Love Me Dear (Love Me Book 3)

Chapter 9

Trinity had indeed been sick. Then she had taken an anxiety pill that the doctor had given her years earlier. She hadn't needed them since she had moved to Wyoming, but it calmed her down and even made her fall asleep, but not before she had the devastating realization that everything had happened in front of Levi.

Her last thought was wondering what he thought of her. Perhaps he believed that she did kill Illiana.

It was the very early morning hours when she awoke cold. The power had been on when she had fallen asleep, which meant that it must have gone out sometime during the night, and since there was no fire in the fireplace, it must have happened recently.

She crawled out of bed, noting that both Rainer and Ben had come in at some point to sleep. She could see their outlines under the covers in the bunk across from her. The door creaked a little as she opened it, but neither Ben nor Rainer moved.

As Trinity opened the door, she saw Levi sitting in front of the fireplace with a coffee mug in his hand. He had pushed the sofa closer to the fire for warmth. Trinity was hesitant to talk to him, so she made a show of closing the door slowly behind her so that she could gather up a bit more courage. When she turned around, Levi was watching her.

"Would you like some coffee?" he asked.

Trinity shook her head and moved to sit next to him on the sofa.

"Here," he said, reaching over his shoulder and handing her a blanket. "The power went out about two hours ago, and I knew the cold would eventually wake you all, but I thought I would let you sleep as long as you could."

"Have you been to sleep yet?" Trinity asked as she wrapped the blanket around her.

"No, I had a lot on my mind." He turned his attention away from Trinity and focused on the fire.

"I thought I heard you say that Ben paid for your self-defense classes earlier, is this true?" he asked.

"Yes, he wanted me to be able to protect myself," Trinity said softly. Levi was a smart man and he had put two and two together. After their earlier conversation, he knew that her ex-husband was dangerous and that was why Ben had wanted her to take the self-defense classes.

However, he didn't know how bad it had been, and there was no way she would tell him. She didn't want his pity.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Levi asked, glancing at her.

"No." Trinity shook her head, keeping her focus on the fire. "But I do want to know if I still have a job?"

"Why wouldn't you have a job?" he asked, sounding confused.

Trinity shrugged. "Because, according to the newspaper, I may have murdered Ben's wife." Her voice broke on the last word. "I lost two jobs in Savannah when the companies found out that Ben Emerson was my brother. They didn't want the bad connection, so after I saved their failing companies and they no longer needed me, they fired me."

"I know you didn't kill anyone, Trinity. Besides, I don't need you to save my company. I need you to keep me out of trouble, which offers you plenty of job security," Levi assured her.

He was silent for a minute before he asked the next question. It was as if he weighed whether he should. "I take it you didn't know about any of it, not even the baby?"

Trinity shook her head. She didn't care about the baby, she had stopped loving her husband a long time before, just as Ben had stopped loving Illiana. Neither of them had had a happy marriage, which was ironic considering their parents were blissfully happy.

"What if anyone at the company found out?" she asked as soon as she had the thought, her eyes growing wide.

"I doubt anyone there will find out," Levi once again assured her.

"All it will take is for others to realize who my brother is, then they will put it all together as you did. It only took you a few minutes to do it too." Trinity felt her panic start to rise once again, and Levi reached out and squeezed her hand.

"We'll worry about that if it happens." He continued to hold her hand in his. "Do you want to know how I solved the issue of you being on vacation?" Levi asked, sipping his coffee.

"How?" Trinity squeezed his hand in thanks as he changed the subject.

"I hired a new bookkeeper."

"Without me!" Trinity sat up, her mind temporarily diverted. "She can't know what she's doing!"

"She's managing, and I'm a bit upset that you're so sure I failed at picking the right person. I picked you for your job, after all." He honestly did look hurt, but it didn't make Trinity feel any better.

"About your notes," he reached for his computer, "I don't know why I didn't see it."

Trinity nodded. "It's subtle. The amounts being charged for all of those little extras that aren't hotel policy is the exact amount being withdrawn to pay, what I believe to be, a bogus company. I don't know how whoever is doing it thought they would get away with it at tax time unless the bogus company is a registered one."

"So, what do you suggest we do?" Levi asked.

"You'll have to find who did it and call in the police to press charges. If you don't, it will make you look compliant." Trintiy's mind turned the problem over a little before her thoughts jumped ahead to see someone sitting at her desk, messing with all of her stuff.

"You didn't give this new person my office, did you?"

Levi's mouth quirked. "No, she is very nice, her name is Dorthy Carter, and she has years of experience."

"If you say so," Trinity said, not convinced.

They sat there in silence, holding hands, not talking, as Trinity's mind jumped all over the place. First, it was work, then it was Christopher, and finally, her parents.

Levi must have felt her tense as her thoughts changed because he squeezed her hand again and she felt it all the way to her toes. His warm hand holding hers was more comforting to her than any words could ever be. "You still have on more week off, take some time to work through it. Go home if you have to," he suggested.

"No, Ben was right about that. It's exactly what Christopher wants me to do. He is trying to draw me out since he doesn't know where I am." She shook her head.

"What could he do to you if you went home? You would be with your family." Levi asked.

"He would kill me." Trinity knew without a doubt that it was true, and she didn't realize she held Levi's hand in a death grip as she said the words.

Levi looked shocked by her revelation and was about to ask something when the door to the bedroom, opened and Rainer walked out blurry-eyed.

"It's cold!" Rainer said, stating the obvious before pulling a chair up to the fire and joining them. Trinity was glad for the save. Whatever Levi had been going to ask was squashed as they started to talk about other things.

Rainer had been raised on a ranch in Texas, so the conversation until the sun rose was the difference in ranching between Texas and Wyoming. A conversation that made Trinity fall back to sleep.