by Nicole Helm
“You need to get me out,” Nina said in a fierce whisper. “You need to.”
“Ace is in jail.”
Again confusion took over her features. “How can that... How can that be? It was one of his men who shot me.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.” When he kept his gaze steady on her she wilted a little. “No. I mean, I didn’t see him. He was dressed...” Again she looked at Brianna, clearly not wanting to get too far into it. “Who else, Cody? Who else?”
“I don’t know what you’ve been doing these past few years.”
The hurt that chased over her face was too hard to watch, so he turned his attention to Brianna. “We need to go.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I know, but your mom needs to sleep to get better.”
“I’ll sleep with her.”
Cody had to scrub his hands over his face. What had Nina gotten him into? Them all into?
Was it Nina, or was it you?
“Grandma Pauline was going to make a cake,” Cody managed to say, though he had to admit he didn’t sound very excited about it.
Nina rolled her eyes at him, but when she turned her attention to Brianna, she smiled big and bright. “Go on. I’m going to get better as soon as possible.” Nina picked up the wig she’d knocked off Brianna’s head. “And you get to play dress up and eat cake,” Nina said, fixing the wig back on.
“The princesses gave me new toys.”
“The...” Nina smiled, though it was sad around the edges. “And they’ll protect you.” Nina looked up at Cody, something indescribable in her expression. “And so will all those brave knights.”
“You need a knight,” Brianna said, her forehead pleated with worry.
“I have one,” Nina replied easily, still smiling. Cody wondered if Brianna saw through it as easily as he did. “The man who was in here when you got here? That’s your daddy’s big brother. He’s been keeping me safe, and he’s going to keep doing that. Okay?”
“Why aren’t you keeping Mommy safe?” Brianna asked, frowning at Cody.
Cody found himself speechless, which wasn’t something he’d ever had a problem with until the past few days. But his daughter looking at him with such accusation when he hadn’t even fully come to grips with the fact he had a daughter.
“Your daddy’s job is to keep you safe,” Nina said. She looked up at him, imploring and desperate. “And to get me out of here as soon as he can.”
Cody didn’t appreciate being put on the spot like that, but he was beginning to—somewhat against his will—come to her way of thinking. If it was the Sons who’d hurt her, for whatever reason, it wouldn’t take much longer for them to come sniffing around the Wyatts, and it would eventually lead them to this hospital.
“We’ll do our best. All us knights.” Cody forced himself to smile and hold out his arms for Brianna. She gave Nina a kiss on the cheek and one last squeeze, then reluctantly went to him.
“Can’t I walk?” she whined.
“We’re trying to keep your age a secret, remember?”
Brianna sighed. “I’m tired of secrets,” she mumbled.
Cody didn’t say anything, but he met Nina’s gaze. Regret. Fear. Sadness. Hurt.
It all echoed inside of him. So he turned away. “We’ll do our best,” he muttered, opening the door. As he stepped out, he pulled his hat back low and looked at Gage, who was standing there guarding the door, thank God.
“What do you know?” Cody asked Gage on a whisper.
“She’s been living in Dyner,” Gage said, keeping his voice low and their heads bent together.
Dyner was a small town at the edge of Valiant County. She’d been that close. That close. Granted, Cody had been living in Wyoming so it wasn’t as if they would have run into each other, but...
“She killed a man—the man who shot her. He was a member of the Sons. It’s not going to take long for one of the nurses to put it together when Tucker comes to investigate.”
“He can’t—”
“Why do you think he hasn’t yet? But this is his job, Cody. He’s the detective. He can only bend so many rules without losing his badge.”
Rules. It was why Cody hadn’t been able to follow his brothers’ footsteps. He’d wanted to be a cop too, except for the rules. They too often didn’t help people who needed to be helped.
Cody looked down at Brianna in his arms. She had her head leaned against his shoulder. She wasn’t crying, but she looked like she might start at any moment. “We have to get her out.”
Gage pulled a face, but he didn’t argue. “Got any bright ideas?”
“Not yet, but we act now. One way or another.”
* * *
NINA HAD BEEN brought up by the Knights to believe in right and wrong. Good people followed the rules and the world would reward them if they did.
She didn’t believe that anymore. Seven years of keeping her daughter’s identity a secret, of moving and hiding and living in fear would shatter anyone’s fairy-tale views.
Sneaking out of the hospital was wrong, and it felt wrong, but she knew she had to do it. Gage had created a slight diversion, and Cody had taken out her IV and done something to the equipment so it wouldn’t alert the nurses she’d removed the ports.
Then Cody had left with Brianna, leaving Nina to find a way to sneak out as soon as Gage gave her the go-ahead signal.
The Wyatt boys had made it easy, and she’d walked right out of the small local hospital as if she was actually supposed to.
When she saw Cody standing next to a truck, his hat pulled low, pretending to puff on a cigarette, her heart beat hard against her ribs reminding her she was alive.
No matter the aches, the pains, the fear that she actually wouldn’t survive all this, she was alive. She had to keep living and trying for Brianna, no matter what hurt—body or heart.
