“What the fuck are you even doing here? The house is gone.”
“I’m well aware. Shelby and I were in it as it was burning down.”
Greer’s heart gave a little jump of panic, and he couldn’t help but glance over at the pile of ashes. Reece and Shelby had been inside when it happened? Holy shit. “You’re okay?”
“Yeah, we both made it. The house didn’t.” His gaze also traveled over to the burned-out shell of their childhood. “We’re talking about rebuilding it, making it a home again.”
Greer’s throat closed up at the thought. “Mom and Dad would have liked that.”
“I know.” Reece returned his attention to Greer. “Natalie said you might show up here. Guess she was right.”
Anger burst inside him with the destructive force of a bomb. And like that, all the tender feelings he’d been feeling toward his brother went up in smoke. “Natalie needs to mind her own fucking business.”
“So you said. Quite publicly, as I understand it.” Reece moved forward, giving him no choice but to meet his brother’s gaze. “Where have you been, bro?”
“Hell.”
“Yeah? What were you doing there?”
“What I had to.”
Sighing heavily, Reece dragged both hands over his face. “What’s going with you? How could you just disappear on us for four months?”
Nosy little brother. He tried to steer the bike around him. “Didn’t know I had to report my every move to you.”
Reece caught his handlebars. “You owe us an explanation. Jesus, Greer. We thought we were looking for a body.”
“Well, now you know I’m alive.” For a little while longer, at least. “Let go of my bike.”
As the engine rumbled impatiently, Reece held on. “Natalie told me what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.”
Goddammit. Of course she had. She was good at sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. “It doesn’t concern you.”
“The hell it doesn’t. They were my parents, too.”
“You can’t be involved.” Not if Bruce was the killer. Things were about to get ugly, and he had to know his brothers were safe.
“Greer.” Reece said his name on a drawn-out sigh. “You’re not a fucking island. You have brothers and sisters-in-law, who all want you home. Come back to Wilde Security with me. Talk to us. Whatever this is, you don’t have to do it alone. You yourself once said that’s not how this family works.”
He had said that, and it sucked to have his own words thrown back at him. “I don’t want you involved.”
“Well, that’s bullshit.” Reece still held the handlebars of his bike, forcing him to either knock his brother over or stay put and listen. He didn’t want to listen.
“Let go of my bike.”
“No. The twins, Jude, and I all have just as much right to know who killed our parents as you. We either do this as a family, or we don’t do it at all.”
He ground his teeth. “Don’t make me hurt you, Reece.”
“Yeah? Try it.”
“Remember you asked for this.” He hauled back a fist and slammed it into Reece’s jaw. Reece reeled backward, stumbled, and landed on his ass in the mud.
He revved the bike’s engine and swung it wide around Reece and the SUV, then gunned it down the driveway. In his mirrors, he saw Reece stagger to his feet and rub his jaw. He would not feel bad. If punching Reece was the only way to keep him safe, he’d do it a thousand times over.
Because the absolute last thing he wanted was for his brothers to wind up in Bruce’s crosshairs.
Chapter Sixteen
As soon as her shift ended, Natalie raced over to Wilde Security, hoping the brothers had good news. Instead, she found Reece reclined in one of the office chairs, his wife Shelby furious over a nasty bruise on the side of his jaw.
“Oh no.” She dropped her bag just inside the door and crossed the room to him. “Did Greer…?”
“Yeah.” Reece took the cold compress from Shelby and held it to his jaw. “He didn’t pull his punch, either.”
“The bastard.” Shelby paced, fuming, then instantly returned to her husband’s side when he sat upright and winced. “You need to have your head checked out. Pretty sure you have a concussion.”
“Jesus,” one of the brothers said and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Greer’s lost his fucking mind.”
Oh, they didn’t even know the half of it. Natalie glanced over at the speaker. He had a stud in one ear and a tattoo sleeve up one arm. He wasn’t one of the twins, so she guessed this must be the youngest Wilde, Jude. “You’re right. He’s not in a good place.”
