by Kat Mizera
Nowhere Left to Hide
Kat Mizera
Copyright © 2019 by Kathy Mizera
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Design: Dar Albert, Wicked Smart Designs
Cover Photo: Wander Aguiar
Cover Models: Elise Duncan and Pat Tansky
Editors: Tera Cuskaden, Ashley Martin
Created with Vellum
Contents
Also by Kat Mizera
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Epilogue
Excerpt from “Defending Dani”
Also by Kat Mizera
Las Vegas Sidewinders Series:
Dominic
Cody’s Christmas Surprise
Drake
Karl
Anatoli
Zakk
Toli & Tessa
Brock
Vladimir
Royce
Nate
Sidewinders: Ever After
Jared
Dmitri’s Christmas Angel
Ian (2020)
Inferno Series:
Salvation’s Inferno
Temptation’s Inferno
Redemption’s Inferno
Tropical Inferno (formerly “Tropical Ice”)
Romancing Europe Series:
Adonis in Athens
Smitten in Santorini
Lucky in Lugano
Alaska Blizzard Series:
Defending Dani
Holding Hailey
Winning Whitney
Losing Laurel
Saving Sarah (TBD)
The Nowhere Trilogy:
Nowhere Left to Fall
Nowhere Left to Run
Nowhere Left to Hide
Other Books:
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Bobbi (Susan Stoker’s Special Forces World)
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Delilah (Susan Stoker’s Special Forces World)
Brotherhood Protectors: Catching Lana (Elle James’s Brotherhood Protectors World)
1
Casey
The sounds in the room were almost inaudible, but it was enough to penetrate my haze of pain. The slight beeping of a heart monitor, whispered voices nearby, and the rustle of clothing as someone brushed past me. I struggled to open my eyes, fighting my way out of sleepiness. Finally, I managed to force them open and saw dim lights and cloudy faces. Someone was talking to me.
“Casey, can you hear me? It’s Nick. Come on, honey, can you wake up?”
I focused on his voice and finally blinked into awareness. “Nick, where am I? What happened?”
“You’re in the hospital. There was an accident.”
“Jayson…” My voice trailed off as I looked at Nick. “His side—is he okay?”
Nick took a breath. “He’s in rough shape,” he said at last. “But he’s alive.”
“Oh, god.”
The enormity of this kind of accident hit me and my heart kicked into gear. “Nick, the kids.” I tried to sit up but he grabbed my hand and gently squeezed. “They’re with Skye and my parents. They don’t know anything yet, just that there was an accident.”
“Have you called my mother?”
“She and Uncle Matt are on their way. They were in Palm Springs, but they’ll be here within the hour.” My mother had been dating Nick’s uncle Matt.
“I have to talk to Jay.” I started to sit up but pain shot through my left side and I let out a small shriek of pain.
“You broke your left collarbone and cracked a few ribs. You’ve also got a mild concussion, so they want to watch you overnight. You’re not going anywhere.”
“I have to see Jayson and then be with the kids.”
“They’re all fine. I’ll be back in the morning and we’ll talk, okay? Just stay here tonight and let the doctors monitor you. It’s already after midnight, so the kids are probably in bed anyway.”
“Not.” I smiled weakly. “I’m sure they’re keeping Skye busy.”
“She can handle it.”
“Nick, don’t leave.” I closed my eyes, suddenly completely drained. “Tell me what happened.”
“We don’t know for sure. I was hoping you could tell me.”
“We were stopped at a red light. We were talking about our future—he was starting to tell me about some woman he’s been seeing. I saw headlights coming from the cross street and then our light turned green, but he wanted to finish what he was saying. I don’t think there was anybody behind us, and then this truck just barreled through the intersection and came straight for us. It hit his side of the car head-on. The last thing he told me was that Erik is still alive.” I met his gaze. “Do you have any fucking idea what he’s talking about?”
I was sure he would say no, but the look in his eyes told me something else and my chest squeezed painfully. Instead of answering me, though, he deflected.
“The police say the truck that hit you was going more than eighty miles per hour. Unfortunately, the truck was stolen and the driver was killed. His name hasn’t shown up in any of their databases yet; he seems to have been drunk. It was probably just a freak accident but…”
“But?” My eyes met his steadily, despite how tired I was. “Could this have had something to do with Jay’s gambling?”
“It better not.” Nick spoke in an even tone. “I took care of that with him this morning. If Filippo came after him even though we paid him with interest, fair and square, there will be trouble in the land of local loan sharks.”
