It Had to Be Fate (An It Had to Be Novel Book 3) (20 page)

“When we stopped for lunch that day on the hike, my father said he had some bad news. That he had met another woman, and he was going to ask our mom for a divorce. Nick and I were just twelve and I didn’t know what to do with all that emotion. Then Nick said something snide about how it was probably because our mom was getting old, and I lost it. I was so upset by what my dad was doing to my mom, and then for Nick to talk about her that way, I just let Nick have it.”

He wasn’t sure he wanted to see Casey’s reaction when she heard the next part, so he stood, wandered to her office window, and studied the lake.

“My dad tried to break up our fight. He’d taken hold of my arms from behind and Nick took that opportunity to punch me in the stomach, so then my dad released me and went for Nick. I was seeing red at that point so I launched myself at Nick and somehow ended up tackling my dad. He fell backward, and before we realized it, he’d stumbled over the side of the cliff.”

Zane closed his eyes. He hated that vision he’d never been able to banish from his mind. “My dad clawed desperately at the dirt trying to hang on, so I reached out and grabbed his hands, but he was too heavy. I begged for Nick to come help, but he just stood there, in shock I guess, as Dad slowly kept slipping. Then when I was about to go over too, Dad released my hands and we watched him fall to his death. I’ll never forget the look in his eyes just before he fell. He knew it was the end. He didn’t even scream.”

“I’m sorry, Zane.” Casey’s hands slid around his waist from behind and she laid her head on his shoulder. Her quiet support helped the horrors of that day fade a bit as they stood in silence, staring out at the lake.

No one in his family ever spoke of that day. To be able to share what happened with someone like Casey, who’d stand by him and believe him without question, was cathartic. No woman had ever shown him the kind of compassion Casey always had.

After a few minutes had passed, she whispered, “I know you tried your best to save your dad. But has it ever occurred to you that if Nick had helped, your dad might not have died? I’d say Nick is the one who should be carrying all this guilt over what was clearly an accident, not you.”

That she’d take his side sent a rush of relief through him. “Nick told the cops that day he was paralyzed with fear and wanted to help but couldn’t move. As the years have passed, I have wondered if Nick wanted my dad to die. And me along with him, if my dad hadn’t let go of my hands. Nick has blackmailed me emotionally for years over it. But sending him to rehab was the last straw, so he told Mandy he planned to destroy my reputation.”

She said, “I have to believe the truth will prevail.”

“Maybe. But history has shown, especially with famous people, that the public tends to remember the bad stuff, not the good.” He turned and slipped his arms around her. “But you believing me is the most important thing, Casey.”

“Of course I believe you.” She leaned back and smiled. “We haven’t known each other that long, but my heart feels like we have. It tells me you’re a good and honorable man, Zane, and I’m so glad Nick’s actions brought you here.”

“Me too. Finding you and the boys has been the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” He kissed her slowly, softly, savoring every moment, suddenly realizing what love must feel like. And how badly he wanted to keep feeling it. Being married had never appealed to him. Until now.

He leaned back and said, “I have a house in Paris I stay at when I tour in Europe. You and the boys could live there with me, if it’d make your life easier with Tomas. Because I don’t care where I live as long as I can write music. And I could have Kip cut back my tours so they’ll only be in the summers. You guys could come along if you’d like.”

Casey blinked in surprise. “What are you saying, Zane?”

“That I want to be with you and your boys. Figure out if you and I could make this relationship work. I’m happy when I’m with you, Casey. I haven’t been truly happy in a very long time.”

They were interrupted by a loud knock on Casey’s door before it opened. Ryan stepped inside with a handful of papers.

“They told me you were here, Zane. Sorry to have to do this, guys.” Ryan blew out a long breath. “I have a warrant for your arrest and the temporary restraining order Tomas filed. You’re not to have any contact with or be within one hundred yards of Casey’s boys at any time.” Ryan handed over the restraining orders to Zane and Casey.