He opened the passenger side door for her, dropping the unlit cigarette and crushing it with his boot. She slid inside and smiled back at Brianna in the back. Somehow they’d found a booster seat for her.
“How...”
Cody slid into the driver’s side seat. “It’s Gigi’s. Uh, Gigi is Liza’s little sister. She’s only four, so we had to adjust it for Brianna, but it worked for today.”
“Liza. I haven’t seen her...” It had only been Nina’s second year with the Knights when Liza had come to live with them. Liza had been sixteen, and the Knight girls had all been significantly younger. There’d been a big uproar because she and the oldest Wyatt boy had finally gotten out of the Sons.
Nina remembered that summer. Remembered how scared she’d been that if the Knights added another girl, they might send her back.
Nina had been the last foster, and the other girls had been together for years before the Knights had asked her to come home with them. But Nina had been afraid. Afraid to get too close. To settle in.
Then Liza had come and made Nina even more afraid. But instead of sending Nina back, or having less room, something about Liza had made them a family. A real family.
Then Liza had disappeared three years later. Back to the Sons everyone said. But Nina had known she’d only gone back to save her sister Marci. No matter what the Wyatt brothers had thought.
“Liza’s back then.”
“More or less. She lives in Bonesteel with her little sister and Jamison.”
“Jamison. But...” Jamison had been the most devastated by Liza’s disappearance. And the most angry. Granted that was all fifteen years ago.
Cody shrugged. “Got back together last month when she left the Sons.”
The words got back together hung between them, heavy and uncomfortable as Cody pulled out of the hospital parking lot.
“Gage will stay back for a few hours,” Cody said, his voice cool and devoid of emotion. “The
n he’ll make an excuse that he got a call, but not to bother you. It should buy us some hours.”
“But they know Gage. They know you.”
“If it’s the Sons, they know us anyway. If it’s not? That’ll take longer.”
“It’s the Sons,” Nina said flatly.
He shifted a glance in the rearview mirror, so Nina did the same. Brianna was fast asleep.
“She hasn’t done much of that,” Cody said. “She wouldn’t do anything until the girls—the princesses—all got there. They gave her a bath and she ate a bit. She’s very talkative and seems...okay, but she’s not sleeping or eating enough. She’s been too worried.”
Nina nodded, her stomach tying in knots. “We can’t stay at the ranch.”
“You can. You will.”
“Cody—”
“You came to us for a reason, Nina. I assume in part because it’s my fault if the Sons are trying to hurt you. But also because you knew we could keep you both safe. You’re going to have to trust me to make those decisions. And my decision is you’re at the ranch for the time being.”
“You still think you’re invincible,” she said, before she could think better of it and temper the bitterness out of her tone.
He gave her an enigmatic look before turning his attention back to the road. “No one’s invincible. But some people will do whatever it takes to make things right. Whatever it takes.”
Chapter Four
Nina had kept it together. For Brianna’s sake. For her own. Because letting her guard down with Cody would surely mean all kinds of trouble.
But when Cody pulled up to Grandma Pauline’s ranch, and Duke Knight stood there waiting, she absolutely lost it.
He’d been her one true father figure, and she didn’t realize until this moment how desperately she’d missed having someone to lean on. Someone who loved her, no matter what. A strong, sure presence. Always.
Brianna was still asleep so Nina let herself cry as she got out of the car and practically ran for him. He met her halfway, enveloping her in a tight hug. It didn’t matter that her stomach hurt. He still smelled like horses and leather and home.
When he pulled her back, his dark eyes were full of tears. “You’re lucky you’re still healing, girlie, because I have a heap of lectures waiting for you.”
His voice had gone raspier, and there was more gray at his temples than there had been. He was the absolute best man she knew. From taking her in when she’d been a shy little mess, to keeping all his daughters—biological and foster—strong and whole through Liza running away, and then his beloved wife dying shortly after.
Breaking up with Cody had been hard, but leaving her family had been a sacrifice she probably wouldn’t have been able to bear... If she hadn’t found out she was pregnant. It had made the ache for home greater, but it had made the stakes so much higher.
“Took three of us just to keep him from charging off to the hospital.”
Nina inhaled and turned to find Dev. She let out a breath. Seven years had changed him. Not for the better. He was skinnier, edgier. She’d watched him slowly climb out of the near-death experience he’d suffered ten years ago, but it had left a forever mark that only seemed to deepen with time.
“Hi, Dev.”
“Let’s get inside,” Cody said. “We can’t be too careful.”
Nina managed to look at him. Brianna was curled up against him. He made carrying her look easy when she was having a harder and harder time hefting Brianna’s ever-growing frame.
Nina doubted inside was any safer than outside. If the Sons had finally come after her, it was because of her connection to the Wyatts. Grandma Pauline’s ranch would be the first place they looked.
She let Cody usher her inside as Brianna yawned and woke up. With time to think more than panic, Nina could see that her coloring had been off, but the nap in the car had helped some.
“Come here, baby.” Nina held out her arms.
Cody shook his head. “You’re not supposed to be carrying anything.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but there were too many men in the kitchen looking at her like she’d break.
