should I do? Do I scout for new investors? Do I inform our vendors? Do I push the launch date back a few months?" Levi rattled off the questions while Ford remained in the same relaxed position on the sofa. "Ford, this is important. Tell me what to do."
"Pray. We need to pray for rain."
The statement ripped through him. He was certain Ford hadn't meant Rayne Shelby, but she was the only Rayne on his mind. Had been for three deafeningly silent days. Not that he'd expected anything less. The minute he'd charged into the Great Room, he knew she'd begin to question everything-his integrity, his motives, his heart. But she'd also question Cal, fight for the answers Levi couldn't provide. And he'd do it all over again if it meant Rayne hearing the truth from a source she trusted, even if Levi believed Cal Shelby to be the least trustworthy man on the planet. At least she would know.
What happened next would be her choice.
Ford eyed him. "Without rain, these fires-this drought-will kill everything you've banked your future on."
Levi gripped the back of the sofa chair, his fingers digging into the worn fabric. "We need to make a plan."
"Prayer is the plan."
Levi opened his mouth, but his words stalled. The voice charging from the speakers could make his blood curdle in under ten seconds.
". . . in the best interest of our community to close the shelter at the lodge and divert all remaining and future evacuees into the shelters in town. Unfortunately, our remote location puts our guests at too great a risk, so as of tomorrow morning, our doors will be closed to the public. We apologize for the inconvenience but must comply with safety protocols . . ."
The left side of Cal Shelby's cheek ticked as he spoke, his eyes skating to the upper right before blinking.
"He's lying."
"Yes," Ford concurred with brows drawn. "He is."
"Why would he close the doors?" Levi muttered more to himself than to Ford. "Rayne's put everything she has into that shelter. He doesn't do a darn thing to help her run it, so why would . . ." A cold, clawlike grip latched onto his gut. No.
No, no, no! He tore down the hallway toward the office again, bumping into the doorjamb, and then scrambling for where he'd so carelessly tossed his phone. He fumbled through his recent call list and tapped Travis's name. If there was information to be collected, his friend would know it.
Travis answered on the second ring. "Hey, what's-"
"What have you heard about the shelter closing at the lodge?"
"You mean how they're kicking everybody out tonight? They're making them stay in the high school gymnasium or in the basement of the Baptist church downtown."
"And Rayne?" It hurt to say her name, to ask such an exposing question, but what choice did he have? "Have you heard anything about her? Anything at all?"
A pause.
"Travis, tell me what you know."
"She's not there."
"Not where-at the lodge?"
"Their night-shift guy, Teddy, he's good friends with my boss. I overheard them talking this morning. She hasn't been around in days."
Days. A blinding pain radiated from the back of Levi's eye sockets and stabbed into his temples. Travis's voice faded out as the phone slipped away from his ear, his spine as rigid as Ford's bookcases.
Suddenly, Levi could think of every reason in the world to petition God.
He freed his keys from his jeans pocket and started for the driveway, one question wreaking havoc on his mind.
What have I done?
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE.
On Levi's third knock, Gia jerked the gallery door open, her face shadowed by the "Sorry, We're Closed" sign.
"Do you realize that in the state of Idaho I could shoot you on my doorstep for trespassing and walk away with clean hands?"
Okay, he deserved that. "Gia, please. I need to see her."
Her laugh was a mix of intrigue and outrage. "For what? To fill her head with your hogwash? To crush her dreams? Or maybe you just want to expose her sins and then run like a coward. Wait-you've already accomplished all of those."
He splayed his fingers wide. "Five minutes. That's all I'm asking for."
She flattened her hand to the doorjamb. "You have exactly one try to convince me why I should even give you another five seconds." She stopped him with her palm. "But here's a disclaimer: I'm immune to romance. So any gag-worthy line about being star-crossed lovers will result in a swift kick to the groin."
In record time he sorted through his entangled regrets, searching for an answer that wouldn't leave him limping. "I only wanted Cal to be honest with her. I never thought he'd-"
"Buzz. Wrong answer." She slapped the back of the door, but he caught it an inch before it latched.
"I never told Travis what I saw the night your dad found you together. I never told a soul."
She rocked back on her heels, her eyes widening before her man-hating scowl returned. "So what? If I don't let you in, you'll-"
"No." He shook his head. "I'm saying I know the difference between exposing a secret for the purpose of shock value and exposing one for the purpose of truth." He glanced over Gia's shoulder inside the dark gallery. "Please."
"Five minutes."
He nodded, his chest sagging under the relief of her compromise. "Five minutes."
The unfriendly toad at the base of the door croaked Levi's entrance as he followed Gia past several mediums of art before taking the narrow staircase to her apartment. His heartbeat thudded in time with his footsteps. Clearing the guard at the gate was only the first blockade.
Gia pushed through the doorway. "You have a visitor, but don't worry, I've already given him the third degree."
