about. There was Kathy, but she was more like a child than an adult. His staff, who might respect him but little else. If he ceased to exist this very moment, who would mourn him? Worse, who would know?
He got in his car, then looked back at the house. Damn feelings. He had to get out of here and fast. Whatever had gotten Nick seemed to be contagious. Emotions. A conscience. He had no time for either.
There was nothing wrong with being alone. It meant he could move faster. Easier. He was close to winning. Soon he would have it all. Then he wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about Nick or anybody else. Then he would have won.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
NICK HAD SPENT nearly two weeks being ignored by his staff, walking the hallways of the house at night and examining his life. It had taken him that long to figure out what was important and what he needed to do. He had a feeling if Izzy knew, she would inform him that the average woman would have realized the truth in about an hour.
He paused by the front window in the living room and watched an SUV drive up to the porch. It parked and two women climbed out.
Lexi and Skye didn’t look anything like their sister, but seeing them reminded him of Izzy. There was both pleasure and pain at the thought of her. Pleasure because he’d finally come to see she was everything to him. Pain because he might have lost her forever.
He met the women at the front door.
“Thanks for coming,” he said.
“We’re not here for you,” Lexi said briskly as she pushed past him and walked into the living room. “We’re here because you made it clear we were having this conversation one way or another and we didn’t want Izzy seeing you in Titanville.”
He motioned for them to sit down.
They sat together on the sofa. Skye eyed him with a mixture of contempt and dislike.
“We’re not interested in helping you,” Skye said bluntly. “Just last week, Jed paid a visit to Izzy to try to convince her to date one of his business partners. Izzy slapped him in the face and threw him out. If she was willing to do that to her own father, imagine how little trouble I would have taking you on.”
Nick held up both hands in a gesture of surrender. “No one is questioning your motivation or ability.”
“Good. Now, what do you want?”
“If he says Izzy,” Lexi told her sister. “Shoot him or I will.”
Unfortunately that is what he’d been planning to say. He needed a new plan.
“How much do you know about my past?” he asked instead.
Skye and Lexi glanced at each other. Skye motioned for Lexi to talk.
“Foster kid, very smart, goes to college at fifteen. You’re a total geek, you don’t fit in, Garth saves you, becomes your friend. Flash forward seven or eight years, you’re working for him. Another eight years, you screw our sister.” Lexi gave him a cold smile. “Did I miss any highlights?”
“No.”
Izzy had told them about him, but hadn’t mentioned his guilty secret. He knew in his gut it was because she knew it was the part of him that shamed him the most. Even in her pain and heartbreak, she’d protected him.
“What Izzy didn’t tell you is about my time in South America.”
He spoke quickly, giving them a brief synopsis of what had happened there. He didn’t spare himself the blame, taking full responsibility for what had gone wrong.
When he was done, the sisters again exchanged another look-this one he couldn’t read.
“You paid for what you did,” Skye said. “And maybe you suffered. That doesn’t excuse what you did to Izzy. Garth is trying to destroy our entire family. You don’t seem to get that. He nearly killed Izzy.”
Risking their wrath, he said, “Garth has admitted to all his actions, except the explosion. He claims he had nothing to do with it.”
“And you believe him?” Lexi asked, sounding outraged.
“Yeah, I do. I don’t agree with what he’s doing to you and your sister. If he had a problem with Jed, fine. Jed ignored his own son when he begged for Kathy’s life. Jed deserves whatever happens to him. But you two and Izzy are innocent. Garth was wrong. His vengeance is misplaced. He’s used us all.”
His best friend. He still had trouble wrapping his mind around that truth. His own family had betrayed him.
“I’ve severed my financial and personal ties with Garth,” he continued. “I’ve resigned from his board, sold my shares in his company. He’s out of my life.”
“Too little, too late,” Lexi snapped. “You knew Garth was behind bringing Izzy here and you didn’t say anything.”
“The way he told it, he wanted Izzy helped out of concern. He said you wouldn’t accept his help. I believed him because I didn’t have any reason not to.”
“But when you found out what he was doing,” Skye said. “You could have said something.”
“I know.” He drew in a breath. “It was too late, then. If I’d told Izzy the truth, she would have left and not had the surgery. At first that’s what I wanted-her to see again. She’s so full of life. So tough and sweet and honest. She leads with her heart. She’s fearless. I’ve never known anyone like her. She needed more than half a life.”
“The surgery could have left her blind,” Lexi said, studying him.
“She needed to know.” He shrugged. “If things had gone badly, she would have been all right. She would have found a way. That’s what she does. I couldn’t tell her about Garth because she had to have the surgery.”
“And after?” Skye asked.
“I didn’t want to lose her. If she knew, she would be gone. I…I liked having her around.”
For the third time, the sisters shared a look. He’d given up trying to figure out what they were thinking.
“Why should we believe you?” Lexi asked.
“I don’t know. I can’t prove it. I could show you my letter of resignation from Garth’s board, but so what? He could reinstate me in a second. He was my friend and I trusted him. That’s my mistake and I have to live with it. I trusted a man I’d known for years, who had saved me and been like family. I don’t know where everything went wrong for him, but it did.”
Lexi leaned toward him. “Knowing everything you know, having lost Izzy, you still believe Garth didn’t blow up the oil rig?”
“Yes.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Maybe, but why lie about only that? Garth’s proud of what he’s doing to your family. He wouldn’t deny something that big.”
“Fine,” Skye said. “To go back to my original question, what do you want?”
He smiled. “Izzy. You want to shoot me here or should I stand?”
“We’re not going to help you get her,” Lexi said.
Apparently they’d already discussed that because she didn’t have to look at her sister for confirmation.
“You hurt her,” Skye said. “She didn’t ever want to fall in love. She didn’t want to take the chance. But she did and you devastated her.”
“I know. I’m not saying I deserve her, just that I love her. I’m not asking for your help. I’m asking you not to get in the way.”
“What could we do?” Lexi asked. “Izzy is her own person.”
“You’re the people she loves and respects most in the world. If you told her not to trust me, that I wasn’t worth it, she’d listen.”
“Then you don’t know Izzy. She never listens,” Skye told him.
“You’re wrong. She listens to both of you.”
“Interesting that you’ve figured that out,” Lexi said. “I’m not sure even Izzy is aware our opinion matters to her. At least not on a conscious level.”
“Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then,” he said.