“Oh, fuck, what am I going to tell the kids? They don’t know anything about this, but it’s bound to hit the news.”
“Skye isn’t letting them get online or near a TV. Don’t worry.”
“What the fuck is going on?!” I turned tired, bleary eyes to him. “I need to see him.”
“Casey, he’s in ICU. He’s in bad shape. He can’t talk to you.”
“God dammit!” I glared at him and started sitting up again, despite the pain shooting through me.
“Okay, stop. Just stop!” He ran a hand through his tousled dark hair and then sank into the chair next to my hospital bed. “I’ll tell you what I know, but you can’t get upset. You have a concussion. Promise me you’ll be calm.”
“Is Erik alive?” I was so shaken, so completely flabbergasted, I didn’t know what to say.
“Yes.”
“
And you’ve known all this time?” I went from shocked to furious in a nanosecond, my eyes narrowing as my breath started to come faster.
“I didn’t have a choice.” He lowered his eyes. “It’s a long story, Casey, and this isn’t the time to get into it.”
“No,” I agreed, gritting my teeth through the pain that ricocheted through my torso as I forced myself to a sitting position. “The time to get into it was, oh, I don’t know…eleven fucking years ago?!” My voice rose several octaves and he shook his head.
“Look, don’t do that. Please.”
“Don’t do what? Ask you why the fuck you let me suffer all these years? Tell you something you should already fucking know? Are you serious right now?”
“I’m sorry.” He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs, meeting my gaze guiltily. “Maybe I fucked up, maybe I didn’t, but we did what we thought was right to keep you safe.”
“Do you realize Luke figured out who his father is?” I asked bluntly. “Today. He fucking figured it out from sixth grade fucking biology and an overzealous preteen in his journalism class. He figured that shit out on his own and you’ve let me wallow in secrecy for more than a decade. Is that your definition of friendship?”
“My definition of friendship has been keeping you and that boy alive all these years!” he shot back. “My definition of friendship includes becoming a father to a kid that wasn’t mine in order to save his life. That’s how I define friendship.”
I was too upset to listen and held up my hand. “Stop. That wasn’t my doing—that was what Erik wanted. Did anyone stop to think what I wanted?”
“You were pregnant and—”
“And what? Hormonal? Emotional? Mentally disabled?”
“No, but you were never going to agree to do what was safest, so we made the hard decisions.”
“And letting me think he was dead? Whose idea was that?”
“His.”
“And once again, you just agreed?”
“I had no choice, dammit.” He got to his feet and started to pace at the foot of my bed. “I had to protect you, and by that time, we were married and you’d already had the baby. That kid was mine the minute I set eyes on him. I was there from before he was born and I wasn’t going to let anything happen to him.”
“You made all those unilateral decisions—both you and Erik—without me.” This hurt me so much I couldn’t come up with the right words to explain how I was feeling. It felt like the ultimate betrayal. Not just by Nick, but by Erik. And Jayson. My husband. How the fuck did Jay know when I didn’t?
“I’m sorry. We were protecting you and Luke. That was all we cared about. I honestly have no clue how Jay found out, though.”
“That’s what I’m wondering.”
“I’ll be back in the morning and we’ll talk to him, find out what’s going on.”
“Where is he, Nick?”
Nick stuffed his hands in his pockets and met my eyes, his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously. He knew I wasn’t asking about Jayson since I obviously already knew where he was.
“Nick.” I kept my voice steady despite the hammering in my ears.
“Monte Carlo,” he said quietly.
I dozed on and off through the night, pain and pain meds alternately waking and putting me to sleep. My dreams were full of nightmares, though, and when the nurse came at six in the morning to take my vital signs, I didn’t go back to sleep.
“Would you be able to take me to see my husband?” I asked her quietly.
The nurse looked skeptical. “Ms. Hart, you have a broken collarbone, broken ribs, and a concussion. It’s best for you to stay in bed.”
“I can check myself out of the hospital,” I told her. “I’m not trying to be difficult, but my husband was badly hurt and I need to see him.”
She nodded. “All right. Give me a few minutes to get a wheelchair.”
I waited for her to return and winced as she disconnected my IV and helped me into the wheelchair. We rode in silence down to the ICU and she rolled me into a room.
“I’ll give you a few minutes,” she said, “but you need to be back in bed.”
