Why is it always the ones closest to you that have the deadliest bite? Two things I knew for sure. Nina was more driven than I’d originally thought, and I wouldn’t make the same mistake of underestimating her again.
Chapter 5
Layla Windham-Lawson, the oldest of the Windham children, stood around her brother’s bedside with the rest of her family fighting back tears. “I don’t understand who would want to hurt Brody like this?” Disbelief and pain were etched onto her face. “You mean to tell me a group of men showed up on a private airstrip with guns and ambushed him? Why? And, where was his security? It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Her sister, Lisa Windham-Cornwall, who was younger than Brody but older than her other siblings Lauren and Michael, nodded in agreement. “Right. Brody’s not into anything shady that I’m aware of. As far as I know, his businesses have always been aboveboard.” She turned desperate eyes toward their youngest sibling. “Michael you talked to him last. What did he say?”
Michael ran his hands down his face. “Nothing more than I’ve already told everyone.”
Ethan and Lydia Windham turned to their youngest child eager to hear his response too.
Michael’s own chest ached as he looked at his brother’s body. He’d always hero-worshipped Brody and to see him lying on the bed weak and barely clinging to life was more than he could handle. The mere thought that they could lose him was like an earthquake to his mind or a cosmic shift in the world to his heart.
He turned towards his parents and three sisters as they desperately waited for answers. “He didn’t say much. We didn’t actually talk, we texted each other.” Michael rolled his head around his shoulders. “Brody said something came up; he would be in Guilin for a few days and that he’d let me know when he got there. He was light on details, and I don’t know any more than that.” Michael pinched the bridge of his nose. None of them had had much sleep since the phone call came about Brody’s condition less than twenty-four hours ago.
Layla was like a dog with a bone. Someone almost killed Brody, and she intended to get to the bottom of it. Whoever was responsible was going to pay. But, right now, she just needed to use her strength and will him back to health. Nervously, Layla chewed her bottom lip. “He didn’t mention anything to me about a trip to China when I talked to him a few days ago.” She turned toward her parents. “Mom, Dad, you guys spoke to some woman. What was her name? Gina Lee-Something? Who is she?”
Lauren Windham, the youngest daughter in the family but older than Michael by eleven months, had been quiet. She was terrified her brother might not pull through. Lauren and Brody were very close, but then again he was close to all of his siblings. She’d stayed mostly silent since they landed in Guilin, but for a moment, she took her eyes away from Brody to gaze at her parents as she chimed in. “Did she say who she was to him? He’s never mentioned her to me either.” There were way more questions than answers.
Michael could barely contain his exhaustion and worry when he spoke to his parents. “Mom and Dad, you guys probably know more than I do since you talked to the woman he was traveling with. Did she say anything else other than he’d been badly hurt and was in the hospital?”
Ethan Windham shook his head, no. It was clear that he had the dominant genes in the family. His sons and daughters were all fair-haired with crystal blue eyes like him except for Lauren. Her eyes were the color of her mother’s, a unique violet. Brody and Michael were the spitting images of their father. They also inherited his height of over six feet and a chiseled jaw line; the Windham jaw line. Father time might have gifted Ethan Windham with a little gray mixed in with his golden blonde locks, and maybe even added a few more age lines around his eyes and mouth, but he was no less handsome than his sons. He cleared his throat. His voice was strong, deep. “No. She didn’t say much more than that. Only that she would arrange transportation for us and meet us here.”
Lauren asked what everyone was thinking. Her anger boiled over. “Then where is she? Why wasn’t she here to meet us when we arrived at the hospital? She had to know we would have a million questions.”
Lydia Windham had been silent. She was the quiet power that always kept everything running smoothly in the family calm. She could have easily passed as an older sister to the girls. She kept her dark blonde hair shoulder length, and her violet eyes were mesmerizing. Her button nose, pretty pink lips, and delicate features might be misconstrued as weak; however, Lydia was anything but. She stood only a few inches shorter than Ethan.
She hugged her body then ran her hands up and down her arms. She was chilled. It wasn’t the temperature in the room, but the thought that she could lose her oldest son that made her cold. Her lips had been pressed into a thin line as she focused on him. Her voice left no room for argument. “I know we’re all worried, but I think a better use of our time and energy should be spent on making sure Brody has the best care
