“We, uh, already have something in the works. Thanks, though.” I try to dismiss him.
His eyes, a different color than the other three’s translucent blue, take pity on me. “Penny, we’ve been friends far longer than you’ve been dating my brother. Let me in.”
And because I haven’t gone into total bitch mode, you know being a mom and all, I relent and let him walk into my home. The boys come running at the scent of fried chicken, like wolves latching onto the scent of a deer.
“They’re animals.” Keaton chuckles as he serves them chicken, corn bread, and collard greens.
“They’d eat me out of house, home, and country if you let them.” I smile at Travis, Matthew, and Ames, and tell them they can eat their dinner in front of the TV.
Sue me. I’m a tired single mom who doesn’t feel like parenting at this moment in time and wants to nurse her broken heart with some fried chicken.
Keaton joins me at the table, and we begin to eat.
“Where is your wife tonight?” I ask, curious as to why he’s here alone.
He wipes his mouth after a particularly juicy bite of a thigh piece. “Late-night class at the studio. So I figured I’d come over and have dinner with one of my oldest friends.”
“Yeah, and try to talk to me about how your brother is a complete dick,” I deadpan, not feeling like small talk and hand holding.
Keaton nods. “That too. But first, how are you doing?”
I bite off some corn bread, the buttery carb doing wonders to comfort me. “Oh, I’m just peachy. As usual, holding the world together for my boys, kicking butt as a school nurse, and living it up here in Fawn Hill.”
He senses the bitter sarcasm in my tone, as I meant him too. “Penny, you don’t have to be strong for everyone all the time.”
I wipe my hands off and then lay them on the table, my ire building. “Oh, yeah? Then who is going to be, Keaton? My husband? Because he’s dead. Left us to serve his country and never came home. My friends are here, sure, but you’re not really here. In the middle of the night when a kid starts puking, no one else is here to pick them up off the bathroom floor or change their sheets. Or wait, is Forrest going to come to my rescue? My knight in shining tinfoil who can’t even break up with a woman like a proper human being. So, please, tell me how I don’t need to be strong.”
“My brother is in love with you.”
Keaton says this so off-the-cuff that I nearly choke on my own tongue.
“If you came here to lie, you might as well just walk out that door right now.” I point out of the kitchen.
“He is. I’ve never heard him talk about anyone, male or female, the way he talks about you. Seeing him with your boys … I can tell he really wants to become a major part of your family. He’s smitten, Penelope, and I think we both know he always has been. But my brother has a selfish streak … mainly because he’s been misunderstood a lot of his life. Forrest feels a certain way about his intelligence and believes it’s labeled him an outcast. It’s probably why he’s freaking out and retreating away from you.”
“Those are convenient excuses,” I grumble, but my pathetic, hopeful heart latches onto them.
“Penny, I wouldn’t say this to you if I didn’t truly mean it. Because I know how hard it was on you losing Travis. He was my friend, too, and a hell of a man. It’s not fair that the universe took him from you, but I think when it comes to Forrest, you might just be getting a second chance at love. Give him some time, let him sort his jumbled, confused emotions out.”
“He cheated on me.” My words are blunt.
“Forrest wouldn’t do that. I know for a fact he didn’t.”
With my arms crossed over my chest, I glare at him. “And I’m just supposed to take your word for it?”
He shrugs. “It’s my greatest currency, always has been. You know I’d never lie to you, much less to anyone. I’m telling you. He didn’t cheat. Forrest is, however, being a pansy. Which is why I’m telling you to give him just a little more time.”
Something inside me gives way, the thousands of shameful, sorrowful pinpricks gathering in my heart.
My eyes well with emotion, and I try to blink it away. “But what if I have no more time to give? Why does it have to be so hard for me?”
Keaton rubs my arm. “Because you’re a damn strong woman who doesn’t settle for the easy way out.”
I give him a watery smile. “You cursed a little. I feel special now.”
“Just a little more time, Penny. I promise, he’ll come around.” He hugs me, and I feel momentarily better.
But at the end of the day, it’s like I said. I’m not sure I have any more time to give.
36
Forrest
At two a.m., I finally get the breakthrough I’m looking for.
I’ve barely slept all week, pulling all-nighter after all-nighter to find the person responsible for threatening Penelope, and stealing from my family members. Ryan finally tricked me into drinking Benadryl two days ago, and I’d passed out for about five hours.
The sleep was fitful and filled with nightmares of the last time I saw Penelope. How white her face had gone when she saw another woman in my living room. The horrific realization of my assumed betrayal transforming her beautiful features.
How she’d accused me of being skittish, of reverting back to our secret hook up days. When all I’d been doing was casing the street to see if anyone was surveilling us.
I’d tossed and turned as I dreamed of her breaking down, crying tears that I put in her eyes. I woke from that hellish state in a full body sweat, gripping the sheets.
Since then, I’ve been a slave to this case. Eating and breathing it. I won’t let him slip through my fingers again, and to do that, I have to put Penelope on the back burner. This is all for her own good, even if she thinks I abandoned her. My gut roils with the doubt that I played this the wrong way, that I should have just told her what was going on from the moment I got that email. But now I’m in it, battered heart and all. When it’s all over, I’ll be able to explain to Penelope that I love her so much, I was willing to put her safety before my feelings.
