Page 23 of Canvas of Lies
“No, he won’t. I planned it all out. This has to work. It’s all I have left of my father.” His voice broke and I went to sit on the couch beside him.
“I know, and I’ll help you get it from him, but this particular plan is going to backfire,” I said softly, looping my arm around his shoulders.
While he remained silent, my mind whirled with a series of progressively darker images involving my father’s hired goons dragging Nico into the woods, beating him, leaving him for dead. I’d heard the stories—it was impossible to live in Spruce Hill andnothear whispers of how the self-appointed king had slowly conquered his adversaries, both personal and professional.
There might not be proof, but I’d heard enough snippets from behind closed doors in my childhood to believe it all, starting with that night under the desk. His mistress’s husband had started getting suspicious, and he’d gone missing. Getting on Aidan Willoughby’s bad side was dangerous, even fatal.
I couldn’t let it happen. I’d just found Nico again. I couldn’t lose him now.
“Look, why don’t we take a nice hot shower and then make some breakfast? We can talk it all through over waffles,” I suggested, keeping my voice low and calm.
When he turned his face toward me, eyebrows lifted, I tangled my fingers in his hair and kissed him, hard and swift. For once, I hoped he couldn’t read the thoughts galloping through my head.
“Right. That’s a sound plan,” he mumbled against my lips.
I smiled and stood. “I have to brush out this tangled mess,” I said, gesturing to my hair as I started toward the bedroom andprayed he wouldn’t question the weak excuse. “Get the water going, would you? I’ll meet you in there.”
With that, I blew a kiss over my shoulder and shut the door behind me.
Chapter Eight
Kat
OnceIreachedthebedroom, I brushed out my hair even as my mind raced through the options before me. I listened to the sound of the water turning on in the bathroom, waited for an interminable minute to tick past on the bedroom clock, then swiftly and silently dressed.
I couldn’t do it, couldn’t stay here playing house with him, all the while knowing Nico was about to put himself in the line of fire the moment he made contact with my father. It was clear as day he wouldn’t allow me to sway him from this idiotic plan.
Even if going through with it would put his life at risk.
My heart clenched in my chest. I didn’t know if Nico had ever put it together, the conversation we overheard in the office that night and the mangled body found nearly three years later,but that was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to the rumors.
The best thing I could do was get the hell out of there and put as much distance between us as possible, for Nico’s own protection.
If he didn’t have me to bargain with, he should be safe enough. Hell, maybe I could get the painting for him on my own. If I could sneak out of my father’s house as I had so many times in my teenage years, surely I could sneak back in and grab the artwork off the wall.
I would do whatever it took to keep Nico from putting himself in that kind of danger.
In under two minutes, I was dressed in my own clothes and tiptoeing out into the living room. I slung my purse across my chest, then grabbed my jacket, a granola bar from a box on the kitchen counter, and a bottle of water from the fridge before slipping out the door.
Hiking wasn’t really my area of expertise, but I knew better than to set off without any food or water. Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure how far we were from civilization. Hopefully not as far as the woods made it seem, because I didn’t have a backpack to fill with more supplies.
The morning air was cool, though the sky was clear, and I thought I had a fairly good recollection of the path we’d taken the day before. I would need to pace myself, but since my head start was vital, I started off at a jog. It wouldn’t take Nico long to figure out I was gone—a few more minutes, maybe? I neededto take advantage of every second to put some distance between us.
Of course, beyond that, I hadn’t a clue what would happen next. I had no idea where the cabin was located, only that I hadn’t seen any others during our outing the previous day. No signs of life, no indication of where the hell I was or how far it might be between here and home.
A web of tiny fractures spread within my chest, a heartbreak so poignant I couldn’t hold back a strangled sob as I ran. Only the determination to protect Nico drove me on when I wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and weep.
So close.I’d been so close to finally getting what I’d longed for my entire life, but I couldn’t sit there and wait for him to paint a target on his own back.
Nico was, at the very heart of him, the most honorable person I’d ever known. It was just like him to assume everyone else would act with honor, when I knew for a fact that my father would go to the ends of the earth to defend against an insult like losing something he considered his.
Why had he stolen it?
The question rattled inside my head as I ran until a stitch in my side forced me to slow to a walk.
“Oh, shit,” I muttered, then made my feet keep moving.
I considered myself in reasonably good shape, but clearly I was wrong. With a vow to start exercising more frequently, maybe something more strenuous than yoga, I trotted along,weaving between trees along a path I prayed led toward the creek.
