by Nicole Helm
The past few weeks when Jamison had come home had thrust him back into the role of baby brother. It had grated.
Until this moment, when Cody felt something like relief wash through him. Because here was someone who would know what to do. Not about the case, but about this horrible feeling inside of him he couldn’t seem to control.
Jamison studied him, as if he could understand everything just from a look. “So.”
“I have a daughter.” It was such a stupid, pointless thing to say since Jamison surely knew, and yet Cody hadn’t really said it out loud like that yet. Somehow, his oldest brother brought that out of him.
“So I hear. Hell of a thing.”
“Yeah.”
“Liza tells me Nina’s recovering.”
Cody nodded.
“Look, um...” Jamison cleared his throat and slid off his hat, rubbing the back of his neck. “I have some inkling of what you’re feeling right now.”
“Liza didn’t show up with your kid in tow.”
“No. She didn’t,” Jamison agreed easily. “But there was baggage. And I thought, well, we’d deal with the threat and Ace, and then I could figure that all out. It isn’t going to work that way. I think, especially with a kid in tow.”
“She calls me Daddy.”
Jamison made a pained expression as if he understood. Pain and joy and a million conflicting emotions. How could Cody do anything but put them away until he’d secured his daughter’s safety?
“I think you should go see Ace.”
Cody could only stare for a full thirty seconds at his brother. Age had etched lines onto his face, but it was the same face it had always been—a little harder, a lot more determined and holding far more responsibility than any one man could contain.
Except Jamison had always managed.
“I don’t think me seeing Ace right now would be a good idea.”
“I know. But you held yourself back that day. You didn’t end his life and you could have.”
Should have.
“If you see him, talk to him, we might be able to get a handle on what he knows about what happened to Nina,” Jamison said in his rational, cop voice.
“I can’t right now, Jamison. I can’t...” It burned to admit a weakness. “I don’t have the control I need.”
“Okay. What if we send Nina?”
Chapter Six
Nina sat in the living room of the Wyatt house with Liza, Brianna and Gigi playing with plastic ponies on the rug. Grandma Pauline and Dev had gone out to do ranch chores, and Duke had returned to his neighboring ranch.
Not before he and Grandma Pauline had fought over where she and Brianna should stay. But Grandma Pauline had the trump card: six grandsons who were all law enforcement or had been. Duke had Sarah and Rachel living at home—who no one wanted to bring into this mess.
Which brought home the fact she hadn’t seen any of her sisters. Duke and Liza were the only ones from her life with the Knights who’d come to see her.
Nina shouldn’t be surprised, and she had no right to feel hurt, but she was both and a little miserable with it. That and the aching pain in her stomach. She knew she could take more pain medication, but she’d deal with the pain over the loopy exhaustion that consumed her as a side effect from the meds.
“You can always go lie down,” Liza offered gently.
“No. I’m tired of lying. I’m really tired of thinking.” She picked at the arm of the couch. “I haven’t seen any of the other girls.”
Liza winced. “Well, Cecilia’s had to work. And Felicity too, of course. They don’t live at the ranch.”
“But Rachel and Sarah do.”
“I’m sure Rachel will come around. Sarah... Truth be told, she’s not exactly sold on me being back yet, and I’ve been here two months. We may have had our reasons for leaving, Nina, but...”
“I know.” Aside from Rachel, who was Duke and Eva’s only biological child, they’d all grown up in varyingly tragic circumstances before being taken in by the Knights. They each had their own childhood scars. Being abandoned by the sisters they’d learned to love would be a particularly difficult blow.
“I had to, Liza.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Liza smiled sadly. “The problem with doing things we have to do is that sometimes no one else can understand that need.” Liza looked down at their two girls—because even if Gigi was Liza’s half sister, she was a little girl Liza was taking care of. “It’s really hard to understand when you don’t have this kind of responsibility. So, they’re struggling, but I understand you did what you had to, Nina. Really.”
Nina nodded. She knew Liza was right. As much as she appreciated Liza saying she understood, it didn’t assuage all those other things she felt at her sisters not coming to see her. Maybe she should go lie down as Liza had suggested.
But she heard the back door slam and low voices in the kitchen. A few moments later, Cody and Jamison strode into the living room.
Nina thought Cody’s mood might have calmed some before he returned. But there was absolutely no change in all that angry energy that swirled around him.
Nina smiled at Jamison. It was such a strange parade of so many people she’d loved and had had to ruthlessly cut out of her life. She didn’t know how to cope with it all.
The years were on Jamison’s face. Or maybe it was all the responsibility he hefted on his shoulders that made him look so hard. So much older.
Everything about that hard face softened as Gigi squealed and ran over to him. He lifted her into his arms, and it was clear that Liza’s half sister adored him. And that he adored her.
“Missed you, mite,” he said in a low tone as Gigi snuggled into him.
Even back when Nina had been desperately in love with Cody, so sure they’d spend their lives together, children had never been a part of her future plans. No matter how much Duke and Eva had loved her, she’d lived under the specter of her parents’ choices. She’d been determined to choose the opposite of all of them.