Vaughn scowled. “What do you mean by that?”
How much should she tell them?
She studied each of the brothers and their wives. Jude and Libby couldn’t be more different. She was as tidy as a schoolmarm, her blond hair tied back into a neat ponytail, and he was all bad-boy swagger with roguishly long hair he’d recently finger-combed.
Reece and Shelby were an odd pair as well—he was the kind of guy who ironed his pants and wore his shirt buttoned all the way, while her hair was stop-sign red. She had a matching nose ring, and colorful ink covered most of the skin on her small body.
Then there was Cam and Eva, who looked like they fit together, two pieces of the same whole. They even dressed alike in jeans, leather jackets, and boots—the only differences were her jacket was a navy blue while his was brown and her kickass boots came up to her knees while he only wore one well-used work boot. On his other foot was a cast covered in colorful drawings.
Vaughn and Lark also looked like they belonged together, but in a different way. She was classically beautiful and dressed the part of a trophy wife, but there was something calculating about her, a weariness in her eyes, an edge that matched Vaughn’s.
And despite all their differences, together, they were a family, the bond between them tangible in their shared concern for Greer.
She had to tell them, she realized. They had to know just how far down into the depths of depression Greer had spiraled. It was the only way they’d be able to help him. The only way she’d be able to save him from himself.
She drew a breath and let it out slowly. “I believe he’s suicidal. No—more than believe. I know he is. He’s told me as much.”
The room exploded with shouts of disbelief, denial. Natalie waited silently through it all, keeping her face calm despite the deep ache in her heart. It wasn’t an atypical response. Family members never wanted to believe their loved one wanted to die.
“No.” Vaughn’s voice rose above the rest of them. He broke free of his wife’s soothing grasp and strode forward, got in Natalie’s face. “No fucking way. Suicide’s the coward’s way out, and Greer’s not a coward.”
“He’s not a coward,” she agreed, holding her ground. “Furthest thing from it. He’s the bravest man I’ve ever known. But because of that bravery, he’s done things, seen things that weigh heavily on him, and he doesn’t think he can live with them anymore. He doesn’t think he’s a good man. We need to prove to him that he can, and he is.”
Cam got up and used his crutches to hobble over to his twin. He put a hand on Vaughn’s shoulder, and the gesture seemed to have a calming affect. Vaughn backed off a bit.
“He’s still working for the military, isn’t he?” Cam asked.
She blinked. She hadn’t realized they were unaware of that fact. “Um…yes.”
“Shit.” Cam squeezed his eyes shut. “I wondered.”
Reece frowned. “No, he’s out. I’ve seen his discharge papers.”
“Paperwork means jack shit,” Jude said. “Any idiot with a computer can whip up discharge papers. If they wanted him off the books, they could’ve easily made it look like he’s no longer employed by the good old U.S. of A.”
Vaughn’s scowl darkened. “So what do they have him doing? Black ops?”
I’m basically a loaded gun…
No. She wouldn’t tell them that. T
here was a line between spilling some of Greer’s secrets for his own safety and completely violating his trust. A thin line, admittedly, but one she wasn’t willing to cross.
She shook her head. “All I know is he still works for the military. He hasn’t told me more.”
“He wouldn’t,” Jude said softly. “He’d want to protect her, guys. That’s what he does.”
Murmured agreements came from everyone in the room.
Cam sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Dammit, I knew something was wrong.”
All eyes turned on him.
“Wait, what?” Jude said. “You knew?”
“I…” Cam trailed off. His shoulders slumped. He looked miserable. “No, I didn’t know. ‘Suspected’ is the better word.”
“Come on, get off that leg.” Eva stepped up beside him and placed a hand on his back, guiding him over to a seating area comprised of a couch and a couple of deep chairs. He settled onto the couch. Eva sat beside him and laced their fingers together in a touching show of solidarity. “Now,” she said softly, “you need to tell them.”
