by Day Leclaire
RJ addressed Nikki in a testy voice. “I certainly hope you didn’t get Mom’s expectations up about this business with the letter.”
She offered a reassuring smile. “Your mother has no idea we even suspect there’s a letter. It was Jack who figured it out.”
“Sinclair?” Both brothers spoke in unison, their gazes swiveling to stare—okay, glare—at Jack.
“What the hell are you up to?” RJ demanded.
“I already explained that to you. Try to keep up, Kincaid,” Jack retorted.
To Nikki’s concern he sounded tired, even his sarcasm bordering on exhausted. Of course, it had been a rough two days for him and the Kincaids weren’t making it easy to drop decades’ worth of barriers and give them the opportunity to know the man behind the ruthless facade. How odd that it had never occurred to Jack that instead of always standing on the outside, looking in, all he had to do was open the door to his own life and he’d no longer be on the outside. He wouldn’t be alone anymore. He’d have created his own family, his own circle of friends, his own home, full of warmth and love.
This morning had provided an excellent start, thanks to Elizabeth’s innate kindness. She had slipped under Jack’s guard the easiest, but then, that was her nature. At heart she was a sweet, generous woman who went out of her way to help others. Her sons would be far harder to coax inside. Nikki’s chin set into a stubborn line. But she would find a way. While Jack worked his way from A to E, she intended to work her way from one to six, straight through the Kincaid lineup—including Elizabeth—in order to win them all over to Jack’s cause. One big, happy family. Or they would be until the annual meeting.
“This has been a colossal waste of time. I’m out of here,” RJ announced. He lobbed a final warning shot in Jack’s direction on his way out of the door. “Stay out of Kincaid business, Sinclair. You do anything to hurt our mother and I’ll bury you so deep they’ll need a backhoe to dig out all the broken pieces.”
Matt started for the door after his brother then hesitated before leaving the room. “Why do you want that letter, Sinclair?”
“The hell if I know.”
Matt turned and faced him, eyeing him closely. “I’m serious. Why?”
Jack was going to lie; Nikki could see it in his expression. She crossed to his side and looked up at him. She could practically feel the waves of pain and resistance pouring off him. Gently, she slid a hand around his waist and pressed close in open support. For a long, tense moment she waited for him to make a decision. Open up or close down. No doubt his instinct screamed for him to lie. To reject the opportunity to reveal the heart of the man lurking behind the merciless business facade. She knew an instant before he spoke that she’d won this round.
“You know our father.” Each word escaped as though forced from him. “And you know how he felt about your mother. He’d never have insulted her that way. There’s a letter for her somewhere.”
Matt’s eyebrows shot up in open skepticism. “And you’re going to find it?”
“If I can.”
“Just because it’s the right thing to do?”
“Something like that.”
He was closing down again, Nikki could feel it. Maybe he would have if Matt hadn’t asked a question that caught Jack completely off guard. “Why did you visit my son in the hospital?”
Matt had faced a parent’s worst nightmare when his three-year-old son, Flynn, had developed aplastic anemia following a strong viral infection. Fortunately, the medication the boy received worked its magic. Otherwise, his biological mother, Susannah, would have donated her bone marrow in an attempt to save their son’s life. Her advent into their lives had led to a romance between her and Matt, one that promised another Kincaid wedding next week.
“Why did I visit Flynn?” Jack’s mouth curved in a sardonic smile. “I don’t know, Matt. Because it was the right thing to do?”
“Well, and because he wanted to see if he was a bone marrow match,” Nikki added irrepressibly.
Her words couldn’t have had a more dramatic impact if she’d stripped naked and performed a hula dance on Reginald’s desktop. Matt’s mouth dropped open and he stared in patent disbelief. Slowly he shook his head. “No way.”
Jack’s smile turned cynical and he shot Nikki a glare that promised future retribution. Well, she could handle it if it meant Matt saw his brother in a slightly different light than he’d been portrayed to date.
