Chapter 40

40

He was a doomed man now. Rob knew it. It was probably the last time he was ever going to get to visit his favorite diner. The last time he was going to have a weekend as a free man.

The last time he would do anything.

It was his own damned fault. What had he become?

Guilt had been his bedfellow for a few weeks now.

Guilt and fear. Fear of what the future held. He’d screwed everything up. He should go to the chief, explain what had happened, and beg for mercy. Offer to tell what he knew, for clemency for what he had done. Get a reduced sentence or something.

Spend the next decade in prison. The rest of his life. He knew what it would be like for a cop inside. Once he was in there—he’d never get out.

He should fall to his knees and beg for mercy.

But Rob wasn’t that much of an idiot. He had orchestrated the kidnapping of a woman who had damned near died during the commission of that crime. That was felony kidnapping. Aggravated, if just for the fact that he wanted revenge on her brother. Or because the poor girl had nearly died.

He had seriously screwed up. And had nothing to show for it.

He had nothing to show for any of it.

And it was just a matter of time before one of those other idiot brothers of Candy talked. To save their own skin.

He could deny everything. Say they were lying to save themselves. He’d used a burner phone when he’d talked to them. He’d left his regular cell phone at home so it wouldn’t ping any towers other than the ones near his house.

That was as good as proving he was at home, minding his own damned business.

He could pull that off.

If he had to.

And then… then he’d do something good with his life. Keep someone else from repeating Candy’s mistakes. Stop this. Make things better.

Atone for his own sins.

Rob stepped up to the doors of the diner.

And looked inside.

That’s when he saw the man. The man he hated. The man who had brought him to this.

Charlie Fucking Fields was in there, his gorgeous wife right there at his side. Rory had an infant in her arms. That older daughter of Fields’s was right next to her, cuddling that other baby close. They were talking to that redhead. Fields’s precious baby sister.

Rob just stared at her for a moment.

That girl. The one he had almost killed.

She looked young, beautiful. Alive. Why did she live, when Candy hadn’t? Candy had had two children to raise. Had a family, too. Just like Fields’s sister. But no. There she was. Laughing with her boyfriend right there.

Young, strong, healthy—rich. Everyone in the county knew the Hillers were rich. Girl would have everything. A life. A life she didn’t really deserve. Rob backed off from the doors.

He wasn’t ready to go in there just yet. He wasn’t.

But what in the hell else was a man like him supposed to do?

Rob just stayed right where he was… and waited.

That girl… that girl would be coming out eventually. Or her brother. Maybe one of them would have the answers.

What else was he supposed to do?