He seemed to draw strength from her touch and straightened. “Yeah. All right.” He met his brothers’ gazes one at a time. “Greer’s been having panic attacks. I first noticed it at Jude and Libby’s wedding, and I wasn’t the only one. Seth Harlan saw it, too. Like recognizing like, I guess. I figured then that Greer was probably still working for the government because PTSD doesn’t usually take years to manifest.”
“And why the fuck didn’t you say anything before now?” Jude asked, incredulous.
“What was I going to say? ‘Oh, hey, by the way, our missing brother is suffering from PTSD?’ C’mon. What was that going to help? I figured we’d find him first, then deal with the rest of it.”
“He’s right,” Natalie said because she could tell Cam’s brothers were spoiling for a fight, and they didn’t have time for a sparring match. “That information wasn’t going to help you find Greer. If it wasn’t for him being mugged and me finding him in the hallway in front of my apartment, I very much think we still wouldn’t have found…” She realized all eyes had turned to her and trailed off.
Reece pinched the bridge of his nose as if trying to relieve a headache. “He was mugged?”
Ah, crap. She probably shouldn’t have told them that. She swallowed hard and nodded.
“Our Greer?” Vaughn asked incredulously. “You’re talking about the guy who could kick any one of our asses without breaking a sweat. How the hell was he mugged?”
Yeah, she definitely should have kept her mouth shut on the subject, but the cat was out of the bag now, and she wasn’t about to force it back in. “He was already hurt. Shot. They caught him by surprise, really did a number on him.”
“Whoa, whoa.” Jude held up both hands in a halt gesture. “Shot? When was he shot?”
“I don’t know. I found him that way. The wound had already been stitched and bandaged, and he had an infection.” She absolutely was not going to tell them about Syria, or what Greer had done while he was there. It wasn’t her place, and she suspected it was information she shouldn’t even know to begin with.
“Jesus,” Cam said. “This keeps getting worse.”
And they didn’t even know it all. She steeled herself. This next part was not going to go smoothly. “It was my nephew.”
Again, all eyes focused on her.
“Andy was one of the kids involved in the mugging,” she continued. “That’s why I need to find him before Greer does.”
Silence.
“Well, shit,” Cam muttered at the same time Vaughn said, “Fuck.”
Libby pressed a hand to her stomach. “Oh, God. Greer wouldn’t hurt a kid, would he?”
Jude slipped an arm around her waist and kissed her temple, but he didn’t leap to Greer’s defense like Natalie expected.
Nobody did. She stared at them in wide-eyed disbelief. Did they really think so little of him? Granted, she had thought the same at first, but after watching him interact with Annalise at the studio, she knew better. And so should they. “Of course he wouldn’t!”
“You said he’s behaving erratically,” Reece said slowly.
“Because he’s hurting! He needs help. He needs you—needs us—to believe in him because right now, he’s not able to believe in himself.”
“He doesn’t want our help,” Reece pointed out. “He made that quite clear when he punched me.”
“Well that’s just too damn bad. He needs it.”
Another beat of silence.
“So,” Cam said finally, “where do we start?”
Natalie released a soft breath of relief. With the Wilde brothers on her side, she had a better shot of making sure everyone she cared about got out of this mess unscathed. “We start with Andy. It doesn’t make sense to me that he got involved. He’s not a bad kid. Mischievous, but until a few days ago, I would have said he didn’t have it in him to hurt a fly. He’s kind of a geek. A computer whiz.”
“Sounds like Reece when he was a teenager.” Jude elbowed his brother. “He’s a geek.”
“And you’re a pain in the ass,” Reece said, but there was no heat behind it. If anything, the comeback was instinctual.
She turned to Reece, because, yes, she had the sense he and Andy were kindred spirits. “I swear Andy’s a good kid. He’s been in trouble a couple times for hacking—that’s it. We need to find him, hear his side of the story. I’m not excusing what he did to Greer, but there has to be a reason he did this.”
“Do you think someone hired him to do the mugging?” Cam asked.