“Right,” Jack said, his voice desert-dry. “No way I’m capable of something like that.”
“You offered to donate bone marrow?” Matt repeated.
“It was an easy offer to make since I doubt I’d have been a match.”
Matt’s expression grew more intent. “And if you had been?”
Jack shrugged, remaining mute.
Nikki rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Give your brother a little credit, Matt. You don’t get tested if you don’t intend to go through with the procedure if there’s a match.”
“He’s not my brother,” the two brothers said in unison.
A strained silence fell between them for an instant, one Matt finally broke. “When you visited Flynn in the hospital… You said you’d once been hospitalized as a kid. What happened, exactly?” A tautness dropped over his features. “You didn’t need a bone marrow transplant, did you?”
Jack shook his head. “Nothing so dramatic.”
Nikki shrugged. “If you consider getting hit by a car nothing dramatic. Personally, I find it terrifying.”
He turned on her. “Would you cut it out! Stop telling them personal information. It’s none of their business.”
“Of course it’s their business. They’re family.”
“When…when did that happen?” Matt stumbled over the question. “Were you all right? I mean, obviously you’re all right. Hell.”
“Awkward, isn’t it?” Jack murmured.
Matt shook his head and then started to laugh. “Damn awkward. It shouldn’t be. It should all be straightforward. I hate you. You hate me. Everyone’s happy.” His green eyes showed a hint of the same warmth as his mother’s. “So, what happened, Sinclair? Were you so busy trying to take over the world even then that you weren’t paying attention to where you were walking?”
To Nikki’s profound relief she saw an answering amusement glittering in Jack’s blue eyes. “My brother, Alan, was the one not paying attention. My mistake was knocking him out of the way and taking the hit for him. Not that the little brat ever thanked me. Denied he was even there.”
“How old were you?”
Jack’s smile faded. “Twelve. It was the Fourth of July.”
“Oh, my birthday.” Matt ran a quick calculation. “I’d have been all of one.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Matt stiffened, his gaze sharpening. “How hurt were you?”
“I’m still here, aren’t I?”
But Matt wasn’t buying it. “It was touch-and-go, wasn’t it? And I’m willing to bet your mother called our father. Did he show up?”
“Eventually.”
“Meaning, no. He didn’t come, despite the fact that you might have died. And all because it was my first birthday and my mother would have suspected something if he’d taken off. So, you were on your own.”
“Not at all. My mother was there.” Jack shrugged. “She’s a nurse. Probably saved my life that day since she knew what to do to stop the bleeding.”
Matt nodded, a grimness cloaking him. “That’s why you visited Flynn. Why you brought a toy. Because you didn’t have any aunts or uncles or brothers or sisters to visit you when you were in the hospital.”
“I had my mother.” Jack repeated then attempted to deflect attention from himself. “Does it matter why, Matt? Whether you like it or not, Flynn’s my nephew. He’s an innocent and deserved my help regardless of how I might feel about his father.”
“Of course, if you hurt Flynn’s father, you also hurt Flynn,” Nikki inserted smoothly. Based on Jack’s r
eaction, that detail had never occurred to him. Typical. He was so focused on his own goals, he didn’t always look at the big picture. Deciding that she’d helped heal as much of the breach between them as she could, she deliberately changed the subject. “Matt, do you know whether the police checked The Kincaid Group phone records the night of your father’s murder?”
Instantly, his wariness returned. “Why?”
“Your mother said something about Reginald being on the phone when she arrived with his dinner. I was just curious to know who he might have spoken to.”
“Huh.” Matt’s brows pulled together. “I think you’d have to ask Detective McDonough about that. I’m pretty sure the police obtained a court order requesting them. Since no one mentioned anything more about it, I assume either Dad didn’t make or receive any phone calls that night, or they weren’t significant to the case.”
“Would you be willing to contact Charles and ask for a copy of those phone records?”