As much as Brianna had become the center of her whole life, sitting in the Wyatt house, her daughter on the floor, Jamison holding a little girl... It didn’t feel real.
But Jamison spoke, and it was in that same calm, comfortingly in-control tone she remembered. “Hi, Nina. How are you feeling?”
“I’m all right.” She was dead exhausted, but there was so much going on. So much to think about.
Jamison and Liza shared a glance that had Liza getting to her feet. “Hey, girlies, what about if we go visit the horses?”
Brianna jumped to her feet. “Can we feed them?”
“Well, we’ll have to ask Uncle Dev.”
Jamison handed Gigi off to Liza, and they exchanged a brief kiss, like some kind of perfect choreographed dance that made Nina’s chest ache and her eyes search for Cody.
He was looking at the floor.
“You girls go get your shoes on,” Liza urged, shooing them toward the kitchen.
“Are we sure it’s safe for Brianna to run around outside?” Nina fretted.
“It’s safe,” Cody said, his voice hard and final. But that eased her nerves some. Cody wouldn’t promise safety where there was none.
“What’s going on?” Liza demanded of Jamison.
“We’re just going to talk to Nina,” Jamison replied.
Liza folded her arms over her chest. “About what?”
Nina had to smile at the warning and protectiveness in Liza’s tone. Maybe Sarah was still getting over the betrayal of her leaving, maybe all the girls were, but Liza understood. Someone really understood and wanted to protect her. That was nice.
Jamison turned to Nina. “How would you feel about going to visit Ace in jail?”
Nina’s gaze immediately flew to Cody’s, but aside from a set jaw and the same furious eyes, she couldn’t r
ead his feelings.
She supposed his feelings didn’t matter. “What would be the purpose?”
“To see if he has a reaction. To see if he gives anything away.”
“Ace isn’t stupid,” Liza scoffed.
“No, but he’s beyond arrogant. He certainly gave some things away when he had us that he shouldn’t have.”
“He had you?” Nina demanded, her gaze whipping to Liza.
Liza shrugged. “I had to get Gigi out from under the Sons, and Jamison helped. Then Cody rescued us.”
“It wasn’t me,” Cody said gruffly.
Liza rolled her eyes. “I’ll take the girls out, but don’t agree to anything you don’t want to do, Nina. Don’t let these two push you around.” She moved onto her toes and brushed a kiss against Jamison’s cheek. “And you don’t be pushy.”
She walked out into the kitchen, and Nina noted that Jamison and Cody both waited to speak until the sounds of little girls’ voices faded and the door closed.
“It’s completely up to you, Nina,” Jamison offered into the silence. “The problem we’re running into is we’re not quite sure why the Sons targeted you so violently after such a long time of not.”
“It’s possible they just couldn’t find me.”
“In Dyner?” Jamison replied with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s possible.”
“It’s possible,” he finally agreed. “But the man shot you. Maybe he was acting out of turn, but I doubt it. Not if he led with shooting. There’s something more to this than just wanting to hurt you because you dated Cody once upon a time.”
“Brianna?” she asked, fear icing her insides.
Jamison shook his head. “There’s nothing to point to the Sons or Ace knowing about Brianna.”
Cody still hadn’t spoken, which poked at her irritation. “Don’t you have anything to say?” she demanded.
He met her gaze, but only shook his head.
She wanted to punch him.
“I wouldn’t,” he said, his voice low and lethal against the dead quiet of the room.
Nina realized she’d curled her hands into fists and her thoughts on his behavior had been written all over her face. She lifted her chin and slowly released her fingers. She looked at Jamison and tried to come up with a bland expression.
“So what would you have me do?”
“We’d arrange for you to visit Ace. I’d be with you. We’d let Ace lead the conversation. See if he makes threats or shows his cards about what he does know. He’ll try to get in your head, make you afraid, but that might give us some answers. Or some clues to follow.”
“And if he gives you clues?”
“We see if we can connect him to your shooting and add it to the charges against him. We also find out how he’s controlling things from the inside. Ideally.”
“And if things go less than ideally, we go in there and get nothing.”
“It’s possible. Liza’s right. Ace isn’t stupid. He’s spent a lot of time evading just what he’s facing now. But he’s facing it, because of Cody.”
“It wasn’t just me,” Cody insisted again.
Jamison glanced at Cody. “But he’ll put the blame square on you.”
Something passed between the brothers that Nina couldn’t read, which was irritating enough. But Cody just standing on the sidelines while Jamison handled all this irritated her even more.
“So, it’s a test of sorts.”
“Yes, a test where the risk is minimal. I don’t think there’s a chance this doesn’t connect to the Sons, which means there isn’t a chance Ace doesn’t know exactly who you are. I know you won’t bring up Brianna, and neither will I. We’re not trying to find out if he knows Brianna exists. We’re just going to see if he’ll let anything slip. If he doesn’t, we’re in the same exact place we are right now.”
