Past, Present and Future - The Devereaux Case Files Book 6

Chapter 5

Just when Reyes thought he was safe, inside his bedroom, so that he could change before dinner, Faith surprised him. He found her sitting on the side of the bed, crying into her hands and when he turned to leave again, sure that he would only make it worse, he was caught.

"Please stay. There's something important I want to say to you." She asked him. He could only sigh.

"Do you mind if I have a shower first? Reed and I got caught in a downpour." He explained briefly. He felt so detached from her it was unbelievable. Faith nodded, still struggling to make more than a few words without breaking out a sob, so Reyes ducked into the bathroom and took a quick shower. They were supposed to be having dinner outside on the patio by the pool but if it kept raining as heavily as it was they were going to have to move their dinner inside. Which meant eating in their kitchen, which had the most room. Which meant that he had no escape route if things went south. He couldn't stop thinking about it the whole time he was in the shower, hoping that dinner wouldn't be an utter disaster because of it.

The minute Reyes stepped into the bedroom in his towel, Faith got to her feet and started the conversation, not even giving him time to get dressed first. "I need you to hear me out. I don't want you to leave. I realize that it's unbearable for you here...that you feel like Dicken and Clare don't want you here, but they do." She blurted the words out, afraid to wait any longer in case she lost the nerve. He just stood there, staring at her in surprise before nodding calmly. He felt it was only right for him to hear her out, if she really had found out that he was thinking of leaving again. He let her get it off her chest while he got himself dried off and changed for dinner.

"I asked them. Dicken heard you talking to Murray, just after Magnus was born. He misheard what you said and thought that you were telling Murray to go ahead and kill Reggie. That you should have done it yourself years ago. That's why he pretends to hate you, because he thinks you had his father killed. And he's convinced Clare to do the same. If they just knew the truth," Faith wanted Reyes to know that she didn't believe for a moment that he had gone behind her back and allowed the agency to kill Reggie. Not when he was the father of her children, not when she trusted him to understand how important Reggie would always be to her and the kids. He might have been a monster, but he was still their father.

Reyes could remember that day very well. Murray had called him after tracking Reggie to Mexico. He had sold his fathers company as planned and used the money to ship himself off to Mexico and set himself up with a small legal business. Murray had been willing to use a few favors the Mexican government owed the agency to get Reggie dragged back to the US to face charges of kidnapping, attempted kidnapping and extortion. But Reyes had known the charges would never really stick, and he knew how much it would hurt the kids to put them and Faith through a messy court case, airing all the dirty laundry from the abusive marriage. No, they hadn't allowed that to happen first time around, and so Reyes had made the choice to stop it a second time.

"No. Deal with him however you see fit. I don't give a shit about him anymore. He can't hurt my family now." He had told Murray, feeling that it was the right thing to do. As the agency boss, Murray had the right to charge Reggie with anything he dared think of, for interfering with agency employees and if he did that, Reyes wanted nothing to do with it. But he hadn't. He had hung up, wondering what Murray meant when he would watch Reggie to see if he was going to cause trouble.

After hanging up Reed had asked if he was alright with his decision now that it was made, or if he thought he would regret it later. He had been so mad that he punched the wall. "I should have dealt with the bastard first time round. I really wanted to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze the life out of him back then. I should have done it when I had the chance. Then he would never have had the chance to come back and try take Clare from school. It's my fault." Reyes had complained a lot back then, about how he had always regretted never making sure Reggie got a longer sentence. Faith had been willing to testify to the abuse and show the diary and photographs she had kept, but he had loved her secretly back then, and been afraid for her and the kids. He had known it wasn't fair.