The living room is a black hole, filled with darkness except for the lone computer terminal I’m occupying. My eyes are so infected with blue light that I’m practically seeing kaleidoscope colors by this point, but I won’t stop. 2:03 a.m. That’s the time the computer clock reads when the rat finally emerges from his hole, sneaking right into the police database.
“What’re you doing?” I muse aloud, not worrying about waking Ryan.
She’s been asleep in the guest bedroom for hours, having called it a night after I snapped at her about backtracking through some of the factory databases.
The suspect has entered the county police’s secure network, the one I built after having been caught doing exactly what he’s doing right now.
He’s combing through personnel files and double clicks mine.
This motherfucker is trying to expose me. I watch the screen of Captain Kline’s computer on a remote feed, as the prick sifts through file after file on the police department’s private network. He’s trying to find something, and when he begins typing commands into the crime database, I know exactly what he’s looking for.
He couldn’t find it in the personnel files, so he’s gone in search of my rap sheet. My eyes scan everything he’s doing as my file comes up. He opens it, and on two different sides of the screen, we’re reading my criminal history. The third charge on the sheet is for hacking into the police network.
No one, besides my family, knows that I was almost arrested for disarming the computer security systems of the department. I plead my case to let the police use my skills instead of slapping me on the wrists for it. If that fact got out, the community would not be pleased. Fawn Hill is an honest town, as are the surrounding municipalities. Folks out here believe in an eye for an eye system and making under the table deals with the police would be frowned upon, no matter how much gr
eat work I’ve done to make up for my indiscretions.
First, he went after my friends and families’ businesses. Then, he went after my girl. Now, he’s trying to take me down.
Not so long ago, I could have been this guy. Angry at the world, hacking into places I shouldn’t, just because I could. Scamming off the backs of hard-working people.
Little does this moron know, I fixed the broken system I hacked into in the first place. Which means, I just caught his real IP address with the net I installed. And now, I know exactly where he is, and who he is.
“Nine twelve Whippany Court.” I don’t need to jot the address down. That’s a home in Fawn Hill.
A home whose occupant I know. Personally.
Without waking Ryan, I’m up like I’ve been shot out of a cannon, all the vigor coming back into my bones. I know where he is, I know who he is. I’m finally going to bring this asshole down and get my life back.
I’m going to prove to Penelope that in the end, I love her so much, I’m willing to sacrifice myself for her.
As I reach my car, I shoot Detective Robbins a 911 text and leave it at that. I know I should call this in, report my findings to Kline and let the police handle the rest. But this one is personal. This fuckbag is in my backyard, stealing from my family and putting my woman in danger.
Time flies by in super speed, and I don’t even remember driving over here as my sneakers tread lightly up the front steps of the house. For a minute, the rational part of my brain begs me to stop, to wait for backup. Or maybe, it wishes I planned better and at least brought a baseball bat or something.
But the impulsive, hero side of me doesn’t care. I’ll go in swinging, even if it means I go down.
The front door is unlocked when I reach it, and the tickling sensation of dread coats my skin. It’s something out of a horror flick, but I can’t turn back now.
“So, you finally fucking caught me.”
The front room is dark when I enter, but I can still make out his large form, sitting on a chair in the corner.
Corey Watters.
“I knew you were a crooked son of a bitch, but I had no idea how crooked.” I snarl, ready to rip him to shreds.
“It took you long enough. Jeez, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one is this piece of shit town.” He stands, and I know he has almost five inches and thirty pounds on me.
“Why? Why do this?” I don’t even need to ask. I know why.
His footsteps sound like elephant hoofs as they move closer. “Did you know that they provide free coding and hacking classes in the army? I got pretty good at it, too. Something I like to keep in my back pocket, especially for those who think I’m just a sack of bricks with no IQ.”
“Good for you.” I don’t even know what to say. All I’m focusing on is staying light on my feet and hoping that the police arrive soon. That, and trying to find his computer. I can’t let him destroy it, it is the most important piece of evidence.
It was stupid for me to come alone.
“I waited for years. Decades, really. Always in the background, always wanting her but never being able to have her. She loved my best friend, after all.”
Penelope. He’s talking about Penelope.
It all comes rushing back to me … the night I found him lurking outside her house when he threatened me to leave her alone. I should have known from the minute I got that email. But like he said, the people of Fawn Hill never could quite remember Corey Watters.
“That bitch didn’t want me even after Travis died. And all I did for her! Looking after her fucking kids, helping out with carpool and dinners. She’s an ungrateful twat—”
Then my vision goes black. More fury and rage than I’ve ever felt in my life comes surging up out of me, prickling through every pore and heading straight to my fists, which raise up to bash at his skull.
I get one good blow in, the force of my knuckles connecting with his jaw enough to break them. The pain barely registers in my mind as I launch myself at Corey, wanting to end him forever.
This is the man who stole from my family, who tried to expose the past I’d learned from. But most of all, this is a man who has tried to take from the woman I love without giving her the respect she deserves.