He’d momentarily forgotten about the restraining order. The stories about him walking away from rehab and then being accused of murder probably had given Tomas all the fuel he needed to get that filed. Being told he couldn’t see the boys hurt a hundred times more than his brother’s betrayal, though.

Casey said, “Ry, come on. You know this restraining order is a load of BS.”

“Yeah. This part of the job sucks.” Ryan studied the papers in his hands. “The instructions on the warrant state that if found, the officer is to hold you until they come to take you back to rehab. But nothing adds up here. I’ll give you ten minutes to explain before I call this in.”

“Thanks, Ryan. I’d appreciate if you’d fingerprint me first. That’ll help explain the situation most.” Zane turned to Casey, whose eyes had filled with tears. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I can. We’ll work something out, okay?”

“Okay.” She wound her arms around her middle like she was holding herself together and forced a smile. “Good luck.”

God, he hated to leave her like that. He turned to go with Ryan but then stopped. “Will you tell the boys goodbye for me and that I’m sorry about this? And I want Caleb to take my place on Labor Day if I can’t come back by then. Film it on your phone for me, will you?”

Casey bit her bottom lip and nodded.

Ryan tugged on Zane’s arm, pulling him toward the hallway, so he called out, “I’ll do my best to be back for Meg’s wedding!”

As they walked down the hall, Ryan said, “Don’t come back to Anderson Butte unless that restraining order is lifted, Zane. I don’t want to have to arrest you a second time. But I will.”

C
asey hung up from talking with her lawyer and slowly leaned back into her desk chair. He’d said the judge felt he had no choice but to grant the temporary order after seeing the news earlier. To protect her kids. He’d try to get a court day as soon as he could so they could fight it.

To protect her kids? From the nicest guy she’d ever met? A man ten times more honorable than the kids’ own father?

The tears she’d been holding back blurred her vision as she read and reread the temporary restraining order. If made permanent, it stayed in effect for five years.

Five long years? They might have been able to work around a year, but not five.

She closed her eyes and tried to think of a way to change Tomas’s mind, but nothing came to her. She’d gone from ecstatic that Zane wanted to be with her and the boys to utterly devastated in under a minute.

She’d just tossed the pages aside in disgust when Tomas appeared in her doorway. “Is that the restraining order?”

His smug expression hammered home how much she wished she’d never met the man. “Yes, but you’re wrong about Zane. I suspect you’ll see how wrong you are as the day progresses. And then I hope you’ll do the right thing for once in your life and make it go away.”

He sat in the chair across from her, crossed his legs, then swiped at some imaginary dust on his five-hundred-dollar slacks. “I do have the power to make it go away, but I have no intention of ever doing so. This shows you I have the best legal team there is and you won’t beat me. So now are you ready to be reasonable and move to France?”

Zane had said they could live with him in Paris. She hated the idea of giving up her whole life, and not seeing her family but once or twice a year. But she
had
grown weary of her father’s controlling ways. And maybe it’d be good for her and the boys to experience more of Europe together. To learn a new language. At least for a few years. And this way the kids wouldn’t have to see their parents fight an epic court battle that was guaranteed to happen otherwise. She and her new lawyer would stop at nothing to be sure the kids ended up with the best parent for them. And that was her.

She could look at it as a fresh start, rather than her ex getting his way through his usual manipulation. Tomas and the kids had dual citizenship; she could apply for that too. Especially if it meant they could be with Zane. “So if I moved to Paris with the boys, you’d drop this whole thing?”

Tomas sat up and slid to the edge of his seat. “Yes.” He pulled out his cell. “Promise you’ll do it and I’ll make the call right now.”

“But no boarding school for the boys.”

“Fine.”

“And you understand I’ll never sleep with you, Tomas?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “You say that now, but when you get lonely, I’d be there for you when you change your mind.”

“No, I won’t be lonely. I’ll have Zane. Because the only way I’ll agree to all this is if you’ll drop the restraining order too.”

Tomas’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll never let Zane have you. The restraining order is the best way to be sure that happens, so it stays in place.”

