Chapter Twenty

Darien

The mid-morning knock at my door almost had me peering through the curtains like an over-anxious old lady fearing a visit from the local hoodlums. Telling myself not to be so ridiculous, I settled for answering it instead. Levi stood on the doorstep. A check over his shoulder revealed he’d come alone.

“Yeah, it’s just me,” he confirmed as he stepped inside. “Hayden wanted to come, but I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea.”

I led him into the kitchen, automatically putting the kettle on without bothering to ask whether Levi wanted a drink. “I bet he loved being told what to do. Did you have to chain him to the bedpost to get him to agree?” I winced, the once-funny quip I’d used so many times before losing its humor after the conversation of the night before. I vowed to shelve the joke of a significant other being restrained from this moment on. I was just glad Felix hadn’t been here to hear it.

“No. I just chose a time when he needed to be at the restaurant.” Levi took his jacket off and placed it on the back of the chair before taking a seat. “Are you alright?”

It was an interesting question, given everything the last twenty-four hours had brought, what with the altercation with Hayden, Felix opening up and telling me some frankly harrowing stuff, and then the icing on the cake, the two of us making something of a commitment to each other. Or at least, that had been my interpretation of it.

Levi grimaced at my silence. “I’ll take that as a no.” He jerked his head to the kettle that I hadn’t noticed had finished boiling. “Better make that tea.”

I did, taking my time over it and only joining Levi at the table once we both had a mug of steaming hot liquid in front of us.

Levi cocked his head to the side like he was listening for something. “I assume he’s not here?”

“No. He’s gone for a walk. He’ll probably be gone for a couple of hours.”

He gave a slow nod. “So… you and him, hey?”

“I’m sure Hayden’s told you everything in minute detail.”

“Yeah, but that’s with a Hayden spin on it and sometimes it’s hard to parse all the information with so many instances of the word fuck thrown in. I’d rather hear it from the horse’s mouth. You’re the horse in case you haven’t worked that out.”

“Yeah, I got that. There’s not a lot to tell.”

Levi sat back in his chair and studied me silently. “At least I know what you meant now when you said you’d fucked up. You starting a relationship with a client is what you were referring to, right?”

I grimaced. I’d forgotten I’d told him that. “Yeah. ”

Levi leaned forward. “Listen… I’m not here to be judgmental. I leave that to Hayden.”

“So why are you here?”

“I thought you might need someone to talk to. Someone who knows what it’s like to find yourself in the middle of something you never planned for. Something others might frown on.”

“You and Hayden?”

“Yeah.”

“He wasn’t your client.”

“No, but he was my boss, and he was my parole officer’s brother.”

“True.”

“And when it did all come out,” Levi continued, “you were pretty good about it, all things considered. Once you realized I wasn’t out to take advantage of your brother, anyway.”

“Once I’d cornered you. You avoided me for a week.”

Levi held his hands up in mock defense. “Guilty as charged.” He released a breath. “And then there’s the other thing, of course. The thing you could have had me sent back to prison for, but chose not to.”

“See, I was crooked, even then.”

Levi shook his head. “You’re not crooked. Don’t say that. You make decisions based on gut instinct rather than following the rulebook to the letter, and I’ll always be in your debt for that.”

It was a passionate speech from someone who used to say so little when I’d first met him. The Levi sitting in front of me was a different man. “Who’s taking whose name when you and Hayden get married? Have you thought about that?”

Levi sighed. “Well, we’re not hyphenating. Can you imagine us both going by Gutierrez-Quinn or Quinn-Gutierrez? And It would be ridiculous for him to get stuck with the name Gutierrez for obvious reasons. Plus, he has a restaurant in his name, so I guess I’ll be Levi Quinn.”

I smiled. “Another Quinn. I’m all for it.”

Levi took a sip of his tea. “Nice subject change, by the way. It won’t work, though. Tell me about Felix. Hayden said you’re convinced he’s innocent.”

“He is.” The steel behind my words warned Levi not to dispute it.

“U-huh.”

Nicely neutral. I had to give him kudos for that. “He is. His abusive dick of a boyfriend, who was convincing enough that the jury fell for it, set him up.”

“Do you love him?”

The question stole my breath away. Wherever I’d thought Levi was going with his line of questioning, it hadn’t been there. “I…”

Levi nodded. “Right.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Either you already do, or you’re well on your way to reaching that point. I know what it feels like. I’ve been there. I never planned to fall in love with Hayden.”

“Hayden can go out in public without wearing a disguise, and no one has ever chased him out of his mother’s house because they think he shouldn’t have been released from prison.”

“No.” Levi’s agreement was soft. “What are you going to do? And I don’t mean about the job. I guess that’ll sort itself out one way or the other. After all, if he’s living here, people are going to find out, eventually.”

