“I’m drunk. I’ll get in there and open my mouth and all sorts of shit I never want them to know will come spilling out.”
She pressed her lips together. “You’re not drunk. And you’re not going to say anything you don’t want to. They’re not going to force anything out of you, I promise. They want nothing more than to help you, and if letting you keep your secrets helps, they’ll accept that.”
Up ahead, Jude disappeared around a bend in the path, but losing sight of him didn’t calm his jangling nerves.
“But,” Natalie said after several beats of silence, “in my experience, keeping secrets has never helped anyone heal.”
“What if I don’t want to be healed?”
“If that were true, you wouldn’t have come this far.” She dropped his hand and took several steps in the direction Jude had disappeared. “It’s your choice. You can go back, but that’s not where your future is.”
His future.
Breath stalled in his lungs. When he came back from Syria, he hadn’t wanted a future. Then, suddenly, there she was. His angel dancing her way into his heart on pointe. He fleetingly wondered if this was what it had been like for Dad when he first met Mom. A staunch, in-it-for-life military man like David Wilde probably hadn’t expected to fall for a ballerina, either.
Natalie stared at him now with worry in her big melted-caramel eyes. The morning sunlight set off the gold in her hair, and the light breeze kept pushing a strand over her forehead. She held out a hand to him.
His future.
He could almost picture it. Waking up every morning with her by his side. Walking Jet together. He’d watch her dance. Maybe he’d even see a shrink like she’d suggested, get his head on right, and do volunteer work with her.
For the first time in a very long time, he saw a future that was more than death and despair and soul-crushing secrets. It could be a good life. All he had to do was accept her hand and face his brothers. It would be easier to go back, go to Nigeria, play his part like a good little killing machine until he figured out a way to end Bruce.
But that wasn’t what he wanted. Not anymore. He wanted Natalie. Nothing in his life had ever been so clear to him. He wanted the future, and if the only way he’d have a chance with her was to tell his brothers the truth, he’d do it.
He reached for her hand, closed his eyes when her fingers slid through his and locked in place. She closed the distance between them and raised up on her toes to press a gentle kiss to his mouth.
“You can do this,” she said, and the conviction in her voice convinced him that she was right.
It was going to suck. His brothers were going to be angry. But as long as she stayed by his side, he’d get through.
“Okay.” He nodded. “Let’s do this.”
Jude was not waiting for them in the parking lot. He must have already gone inside. As the two of them approached, he allowed himself a moment to admire the changes since he’d last seen the place.
Last fall, a bomb had destroyed part of the old strip mall, but now there was little sign of the damage. The parking lot was clean, and already filled with cars. As he watched, a woman got out of one of the cars and walked toward the storefront beside Wilde Security. She drew his gaze to the colorful sign over the door: The Bean Gallery. So that must be Shelby’s coffee house. It appeared to do brisk business.
Good for Shelby.
The office had also gotten a facelift. The plate glass window in front had been frosted a snowy white. A good idea, since many of their past clients had wanted to maintain their privacy. Wilde Security was printed in black lettering across the center, along with a…logo? A black W with a gold S, set inside a shield. Huh. That was new. Most likely Reece’s idea. He’d built his own software company from the ground up, so he knew a thing or two about branding and marketing.
It looked respectable now, like a real business, no longer the half-assed, slap-dash, semi-formed idea of one. It was exactly what he’d hoped it’d be when he dreamed it up a little over two years ago—a solid, steady source of income for his brothers.
He supposed he had Libby’s father to thank for that. If Elliot Pruitt hadn’t been so set on hiring Jude to protect her from a stalker last year, Wilde Security may have never gotten off the ground.
Jesus. His eyes were watering. And he was standing here at the door like an idiot. He blinked the blurriness from his vision and glanced over at Natalie. There was no judgment or condemnation or impatience in her eyes. She could have a short fuse—he’d seen it a time or two—and she definitely lost her patience with him more often than not, but now she was all quiet understanding. Like she knew how fragile he felt at the moment. He appreciated her more with each passing second.