Grandma Pauline bustled into the kitchen. “Now, you’ll sit and you’ll eat,” she said by way of greeting, already making a beeline for the stove. Though she patted Nina’s shoulder as she passed—which was often as close to a hug as Grandma Pauline ever got.
Slowly, Nina lowered herself into a chair at the kitchen table. She placed her palms on the scarred wood. Grandma Pauline’s table had been a second home, which had been a miracle for a girl who’d been born into such a terrible one. To be brought to a place surrounded by so many people who cared. So many places to go when she was afraid or upset or lonely.
To have to leave it, all because she’d fallen in love. Even after seven years of living on the run, she couldn’t find a way to make herself believe it had been a mistake. That she’d fallen in love with the wrong person. Cody had understood her better than anyone back then. And he’d given her Brianna.
The child he was setting down on the ground, as if he’d been born to be a father to her wonderful girl.
Brianna crossed the floor and seated herself on Nina’s lap. Nina held her close and tight and tried to breathe through all the horrible and wonderful things pressing against her chest.
“Have you met Duke?” Nina asked Brianna through a tight throat, turning Brianna to face where Duke took a seat next to her.
Duke nodded slowly and Brianna bounced in Nina’s lap, causing Nina to wince in pain.
“Grandpa Duke already gave me a present,” Brianna said happily through bites of a cookie Grandma Pauline had sneaked her somehow.
“Grandpa,” Nina echoed, touched beyond measure. Duke was her daughter’s grandfather. It opened up a yawning, painful regret she knew would eat her alive if she’d let it.
It hurt that she’d lost her family seven years ago, but she had to remember why she’d done it. To save Cody. To save Brianna. She couldn’t focus on the regret. She had to focus on the present.
Getting out of the hospital had been a start, but if the Sons suddenly wanted her dead—whether because they’d finally tracked her down or for some other reason—they wouldn’t stop. Even if Ace was in jail, which she didn’t quite believe.
The only way they’d stop now that they’d shot her was if they thought she’d died in that fire.
All things Nina didn’t want to discuss in front of Brianna, no matter how much Brianna had gleaned from living her entire life knowing bad men were after them.
At the sound of little feet, Nina turned to the entryway of the kitchen that led out into the living room. A little girl scurried in, grinning broadly at everyone.
Behind her at a slower pace, a tall brunette appeared.
“Oh my God,” Nina breathed. Cody had mentioned Liza, but Nina didn’t know how to handle these onslaughts of memory and reality.
Brianna slid off Nina’s lap and ran over to the little girl standing next to Liza. The two girls hugged like they were the best of friends and Nina could only stare at Liza. They’d been sisters for such a short time, but she supposed time didn’t matter when you’d grown up with so few people in your life who’d loved you or cared about your well-being. The ones who did, no matter for how long, mattered.
Nina slowly got to her feet, in part because this all felt so surreal and in part because her side hurt.
“You’ve looked better, kid,” Liza said, her voice scratchy at best.
Much like with Duke outside, Nina didn’t try to hold herself back. She moved forward and grabbed onto Liza, squeezing as tight as possible. She let it all go. Let herself remember what it was like to have a family, to depend on someone else.
Liza’s arms were gentle, likely she was being careful because of Nina’s injuries. Liza was older, and she’d always seemed to know ev
erything. Looking back, Nina knew it wasn’t true, but she wanted to believe in Liza’s all-knowing powers for a while.
Liza cleared her throat and pulled away. “I’ll watch the girls. You all have your war council. Then we can catch up.”
Nina looked back at the table where Duke, Dev, Cody and Grandma Pauline were now seated, looking very much like just that—a war council. She let out a shaky breath.
For seven years she’d run. She knew that coming home to the Wyatts would mean only one thing.
Now it was time to fight.
* * *
CODY HAD NOW watched Nina fall apart while facing two people from her past.
She hadn’t fallen apart when she’d seen him in that hospital room—him, the person she’d kept their daughter a secret from for so long.
It burned. Brianna being kept from him for so long was the kind of betrayal a person didn’t just set aside.
Unless said daughter was in mortal danger, he supposed.
So, no. Betrayal couldn’t be focused on right now. Survival came first—it always did. He might have been saved from the Sons at the age of six, but he’d always known the cost and importance of survival.
Nina returned to her seat at the table, wincing as she sat. Whether out of pain or the fact everyone’s attention was on her as Liza led the girls out of the kitchen with the promise of a tea party.
Nina inhaled and let the breath out slowly. He knew he should speak first. Lay out what they knew, but all he could seem to do was stare at her. She looked exactly the same. Same freckles, same dark blue eyes. Her hair was a little longer than it had been back then, but other than that, nothing about her had changed.
Except the woman he’d known, would never have kept his own child from him.
Unless she’d finally understood what it meant to be a Wyatt, and that she never wanted that mark on her child.
He had to get his head on straight. Daughter or not, Nina back here or not, there were lives at stake and he’d dedicated his life to saving lives from the Sons. No matter how he felt about said lives.