I grimaced. “Yeah.” I gave the question some thought while I sipped my tea. It was a question I’d put off thinking about. The answer was obvious, though. “I’m going to prove he didn’t do it, that he’s innocent. I’m going to clear his name. ”

Levi paused with his mug to his lips, his stare calculating. “How? I can’t imagine it’s that easy.”

I laughed. “Nothing in life worth having is ever that easy.” I took a few seconds to think things through. “I guess the first step would be to talk to Julian.”

“And Julian is?”

“The ex-boyfriend. The murderer. The man who lied under oath to have Felix put in prison.” There was no keeping the contempt out of my voice.

Levi blinked. If it had been anyone else, they would have laughed and told me not to be so stupid. Levi didn’t, though. He just rubbed his chin, stubble rasping beneath his fingertips while he contemplated my words. “Will he see you? He has to okay your request to visit.”

“I know.” Which was a problem. If he refused, my plan ended there. I almost laughed at the thought. What plan? I didn’t have a plan besides cozying up to a convicted murderer and hoping that seven years inside might have given him a crisis of conscience that had him wanting to put things right. Everything I’d learned from Felix about Julian said that was highly unlikely.

“You’ll have to lie,” Levi stated, his expression thoughtful.

“What?”

Levi’s lips quirked. “A lie is when you tell someone something that’s not true.”

I treated him to a glare. “I know what a lie is, as you very well know.”

“Ah, but are you capable of telling one? Let’s be real here. If you contact him and tell him you’re currently screwing his ex-boyfriend, and as such, you’d like a little chat about what a prize bastard he is, what’s he going to say?”

“No, thank you.”

“Exactly. So you need to be cleverer than that. ”

“Meaning what?”

“I don’t know. Something that will appeal to his ego. Tell him you’re writing a book or something. Criminal masterminds who nearly got away with it… Best looking murderers of the 21st century.”

I laughed, but he’d made a good point if I really was serious about getting in to see him. I couldn’t just turn up as Darien Quinn, probation officer, because I wouldn’t get through the door.

“When I was inside,” Levi continued. “The other prisoners were always keen to talk to authors or reporters.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “I guess because they got to talk about themselves for an hour. Work out what this guy wants and set yourself up as the person who can give it to him. It’ll be too late for him to do anything about it by the time you’re already sat down with him.”

“He can still terminate the visit,” I pointed out.

“He can, but only if you give him a reason to. Where is he, anyway?”

“Belmarsh.”

Levi nodded. “Makes sense with him being so high profile.” He sat back in his chair and studied me. “And how’s Felix going to feel about you paying his ex a visit?”

It felt like something of a test. One that I would fail if I said Felix would be happy for me to hang out with Julian in a maximum security prison. What would he say? “ He’d tell me not to do it. He’d say I was wasting my time and that he didn’t want me anywhere near him.”

Levi cocked his head to one side. “Sounds like good advice, if you ask me. Maybe you should forget about it.”

I was already shaking my head before he’d finished speaking. “I can’t. I won’t.”

Levi heaved out a sigh. “I hate to be the one to point this out, but isn’t it a little early in your relationship to be keeping secrets from him?” He held up a hand to stall any comment I might make. “And yes, I appreciate the hypocrisy of that statement coming from me considering what happened between Hayden and me in the early days of our relationship, but that’s exactly why I know better. I learned the hard way.”

“Julian probably won’t see me.”

“And if he does?”

“Then I’ll tell Felix after. There’s no point in him worrying before he needs to.”

“Nice of you to make that decision for him.”

“He’s got enough shit going on without me adding to it.”

“And Hayden?”

“And Hayden, what?”

“Are you going to tell him about this master plan of yours?”

“No.” I winced as I realized what the next words out of my mouth were going to need to be. They were unfair and extremely uncharacteristic of me, but I was going to say them, anyway. “And I’d appreciate you not saying anything to him.”

Levi’s jaw tightened. “You want me to lie for you?”

“You don’t need to lie. You just… don’t need to mention this part of the discussion. That’s all.”

“That’s lying by omission.”

“Please, Levi. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”

His stare went on for a while, neither of us blinking. Eventually, he let out a frustrated breath. “Fine. I guess I owe you that. But… we both know he’s like a bloodhound with secrets, so when he finds out and calls the wedding off, you’re the one I’ll expect to make him see sense by whatever means necessary. ”

“He won’t call the wedding off.” Levi raised an eyebrow. “He won’t! Hayden’s desperate to marry you. He’d do it tomorrow if he could.”

“We’ll see.” Levi didn’t look convinced. He finished his tea and, despite his body language giving away his temptation to hang around until Felix made an appearance, got up to leave. It came as a relief. I didn’t want Felix getting caught by surprise because there was no telling how he might react if put on the spot. I’d seen that first hand, our first meeting being a case in point. And even though Levi, of all people, would understand someone putting on a front, it was best not to tempt fate.