Hell, that might even be love. He wasn’t sure, but it was unlike anything he’d ever felt before.
She smiled. “Okay?”
“Yeah.” And for once, he wasn’t lying. He wasn’t one hundred percent yet, but he might be on his way. At least, he was closer than he had been in a long time.
He pushed open the door and found the office’s interior had been repainted a soft, welcoming blue. The trampled industrial-gray carpet had been switched out for newer stuff a few shades lighter. The dented metal desks were now wood and had legitimate computer systems at each station. There was a comfortable waiting area, a couch and a couple chairs, underneath the window, and that was where he found his family. Well, part of it—the women were missing, leaving only his four younger brothers.
At the sound of the bell on the door, Reece stood. A bruise colored one side of his jaw, and dammit, the sight of it had anger tightening Greer’s throat. Not anger aimed at Reece, but at himself. He’d vowed over his parents’ graves to protect his brothers, and instead he was picking fights and running away from them.
What the hell had he become? He didn’t recognize himself anymore.
Cam also stood up from his seat on the couch, despite the cast encircling his leg. When had that happened? And why the fuck did his brothers keep breaking bones?
Vaughn, on the other hand, didn’t move. He glared, a scowl darkening his expression. Out of the four of them, Vaughn would be the hardest to apologize to. Under his gruff exterior was a carefully guarded sensitive soul. He was probably most hurt by Greer’s disappearing act, and the man held grudges like a champ.
“Well?” Vaughn finally demanded after the silence went on too long. “Are you just gonna stand there, or are we going to sit down and figure out how to fix this dysfunctional family of ours?”
“Hey,” Jude said mildly. “We put the fun in dysfunctional.”
Leave it to Jude to try to lighten the mood. Greer finally moved, dropping into the deep, cushioned chair closest to him. To his relief, Natalie didn’t try to use the lack of other women as an excuse to leave. Instead, she perched on the arm of his chair like she had every right to be there.
And, if he was honest with himself, she did. She’d somehow become his lighthouse in the violent storm that was his life.
He let out a long breath and shook his head. “I don’t know where to start.”
Chapter Nineteen
“How about with why you disappeared?” Vaughn demanded.
“Or,” Cam said, lowering himself carefully back to his seat, “why you lied about your discharge from the Army?”
They were both good questions, and ones he wanted to answer, but they were also more complicated than his brothers realized. When he opened his mouth, no words formed.
Natalie stroked her fingers over the back of his hand, drawing his attention. “Start at the very beginning.”
Yeah. The beginning. He wouldn’t be able to explain it all unless he started with the night their secure, upper-middle-class lives fell apart.
He drew another breath and tried again. “The night Mom and Dad died, I realized it’d be up to me to keep us together. If we wound up in foster care, they’d have broken us up, and I couldn’t allow that. You know I filed for and got emancipation. What you don’t kn
ow is the state wasn’t going to give me custody of you. They said I was too young. I couldn’t properly care for four young boys when I was just barely sixteen.”
Reece frowned and slowly returned to his seat, his brow furrowing in thought. “But you did get custody.”
“Not at first. They were going to ship you all away, sweep you up in the system, and I was so afraid I’d lose you. I promised Mom and Dad I’d take care of you—” He paused to clear the rocks out of his throat. “So I sold my soul to the devil.”
“What the fuck?” Vaughn said.
Jude held up a hand. “Are we talking figuratively or like crossroads demon, occult-type shit?”
Greer snorted. Given what he now knew, Bruce Chambers could very well have been a crossroads demon. “I went to one of Dad’s colleagues for help. Bruce Chambers. He had the connections and pulled the strings to make sure you all could stay with me…on the condition that I joined him in the Army once Jude graduated high school. I agreed, and he paid for the housekeepers, groceries, bills. What I didn’t realize then was every dollar added another year to my sentence.”
Vaughn didn’t bother hiding his doubt. “Sentence? You’re saying you were his prisoner?”
