Beautiful Redemption (The Maddox Brothers #2)(59)
Author: Jamie McGuire

Thomas looked down and rubbed the back of his neck. His eyebrows pulled in. “Being with her was a mistake. Trenton has loved her since they were kids, but I didn’t think he was serious enough about her. I was wrong.”

“Then, why can’t you just let her go?”

“I’m trying.”

“Using me to do it doesn’t count.”

He breathed out a laugh. “I’m running out of ways to explain this to you.”

“Then, stop. I need a different answer, and you don’t have one.”

“You act as is loving someone can just be flipped off like a light switch. We’ve had this conversation a dozen times. I want you. I’m with you.”

“While you’re missing her, wishing you were with her. And you want me to change everything I trust for that?”

He shook his head in disbelief. “This is an impossible situation. I thought we were perfect because we’re the same, but maybe we’re too alike. Maybe you’re my payback instead of my redemption.”

“Your payback? You’ve made me believe all weekend that you were falling for me!”

“I am! I have! Jesus Christ, Camille, how can I get that through your head?”

I froze, and once Thomas realized his mistake, he did, too.

“Goddamn it. I am so sorry,” he said, reaching out for me.

I shook my head, and my eyes burned. “I am so…stupid.”

Thomas let his hands fall to his thighs. “No, you’re not. That’s why you’ve held back. Even from the first night, you knew to keep your distance. You’re right. I can’t love you the way you need me to. I don’t even love myself.” His voice broke on the last sentence.

My lips pressed into a hard line. “I can’t redeem you, Thomas. You’ll have to come to terms with what you did to Trent on your own.”

Thomas nodded and then turned toward the sidewalk. I stayed behind, watching the dark ocean roll onto the sand, with the sky crying on my shoulders.

Chapter Twenty

“YOU LOOK NERVOUS,” I SAID. “He’s going to smell you from a mile away if you don’t man up.”

Thomas glanced at me, but instead of shooting me the dirty look I had expected, he used amazing restraint, simply looking away.

A knock on the door jolted us both to the matter at hand, and I went to the door, opening it.

“Good morning, Liis,” Travis said, a euphoric glow on his face.

“Come on in, Travis.” I stepped to the side, letting him pass, as I tried to keep the heavy guilt I felt from weighing down my Oscar-worthy smile. “How was your night? I don’t need details. I’m just being polite.”

Travis chuckled and then noticed the folded sheets, blanket, and pillow on the couch. “Oh,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Better than your night, brother. Should I, uh…should I come back? The front desk left me a note, saying you needed me to come here at six.”

“Yeah,” Thomas said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Have a seat, Trav.”

Travis walked over to the couch and sat down, looking up at us with wary eyes. “What’s going on?”

I sat down on the corner of the bed, keeping my shoulders relaxed and trying to seem generally nonthreatening. “Travis, we need to talk to you about your involvement in the March nineteenth ESU fire.”

Travis furrowed his brow, and then he laughed once without humor. “What?”

I continued, “The FBI has been investigating the case, and Thomas has been able to strike a deal in your favor.”

Travis clasped his hands together. “The FBI? But he’s an ad exec.” He gestured to his brother. “Tell her, Tommy.” When Thomas didn’t respond, Travis’s eyes narrowed. “What is this?”

Thomas looked down and then back at his brother. “I’m not in advertising, Trav. I’m a Special Agent of the FBI.”

Travis stared at his brother for a full ten seconds and then cackled. “Oh my God, dude! You were beginning to freak me out. Don’t do that to me! What do you really need to talk to me about?” His laughter faded when Thomas didn’t crack a smile. “Tommy, knock it off.”

Thomas shifted. “I’ve been working with my boss for a year now, Travis, trying to negotiate a deal for you. They know you were in Eakins. Abby’s plan didn’t work.”

Travis shook his head. “What plan?”

“For the wedding in Vegas to provide you with an alibi to keep you out of prison,” Thomas said, trying to keep his expression relaxed.

“Abby married me to keep me out of prison?”

Thomas’s eyes fell, but he nodded. “She doesn’t want you to know.”

Travis jumped up, grabbed Thomas’s shirt, and shoved him all the way to the other side of the room against the wall. I stood, but Thomas held out his hand, warning me away.

“C’mon, Travis, you’re not stupid. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know,” Thomas grunted.

“Take it back,” Travis seethed. “Take back what you said about my wife.”

“She was nineteen, Travis. She didn’t want to get married until you were at risk for going to prison for organizing the fight.”

Travis took a swing at Thomas, but he ducked. They scuffled, and then Thomas got the upper hand, pinning his younger brother to the wall with his forearm.

“Knock it off! Goddamn it! She loves you! She loves you so much that she did something she had no intention of doing for years down the line just so she could save your stupid ass!”

Travis was breathing hard, and he held up his hands in surrender.

Thomas let him go, taking a step back, and then Travis swung, catching Thomas hard in the jaw. Thomas gripped his knee with one hand and clenched his jaw with the other, trying to harness his temper.

Travis pointed at him. “That’s for lying to Dad.”

Thomas stood upright and then held up his index finger. “That’s your one. Don’t make me beat your ass. I feel bad enough.”

Travis looked at me, sizing me up. “You’re really FBI?”

I nodded, eyeing him warily. “Don’t make me beat your ass either.”

Travis laughed once. “I’d have to let you. I don’t hit girls.”

“I hit boys,” I said, still on guard.

Thomas rubbed his cheek and raised his eyebrows. “You hit harder than you used to.”

“That wasn’t even full power, dickhead,” Travis sneered.