His wariness turned to open suspicion. “Why would I do that? And even more importantly, why would McDonough agree?”
She answered his second question first. “He might agree if you explained that you wanted to see if anything jumped out at you. You’d know better than anyone who your father would normally speak to in the course of doing business. Considering the case isn’t moving forward very fast, Charles might just agree.” She used every ounce of persuasive ability she possessed. “Besides, how can showing us the records hurt anything? Maybe, just maybe it could help.”
Matt stewed about it for a moment before reluctantly nodding. “I’ll ask, but I make no promises.”
The two men stared at each other for a long moment then with a sigh of profound irritation, Jack stuck out his hand. “Thanks.”
Matt hesitated, just as his mother had when first offered Jack’s hand. Then he took it in a firm grip. “Don’t mention it. Apparently, family does this sort of thing. Like bring toys to their nephew in the hospital and have their bone marrow tested.”
Jack nodded. “Apparently they do.”
“They also attend family weddings. You’ll be there next Saturday?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
* * *
Jack turned on Nikki the instant they left The Kincaid Group building. “Don’t do that again.”
She smiled up at him, the very picture of innocence. “Do what?” she asked.
“Nuh-uh. I’m not buying it, sweetcakes. Not the smile. Not the wide-eyed ‘why whatever do you mean, butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth’ look. None of it.”
“Why whatever do you mean?”
He pulled to a halt in the middle of the sidewalk. Sun rained down on them, the air dripping with humidity, while a fresh breeze from off the harbor tumbled her dark hair around a face bright with laughter. The afternoon light caught in her blue eyes so they glittered more brilliantly than the gemstones they resembled. The annoyed words he’d been about to utter died unspoken. All he could do was stare.
He reached for her, lifted her onto her tiptoes and took her mouth in a kiss he meant to be hard and passionate, but ended up landing with a soft, persuasiveness that had her moaning in delight. Her arms encircled his neck and she leaned into him, her feminine curves locking against him, fitting in place so perfectly he couldn’t doubt they’d been two parts designed to one day become a whole. If they’d been anywhere other than standing on a sidewalk on Charleston’s busy East Battery, he’d have made love to her right then and there.
Instead, a modicum of sanity prevailed and he gave her mouth a final nibbling taste before pulling back. “You have to stop interfering, Nikki. I’m dead serious. Now I’m stuck—correction—we’re stuck attending another one of their weddings. If I’d wanted a relationship with the Kincaids, I’d have formed one long ago.”
To his annoyance, she shook her head, her arms still linked around his neck. “No, you wouldn’t have,” she argued. “Even though all of you are grown and more than capable of forming your own decisions, you continued to respect your father’s wishes by keeping your distance from the Legitimates, as you call them.”
“Has it occurred to you I kept my distance because I had no interest in knowing them?”
Her expression grew even more tender. “You may have told yourself that, but it isn’t true.”
If she weren’t still holding him in place, he’d have ended the conversation by simply walking away. And though he could have pulled loose, for some reason he didn’t. “You’re calling me a liar?” he asked.
“No. I just think when it comes to the Kincaids you’ve been very careful not to look at your own motivations too closely.”
“Nikki, this is a pointless discussion. Now let go of me. I’m tired and I’d like to head home and enjoy just a few minutes of what’s left of the day.”
But she didn’t let go of him. Nor did she stop pushing, pushing, pushing. “Jack, for once in your life, stop. Think. Consider why you’ve made the choices you have.”
His mouth took on a hard, stubborn slant. “If you mean why I’m intent on taking down the Kincaids—”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I mean, why did you decide to start up a competing company? Of all the possible businesses and professions you could have gone into, why in the world would you choose the very one where—guaranteed—you were bound to run into your brothers and sisters at some point? Why, Jack?”
