“We can talk now. He knows most of what’s going on.”
“You told him?” Lexi sounded surprised.
“Jed was by a few days ago. He wanted to confirm I was still blind and make sure I understood how inconvenient that was for him. Sweet guy, our father. If he can’t use me, I don’t exist. Oh, and he made it clear I was never in the will. Which is hardly a surprise.”
Even she heard the bitterness in her voice, but before she could figure out what to say so her sisters didn’t worry, Nick had joined them.
“Ladies.”
“We’re talking about Garth,” Izzy said bluntly and told him the latest news. “It’s not that Jed is my favorite person, but these days I’m liking Garth even less. Do you have any ideas of what we could do?”
“Do you know what he wants?” Nick asked.
Izzy frowned. There was something strange about his voice. She couldn’t figure out what, but it was there. As if…But she couldn’t pin it down.
“Revenge,” Lexi said. “Obviously. But maybe there’s more. Maybe he wants the family annihilated. Maybe he wants everything. The business, the land, the house.”
“The house is available,” Skye said. “Dad’s moved out. He’s mostly staying in his condo in Dallas. I’m with Mitch, Lexi’s with Cruz and you’re here.”
Temporarily, Izzy thought. When she left the ranch, she didn’t know where she was going to go. A worry for another time, she reminded herself.
“If he hadn’t gone after Izzy, I would have considered letting him just take it all,” Lexi grumbled. “But he crossed the line when he hurt you.”
Izzy smiled at her. “Thanks for the support.” She turned toward Nick. “No brilliant ideas?”
“Not right now. I’ll get back to you.”
Something was wrong, she thought, still not sure what Nick was thinking. Was he upset that they were dragging him into their family business? Or was it something else? The next time they were alone, she was going to have to remember to ask.
CHAPTER TWELVE
NICK PACED THE LENGTH of Garth’s office. He’d stopped by to see his friend because he didn’t know what else to do.
“You have to stop this,” he said forcefully, turning back to stare at the one person he’d considered his family. The one person he trusted above all.
“Going after the Titans?” Garth leaned back in his chair and slowly shook his head. “Nick, don’t get involved in this. You’re helping Izzy. Make that enough.”
“You’re going after her family. A prostitution ring? What the fuck?”
Garth smiled. “Come on. You have to admire the inventiveness of it. That on top of the treason charges should keep Jed Titan in jail for a long time.”
“Did he do any of it?”
Garth shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“Yeah, it does. When did you become the asshole who did the wrong thing?”
Garth’s easy smile faded. “When I was fourteen and Jed threw me out onto the street. When I watched my mother nearly die and then lose herself because we didn’t have the money to get the surgery done in time.”
“Jed’s a bastard. I get it. But his daughters didn’t know about you. Why are you taking this out on them?”
“Because I can. Because anything that hurts the old man makes it a good day.”
Nick walked to the front of the desk and braced his hands against the hard surface. “It doesn’t hurt him. He doesn’t care about his daughters. I doubt he ever has. He came to see Izzy last week. He told her that because she was still blind, she was no use to him. That’s not even human. I understand he turned his back on you. I understand he has to pay, but the Titan women are innocent.”
“They’ve got you snowed.”
Nick read the truth in his eyes. He’d been avoiding it because he wanted his friend to be someone different. He didn’t know when Garth had changed-when he’d decided the end justified the means-but he had. Everything was different now.
Nick understood that he’d been living an illusion a long time. The friendship he’d counted on, that had shaped his life, was over.
He straightened. “I’m out of the company. I’ll be selling my shares over the next few weeks.” He pulled a letter out of his back pocket and dropped it on the blotter. “I’m resigning from the board of directors.”
Garth ignored the letter. “You’re going to choose a piece of ass over a guy you’ve known nearly twenty years?”
Nick moved like the wind. One second he was on the other side of the desk, the next he was spinning Garth’s chair toward him and wrapping his hand around the other man’s neck.
The skills were there, along with the strength. He’d learned how to protect himself with nothing but his body to use as a weapon and he’d learned every trick.
He stared into Garth’s dark eyes. “I won’t squeeze because of our shared past. Because until today, you were all the family I had. But don’t cross me. Don’t test me and don’t come after the Titan sisters again. Hang Jed Titan if you want. He’s yours, but they are not.”
He stepped back.
Garth stood. “So this is it?” he asked. “They matter more than what we’ve been through?” He pulled open his shirt, exposing the scars that matched Nick’s. “This never happened?”
“It happened,” Nick said slowly. “My regret for what you had to endure goes to the bone. But that doesn’t make what you’re doing here right. The Titan women aren’t up for grabs. Cross them and you cross me.”
Garth slowly rebuttoned his shirt. “Izzy doesn’t know, does she? That you know me. That we’ve been friends for years.”
“Let me guess. You’re going to tell her.” Nick didn’t know how to stop him. The truth-would she understand? Or would she blame him and walk away from all the progress she’d made just to punish him?
“Are you?” Garth asked.
“After she has the surgery.” He wanted to put it off as long as possible. He wanted to get her well first.
Which sounded good, but there was another truth. He didn’t want to lose her. Somehow she’d become important to him. He could trust her and that was hard for him to admit. There might be something more, but he wasn’t willing to go there. Not now, probably not ever.
“You’ll want to make sure she hears it from you,” Garth said, the threat obvious. “If it comes from someone else, it could break her heart. Or worse.”
“Don’t threaten me,” Nick told him, then started for the door.
Garth called him back. “You’re going to regret this. We’re like brothers, Nick. We always have been. Don’t give that up because of a woman.”
“Izzy isn’t a part of this, but you can’t understand that. And that’s why I’m walking away.”
IZZY FULLY EXPECTED to confront Nick after her sisters left, but he disappeared and being nearly blind meant a serious handicap on her part when trying to search a large open area, like a ranch. Then at dinner, Aaron upset her whole day by telling her that three kids were coming to visit for the Labor Day weekend.
“It’s Labor Day already?” she asked, then shook her head. “Never mind. What kind of kids? What if they don’t like me? What if I mess up?”
“Did you count the number of I’s in that sentence, young lady?” Aaron asked. “Who should this conversation be about?”
“The kids. I know, the kids. What was I thinking?”
But she wasn’t thinking. She found herself oddly nervous at the thought of dealing with kids who had issues.
“What kind of issues?” she asked. “Like physical handicaps?”
