by Nicole Helm
Nina’s sharp intake of breath next to him had him squeezing her hand. “But it’s not the only cause.”
“No. It could be permanent or temporary damage to the part of your brain that controls sight.”
“Which means my sight could return as it heals.”
“Could, Cody. Not will. This could be serious.”
“Could be but not is.”
Brady muttered curses under his breath.
“How would we get him to a hospital?” Nina asked gently. “I think it’s paramount Ace doesn’t know he’s been hurt, especially this severely.”
“We don’t know it’s severe,” Cody interrupted.
“We know it’s possible though,” Brady returned.
“Let me call Betty. She’s our resident doc. We can do a secure video chat and she can lead Brady through a more thorough examination. Then we’ll decide what kind of interventions we need.”
“I don’t need any—”
“And you’ll shut the hell up, Cody,” Shay snapped.
He grunted irritably while Brady and Shay murmured in low tones, before he heard a faraway voice. Presumably Betty on the video call.
“Well, someone did a number on you. And you thought being part of North Star was dangerous, huh?”
“I’m Ace Wyatt’s son, Bet. Life is dangerous.”
She snorted derisively. Everyone involved with North Star liked to give him crap that he was Ace Wyatt’s son, and Cody had become something like immune to the barbs. He was who he was.
He found he wasn’t so sanguine about what and who he was with Nina holding his hand.
Shay and Brady poked and prodded his face while Betty asked them questions.
“Cody, no sight whatsoever?”
“I can make out some shadows. Sort of.”
Betty made a considering noise. She’d patched Jamison up after their last run-in with Dad, and Brady was a skilled EMT, who most definitely could have become a doctor if he’d had the opportunities normal kids did. There was no reason to believe they couldn’t patch him up.
He had to be okay. He might not have cared so deeply about surviving a few weeks ago, but he had a daughter now.
“Any other situation, I’d already have you in a hospital. But we’re all versed in how dangerous Ace can be, and apparently jail hasn’t put an end to his reach. Not that any of us thought it would be that easy.”
No, Cody hadn’t thought it would be, but he’d hoped.
“Brady—what kind of supplies you got?”
Brady and Betty discussed logistics, and eventually ended the call. Even though Cody couldn’t see, he could practically feel everyone looking at him, determining his fate.
He really didn’t appreciate that feeling. If that didn’t make him antsy enough, he heard a door open and close. Footsteps. Low voices. And he had no clue what was going on around him.
He always relied on all of his senses, on being in control of a situation. If he was in charge, no one could get the better of him—most especially Ace.
“Breathe,” Nina whispered, and it was only then he realized panic was winning, and no matter what the situation he could not let that happen.
The door opening and closing sounded again, then clanking and thumping noises. “First things first,” Brady offered. “Sedatives.”
“No.”
“I’ve got to give you stitches—in your face. I’m going to knock you out and you’re not going to argue with me over it. Now, Shay and Nina let’s move him to a bed. But I’ll need good light and help from both of you while I do this.”
Cody was led to a bed. Brady belted out instructions, and after the sedative was administered, Cody felt himself unwillingly start to fade. He finally let go into the dark when Nina touched his forehead gently and urged him to go to sleep.
When he woke later it was to searing pain on top of deep, throbbing pain and a very dry mouth. He moved and for a second thought he was in a dark room before he remembered—oh right, he couldn’t see.
He was in bed and there was something warm and soft next to him. It moved.
“I really hope this is Nina and not my brother,” he said, wincing at the pain in his throat and how ragged he felt.
“What about Shay?”
Cody shifted uncomfortably. “I said Nina, didn’t I?”
Nina made a considering noise, but she didn’t move away from him. She snuggled closer. “How are you feeling?”
“Dandy.”
Her laugh was soft, muted, but it made him feel marginally better. “How long have I been out?”
“A couple hours. It’s about midnight. You should try to sleep more if you can.”
“Did they ever look you over?”
“Yes. Brady rebandaged my stitches, and a few other scrapes I got from the accident, but he said I was fine.”
“You’re not lying to a blind man, are you?”
“Not right now.”
He relaxed some. She was okay and that was what was important.
“Sleep,” she ordered.
“Have you been sleeping?”
Nina sighed. “I’m trying.”
“You’re worried.” He could hear it in her voice—the tightness, the exhaustion. She was trying to hold it all together for him, because he was hurt. But hurt or no, blind or no, he would do everything to keep Nina from suffering.
“Do you think she’s scared?” Nina asked after a long, interminable silence.
She didn’t have to say Brianna for him to know who she was talking about. “She has everyone but us rallied around her. I’m sure she’s worried about you, but she’s safe. That’s the important thing right now.” He tried to believe that instead of thinking of all the ways she was only unsafe because of him.
“She loves you, Cody.”
It was dark—or he couldn’t see—but it felt like the very same thing, and Nina was curled up beside him like they hadn’t lost seven years. Like those years didn’t exist. Part of him didn’t want them to.
But they did.
He wanted to believe there was some magic connection between father and child—so that he could believe Brianna had just loved him on sight, but that only meant there was something connecting him to Ace.