Corey tackles me, his brawny arms wrapping around my waist and slamming me into a wall. Or maybe a bookshelf. Whatever it is, it feels like my back has been snapped in half. His elbow settles sharply in the crook of the middle of my throat, cutting off my airway. The room is still dark, but I can make out the entrance I came through, and I know I have to get back to it.
This guy is deranged, and while I’m a cocky bastard, I know he’ll probably rip my limbs off in a fight. So I use the one move I know will get him. My knee comes up, hitting him square between the legs. Corey doubles over and I take my opportunity, swinging some heavy object my hand connects with on the shelf down onto his head.
“Argh!” he gurgles, writhing in pain on the floor.
I try to move around him, but he grabs my ankle, and just as I’m about to trip and smash my face into the floor, a pair of arms catch me.
“Forrest, come on, we have to go …” My twin brother rights me, supporting my weight as he drags me across the room.
“Fletch, what are you—”
But before I can ask my brother the question, we hear a pinging sound, like metal hitting the floor.
“I consider it an honor that I’m taking two Nash brothers with me to the grave. I always did hate your family. Buh-bye, fuckers,” Corey says, an evil sneer transforming his face.
We both turn and look down. A grenade laying on the floor, the pin in Corey’s meaty fist. In an instant, my life flashes before my eyes, just like they always say it will when you’re on the brink of death.
Penelope. Penelope. Penelope.
She’s all I see. Visions of her smile, of her golden hair swinging over her eyes. I’ll never be able to tell her that I didn’t leave her. That I didn’t abandon her.
A powerful force deep in my chest causes my limbs to move, lunging for Fletcher in the direction of the door. He half-catches me, while the other half of him is diving backward.
And then all I hear is a roar in my ears, sparks warm my skin and I’m flying through the air.
My body lands with a heavy oomph, something in my arm cracking.
“Fletch!” I yell, trying to survey the burning grass around me.
I tilt my head back, the lawn of Corey’s house scratching my neck and scalp. A gaping, burning, smoking hole carves out the place where his porch and living room used to be. Is he dead? Was he standing closer to the grenade than us?
“Forrest, you okay?” My brother sits up from five feet away, his T-shirt a rag hanging off of him.
Crawling to him on my good arm, I throw myself at him. “Thank you. You saved my life.”
He really did. I am a fucking dumbass for coming alone, and to assume that Corey wasn’t as unhinged as he ended up being. I have so many questions, all of which I’m sure will be pieced together once I get my hands on his hard drive. Hopefully, it hadn’t been blown up.
“Finally, I can pay one of my brother’s back for saving mine,” he mumbles, hugging me back.
The effort I’m exerting is too much, and I collapse on the lawn. Fletcher follows suit, both of us on our backs, looking up at the night sky. “How did you know?”
Fletcher pants beside me, the air around us heavy with smoke and ash. “Could … feel … it. And then, Ryan called.”
Ryan must have given him the location I’d traced off of my computer … but the rest was pure twin instinct. I know what he means about feeling it, there were times I knew he was in danger and would race down to the Goat & Barrister to drive him home.
“Thank God for twinstinct,” I mumble, just as the sounds of sirens fill the air.
37
Penelope
“Forrest! Forrest.” I rush to him, the purple bruise forming on his neck scaring the living shit out of me
.
“P, what …” The light in his ocean blue eyes is dimmed a little, and the question hangs from his lips.
“I’m the town rumor mill, remember? A nurse friend texted me that the Nash twins were in the ER after an attack.” I crouch down, surveying his injuries.
Bloody lip, black and blue throat, an eye that was swelling over, and I’m sure more internal scrapes and strains.
“Pssh, we won the attack, though.” He tries to boast, but the brag doesn’t make it to his eyes.
“What the hell happened? Corey?” My mind is racing with all the information I’ve been texted or told in just a short amount of time.
“Will you never wait one damn minute to ever find out what happened straight from the source? Jesus, woman,” Forrest complains. “Come here first.”
Tenderly, I move into his embrace. God, it’s been too long. I’ve missed the smell of him, that feeling he gives me. Safety, love, comfort … an underlying sense of wanting to jump his bones even if he is hospital-ridden.
“You didn’t cheat on me,” I say it, knowing in the deepest part of my heart that Keaton had been right.
“It’s a very long story, but no, I didn’t. I love you, P.” Forrest releases me far enough so that he can look into my eyes.
My tongue all but disappears from my mouth, I’m so shocked. I think the cat stole it, or maybe Forrest, or maybe my pathetic, melting heart. In the shortest amount of time possible, the rage and shame I’d felt in conjunction with Forrest Nash all but evaporates. When Lily called, telling me that there had been an explosion at Corey’s house, and Forrest had been there …
I had lived my worst nightmare all over again.
And the next second, a nurse friend told me that he was at the hospital. I’d only paused to call my mother in the middle of the night to come look after my sleeping children. She thought I was dying or something and began to panic on the other end. It took her hugging me for a minute straight when I opened my front door to make her see I wasn’t having a stroke.
Nash Brothers Box Set Page 54