“No, he’s at the office.”Nic dropped his hands.“Did you know?”
Her eyes could have shot daggers.“How dare you ask me that?”
She was right; how dare he.It was completely inconsistent with their conversation Monday night, with every conversation and shared tear since the day Victoria and Garrett had left.He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew her into a hug.“I’m sorry,” he mumbled into her hair.
She held him tighter.“If I’d known, I would have told you.You’d keep them safe like you did me.”
But they weren’t safe.Not since he’d gone after Vaughn, hastening the inevitable confrontation.He hadn’t thought there was anyone but trained professionals in the line of fire, and hell, he’d tried to keep them out of it for over a year.Now, though, his sister, Victoria, and Garrett were all targets.All because of his goddamn pursuit of justice.
Fuck, he should’ve just tapped into his retirement and paid Vaughn off.
Made the problem go away before the gangster ever got wind of this.Maybe he still could.The logical part of his brain knew sharks like Vaughn never truly stayed gone.He’d have paid off a criminal, and whenever Vaughn wanted something—a case swung his way, a charge dropped, an opponent taken legally out—he’d dangle that fact over Nic’s head and make him dance.Just like he controlled Bowers.But the protector part of Nic was scrambling, any and all scenarios back on the table.In any event, he couldn’t keep them safe as long as they were here, right under Vaughn’s nose.He had to get them into hiding.
“Nic.”Victoria’s soft voice trembled and Nic glanced her direction again.Standing in the conference room doorway, her eyes were shiny with unshed tears.“You look good.Filled out”—her chuckle was watery as she looked him up and down—“but good.”
He unwound from Mary, smiling.“So do you, V.”
She rushed him the next instant, slamming into his middle and wrapping her arms around him tight.He couldn’t help but return the hug.Couldn’t help but bury his nose in her hair and inhale the smell that was uniquely hers, the same after all these years.
Three women had raised him, each with a distinct smell stamped into his brain.His mother, until he was six, the fragrance of Shalimar perfume—woody, vanilla, with a hint of floral—so that whenever he smelled Earl Grey tea, the bergamot would trigger a rush of memories, some he was still just becoming aware of.Mary, who he couldn’t pin one fragrance on but who would forever be associated in his mind with the aromas of the kitchen, her love poured into every dish she’d ever prepared him.And Victoria, then and now, still smelled like the earth and the sun—comforting warmth personified.She’d only been in his life for three years, but in that time, she’d given him courage, acceptance, and love.
“God, I missed you,” she mumbled against his shirt, which was growing damp from the tears she’d let loose.“I thought about you every day.”
“We had to stop her going after you multiple times,” Garrett said, his voice deeper, richer, than it had been at eighteen.“Especially when you visited the base.”His sister, almost as tall as Garrett’s five-ten, stood next to him, clutching his hand.They’d protected her that long, even when he’d been so close.Now they’d shown themselves, thinking it safe, when it was more dangerous than ever.“She almost made it on a flight to your commissioning in San Diego.”
Victoria drew back, glaring over her shoulder at her son.“I wanted to give him his present in person.”She was wiping tears from her eyes when she turned back to Nic.“I wanted you to know someone was proud of you.You’d kept me—us—safe, so I wanted to give you something to keep your medals and ribbons safe.”
“The travel case?”The zippered leather pouch with the US Navy crest on the front had arrived anonymously and he’d carried it throughout his service.Well used and well loved, it now lived in his safe at Gravity, with all his service medals and ribbons safely inside.
Nodding, she hugged him again.“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be there.”
“You were.”Holding her tight, he met and held Garrett’s gaze over her head.“You always were.”
They stayed like that, Victoria in his arms, Garrett in his sights, until the other family member present cleared her throat.Garrett looked affectionately over at his sister.“Had to stop this one a time or two as well.She’s wanted to meet you for a very long while now.”
Taking him by the hand, Victoria led him over.“You saved more than my and Garrett’s lives that day.Nic, this is your sister, Lette.”
“Mom tells me I’m named after you.”The young woman held out her hand.“Nicolette Sare.”
Nic slid his hand into hers, impressed by her strong, sure grip.“Or Nicolette Scott.”
She smirked, the same one he frequently saw in the mirror.“Or Nicolette Price, if we want to get biological.”
Icy fear flooded his veins.
This was his flesh and blood, the sibling he never knew he had, and a fresh target for the man gunning for his family.
Out of an abundance of caution, Nic was having the Sares escorted back to their hotel separately.Garrett had left with Mary twenty-five minutes ago, Mel had departed ten minutes after with Victoria, and now Nic was waiting for Eddie to arrive to escort Nicolette.He’d see her to the hotel, then ferry Garrett back to the Federal Building to meet with Cam and fill him in on the latest developments.
Or clusterfuck, more accurately.
How had everything in the dark of last night seemed so hopeful, so promising, and in the light of morning, utterly dark?And what about the darkness the woman sitting in the conference room had just stepped into?She had no idea the jeopardy her future was now in.
“You should go talk to her.”
Nic’s eyes remained on Lette as he spoke to Dennis.“Has anyone else seen that will?”
Dennis had read aloud Curtis’s will a short time ago, and it had included bequests to both him and Lette—the house and any remaining funds in the offshore account, among other things.