He didn’t love his father. Maybe his feelings had been complicated as a child, but he’d never loved Ace.
“If she loves me, it’s only because of you.”
“I tried to give her everything I would have wanted her to have. I wanted her to have you, but I didn’t think she could. So I did the best I could, but they were just stories.”
“Stories that gave her a foundation of trust. We both know how hard trust is when you grow up in a dangerous situation, and you gave that to her.”
Her breathing hitched, but when she spoke, her voice was steady even if there was fear behind her words. “Cody, what if—”
“No what-ifs. One step at a time. We’re going to get through this. It’ll be hard, and yeah we might get hurt in the process, but we’re going to get through to the other side safer and better off.”
She was quiet for a moment, but he could feel her fingers curl around his hand. “And together,” she whispered.
“Yeah.” Together. A family. He wasn’t sure quite what to do with that yet, so he slid back into sleep instead.
Chapter Thirteen
When Nina woke up she was achy. Not just from the stitched-up wound in her stomach, but all over. Her neck throbbed along with a pain at the base of her skull. When she slid out of bed, she nearly collapsed at the pain in her knees and feet.
She managed to steady herself and glanced at Cody in the dim light of the room. It had to be morning, but he needed his sleep. The white bandages had spots of blood bleeding through, and his complexion was so waxen.
Brady had assured her he’d
come through, but it was hard to believe looking at him like this.
So she couldn’t. She slid out of the room and headed for the kitchen. She’d get some coffee hopefully, try to remind herself of all she’d fought for and would continue to, and when she returned to Cody’s side she’d be ready to have a determined outlook.
Nina stopped abruptly at the sight of the woman in the kitchen. She didn’t know what to make of Shay or the way Cody talked to her.
Or how the similarities between them made even her uncomfortable. Same color blond hair, same color blue eyes. Shay was taller, but they had the same kind of build.
“Morning,” Shay offered. “Coffee’s on. Help yourself.”
“Thank you.”
“And ibuprofen,” Shay added with a small smile, pushing a bottle toward the coffeepot.
“Bless you.” Nina fought off discomfort and moved into the kitchen. Shay shoved something into a big duffel bag and then hefted the strap onto her shoulder.
“You’re leaving?” Nina asked, surprised and maybe a little afraid they were losing this woman who seemed so sure of everything.
“I have to get back. North Star controls my life, and this was a blip they’re not going to easily forgive. I’ve got some major groveling to do.”
“But you helped us. You saved us.”
Shay’s lips twisted wryly. “It wasn’t part of the mission I was supposed to be involved with.”
“Then why did you help us?”
The woman shrugged. “Cody’s a good guy.”
Something uncomfortable turned in Nina’s stomach, but she didn’t have a right to that, so she tried to push it away. “I...”
“I’m going to go out on a limb and guess he’s been pretty tight-lipped about everything, but nothing ever happened between us.”
“Oh. Right. I didn’t...” It was none of her business. She hadn’t been with Cody. She had absolutely no hold on him those seven years she’d been hiding. Jealousy was dumb, feeling relieved by Shay’s words was worse. Shay seeming to read her thoughts was embarrassing. Still, it didn’t seem to shut her up. “Why not?”
“We would have gotten kicked out of the group.” Shay raised her shoulder as if that was that. “Neither of us could afford to lose North Star.”
“Then you didn’t want each other very much.” At the look Shay gave her, Nina turned a deep shade of red. “It’s none of my business. I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re right. I suppose we didn’t. Never really thought of it that way. Anyway, I’ve got to go or I’m canned for nothing.”
“It wasn’t for nothing. Thank you.”
Shay nodded, slinging a bag over her shoulder. “Ace is a dangerous man. Don’t underestimate him.”
“I don’t.”
“Sometimes they do,” she replied, nodding toward the back of the cabin where Cody was asleep and presumably so was Brady. “A guy thing or a being-his-son thing. I don’t know. But Ace underestimates them too, so I guess they’re even. Unfortunately when men get even, women often get the shaft. No matter how good some of the men involved are. Watch out for yourself, Nina.”
Nina nodded, even as the words settled uncomfortably on her shoulders—a scary, truthful weight.
Shay left the cabin and Nina was left alone in the kitchen. She got her coffee, took the painkillers and listened carefully for Cody waking up while her thoughts of Ace, Shay and Cody being blind whirled in her head.
“How’s our patient?”
She looked up at Brady and tried to smile. “Still sleeping.” She sipped her coffee. “Will you be honest with me and tell me how bad it really is?”
He pressed his lips together. His eyes were sad, but he held her gaze. “I don’t know how bad it is. Truthfully. I wish we could get him to a hospital, and maybe we’ll be able to soon enough. But we have to make sure Ace doesn’t know. Ace can’t know.”
That had been a tenet in her life for so long, and it turned out it didn’t matter. Ace had known about Brianna.
Nina swallowed against the way that realization just kept hurting like a brand-new wave of pain. She looked at her coffee. “As long as Ace’s alive, Brianna isn’t safe. None of us are.”