She nodded. “I don’t know why Andy would accept such an offer, but it has to have something to do with Greer looking for your parents’ killer. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“So someone out there wants Greer hurt, if not dead.” He turned to his brothers. “Ask me, that’s reason enough to search for Andy. At the very least, we can keep him from trying again.”
Eva set a hand on her husband’s shoulder. “I can help. I’ll go into work, see what I can dig up in the old police files.”
Cam nodded. “That will help. I, uh…” He fumbled. “I tried to read the case file once and couldn’t do it. The pictures, descriptions…it was too much.”
“Nobody blames you for that. It’ll be easier for me. Plus, fresh eyes never hurt.” Eva kissed him softly then left her seat and moved toward the door, a woman with a mission. “I’ll call if I find anything. You do the same, especially if Greer turns up. I want to be here for that.”
“You plan to kick his ass?” Cam asked.
“Or hug him. I haven’t decided. Probably both.” The little bell on the door jangled with her exit.
Vaughn walked over to his computer. “I still have the program running, tracking Andy’s phone.”
Reece followed him and studied the screen over his shoulder. “What program did you use?”
“Just the find my phone app he already had installed. I hacked his account, and once I knew his password, I activated the app and the rest was easy.”
Reece gave his shoulder a friendly shove. “You’re getting better at this.”
“Your Hacking 101 classes have helped,” he said distractedly, then banged his fist on the desk. “Fuck me. The kid knows something’s up. He keeps changing his password, and now he has me blocked.”
“Let me have a go,” Reece said.
Vaughn relinquished his chair and Reece slid into it. His fingers flew over the keyboard, barely pausing. Vaughn watched over his shoulder, sometimes nodding, sometimes frowning. They’d occasionally carry on a short conversation that sounded like a foreign language to Natalie.
Andy would like these guys.
The thought made her heart ache. She hoped they’d get this mess all cleared up and he’d have a chance to meet them. He’d enjoy talking with people who not only understood his computer-speak, but loved it as much as he did.
“I’m gonna make some calls,” Cam said
after several beats of silence and got up on his crutches again, hobbling over to his own desk. “I still have contacts on the street. If there’s a hit out on Greer, I’ll find out.”
God. A hit? Did Andy really attack Greer just for money? It didn’t make sense.
The remaining Wilde women—Shelby, Lark, and Libby—had gathered in the seating area together, but Natalie didn’t feel like it was her place to join them, so she stayed where she was.
Jude started pacing. He didn’t strike her as a man who liked sitting still, which Libby confirmed by saying, “Jude. Pacing’s not doing any good. Why don’t you walk Natalie home and see if Greer shows up? I’ll call you as soon as Vaughn and Reece have something.”
He stopped moving, looked at his wife, then over at Natalie. They all knew the suggestion was little more than busywork—Greer wasn’t going to show—but Jude looked desperate enough to get out of the office that Natalie didn’t protest. She could use a change of clothes anyway, and Jet probably needed a walk.
“I wouldn’t mind the company.”
Jude nodded once and stopped beside his wife to drop a kiss to her forehead. Then he led the way out and held the door open for her.
Jude didn’t say anything at first. He seemed to be stewing. They were across the parking lot and entering the small park that separated Wilde Security from her building before he finally spoke: “Reece says you care about Greer.”
She should probably deny it, but what was the point? “Yes, I do.”
“Good. He needs someone.”
“From what I can tell, he has more than someone—he has you, your brothers, your wives.”
“It’s not the same. He needs a woman in his life.” Jude kicked at a pebble on the path. “If he’s suffering from PTSD, he needs someone beside him when he wakes up from the nightmares. Someone to remind him the flashbacks are past, and the future is bright.”
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”
“In some ways, I guess I am. My best friend had a really hard go of it when he came home from Afghanistan, until he found his girlfriend and she helped him cope. If Greer’s going through the same thing, he needs that. He needs you.”
Too Wilde to Tame (Wilde Security) Page 14