And the fourth and the fifth.
Levi rounded the corner, and Rayne pushed up from the sofa. A littering of yellowed paper and curled photographs lay in piles all around her, yet it was the medley of expressions that crossed her face that transfixed him. Shock. Hurt. Anger. And then the one that cut him deepest: uncertainty. The emotions of self-preservation were often quick lived, but losing someone's trust? There was no quick fix for that. The feelings of betrayal couldn't be outtalked.
Need pushed him toward her. "What did Cal do to you?"
Gia caught his sleeve and yanked him back. "Hold on there, bucko. I didn't give you an invitation to roam. You can talk from here." She folded her arms and eyed him as if she were six foot four and not five foot jack.
Stray pieces of hair framed Rayne's makeup-free face. "Nothing you can change by being here."
"What did he do, Rayne?" he asked again.
Gia threw her arms up. "What do you think he did? He cut her off-fired her. Thanks to you."
Every self-justifying explanation he'd concocted on the drive over shriveled away like a diseased houseplant. The revelation hammered against his chest. She'd been fired from the lodge, fired from her dream. All because he'd unlocked Pandora's box and left her to open it alone.
He should have known a coward like Cal would never be the one to lead her into the light.
"I'm sorry." Two words perched atop an iceberg of unknowns.
"For which part?" Rayne's voice was pitched low. "Exposing us to Cal or for using the naive Shelby to take a shot at my family?"
"You can't actually believe that," he said.
"Why shouldn't I? Weren't you the one who said, 'Opportunity is either sweat or sacrifice'? Which one was I?"
"Neither," he bit out.
"Then tell me the truth-all of it. Tell me I didn't lose the lodge over your brainwash-"
"I'm not the one who's been brainwashed!"
"Clock's ticking," Gia blurted. "You have ninety seconds."
He quieted the fury inside him. "You heard it from his own mouth. Cal's been lying to you for eighteen years, and he's still lying."
"A common theme, it appears," Gia said.
He shot Gia a look. "I am nothing like that man."
"Then tell me." The crack in Rayne's voice tore through him as she reached for a handful of pictures and held them out. "Tell me what you know about my grandfather's will. About the farm."
A cold dread washed over him. "I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I can't be responsible for devastating another person I love-and telling you like this, in this way, it would ruin Ford. Your uncle made certain of that the day William died. I've already said more, done more, than I should have-"
"So this is about protecting Ford, then." She pursed her lips, glanced at the ceiling.
"Rayne." He scrubbed his hands over his face. "If the consequences were only mine to accept, this conversation wouldn't even be happening right now. But they aren't. If I break Ford's confidence, if I break my promise to him, he could lose everything . . . and he's already lost so much."
"And I haven't?" Tears gleamed in her eyes and the ache in his chest intensified.
"I know you may hate me for keeping my word, but not more than I'd hate myself for breaking it." He stretched his hand out to her. "Please, come with me. Let me take you to him."
How many more times could Rayne clutch the hand of a dishonest man?
She stared at the olive branch Levi extended, his eyes pleading with her to make a move, to take his hand, to trust him in all the ways her heart desired.
But her heart was a fool. "No."
Gia belted out a ten-second countdown.
"You'll never find what you're looking for in that box of old photographs. There aren't any bread crumbs."
"Truth always leaves a trail." A saying her grandfather had used when any of her cousins were caught in a fib or sneaking an extra cookie from Delia's special stash. If there was a secret to be found, there would be a trail.
"Time's up," Gia announced, slapping a hand to his back. "Hope that was as productive for you as it was for me." She pointed to the darkened stairway.
When he didn't flinch at the curt dismissal, Rayne averted her eyes, silencing the part of herself that yearned to be held more than she yearned to be right.
She locked her arms around her middle and denied herself another chance to fall prey to poor instinct.
"Let's go." Gia nudged his shoulder. "I have Chinese takeout to pick up."
He turned to exit but stopped just shy of the doorway.
The determination in his gaze made Rayne's heart shiver.
"Whenever you're ready, you know where to find me," he said before Gia ushered him out of sight.
Ready? The word mocked her. No part of her had felt ready since the day they'd struck a deal over a hundred and thirty-six jars of honey all those weeks ago. She had been too enraptured, too enamored, too completely enchanted by a man she couldn't love, but did anyway.
Tears she refused to cry burned at the base of her throat. But this wasn't the time to weep over her losses, or return the phone calls from her father, or answer another round of go-nowhere questions from Gia. She fingered the photograph she'd discovered just seconds before Levi had entered and then tucked it into the back pocket of her jeans.
She'd find the truth on her own.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR.
"I wondered when you'd come." Delia's plump cheeks and cinnamon-swirl hair were easy to spot, even in the expiring daylight. She sat on her porch swing, looking out over her wilted garden. "Not even an extra watering a day can take the place of a good rainstorm."