“You know, you could take Duke’s suggestion. Move to some remote area. Disappear. Ace has reach, but not that kind of reach.”
“He’ll find a way. Maybe not for ten years, but he’d find a way. The only answer is Ace’s death.”
“We can’t make that happen while he’s in jail.”
“Unless he gets the death penalty.” Nina looked up at Brady, a desperate hope clawing through her. “He could, couldn’t he?”
“What he’s in jail for right now involves trafficking. No death penalty there.”
“But he’s killed people. We know that.”
“We know that, but we can’t prove that. Gage and I have talked about this some. We’d need a lot more evidence to make a bigger charge stick. Ace is careful, and he has a lot of men doing the work for him. It’s nearly impossible.”
“Unless we get one of those men.”
“And do what? Torture some answers out of him?”
Nina lifted a shoulder. “To save my daughter? Yeah. I’ve killed two men, and it may have been self-defense, Brady, but I’d kill a hundred more to keep her safe.”
She could tell she’d surprised him, but motherhood had changed her. Ace had changed her. She’d do whatever it took, with no moral qualms, to keep her child safe.
“One hundred won’t be necessary.”
At Cody’s voice she and Brady immediately jumped into action, moving to help him to the table—though somehow he’d made it out of bed and the bedroom.
“You can see?” Nina demanded, her heart beating so hard with hope.
“No. I can feel the walls and move toward voices,” Cody replied wryly. “Even over the lovely pounding in my head. I smell coffee.”
“I’ll get it,” Brady offered.
Nina led Cody to the table, helping him get settled on a chair and Brady put a mug in front of him. Nina gently placed his hand around the handle.
“I’m not used to being waited on,” Cody finally said when no one spoke.
“I wouldn’t plan on getting used to it,” Brady replied.
Nina frowned at Brady, but he only shrugged, and Cody’s mouth curved upward. She supposed the warped way the brothers were hard on each other was some comfort to Cody right now.
“Shay left?”
Nina nodded, then remembered Cody couldn’t see. “Yeah, just a bit ago.”
“Good.”
“Is it?” Brady asked.
Cody shrugged. “For her. For North Star. I can’t keep leaning on them for help.”
“I don’t understand why not. If they’re trying to bring Ace down, I don’t understand why you just get kicked out and left in the cold.”
“Because they’re trying to bring the Sons down, not Ace in particular. I had a use and now it’s done. Look, this is our fight. Ace is our fight.”
“You’re blind, Cody. And stuck in this cabin... Who even owns this place?”
“It’s fine,” Cody replied.
Nina could tell Brady wanted to argue, but he clamped his mouth shut and scowled instead.
“It occurred to me while listening to you guys talk, we’re so focused on Ace, we’re missing an important part of this puzzle.” Carefully he lifted the mug of coffee to his mouth and sipped, Nina and Brady leaning more and more forward as they waited for him to finish that thought.
“The men he’s getting to do his dirty work?” Brady supplied impatiently.
Cody slowly lowered the mug and shook his head. “Not his goons. They don’t have access to him, but someone does who’s passing along information.”
“It could be a guard, I guess?” Brady suggested.
&nbs
p; “Or one of his lawyers.”
“Weren’t they court appointed?”
“One was, and North Star couldn’t find any information passing, but Jamison said he had lawyers coming to visit him—plural. He was looking into them, but we got sidetracked with the whole go see Ace thing. We need to look into these lawyers. And the great thing about lawyers is they know just how to twist the law.”
“Okay. But what do we do? Right here?”
Cody lifted the mug again. “We give them what they want.”
* * *
“THIS IS HIS head injury talking, isn’t it?” Nina demanded, her voice leaning toward shrill. “He didn’t just say that.”
It was strange to have to live in this world of only gray. To depend on his hearing and his touch to understand what was going on around him. But something about that kept him calm. Kept him centered—not in fear, but in the reality of the situation. He couldn’t see the hurt in her blue eyes, so he could breathe. He could think. “Nina. Hear me out.”
“How can you be so calm?” she demanded. “You’re sitting there blind and hurt. I’ve been shot. My daughter is—”
“Safe,” Cody and Brady interrupted in tandem.
“They hurt both of us. Why should I believe she’s safe?”
Her voice broke at that. He couldn’t reach out and touch her. He’d come up with nothing but air, because even though he knew she sat to his right he couldn’t see.
“There is nowhere she’d be safer than at the ranch, with both our families watching out for her. I think you know that. There’s no place we could hide her that he couldn’t reach. So we have to protect her. And we all would do anything to keep her safe.”
“It isn’t enough,” Nina said, though her voice had roughened into a whisper.
“We’re all still alive. Still here. We have scars—all of us—Jamison, Dev, you and me. But we’ve survived. Because we believed we could and fought to. We just have to keep fighting.”
“By giving them what they want?”
“Ace wants us hurt. Weak. Rattled. He wants us afraid, and he wants us to make a mistake. So he can punish me. It’s all part of it. He likes the game as much as the punishment—it’s why he can wait so long to enact it.”
