Kate came to the office Sunday with Josh and me to get a lay of her desk and the phone system. I made a phone call to Sebastien and told him I had an emergency and that I needed him to fix something for me. I told him to meet me in my office immediately. He wasn’t happy because I was pulling him away from a family barbecue. We never had a barbeque at my house growing up. It was time he got what was coming to him. When he showed up in my office, he wasn’t the least bit surprised that I had figured it all out. He didn’t even deny having my aunt murdered.
I zeroed in on his raspy smokers breath and flew across my desk at him, prepared to take his life with my bare hands. Josh came in and broke us apart. The three of us fought and struggled in my office until Kate came in screaming and crying.
Sebastien broke free and ran. Josh ran after him and I made Kate take me to where they were. I froze when she took me to the stairs. I have my own private elevator, but it doesn’t go to the roof. Kate laced her fingers through mine and guided me up the stairs and out to the roof. I could hear their feet crunching under the gravel material on the roof. Punches were being thrown, they were grunting, and then it all stopped.
“Put the gun away, Sebastien,” Josh said.
“Kate, get back inside, now!” I yell.
I hear her feet crunch on the gravel back toward the building, then the door opens and closes. I take small steps forward until I hear that I’m standing just behind Josh. All the years of rage and anger explode and I lunge for Sebastien’s labored breathing. We take several steps backwards until he suddenly stops. I wrap my fingers around his throat and pour every ounce of hatred I have toward him into my fingertips and I crush his larynx. His free hand comes to my hands and he desperately tries to pry them from his throat.
“Step aside, River, I’ve got him,” Josh says, behind me.
I hear the distinct sound of Josh’s gun cock behind me, but a shot to the head is too good for the fucker, he’s mine. I want him to have a slow death. I want his life to flash through his eyes.
“NO! Stand down! He’s mine,” I yell to Josh.
I see Sebastien’s face in my mind as a ten-year-old boy, and I’m sure he looks nothing like what I remember. Over the years, his face in my mind has morphed into the devil himself. He gurgles and chokes as the life drains from his body.
“How could you do this to me and my brother and sister, all of these years?” I question.
“River!” Joss screams.
Her one word slices through my anger and I let up slightly on Sebastien’s throat.
“River, please, don’t do this,” Kate’s tearful voice calls.
Words from the two most important women in my life.
I let my grip go from around Sebastien’s throat. I can’t be the same monster that he is. If I do this, there is no turning back. The little love that I have in my life will be swallowed whole. There’s a time in your life when you need to decide which road to take. Do you become what you were taught, or do you turn around and chose a completely different path? If I choose to become what I have been taught, then Sebastien wins. If I choose to turn around, Joss, Kate, and Josh will be there waiting for me.
I take a step backwards. I hear Sebastien’s shoes crunch on the ground, then his footstep sounds like he’s taken a step up onto the ledge.
“NO!” Joss yells.
I hold my arms out straight. If Sebastien want’s to kill me, he can. I know that the next shot will come from Josh, and then Sebastien will be dead. Sebastien can have what’s left of me. But he will never get me to become what he is. He’s a liar, he’s a thief, he stole our childhood, and he’s a murderer. I’m nothing like him.
“NO!” Joss screams again.
“I’ll never go to jail for what I’ve done. This only ends because I say it ends. It ends on my terms,” Sebastien says.
Then I hear his shoes scrape on the ledge.
“NO!” I yell.
Sebastien places his foot on the ledge, then steps both feet up and turns around to face us. It seems like time stands still. Sebastien glares at River, and then River holds his arms out and tips his head back. River is giving up. He can’t give up. Sebastien lifts his arm, and then points his gun at River’s head.
“NO!” I scream, again.
I’ve never screamed with so much fear. I didn’t even know my voice could be so loud. My one word vibrates out of my soul and in that split second, I pray that this is not how I lose River. I can’t survive watching him get shot right in front my eyes.
“I’ll never go to jail for what I’ve done. This only ends because I say it ends. It ends on my terms,” Sebastien says.
He slowly bends his elbow and moves his gun from River to himself. He brings it to his temple and closes his eyes as a single tear rolls down his cheek. I swear to God the one tear feels like it takes an eternity. I want to close my eyes and look away so desperately, but I can’t. I don’t want to live the rest of my life with these visions in my head. I just can’t bring myself to close them. It will only take a fraction of a second for Sebastien to point the gun at River again and shoot him. My heart stops beating as he removes the gun from the side of his head, and then he holds his arms out to his side just like River. Nina’s hand squeezes in mine as Sebastien smiles, then leans backwards.
It’s dead silent.
Sebastien’s shoes leave the edge and his body slowly disappears out of sight. There is no big bang of gunfire, only the sound of a feather floating through the air as his body plummets to the ground. Josh rushes to the edge while I run to River and throw my arms around him.