More like slave. But, no, he wasn’t going to tell them Bruce basically owned his sorry ass. “As soon as I got through basic training, he scooped me up for his little pet project.”
Still skeptical, Vaughn raised an eyebrow. “Which was?”
And here it was. Moment of truth. “Black ops. Assassinations, mostly. My most recent job was…” He trailed off and looked at Natalie. She knew some of this already, but he hadn’t told her the worst of it. “Two weeks ago in Syria. The guy they sent me after—he was bad news. I haven’t lost sleep over him. But my orders were to take out his family. Wife, children. And so I did.”
Other than Cam’s whispered oath, the room was dead silent.
Tears trailed from Natalie’s eyes. She leaned over and rested her cheek on top of his head. “It’s okay.”
No, it sure as fuck wasn’t. He didn’t even know what his body count was at this point.
Reece leaned back and took off his glasses, rubbing at the center of his forehead. “So you weren’t ever a Ranger?”
“Officially, I am. I went through Ranger School and have done the job. Unofficially, I’m a ghost. I don’t exist.”
Cam released a long breath. “Was Dad…?”
He wished he could lie. Well, he could, but what was the point? They’d find out sooner or later—hopefully sooner since he fully intended to expose Bruce for the monster he was. “Dad and Bruce ran the ops together. The squad didn’t start off as what it became, and I think that’s why Dad was killed. I think he wanted out and Bruce wasn’t going to let him leave because he knew too much. Once he was gone, Bruce filled the empty spot he left with me.”
“Why didn’t he ever tap any of us for his little assassin squad?” Vaughn asked. “We’ve all had extensive military training.”
“That was part of our agreement. He wasn’t allowed to recruit any of you. He had to leave you alone, or I’d blow the whistle on him.”
Vaughn’s anger finally boiled over, and he popped to his feet. “For fuck’s sake, Greer. You threatened this guy, even when you knew he killed Dad for doing the exact same thing?”
“He didn’t know,” Natalie protested, but he laid his hand over hers, stopping her. He tried to convey with his eyes that he had this. His message must have gotten through, because she relaxed. Marginally.
He refocused on Vaughn. “I only just started putting the pieces together last night. Bruce knew I’d resumed my search for Mom and Dad’s killer, so last fall he sent me on a wild goose chase by giving me a diary of Mom’s that pointed to the wrong guy. When he first gave me that diary, right around Jude and Libby’s wedding, I didn’t act on it. I’d almost convinced myself to let it go. Jude, you were happy with Libby. Cam, you and Eva had finally stopped circling each other. And then that insanity with Reece and Shelby eloping in Vegas…and it seemed everyone was over it but me. I finally started to think it was best to leave the past alone.
“Then, four months ago, Bruce sent me to Syria. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if it wasn’t a panic move on his part. After we completed our mission, we were attacked at a CIA safe house.” He let go of Natalie’s hand and lifted his shirt to show them the bullet wound. “Nobody should have known where to find us, but they came right at us. One of my men lost his life and I barely made it out.”
Jude flinched. Greer knew this had to be hitting all of his youngest brother’s exposed nerves the wrong way, but he was way past sugarcoating things now. “Bruce set me up. He hoped I wouldn’t survive Syria, but I did, and now he’s already pushing to send me off to some other war zone in Africa.”
“Sounds like he’s scared of you,” Natalie said.
“Yeah, well, if he killed our parents, he ought to be.”
“Why didn’t you tell us any of this before now?” Cam asked.
Because he was ashamed of the things he’d done, but he wasn’t ready to burden his brothers with that yet. He’d already dumped a lot on them. “I wanted you to have what I had…a normal childhood. But I also wanted you to have what I didn’t get…a normal high school experience, where your biggest concern was girls or homework.”
“You think we didn’t worry?” Reece shook his head. “Of course we did. Why do you think I worked my ass off building DMW Systems? I wanted us to have money, so you could leave the military, meet someone”—he nodded toward Natalie—“and finally have something approaching a normal life. I thought I knew how much you gave up for us, but I had no clue.”