This time he did grab her hands and yank them from around his neck. He took a deliberate step backward. Then another, rejecting every aspect of the question. Without a word, he turned and walked away. But no matter how long or how far he walked, he couldn’t escape Nikki’s question. Nor could he escape the painful knowledge that pierced him like a dagger. On some level Nikki was right. He’d wanted to run into the Kincaids when he started up Carolina Shipping. He’d wanted them to know he existed. He wanted them to know the truth.
He was their brother.
Five
Nikki finally located Jack two hours later, sitting near the General William Moultrie statue on the outskirts of White Point Gardens, overlooking Charleston Harbor. She thought it appropriate that she found him beside the man responsible for the protection and defense of Charleston during the Revolutionary War since Jack so often assumed that role within his own family.
He didn’t look at her when she took a seat on the cement wall beside him. After a few minutes passed, he broke the uneasy silence. “How is it that you see things the way you do?”
“I don’t know. I guess it’s a gift.” She stared out across the water and shrugged. “Or maybe you’d consider it a curse. I just know it’s a talent my father had, one he passed onto me. I think it’s part of what made him such a great cop. He could talk to someone for a bit and get under their skin. Figure out what motivated them and why. He once told me that figuring out the motivation often helped him solve the case.”
“You’ve gotten under my skin.” Now he did look at her, his gaze dark with pain. “And I’m not sure I like it. I’m not sure I want you there.”
She bowed her head and nodded. “I understand.” She tried not to show the hurt, though she felt it. Dear God, how she felt it. “Maybe that’s why so many cops prefer to associate with other cops.” Her hand fluttered in a swift, helpless gesture. “Not only do they understand the demands and pressures of the job, but they don’t end up feeling what the average person feels—like they’re living under a microscope.”
“That’s not what I meant.” He reached for her, tugged her close. “You’ve never made me feel like I’m living under a microscope. You just…” He released a sigh of sheer frustration. “You see far too much. And for some reason your vision is much clearer than my own.”
She snuggled in, her throat constricting, making it difficult to speak. “You’re just too close to the problem, that’s all. I can see it because I have emotional distance.”
Only she didn’t. Not when it came to Jack. At some point in the past four months he�
�d become her world. And she couldn’t imagine her life without him in it. She shut her eyes, praying she wouldn’t start crying at the bittersweet awareness filling her. Before too much longer, she might not only have to imagine life without him, but live it without him, as well. His hand shifted and he caught her chin, turning her so she was forced to look at him.
“You need to stop now,” he told her gently. “You need to understand that I don’t have the sort of connection to the Kincaids you’re hoping for and I never will. All of your attempts to create that connection are pointless because my plans for them haven’t changed and they won’t.”
“Jack—”
He cut her off without hesitation. “Stop, Nikki. This isn’t open for debate or discussion. I’m telling you how it’s going to be. You can either continue to be with me…or we end this now. But this desire you seem to have of uniting the two families won’t work. Ever. There’s too much bad history between us for that to happen.”
“There’s no history between you,” Nikki objected heatedly. “There was history between you and your father, and between your parents. But you only met your brothers and sisters five months ago. There’s no reason you can’t have some sort of positive relationship with them. Look at how well it went today with Elizabeth and Matt.” Enthusiasm swept through her words. “Don’t you get it? It’s entirely up to you. If you’d just drop this vendetta you have going and consider working with them, instead of against them—”
He stopped her using the most effective means at his disposal. He kissed her. Whereas before his kiss had been gently persuasive, this one took command. This one led, giving her the option of following…or withdrawing. But she couldn’t withdraw. It was far too late for that. Instead, she surrendered, utterly.
Her head tipped back against his shoulder and she opened to him, accepting his possession, shivering beneath the skillful way he aroused and teased. They were so perfectly mated in all the ways that counted. Their intellect. The love that burgeoned between them, bit by delicious bit. Their sense of humor. Their work ethic. Their generosity and protectiveness toward others. Even the way they viewed the world and those in it—with the single unfortunate exception of the Kincaids. Why couldn’t Jack see that?