“After that I moved around a lot,” Nick said. “It’s never easy being the smartest kid in the class. I buried myself in books, graduated at fifteen and got a full ride to Texas A &M.”
“At fifteen?”
“I was nearly sixteen by then.”
“Still.”
“It was better than foster care. I became an emancipated minor, so I was out of the system.”
Easy words, she thought. But a much harder life. Was his past the reason he kept everyone else at a distance? Was it the reason no one got close enough to touch any part of him? Or was she just looking for a way to mitigate the fact that he didn’t want to sleep with her?
“What happened after college?” she asked.
“I went to work for an oil exploration company a friend of mine owned.”
“So you raped and pillaged our natural environment?” she asked, teasing.
“I did my best not to. I had some ideas about drilling that were different. We tried them out.”
He paused for a long time. There was something about his voice, she thought, not sure what it was. Staring at his face didn’t help, either. She couldn’t really see any details.
“How did you get from oil exploration to here?”
“By car, mostly.”
“Very funny. You know what I mean.”
“I had some second thoughts about my career choice.”
She remembered Aaron telling her that Nick had a mysterious past. “Someone told me you traveled the world or something.”
“For a while.”
“What were you looking for?”
“Peace.”
“Did you find it?”
“No.”
“Before the explosion I would have told you I’d found what I was looking for,” she said.
“You would have been lying.”
“What? That’s not true.”
“You chase the thrill for a reason. What are you hiding from?”
“Nothing I’m going to discuss with you. Besides, I’m not hiding.”
“Look at what you do with your life. Your extreme sports. What you do for a living.”
“I was a welder. That’s not dangerous.”
“An underwater welder.”
“Okay, sure, but it’s not all that different. And it’s not like I drowned. The explosion wasn’t my fault. I’ll admit it’s not a completely normal job, but it’s not totally crazy, either. As to the explosion…” She hesitated, not sure what to say. “I think it was deliberate.”
“What are you talking about? Someone trying to get the oil company?”
“Not exactly.” She drew in a breath. “It seems that Jed had an affair before he married Lexi’s mom. He had a child-a boy-with the woman. While he set her up with a lot of money, he wouldn’t marry her. It’s an old story. Flash forward thirty-plus years, the boy in question grows up and he’s pissed. Something happened to his mother. She had an accident or got sick. We don’t know, but she’s no longer completely normal. She’s sweet and lovely, but different. My sisters and I wonder if Jed’s responsible for that. We’re not sure. So maybe it’s that, maybe he was just born mad, but our half brother, Garth Duncan, is doing his best to ruin the entire family.”
Nick didn’t say anything. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
She frowned. “Is this boring?”
“No. Sorry. I was listening. What do you mean he’s trying to ruin the family?”
“You name it, he’s done it. He tried to take Lexi’s business, legally, but it was pretty ruthless. We think he’s responsible for doping Jed’s race horses, for sending a false tip to the district attorney that Skye’s foundation was a front for money laundering. He also planted a software program into the books at Skye’s foundation making it look like executives were paid bonuses and that Skye was taking money. It’s nasty stuff. Skye doesn’t even take a salary. So money that could have gone to feeding hungry kids had to go to legal counsel. He’s planted illegal arms in some of Jed’s international shipments, so now Jed’s being investigated for treason, and we’re guessing he’s behind the rumors of mad cow on the Titan ranches. I have to say, Garth isn’t my favorite person.”
“That’s a long list.”
“He’s a pretty bad guy. There’s been more. He’s come after everyone in the family, except for my niece and she’s only eight. Hopefully he isn’t going to do anything bad to a little girl. Two months ago I would have been a lot more sure, but then there was the explosion on the rig. And here I thought I didn’t have anything to lose.”
Nick heard the words and didn’t want to believe them. Not Garth. Garth was his friend. He’d said he was playing a game, that he wasn’t out to get anyone but Jed. He was just using the sisters to get their father’s attention. But what Izzy described was completely different. A dangerous vendetta that might have killed her.
Nick had met the Titan sisters. Lexi was pregnant. What was Garth going to do to her? Skye had a daughter. Who else was at risk? He swore silently. Had Garth really been responsible for the explosion that had nearly blinded Izzy? That could have killed her and anyone else on the rig at the time.
He wanted to say no. He wanted to say “not his friend.” Garth had always been one of the good guys. Like family. But how could he be sure nothing had changed? He and Garth had faced death together, but years had passed since then. Years of Garth channeling his anger, apparently toward the annihilation of the Titan family- innocent bystanders be damned.
“We know he has a plan,” Izzy was saying. “But we don’t know what it is. It started earlier this year.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe it was only a few months ago. This started in spring, it’s now late summer. By Christmas he could crush us all.”
“You don’t mean that,” he said sharply. “You’re not the type to be beaten.”
“I know. I’m being dramatic. We’ll be fine. It’s just we don’t have a good counterattack. Jed won’t talk to us about any of it. He’s doing his own thing. Sometimes it seems as if he’s almost proud of Garth. Like father, like son.” She sounded bitter. “So my sisters and I are on our own. Well, Cruz and Mitch help. Cruz is Lexi’s fiance and Mitch is Skye’s.”
Jed wasn’t helping his daughters? Nick told himself not to be surprised. Based on the little he knew about Jed Titan, he only cared about himself. Everyone else simply got in the way.
“I never thought he’d come after me,” she said softly, looking sad. “When Lexi, Skye and I met to talk about Garth, I didn’t ever worry about myself. They thought I was safe, too. I guess we were mistaken.”
Anger burned inside him. Izzy had worked too hard to recover from what had happened to her to slide back now. He had to find out what was really going on. He had to know the truth.
But first he had to get Izzy back to the ranch.
He urged his horse to go faster. Jackson kept up easily and Izzy didn’t seem to notice the increased speed. As soon as he could see the barn, he turned to her.
“I have a meeting in town,” he said. “You going to be okay?”
“I’m more than capable. I have to get the horses ready for the guys who want to go riding, anyway.”
“Okay. See you later.”
He raced to the barn and handed his mount over to Rita, then got in his SUV and headed for Dallas. During the drive, he debated phoning Garth, then decided he didn’t want to talk to his friend. Not until he could see his face.
What was the truth? he wondered. Which Garth was the man in charge? The friend who had kept him alive during their captivity? The friend who never blamed him for what had happened? Or the ruthless stranger who might have caused Izzy’s death?
He drove faster than he should have and made it to Garth’s high-rise building in less than two hours. The doorman knew him and let him in.
“Evening, Nick,” he said with a smile as Nick crossed to the elevators that would take him to Garth’s penthouse condo.
“Evening, George. How’s it going?”
