He paused and drew in a breath. “I don’t know all the secrets of your past. I don’t know what you’re running from. What I do know is you’ll never escape by hiding. You’ll never find what you need. You’ll just destroy everyone around you. Heroes don’t do that.”
Nick stepped out of the way as Aaron pushed past him. Then he walked into his office and shut the door.
Aaron’s words ripped through him, mostly because they were true. He had been hiding. Because by not living he could make the past right? He’d always assumed he knew what he was doing-that if he didn’t get involved, no one would get hurt.
He’d been wrong. Everyone he cared about had been hurt. So what did he do now?
“IZZY TITAN,” the stable manager said, looking over Izzy’s application. “You’re not related to those fancy, rich Titans are you?”
“Don’t I wish,” Izzy lied with a smile.
The old guy laughed. “Good point. If you were one of them, you wouldn’t be looking for a job with me.” He glanced at her letter of reference. “Me and Rita go back a long way. She’s a fine woman. I guess if she says you’re okay, I can trust you. You’ll be responsible for a dozen horses and their gear. Get ’em up and ready in the morning. Get ’em saddled when they have a rider or a lesson. Saturday mornings are the worst. All the rich kids come in. Can you deal with that?”
Izzy nodded. “When can I start?”
“Tomorrow. Now you’re going to college?”
“In January.”
“We’ll work around your hours. College kids with bills to pay make motivated workers.” He held out his hand. “You got yourself a job, little lady.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Izzy walked back to her car. She’d already collected the paperwork she needed to start at community college and now she had a job. If she could just figure out a way to heal her broken heart, it would be a really good day.
NICK LOOKED UP from his computer to find Garth standing in his office. Garth looked tired and drawn, which should have made Nick feel better but didn’t. Regrets weren’t going to help anyone.
“What?” he asked, not really caring. Izzy thought she was the one who had been played, but she was wrong. He’d never wanted to hurt her or tried to get her. Garth, on the other hand, had played him like an old string guitar.
“I haven’t told the rest of the board about you resigning,” Garth said, moving to the chair on the other side of the desk and sitting down. “I wanted to see if you’d changed your mind.”
“No.”
“Nick. We’re friends. We’re more than that, we’re practically brothers. She’s just a girl. You can get a dozen more just like her.”
Nick thought about Izzy’s sense of humor, her fearlessness, the way she challenged him, how she cared about the kids and teased Aaron and made every part of life brighter just by being alive. He thought about how she listened, how she trusted and the way she stood her ground and did what she believed was right.
“No. I can’t. Izzy’s unique.”
“All cats are gray in the dark.”
“Izzy’s not a cat and we’re not going to talk about her.”
Garth stared at him. “You’re going to end our decades of friendship because she’s pissed?”
Nick had thought a lot about everything that had happened. He’d tried to see everyone’s point of view to figure out where it had all gone wrong.
“I never got it before,” he said slowly. “When we were in South America, I was so sure I was right about the drilling. You had other reports telling you it couldn’t be done the way I said and when you believed me instead of them, I was determined to prove your faith in me. But I was wrong and three people paid with their lives.”
“We got the oil.”
“Sure. At a price.”
“There’s always a price.”
Nick nodded. “That’s what I thought. I’ve been to hell and back because I was responsible for their deaths.”
“You didn’t pull the trigger. It was an accident. A mistake.”
“My mistake.”
Garth shook his head. “You spent years trying to get someone to punish you, buddy. I don’t know why. You’re doing a fine job all on your own.”
“I’m trying. But you’re not. You don’t care. You weren’t interested in making amends.”
“Francisco and his brothers held us prisoner for months, torturing us every damn day.”
Garth was angry now. Nick could see it in the tension around his mouth and the way he sat in his chair.
“He got his pound of flesh and then some,” Garth continued. “Given the chance, he would have killed us. You made a mistake, Nick. One damn mistake. You’re not God, you didn’t know. You screwed up. And, hey, you’re sorry. So get the fuck over it.”
Interesting. It was almost the same thing Aaron had said, but for very different reasons.
“Are you really so much of a bastard that you don’t care? Or is it too inconvenient to deal with the past?” Nick said.
“What’s to deal with? You went to the governments of both countries. No one wanted to do anything. You spent months trying to find Francisco and his family and you couldn’t. You’ve funded a couple of orphanages, you’re working with kids here. What else do you want?”
“From you? A little remorse. Some regret. Something other than business as usual.”
Garth’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t know what I think or feel. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Maybe not, but I do know we were once like brothers. We nearly died together. And a week ago you sold me down the river. You knew Izzy was important to me. You knew I wasn’t happy to be lying to her. And you knew I’d keep your secret for as long as I could. You used that information, you used me, then you screwed me. You were leaving messages, telling me you wanted to talk to me and then you told her everything.”
Most people didn’t have the balls to assess his character, Garth thought. Nick had never had a problem speaking his mind.
He’d never thought it would come to this-that a woman would come between him and Nick. Worse. A Titan. One of his sisters.
“You’re letting them win,” he said.
“I was never in a fight with them,” Nick told him. “Izzy didn’t deserve any of this.”
“She had the surgery. That wouldn’t have happened without her being here.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
Nick shrugged. “She would have gotten there eventually.”
“After wasting how many years?”
“Don’t try to make this better than it is. You weren’t doing her a favor.” Nick stared at him. “You’ve lost it. I don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing, but you’ve gone too far. This isn’t a battle to win-it’s a vendetta. You want to hurt someone, hurt the man who’s responsible. Take on Jed Titan. But whatever you have going on with your sisters is wrong. What kind of a man bullies a woman? Are you that frightened of them?”
Garth held on to his temper. He’d come here to reason with his friend. Apparently Nick wasn’t willing to listen.
“You won’t come back to the board?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“No. I’ve sold most of my shares in your company.”
“Just like that?”
“This isn’t what I wanted,” Nick told him. “You’re right-you’ve been my family for years. But I can’t be a part of what you’re doing. You’re going to have to figure the rest of it out alone.”
Garth stood, then left. Fine. If Nick wanted to be led around by the nose, that was his problem. Garth didn’t need him. He didn’t need anyone.
But as he walked to his car, he had the sense of being totally alone. He had few friends, no one he really cared
