by Nicole Helm
Funny how life worked.
“There was a dead body in what remained of the house, yes.”
Nina nodded, making sure she held the gaze of every man at this table. She’d learned something in seven years—you never got to show you were afraid. If you did, people took advantage. The Wyatt brothers might think they’d never take advantage of her, but this was about bringing their father down. She was only a pawn. A piece.
She wouldn’t let them walk all over her when she had her own wrongs to right.
“We need more than the attack. We need something...something that feels like revenge.”
“Well, there’s the obvious,” Brady said, speaking for the first time.
Cody frowned at his brother. “What’s the obvious?”
“Seven years ago Ace warned you off, right?” Brady said to Nina. “Didn’t want you seeing our boy here. Then, for whatever reason, seven years after you disappear, he—or someone in the Sons—targets you.”
Gage nodded, though Nina didn’t understand at all what they were getting at. She glanced at Cody, whose face had gone hard.
“What? What’s so obvious that I’m missing?”
Gage and Brady looked pointedly at Cody. He sighed heavily. “We go there to prove something to Ace.” He didn’t move—not one inch. She wasn’t even sure he breathed he was so still, but there was a shift in the air around him. Around them. “That he didn’t succeed—either time.”
For a few moments, Nina could only stare. Then she could only laugh, though it hurt her stomach something awful. “You’re...” She laughed some more, unable to stop. Made worse by the fact the Wyatt brothers looked at each other in some mix of confusion and unease.
It took her a few minutes to really get ahold of herself enough to speak. “You expect Cody to be able to go in there and convince anyone that he’s shooting daggers at me because we’ve reconciled?” She shook her head. “I don’t think anyone’s that good of an actor, let alone him.”
“You’d be surprised what I can pretend when my daughter’s life is at stake.”
“Except that cold, disgusted way that you say that proves otherwise, Cody.” And it hurt, no matter how she wished it didn’t.
“Why don’t we leave you two alone and—”
“You will not move,” Nina snapped. “We will finish this before Brianna comes back inside. She understands more than I’d ever want her to, but she doesn’t need the details. Cody, you think you can pretend we’ve somehow found a way to reconcile, then that should be the road we take.” She wouldn’t let herself crumble just because her feelings were a little hurt. “We’re there to rub it in his face. Maybe even act like we’re thanking him for bringing us back together. The more smug we are, the more likely he’ll be to want to burst our bubble. It’s the best chance to get him to slip up and give us a clue.”
No one spoke or reacted for a few seconds. So she looked at Jamison. He was their leader, no matter that the younger ones might not admit it. They all looked to Jamison for the final decisions because once upon a time he’d saved all his brothers from hell while he’d been stuck there himself.
Eventually, he nodded. “It’s a good plan.”
“You should practice,” Gage offered, and though he was trying to hold back a smile, Nina didn’t miss that he found the whole thing humorous.
She scowled at him.
“Have, if not a script, an idea of how you’re going to lead the conversation,” Tucker said, with a little more tact than his brother. “Practicing will help make it seem natural.”
Cody smiled, a complete and utter fake smile Nina didn’t buy for a moment. “Goody.”
* * *
THE BROTHERS WENT their separate ways, leaving Cody alone with Nina in the kitchen. Which was the last place he wanted to be right now.
“You should rest.” She didn’t look as pale as she had yesterday, but she certainly wasn’t 100 percent. She’d been shot. Gone through surgery and been broken out of the hospital far too soon. “You should let Brady check you out.”
“We should...” She wrinkled her nose. “Practice isn’t the word I’d use. We should plan.”
“Brianna and Gigi will be back any minute. There’s no use practicing if you’re only going to keel over because you aren’t taking care of yourself.”
She made a snorting sound. “Trust me, Cody, if there’s one thing I know how to do it’s take care of myself. I didn’t have anyone else to do it for me.”
“Which sounds like a ‘your choice’ type deal.”
“Yes, my choice. Certainly nothing to do with my boyfriend’s psychotic father.”
“Right. Well...” He had nothing pithy or even snippy to say to that. Nothing at all to say to the truth. He could be angry. He could mourn the loss of six years, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to believe it wasn’t all necessary.
Because Ace had put a target on his back the day he’d been born. Cody had just been too old when he realized it.
“Cody.” Her voice sounded so soft, so entreating. When she slid her hand over his, it was as if the years fell away. “I don’t blame you. Not for Ace. Why would I?”
Why wouldn’t you?
The kitchen door opened, and Brianna clattered inside, already halfway through a story about chickens. She skidded to a stop in between the chairs Nina and Cody both sat in.
“Grandpa Duke said I could go over to his ranch and meet all his horses and he has three dogs and two cats and—”
“No.” He knew he’d been too harsh when Brianna’s face crumpled, but it killed him that she was so excited about something that absolutely could not happen.
He glanced at his grandmother and Liza standing in the door with their arms crossed over their chests in exactly the same way. Then he met Nina’s hurt and confused stare.