Nina nodded. She didn’t want to face Ace again. The last time had been scary enough. And clearly neither Cody nor Jamison knew that Ace had been the one to come to her to make sure she broke things off with Cody and disappeared.
She should probably tell them, but the words wouldn’t form. If Cody could stand there being stoic and silent, she would find a way to be the same.
“I’ll do it,” she offered, lifting her chin and fighting away the nerves that already threatened. “On one condition.” She turned her gaze to Cody. “I don’t want Jamison to come with me. I want you to.”
* * *
CODY HAD SPENT a lot of time learning how to control his reactions. You didn’t get to be part of North Star if you were a hothead who couldn’t manage his temper. And there’d been a lot of tests to make sure Cody could handle taking down the Sons when it was personal for him.
He didn’t understand why Nina broke all those pieces of control he’d honed for so long. He tried to convince himself it was just about being kept in the dark about his daughter’s life for six years—but there was an annoying part of himself that knew it was more than that.
It was just her.
Whatever they’d been in their adolescence, it hadn’t been ordinary. It hadn’t left him. It had marked him, and for a man who had an evil gang leader of a father, nothing so simple and ordinary should mark him.
But she had.
Cody knew Jamison was waiting for him to answer. He knew Jamison would back him up whatever he said—but that only made the decision worse. He had to make the right one, not the one he wanted to make.
“All right then,” he said, against his will, against his better judgment. He already didn’t want Nina talking to Ace. It would be worse if he was there.
It was also a necessary step. They couldn’t just hide out here forever. Brianna would need to go to school. She deserved a normal life. Something had to be figured out and there was no doubt in Cody’s mind that Ace was the key.
“I’ll make the arrangements then,” Jamison said with a nod. He glanced at Nina then back at Cody. “I’ll just go see what the girls are up to.”
Code for leave you two alone to talk this out.
There was no way to talk it out. No way to make this work. There was only the slog of doing, but there was no point in explaining that to Jamison.
“Did he come all this way just to ask me that?” Nina asked after Jamison left. She sounded as exhausted as she looked. He bit back the urge to tell her to go lie down.
“I assume he came all this way because Liza and Gigi are here and he’s used to having them underfoot in Bonesteel.”
Her mouth curved. “They’re so sweet together, the three of them.”
Cody could only grunt. It was a strange thing to see his brother, and Liza for that matter, be so domestic. They didn’t seem suited for it at all, and yet they seemed happier than he’d ever seen either of them.
Maybe it was just because Ace was in jail, and Liza’s dangerous father was dead, but Cody had the uncomfortable feeling it was about things far more personal than all that.
He forced himself to look at Nina and focus on the task at hand. But all he could think was he’d created a child with this woman, and the uncomfortable truth he’d admit to no one was that he hadn’t exactly been with anyone else.
He’d been recruited by North Star, and that had left him in dangerous situation after dangerous situation. There’d been some flirtation with Shay, but they’d both taken their positions in North Star too seriously to risk their jobs by acting on said flirtation.
So.
“There are some things I should tell you before we see Ace.”
If there’d been any warm and fuzzy memories threatening for purchase, those words doused them in ice-cold water.
Nina clasped her hands in front of her, sitting in the armchair where Grandma Pauline did her crocheting. Nina’s complexion was near gray and what she really needed was rest.
“It’ll take
Jamison some time to set up a meeting. We have time to go over a game plan. You’re not looking so hot. I didn’t break you out of the hospital so you could run yourself ragged and have to go back.”
She stared at him, eyebrows drawing together. “You’ve changed,” she said as if it came as some surprise.
“You’re damn right.”
“At first I thought it was just because of Brianna, but it’s not. Is it?”
Brianna had changed him. Just her existence shifted something inside of him. He didn’t know quite what yet, or what to do about it, but being a father—missing six years of that fatherhood—it meant things were different now.
If only he could get a handle on it all.
“You were never sweet, Cody. But your certainty and your plans weren’t built on anger.”
He kept his gaze stoic, but his words were more caustic than he’d wanted. “Weren’t they?”
“Okay, maybe they were.” She seemed to mull that over. “But you had more in you than anger.”
And what had happened? Nina had broken up with him. She’d been the one bright spot. Ace had almost killed Dev, and his brothers had been determined to back away from Ace. Let him wreak his havoc as long as it wasn’t on them.
Cody had been left with no anchor if it wasn’t trying to end Ace—if it wasn’t having that shared goal with his brothers. So, he’d had Nina, and then she’d left. And he’d known it was because of who he was. Who he came from.
What was left when his shared purpose with his brothers had been taken from him and she’d left him? Nothing but work, and work was bringing down the father who’d made him. So it was all anger. For more years than he cared to count.
But it seemed Nina couldn’t let him even come to grips with all that before dropping another one of her many disastrous bombs.
“He came to see me. Ace did. Back then.”
Chapter Seven
Nina knew she needed to say more, but her throat seemed to close up. There was a trickle of fear in admitting it to Cody—in seeing the way his eyes flashed with a new somehow brighter fury than he’d been carrying around for days.
