Page 4 of Crossroads of Betrayal
Nausea sloshed in the pit of her stomach and she turned away, hating the tears that crept into the corners of her eyes. Coward or not, tonight was the last night she’d spend this close to Zeke. Faking food poisoning couldn’t be too hard. Tessa’s freaking laugh as she flirted with the man Grace had once given her heart to was more than enough to make her sick.
* * *
Zeke toreoff another hunk of beefy jerky. The dried meat tasted like rocks and wasn’t much softer. He hadn’t been as prepared for a four-night trek in the woods as he preferred, but he’d also assumed whoever oversaw the trip would at least provide something to eat when he’d hastily shoved what little he had in his bag.
Not like he could handle much of anything right now with his nerves so knotted. He’d force down some protein then call it a night. The day had been long and filled with too many emotions, leaving him exhausted. He’d have no problem passing out no matter how hard the ground was beneath his sleeping bag.
“Mind if I sit?” Tessa stood above him with her hands full—a plate in one and thermos in the other.
He bit back a groan. Tessa was nice enough, but he didn’t want anyone invading his personal space right now. “I’m not sure how long I’ll sit around the fire.”
She placed her thermos on the ground before settling beside him. “You’re no fun. It’s early still. The sun just went down. We have hours left to get into some trouble.”
He kept his gaze firmly fixed on the flames dancing in front of him. Trouble was exactly what he wanted to avoid, which meant staying far away from Grace. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. I want to make sure I’m well rested.”
She bumped her shoulder against his and lingered longer than he’d like. “How about some food then? You didn’t eat much. You want to make sure you have plenty of stamina.”
Not even the moonless sky could hide the spark of desire in her eyes. He scooted away, creating a sliver of space between them. “I’m good. Thanks.” He made his voice firm so she understood where he stood on anything she had to offer.
Smirking, she shrugged and took a sip from her cup. “Your loss. I’m around if you change your mind.”
A chirping noise caught his ear, and he grabbed his bag and rifled through it for his phone. A new text from Penelope waited for him.
Tessa glanced over his shoulder. “Wow, I’m surprised you have service out here.”
He agreed, but he was done with whatever situation she was pushing on him. “Excuse me for a second.”
Climbing to his feet, he skirted around the fire and avoided making eye contact with anyone as he walked back to the spot by the cliff where he’d caught his breath earlier. He opened the text from Pen and growled.
Hope you made it safely. Heal and enjoy.
He typed out a slew of different responses before opting to call Penelope instead. No words written on a phone screen could even begin to express his irritation with his friend.
“Hey,” Penelope said, answering on the third ring. “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you.”
“And what exactly where you expecting? A thank you card for sending me to a retreat out in the middle of freaking nowhere, knowing my ex-wife was here?” He hated the hurt in his voice, but he couldn’t hide it. Not with Pen. Not with his friend who he’d trusted and had led him blindfolded to the slaughter.
Penelope released a long breath. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But you need to be there. For you as much as for her.”
“I tried to be there for her,” he snapped. “She didn’t just push me aside, she shoved me in front of a damn bus then didn’t turn around when it ran me over. I came here forme. Formyhealing, and as my friend, you should have had my back. Should have given me a heads up as to what I was walking into.”
Pacing in the small area, he shoved a hand through his hair and peeked over his shoulder. His outburst had drawn the attention of more than one person. Drawing in a deep breath, he closed his eyes and counted to five. He had to hold his shit together. At least until he had a second of privacy to fall apart.
“Come on, Zeke. Why did you move to Tennessee?”
The abrupt change of topic caught him off guard, and he stiffened and opened his eyes. “Excuse me?”
“You haven’t stopped searching for Grace since the day she walked away. None of us have. She might have turned her back on us, but we’re still here for her. Hell, I even understand exactly why she ran because I did the same thing once. And if it wasn’t for Moose and everyone else who helped me along the way, I don’t know if I’d have ever made it back.”
The crack in her voice lowered him onto the hard, cold rock and took the smoldering heat from his anger. “Well hell, Pen. You went back to Moose because you loved him. Because you were ready to accept his help in any way he could give it. Grace doesn’t want me or anything I can offer. She’s made that abundantly clear.”
“Sometimes we don’t know what we need. I didn’t. So I ran. And when I finally understood what I did need, Moose’s loving arms held me up and secured me while I figured out my shit. Without him, I would have fallen on my face. Now it’s your turn. Give this a chance for me. Because Grace is in this dark and lonely place because of me—because of what I went through. I’m tired of carrying that burden. Especially on these tiny shoulders of mine.”
He snorted out a laugh at her familiar bite of sarcasm. “I won’t tell you what you want to hear. I’ll stay a few days because the owner had some good suggestions for helping my injury. The worst that will come out of this is leaving in better shape than I came. I can’t promise Grace and I will have anything to say to each other.”
“I respect that,” Penelope said. “But you didn’t answer my earlier question.”
“Which was?”