“We have to stay on the property,” Cody said, and no matter how he told himself to be hard, to be strong against that vulnerable cast to her expression, he found himself gentling the words against his will.
“And why’s that?” Grandma demanded.
He might have lied if not for the fact Brianna was looking up at him with big blue eyes as if the world rested on his next words.
“I have safety precautions here. I’ll know if someone’s coming. Here. I don’t know about Duke’s property.” He pulled Brianna onto his lap so he could be eye level with her. “I am sorry, sweetheart, but we’ve got to stay here for the time being.”
“I like it here. I love it here. It’s the best place we’ve ever lived.” She threw her arms around his neck, squeezing tight as her voice wavered. “We can stay here forever. I don’t have to go anywhere. Please don’t make us. I love it here. Right here.”
He flicked a glance at Nina, who looked like she’d been stabbed.
Cody rubbed Brianna’s back and tried to find something reassuring to say. “We’re good here. Everything’s all right,” he murmured. She sniffled into his shoulder.
He didn’t dare look at Nina or his grandmother. He was sure it would break that last thread of control he had.
“Can I go watch TV?”
“Let’s watch Peppa!” Gigi announced enthusiastically.
Brianna sighed heavily, muttering about baby shows, but she slid out of Cody’s lap and took Gigi’s hand. They disappeared into the living room, and all Cody could do was stare at his empty lap.
“We’ll go keep an eye on them,” Liza said, looking meaningfully at Grandma.
“Humph,” Grandma muttered before following Liza out to the living room.
“Look. I’m sorry. I should have found a better way of... I don’t have this...” Hell. “I snapped at her and I shouldn’t have.”
When he looked up at Nina she was barely holding back tears, but she was shaking her head. “It isn’t that,” she said, her voice squeaky and weak. “I... I did
n’t realize how miserable she’s been.”
“She hasn’t been—”
“All you said was she couldn’t go next door and she begged to be able to stay. She hasn’t been happy if she’s desperate to stay here.”
“Nina...” He didn’t know what to say to her. He shouldn’t want to comfort her. She’d hidden their child from him. If Brianna was unhappy it was Nina’s fault.
Except he knew too well what a truly scary childhood looked like. “It isn’t something you should blame yourself for.”
“When you’re in it—deep in it—you don’t see. I worried about her safety. I worried about everything, but I didn’t spend enough time worrying if I’d given her a childhood.”
“Trust me, Nina. Having been the six-year-old who wasn’t safe, you had your mind on the right thing. She knows you love her. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t trust any of us. But she does. Sure, the way she’s been raised has left its scars on her, but that happens to everyone. We know better than most how much worse those scars can be.”
“You don’t have to try and comfort me.” She shook her head and stood, wrapping her arms around herself. “I know what I did to you. I know—”
“You don’t know everything,” he returned, irritated that she was throwing his justified anger in his face. “If my mother had done half of what you’ve done, my childhood would have looked a lot different, especially at the age of six.” Something cold and discordant slithered up his spine, but he pushed it away.
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“Your father was Ace.”
“My father is Ace.”
“But you aren’t. You aren’t him. I wasn’t saving Brianna from you. I don’t know that there was any other way, Cody. I really don’t. But it wasn’t about you. I just didn’t know any other way to keep you both safe. I never... I really never thought you’d believe me.”
“I don’t want to.”
“That’s not the same as not actually believing me.”
“I don’t know about forgiveness, Nina. I don’t know how to forgive what I’ve lost.” He didn’t know how to do any of this, but Brianna was his. “But I can’t blame you, hate you for what you did. I don’t even think it was wrong. You’re probably right. I would’ve gotten myself killed.”
Her jaw dropped and she stared at him like he’d lost his mind.
He probably had. “I can admit when someone else is right.”
Her mouth curved. “Well, that’s new.”
He almost—almost—laughed. It would have felt good. It would have been nice to laugh with her. But there wasn’t much to laugh at here. Tomorrow they’d visit Ace. Nina was in danger no matter who they saw or what they did.
“Jamison was a lot younger than I am now when he was getting me out of the Sons and away from Ace. He had a lot less help too. I would have thought I could do the same, but I wouldn’t have thought it through the way Jamison spent our entire childhoods doing. Looking back, I know it wasn’t so simple for him. I was the only one he got out before...” That cold, needling feeling was back.
“Before what?”
“When we were seven... Ace considered seven the age of testing. That’s when he’d been left and...” It couldn’t be. It couldn’t... “On my brothers’ seventh birthdays he left them each in the middle of the Badlands with no supplies, no nothing. Every birthday you had to spend the amount of days you were old on your own out there. To prove you were worthy of the Wyatt name, to prove you belonged.”
“That’s awful. How can a seven-year-old be expected to survive on their own?” Nina said, hugging herself tighter.
“They did. They did, but Jamison got me out before...” Cody’s gut roiled. “When’s Brianna’s birthday?”
“What?”
He took Nina by the hands, fear and panic and utter horror beating through him. “When does she turn seven?”