“Then the boys and I will stay in place as well. I’ve been reasonable and let you see them on my time, but no more, Tomas. I’m done. You’re not welcome here any longer. Go back to France and leave us alone. See you in court.”

Tomas slowly rose from his chair. With his jaw set, he hissed, “I
will
see you in court, and I will enjoy the look on your face when I win and take the boys away from you. You dating a man accused of murder should lock up my win soundly, don’t you think? Then when you’re sitting here sad and lonely, remember this is your own fault because you put that man’s needs before your own children’s!”

Tomas slammed the door closed behind him and made her flinch.

He was wrong. She’d be sad and lonely because she was going to put the boys’ needs before her own. She couldn’t be with a man who couldn’t be around her children. She’d have to give up what her heart wanted—a relationship with Zane. For now, anyway. They hadn’t begun the long fight ahead.

Zane sat across from Ryan at the police station and waited while his fingerprints and his brother’s were passed on to the judge through Zane’s lawyers.

Ryan leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head. “So what will you do about your brother?”

He’d thought about that for the last few hours. “Once everything gets sorted out, my lawyers suggest I press charges, so the judge can see I made an honest effort to help my brother, but it failed. So maybe I won’t have to face any serious charges if Nick serves his time for embezzlement and identity theft. I’m hoping they can arrest Nick at his ‘news conference’ at noon. He really didn’t think his actions through before walking away from rehab. The truth
had
to come out.”

“It tends to work that way.” Ryan’s intercom beeped. “Yes, Mike?”

“Line two. Detective Warren from LA.”

Zane waited while Ryan scribbled notes and said very little.

Ryan pinched the bridge of his nose, then said to the detective, “No. Nick has an identifying tattoo on his right wrist. Yes, I trust him. I think that’ll be for the best. No, that won’t be necessary, I’ll take full responsibility. Okay. Goodbye.”

Ryan hung up and met Zane’s gaze. “Your lawyers explained the situation to the judge, and he’s issued a warrant for your brother’s arrest. But he needs you, and hopefully Nick, in his chambers this afternoon at four o’clock.” Ryan pulled out the bag that contained all of Zane’s confiscated things. “Do you want your pilot to meet us in Denver in a few hours or do you want me to arrange a chartered flight?”

“My plane is in LA. I’ll just charter a flight. But did they mention the part about Nick accusing me of murder all those years ago?”

“Yes. The judge plans to order that original file be reopened. The DA will make a statement about that after we get all the other charges straightened out.”

So that allegation wasn’t going away anytime soon. He’d have to get his legal team on that immediately. As soon as he could actually talk to them again. His one phone call hadn’t been enough to sort out all the details.

Ryan pulled out Zane’s phone from the bag. After he tapped a few keys, he slid the cell back inside. “The restraining order is still in place, so you can’t have any contact with Casey’s boys. But you can talk to Ben anytime you like.”

Zane blinked for a second and then caught on to what he was saying. Ryan must have been putting Ben’s contact info in the phone. “Got it. Thank you, Ryan.”

“Yep. I promised we’d go now. No stops in between. So we’ll have your things packed up and shipped to your home address.”

Zane stood when Ryan did. “Can I at least go and say goodbye to Casey?”

“Nope.” Ryan started for the door with the bag of Zane’s things. “What’s going to happen is I’m going to escort you all the way to LA so there won’t be any big fuss. Once we’re in the chopper, I’ll call ahead about a charter and book it in my name. There will be an officer waiting for you on the other end who I’ll release you to.”

“Thanks for that, Ryan. I appreciate it.” Maybe he could call Casey. “Could I have my phone back at least?”

“Negative. You’re still under arrest. You aided and abetted this scam. You better hope once the judge hears the whole story he shows you leniency.” Ryan held the door to Town Hall open for Zane.

Damn, he hoped he wouldn’t have to go to jail. His lawyers were the best, but were they good enough to make all of this go away?

He silently walked alongside Ryan as Casey’s brother tapped something out on his cell. They walked the short distance to Ben’s clinic, where the chopper sat idle in the rear.