“What do you see?” he asks, grabbing onto me.
It’s a question River likes to ask me. One I’ve always gladly answered. I love to see the smile on his face when I explain what I see. This…I could never willingly look at and tell him what I see. I turn him around in my arms, put my ear to his chest and listen.
“I see…freedom,” I whisper.
It takes several hours of answering questions to a million different police officers and detectives. River shields Kate from most the questions, then he calls Stephen and instructs him to come pick up Kate and tells him to wait with her at his house until he gets home.
Josh drives River, Nina, and me back to our house. Like magic from memory, River leads me through the house and into the backyard. He doesn’t say a word as he gets into a chair and pulls me into his lap. He wraps his arms around me, and then buries his face in my neck.
I hold him tight for several minutes before I feel his tears running down my neck. Each tear that streaks down my neck feels like a weight being lifted off his shoulders. His body doesn’t move and his tears are silent. A huge lump builds in my throat and my own tears fall into his hair.
“This…is my faiblesse,” he whispers.
I lift my cheek off his head and look at his face. I take his head in my hands and kiss the tears on his cheeks.
“No, babe, this…this is human,” I tell him.
“Move in with me?” he says.
“What? But…” I whisper.
“Right…Yes, I know all about your little pact with Nina. Come on,” he says, and stands up with me still in his lap.
He sets me on my feet and pulls me back into the house. Josh and Nina are sitting on the couch in almost the exact same position that River and I were outside. Nina lifts her head and looks at us as we walk into the house.
“Nina, will you move in with me and Joss and Josh?” he asks.
“What?” Nina asks.
“Really!” I say surprised, looking at him.
It’s like every childhood dream Nina and I have ever had, all rolled up with a pretty pink bow. We both realistically knew it was impossible that we’d end up living together forever as adults unless we married twins, and we both knew that was most likely never going to happen. Nina and I both look at each other and start squealing.
Nina gets out of Josh’s lap and we both run into each other, jumping up and down yelling like two idiots.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” River says.
Nina stops jumping up and down, and then looks at Josh. He hasn’t said a word. Does he want Nina to move in with him?
“Pack a bag, we’re going now. We’ll worry about everything else later,” Josh says.
Nina and I start jumping up and down yelling again. We pack a small bag and do just as he says.
That next couple of weeks couldn’t have worked out better. Maddy had gotten behind on rent and was evicted from her apartment. As a side perk of working for California Chef, we asked her to move into our house. We left most of our furniture for Maddy and only took our personal belongings.
As a welcome home gift, River purchased both Nina and I a fabulous storefront in downtown Malibu. California Chef is now a legitimate business with its very own office space. It has a state of the art kitchen that is an absolute dream to cook in. It’s even nicer than River’s. There’s even room for Nina to have her very own office, but she said she wouldn’t dream of getting rid of our two person desk in a million years, so we still share an office. We’re in the process of opening up the front of the store to customers who want to come and assemble their own meals from a preset assembly line of ingredients.
Some may think that it’s weird, the four of us living in a house together, but under the circumstances it’s like it was designed by destiny herself. I get to live with my amazing boyfriend and my best friend forever, who now lives with her fiancé upstairs and River has a dedicated and loyal personal assistant and best friend of his own.
After dinner, Kate is in the kitchen cleaning up the dishes, and I’m leaning against the open wall of doors looking at the glorious beach and the spectacular sunset. I remember the first time I looked out these doors. Never in a million years would I believe the life I have today. Nina walks up next to me and places her head on my shoulder. She elbows me gently on the arm and I elbow her back. As much as my life has changed, our secret way of silently saying I love you will never change. She smiles at me, and then turns around without saying a word, takes Josh’s hand and they go upstairs.
River’s hand slips into mine and he pulls me outside, through the backyard and down the steps to the beach. I love the feel of the sand between my toes, the warm breeze blowing my hair, and River’s warm hand in mine. It’s a beautiful clear sky with not one cloud in the sky. The stars are out and twinkle magically above our heads. I find the first star and smile.
“What do you see?” he asks.
I’ll never get tired of telling him what I see. I’ll never get tired of the look on his face when I describe the things that he cannot see. But tonight, I want to hear what he sees.
“What do you see?” I ask.
River tips his head up toward the night sky and smiles. He pauses for a very long time before he answers.
“I see…love,” he says, tipping his head back down looking at me.
River said that he could never say the three little words to me that I need to hear. Well, he just did. They may not be your traditional I love you, but to me they mean a million times more. Those three words are the most beautiful words, he’s ever said to me.
When I heard Sebastien’s feet slip off the edge of the roof of my building. I heard the whisper silence as his body flew through the air to the ground below. As he got farther and farther away, so did the pain in my heart. I’ll never forget the look in my mother’s eyes as the life drained from them. But for the first time, I also see the love in her eyes. She was turning around to see two of her three greatest blessings in her life before she died. I take comfort knowing that that’s the way she left this earth, seeing what she loved…me.