“In three weeks. I—”
He dropped her hands as the icy weight of horror took all the strength out of him. “Ace knows.”
Chapter Nine
Nina practically staggered as Cody let her go. She couldn’t process his words, but his clear panic had her heart beating so hard in her head she could hardly make out what he was saying.
“I have to get everyone back here. We have to reformulate.” He moved for the door, but never quite finished a movement.
“How does he know, Cody? How is this possible?” It wasn’t. It couldn’t be. All along, everyone had assured her there was no way Ace had known about Brianna.
“I don’t know. Hell. I don’t know.” He ran a shaky hand through his hair and it was how utterly affected he was that scared her down to her bones. “But it isn’t a coincidence. Jamison got me out the day before I turned seven. The timing of Ace coming after you now not making sense? It makes a whole hell of a lot of sense now.”
“But he didn’t know. The man who shot me didn’t know Brianna was there. All this time...”
“We don’t know what he knew, Nina. You killed him.” Cody scraped his hands over his face. “And if the timing... Ace loves his damn timing. The man wasn’t meant to take her. He was meant to scare you.”
“Why would Ace want to do that?”
“I can’t understand everything Ace does, but if there’s a why it’s usually to screw with you. End of story. I have to stop Jamison before he gets too far. And Tuck. They have to come back and we have to—”
“No. Too many voices. Too many opinions. This is about Brianna, Cody. Which means it’s down to us.”
“I’m not leaving my brothers out of this. The only reason we ever survived in the first place was—”
“Jamison taking everything upon himself to save the younger ones.”
Cody opened his mouth as if to argue, but there was nothing to dispute. She knew the story. You couldn’t know the Wyatts and not know how Jamison had slowly and methodically managed to rescue each one of his brothers out of the Sons’ camps and gotten them to Grandma Pauline’s ranch before finally managing to get himself out, with Liza, when he was almost eighteen and she sixteen.
Nina also knew Cody carried around a certain amount of guilt—she’d always likened it to survivor guilt. He’d been the youngest to get out. He hadn’t had to survive what his brothers had to—like this awful seven-year thing.
Nina sank into the chair again. Ace knew about Brianna. “How could he know? Why would he have waited?”
“The reason Ace has done everything he’s done is because he has patience. And a plan no one else knows. He left Dev alive for a reason, Nina. It wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart. It wasn’t a miracle moment of having a conscience. It was a warning, at best. And I think we all know deep down it wasn’t the end. We’d only hoped it was.”
She didn’t know how to process all this. How to accept that she’d failed. “So, what you’re telling me is these six years were a waste. That we could have all been together. It wouldn’t have mattered.”
He turned to face her, some of that panic or restlessness fading into something a lot closer to shock. “Was that ever what you actually wanted?”
“Of course that’s what I wanted. Do you know how... I was so happy, you know, that moment I took that pregnancy test.” She could picture it. The gas station bathroom, all her stuff packed up in her car heading back to the Wyatt and Knight ranches. Heading home. “For a brief shining second I thought... I never expected I’d have kids, but I was thrilled. And then I had to deal with reality.” Now she had to as well. There was no time for Cody’s feelings. There was only protecting their child. “What are we going to say to Ace?”
“If he already knows—”
“We still have to figure out what this is. What he’s trying to do.”
“I know what it is. It’s revenge. It’s Ace’s sick, twisted view of the world. To him,
his sons were property, his celestial reward or whatever. We betrayed him—time and time again. I put him in jail, Nina. Me. So I know what he wants. He wants to hurt me. And he’ll do it in the way he considers himself hurt—through my child.”
Nina wouldn’t let herself panic, though fear beat through her and threatened to tighten around her throat. She’d been here. She’d faced this. “If that’s true, all it means is we change our game plan. She’s here. She’s safe. Nothing has changed.”
“Nina.” The look of desolation on his face nearly snapped her weakening grip on control.
“I know. Trust me, I know.” Her voice wavered so she took a second to firm it. “It feels too big. It feels too...awful, but I have been doing this for six years—with no help. No nothing. I kept her safe.”
“Or he let you think that,” Cody replied with utter disgust.
As much as she knew that disgust wasn’t directed at her, it was too much to bear. Was it true? Had she kept Brianna safe all these years simply because Ace wanted some warped revenge on his own bizarre timeline?
She looked down at her shaking hands, felt the tears trickle down her cheeks. It was almost surreal, how her body reacted when her mind seemed to just go numb.
There wasn’t time. She’d been here before—whether Ace had “let” her escape or not, she’d felt in that moment the same as she did now.
Except there was no one to lean on then. She looked up at Cody. He was stricken and close to crying—but he wouldn’t. The fear was there, all over his face. A lack of certainty in the way he held himself poised to move but never did.
Neither of them spoke as the horror of Ace knowing Brianna existed stretched out around them, growing beyond reality into that horrible place she couldn’t go.
What if...
What if...
“I can’t lose her,” Nina managed to say, wiping her wet face with her palms.