“Thank you.” I slowly got up and took a couple of steps to his bedside, resting a hand on his bruised face. He was covered in dried-on blood, with a cast on one arm and a bandage on his forehead. My mother had come by after Nick left and told me Jayson had ruptured his spleen, broken his arm and a couple of ribs, and had a few other injuries I couldn’t remember now. The pain meds they’d given me had kicked my ass, but I was done with that now. I’d suffer through whatever pain I was in because I had to be strong for the kids and probably for Jay as well. Even if I was furious at him.
I gently brushed his hair to the side and looked around for something I could clean him with. As angry and frustrated as I was, we’d spent the last decade together and seeing him hurt this badly was hard to look at. Even with my headache and the pain burning in my shoulder from the broken collarbone, I didn’t want him to lie here like this. Especially if the kids were going to see him.
“Can I help you, miss?” A brusque nurse came in, eyeing me warily.
“I’m his wife,” I said, turning to her. “Can I have something to clean him up with?”
“Oh, Mrs. Keller, I’m sorry. Yes, of course. Please sit down. I’ll be right back and we can do it together.” She bustled off and I scowled but I couldn’t blame her. As celebrities, there would be a note in our files that we were off-limits to random visitors. My room was private, but here in the ICU, Jay was more susceptible.
The nurse came back with pre-soaped cloths, a small bucket with warm water, and some clean towels. Since I was only using one arm, she washed his hands and arms in the warm water and I gently worked on his face, memories of the last ten years flooding my brain as we cleaned him up.
I couldn’t pinpoint when our marriage had started to fall apart, but I had a good idea why. For the last five years, I’d had no time to think about anything except our career and the children. Jay and I lived and worked together, but the romantic part of our relationship had faded away relatively quickly, morphing into something resembling a friends-with-benefits relationship. We had sex, but the romance and intimacy weren’t what they’d been initially, and certainly not what they could have been. While all our friends were falling in love, getting married and starting families, we plodded along with our brood, overlooking our troubles and focusing on what the children needed.
It had worked for a while, but not anymore. I was ashamed to admit I’d stopped trying, but that was the truth and now I was going to pay the price for that if Jay left or, god forbid, died. The twins were turning seven, Sasha was in college, and Luke was eleven, so Jay and I were beginning to notice just how little was left between us that didn’t have to do with music or the kids. It was a bit pathetic, but I had no one else to blame. That was the worst part of it.
Jay moaned and his eyes fluttered open.
“Hey.” I spoke softly, cupping his cheek.
“Where…” His voice croaked and he coughed.
“Easy.” The nurse brought over a cup of water and put the straw in his mouth. He took a sip and laid his head down again.
“What happened?” he asked.
“We were in a car accident,” I said. “Do you remember anything?”
“We were…” He frowned. “We made pizza and played games.”
“Then we went for ice cream. Do you remember leaving to get ice cream?”
His eyes met mine wearily. “No.”
“It’s okay.” I stroked his hair. “You’ve been pretty heavily sedated so I’m sure it’ll all come back.”
He nodded, his eyes closing again.
We finished cleaning him as best we could without moving him too much and I sank into a chair in exhaustion. My whole body hurt, I had a headache and I wanted to go home, but I had to hang in there a little longer. I had to deal with the kids, our families, doctors and probably the press. And all I could thin
k about was taking a trip to Monte Carlo.
2
Erik
I spent a lot of my time in bed staring at the dark ceiling. It was six in the morning and I was wide awake, something that happened a lot, even though I’d only gotten to bed a few hours before. Beside me, I heard Liz snoring softly. It had been a late night for both of us. Friday nights were always busy at the casino and it had been more crowded than usual last night. With a sigh of frustration, because I knew there would be no more sleep for me, I got out of bed and quietly went into the bathroom. I put on shorts, a T-shirt and socks before slipping out into the kitchen. We’d turned the top floor of the hotel into one huge penthouse, so except for the windows on almost all sides and the elevator in the middle of the foyer, it was like living in an expensive high-rise condominium.
Liz and I shared a beautiful master bedroom, Leni had her own room, there were two guest bedrooms as well as an office, an eat-in kitchen, a formal dining room and a massive, combined living/family room. Although it was slightly unorthodox compared to other families, there were a lot of perks to living in a hotel. The gym was just a short elevator ride away, as was the pool, a number of restaurants, and shopping of all kinds. There was valet parking, banquet halls, and entertainment galore. Of course, there were also the casino and bars, which wasn’t always an ideal place for a precocious nine-year-old, but Leni had grown up in this hotel, so she wasn’t all that impressed with drinking, gambling or other adult behavior.