I made a decision as Joss threw herself into my arms that I wasn’t going to hold on to those demons anymore. I let them all go as Sebastian’s body plummeted toward the ground. I realized that what was in my arms was way more valuable than holding on to the things that cannot be changed from the past.
I wonder if in time my father would have seen the gifts he had before his eyes, had he lived. Holding on to my past clouded the gifts that were being placed in my life.
Never again.
My business isn’t worth letting go of what was in my arms, and to this day I have my priorities straight.
Joss comes first.
After dinner, I find Joss in one of her favorite places in the house, leaning against the back doors. It’s only second to the kitchen. I slip my hand in hers and gently pull her outside. The wind catches her nutmeg scent and makes me smile.
We walk hand-in-hand down to the beach. The sounds of the waves as they crash into the beach are magical. The salty air mixed with Joss is intoxicating. The warm breeze on my skin and her soft hand in mine is overflowing my heart. There is no more grey matter, there’s no more black and white either. My world is filled with color.
As we walk, I just know that her nose is to the stars.
“What do you see?” I ask.
I love her vivid descriptions that continue to color my life on a daily basis. But she doesn’t answer right away.
“What do you see?” she returns, softly.
What do I see? I tip my head to the sky and pull up one of her vivid descriptions. I see millions of stars splattered across the night sky. I see millions of windows open to the ones we’ve lost. I focus on the first cluster of stars that I see. One is my mother smiling down on me, and another right next to her is her sister. I never got the opportunity to meet her, but I like to think that she too is smiling down on me. Another star catches my eye and with the anger and resentment now gone, I see my father. I see my family lovingly looking down on me.
I tip my head back toward Joss and I answer, “I see…love.”
Her quick inhale of breath doesn’t go unnoticed. The three words I swore never to cross my lips run through my mind. I love Joss and she loves me for everything that I am and everything that I was.
Her arms wrap around my back and she pulls me close. I wrap her in my arms and I bring my lips to her ear.
“I see love, Joss Lynn Meyer,” I whisper, again.
“I see love, too,” Joss replies.
A Different Road Series will continue with Kate Mason and Cooper Sullivan in:
I Hear…Love
A Different Road Book Two
I am an “Indie” adult contemporary romance author. I live in California with my husband and two teenage boys.
I never liked reading as a kid. I only started reading romance novels in the past few years. My Kindle and I are inseparable now. A thought occurred to me in December of 2012 that maybe I could write a romance novel. So I went to work with the encouragement of my husband and my sister-in-law. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I writing is my passion.
Today I am a self-published author and it has been an amazing journey.
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The Running Into Love Series:
Take A Chance – Running Into Love – Book 1
I’ll Take A Chance – Running Into Love – Book 2
Second Chance – Running Into Love – Book 3
A Fighting Chance – Running Into Love – Book 4
Running Into Love Box Set Books One to Four
Unavoidable Chance - Running Into Love Book 5
Unexpected Chance – Running Into Love Book 6
Website: annalisanicole.com
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Twitter: @annalisanicole4
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To my amazing, loving, supporting, wonderful husband, I love you forever and always. To my two boys, you are the light in my life given to me from above. Thank you for always standing by me and encouraging me to follow my dream.
To my fabulous beta readers, thank you so much
for all of your valuable feedback and continued support. I love you all, Master Beta- Erin Dolin, Kellie Donaldson, Kristine Barakat, Cristie Lagarde, and Crissy Sutcliffe. I have mad love for each and every one of you!
To my amazing, fabulous editor Lindsay from LTE Editing, you are amazing and I absolutely love working with you! Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.
Najla, from Najla Qamber Designs, you’ve done every cover for every one of my books and each of them have knocked my socks off. They are all so amazing and beautiful! Thank you!
Give Me Books, thank you for organizing and taking care of all my tour needs! You all rock!
Tami, from Integrity Formatting, you are a rock star and do amazing formatting! Thank you for always being there for me!
Julie Franke, thank you for being my constant source of encouragement. Thank you for encouraging me to live my dream. I love you to the moon and back.
Kellie Montgomery, from Eye Candy Bookstore, thank you for always being there for me when I need someone to talk to. Thank you for your friendship and for your mad PR skills. You are a super star!
Di, from Di’s Dazzling Dezines, thank you for the amazing awesome Kindle Couch creations! I love them all and you SO much!!
Thank you to you the readers, reviews, and bloggers for continuing to stay with me on this amazing journey. Thank you for continuing to read what the crazy characters in my head make me write. Thank you for all the wonderful personal messages, the emails, and the reviews. I read each and every one of them. From the bottom of my heart thank you!
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
I See...Love (A Different Road #1) Page 19