“None of us did,” Vaughn said and gravel coated his voice. “Holy shit, bro.”
Greer couldn’t speak. If he opened his mouth and said anything more, he’d dissolve into a blubbering mess. And yet, he no longer felt like he was shattering under the weight he’d been carrying for so many years. Like dropping a rucksack after a twenty-mile forced march.
Beside him, Natalie sniffled, which drew Vaughn’s attention to her. His brows slammed together. “I still don’t get how any of this has to do with her nephew.”
She sniffled again and wiped at her wet eyes. “We don’t know, either. That’s why we need to find him. Did your search on his phone turn up anything?”
“No. Dead end.”
Reece added, “We think he ditched it.”
She sighed. “He would know enough to.”
“But we already know Bruce Chambers is involved,” Jude said, “so why do we need the kid? Let’s just take the bastard down and be done with it.”
If only it were that easy. “Bruce has powerful friends and a long reach. We can’t touch him until we have all the facts.”
“So let’s do it. We have some powerful friends, too. HORNET, Tucker Quentin. Between them and the five of us—”
Greer’s heart gave a painful thump. Christ, no. This was exactly what he hadn’t wanted. “I didn’t tell you this so you can put yourselves at risk.”
“Oh, you told us so we could sit back and watch you put yourself at risk?” Jude snorted. “Fat chance, bro.”
“Jude, you’re going to be a father. You have your child to think about now.”
He spread his arms. “All the more reason we need to do it now. I don’t want my kid coming into a world where Chambers is still free to ruin teenagers’ lives. What if he or one of his lackies comes after my kid in sixteen years?”
“They won’t. I’m going to handle it.”
Jude crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. It wasn’t an expression he wore often and looked odd on his usually smiling face. “You’re going to handle it by getting yourself killed? Yeah, well, I’m not letting you fulfill that death wish. I want my kid to grow up in a world with all of his or her uncles.”
He scowled right back until Natalie stepped between them, hands up as if she intended to push them apart should they try to go for ea
ch other’s throats. The mental image was funny enough that it distracted Greer from the stare-down. Both he and Jude had a hundred pounds on her, easy, and yet he had no doubt she would successfully break up a fight between them if she had to.
“Guys,” she said soothingly. “We’ve all had a very long night. Let’s take today, relax and let everything settle before any decisions are made.”
“What about your nephew?” Vaughn asked with an underlying note of hostility in his voice.
She sagged a little. “I don’t think he’s in immediate danger. Or any danger, to tell the truth. Knowing everything I know now, I’m starting to suspect he’s running because he’s afraid of being punished for what he did to Greer. Wherever he is, he’ll be okay for another day.”
“It’s a good plan,” Cam said after a beat. Always the levelheaded one, always the peacemaker. The water to his twin’s flame.
“No,” Vaughn said. “I wanna find this kid and—”
“We need time to process—”
“Fuck that.”
“Twins,” Greer said on an exasperated sigh. “Enough.”
“Don’t call us that,” they said at the same time.
“We hate that,” Cam complained.
“You know our names,” Vaughn added. “Use them.”
Greer smiled. Couldn’t help it. Christ, he had missed his brothers. The twins, so very much alike and yet different. Jude, the perpetual joker. Nerdy, pragmatic Reece.
He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed them until now.
“Listen,” he said to smooth the waters. “Natalie’s right. I’m not in top form right now.” The vodka was making its presence known in the pounding behind his eyes. He nodded toward Reece. “And Reece looks about ready to collapse. Let’s get eight hours and meet back here to come up with a game plan.”
His brothers eyed him.
“You’re not gonna do anything suicidal, are you?” Vaughn asked. Nobody could ever accuse him of being too subtle.
Greer winced, but Natalie spoke before he managed a reply. “I won’t let him.”
They studied her for several seconds, then all four of them started nodding like bobble heads.
Too Wilde to Tame (Wilde Security) Page 16