Zane sat inside the chopper and waited while Ryan readied it for flight. Hopefully his lawyers could get him bail so he could talk to Casey and tell her what was happening later that night.

Thoughts of Nick’s news conference and the lies he’d tell churned in Zane’s stomach. It wouldn’t matter that they’d all be lies; the public would eat that up. After the police reviewed the evidence in his father’s death, surely they’d close the file again. But would his fans and the public think of him as another celebrity who got away with a crime? And how long would all of that take?

When a small tap on the window sounded, he grinned. It was Casey.

He opened the door and scooped her up into a much-needed hug. “This is great. I thought I wouldn’t be able to see you before I left.”

Casey leaned back and smiled tightly. “Ryan said I’d only have a minute or two, so I’ll make this quick.”

The expression on her face and the tone of her words made his stomach start churning again. “What’s the matter?”

“Tomas told me in no uncertain terms that he’d never reverse the restraining order. Even after I said I’d move to France. He’s just being spiteful now because if he can’t have me he doesn’t want you to either.”

“So I’ll find another way. And once all the charges are dropped—”

She laid her fingers on his lips to stop him. “I’m certain I’m in love with you, Zane. But I can’t be with you if my kids can’t. And with my pending court battle, I need to be able to honestly say we aren’t dating. Or communicating. Tomas told me he planned to use it to hurt my chances of keeping my kids. As much as I want to be with you, and I’ll miss you, I have to put my children first.”

The single tear that slid down her cheek felt like a spike through his heart. But she’d said she loved him. That made him even more determined to find a way to fix the situation. Now that he’d finally found Casey, he couldn’t bear to never see her again. And he needed to tell her how he really felt.

“I love you too, Casey.” He swiped her tear away with his thumb. “I’ve never said that to a woman before, and I’m certain I’ll never say it again, unless it’s to you.”

She closed her eyes, but the tears leaked out the edges anyway. “I’ll miss you so much.”

“We have to go, Zane.” Ryan appeared next to them.

“Me too, Casey. I’m going to find a way to fix this. But in the meantime, if you need anything, or the boys do—” He fought back his own emotions and hugged her one last time. He whispered, “Take care,” because he couldn’t bring himself to say goodbye.

Her voice caught on a sob as she whispered back, “When you sing, we’ll be watching.”

He couldn’t speak around the lump in his throat so he just nodded as he got into the chopper. He slowly clipped his seat belt on and then they took off. He lifted a hand and Casey did the same.

Casey stood in the same place below them, becoming smaller and smaller until he couldn’t see her anymore. The thought of never seeing her again made his eyes burn with tears.

He swiped his sleeve over his face, not caring if Ryan saw him blubbering like a baby. If he couldn’t be with Casey, he didn’t know how he’d care about much of anything in the future. The thought of going back to the life he had before Anderson Butte didn’t appeal.

Numb, Zane stayed silent all the way to Denver. When they boarded the small jet to LA, he stared out the window at nothing in particular. He was grateful he was with a guy like Ryan, who had no need for idle chatter.

Ryan stuck a wrapped sandwich out, but Zane shook his head.

“You should eat something. Who knows how long it’ll be before you get another chance.”

He accepted the sandwich and the bottle of water Ryan offered and slowly chewed until it was gone, hardly tasting it as thoughts of what was to become of him and his reputation swirled around his brain. They’d been in the air during Nick’s news conference, so Zane didn’t know what would be waiting for him when they landed. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but his mind kept replaying that painful goodbye.

Once they finally landed and had taxied to the hangar, Ryan released his seat belt and stood to gather their things. Then he pulled nylon restraints from his back pocket. “I was supposed to have you handcuffed the whole way, so I need to do this quick.”

Zane stood and stuck his wrists out for Ryan to wrap up with the cable tie.

After Ryan tightened the nylon he asked, “Okay?”

No, it was humiliating, but he was talking about the pressure, so Zane said, “Fine.”