Chapter 12 #3
A delicate hand closed over his forearm. “He wanted to be around more, to help Mom with me. His club team won, all four years.”
Nic swallowed hard and looked up, finding nothing but warmth in Lette’s blue eyes. No judgment or anger on her other brother’s behalf for the dream that had been wrecked. “We had big parties for his commission, Mom’s retirement, and when I got into, then graduated from School of the Arts.”
“School of the Arts?”
He twirled his class ring around his pinkie, the only finger it fit now, as he listened, fascinated, to Lette telling him about the North Carolina School of the Arts.
She’d earned an undergraduate degree in production design and visual effects and a graduate degree in film production.
She spoke with such enthusiasm about the school, filmmaking, the technical aspects she’d specialized in, and the job she was interviewing for—the original reason they were out here—that he was sure she was talented beyond what he could understand.
He felt profound sadness that he hadn’t been there for each new discovery she’d made, for each decision along the way. Each victory. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for your celebrations.”
Her hands, which had been gesturing wildly with excitement, landed back on his arm. “It’s not your fault. Mom and Garrett made a choice. When I was old enough, I agreed with it. We’re the ones who’re sorry.”
“I am the last person to question those reasons. I left too, just in a different direction. To sea.”
She laughed. “Now that we don’t have in common. I get seasick as hell, even on a fucking ferry.”
He laughed too at the irony—two brothers, one in the Navy, the other a Marine—and their sister couldn’t handle the water.
He’d have to introduce her to Jamie. They could sit on shore together while the rest of them took boats out, assuming she wanted to meet his family here and be a part of his life beyond this visit.
“I think it’d be worse,” she said, “if we’d known you’d stayed. Or if you left and we had stayed, don’t you?”
Fuck yes. No question. “Our father was not a good man.”
“But he was our father.”
Was.
Curtis Price was really gone. Intellectually, Nic knew that.
He’d spent the past few days dealing with the fallout.
Some emotional part of him knew it too, had even felt it that night he and Cam had returned home, and again in the conversation with Mary the night before last. But sitting here, with the morning light bright in this conference room, reflecting off his newfound sister’s blond hair and blue eyes, the same exact coloring as Curtis’s, the truth of the matter sank in completely.
It wasn’t the lonely truth he’d expected; he wasn’t the last Price after all.
“It’s sort of a relief,” Lette whispered. Nic’s gaze whipped back to hers. “Shit, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” This time he reached out but waited with his hand over hers until she nodded, only then lowering it and putting the class ring back in hers. “I feel the same.”
“Something else we have in common,” she said with a small smirk.
His wasn’t nearly so restrained. “Does that make us terrible?”
“No,” she said, smirk stretching into a warm smile like her mother’s. “It makes us survivors.”
Two of them, four counting Victoria and Garrett. The family he’d thought he lost. He wouldn’t let that happen again.
Nic’s text came an hour later than Cam expected it.
Nic had estimated ninety minutes, tops, for the meeting with his father’s attorney.
There’d be the reading of the will, Nic would have to fill out some paperwork as executor, and then it would all be tucked away in a folder at the attorney’s office until they received the final autopsy report on Curtis and resolved Vaughn’s case.
When Nic’s terse Down here now text finally came through, Cam figured he knew how that meeting had gone.
Not according to plan.
Cam made his way to the lobby elevators. Doors sliding open right away, he counted it a win until Agent Cole called out, “Agent Byrne!” He backed out of the cab, and Cole’s hand came down on his shoulder. “Do you have a minute?”
“What can I do for you?” he asked casually.
“I was wondering if there’s anything I can do to help on the Vaughn matter.” He was too eager to be on this case, just like his suspected boss was no doubt eager for information.
“Keep Agent Hall in caffeine. That’s probably the most valuable thing you can do right now.”
The junior agent looked crestfallen at first, then he rallied. “Have matters escalated?”
Randomly fishing or did he know something Cam didn’t? At the rate at which things were moving on this case, the latter was possible, but Cole of all people shouldn’t be in the know before him. Unless it was news Lauren had planted. “Why do you ask?”
“I came up in the elevator with AUSA Price and a Marine.”
“A Marine?”
“Yeah, full uniform and everything.”
Wariness crept up Cam’s spine, some instinct warning him this was not good. Outwardly, he played it cool for Cole. “AUSA Price was a SEAL. The Marine was probably an old Special Forces buddy.”
“Odd timing, don’t you think?”
“Big city, don’t you think?”
Cole chuckled, playing chastened well. “Guess you’re right.”
“Sit tight.” Cam stepped around him toward the stairwell door. “We’ll let you know if you’re needed.”
Not giving Cole a chance to reply, Cam exited through the stairwell door and hoofed it down to Nic’s floor.
Striding across the USAO’s floor, he said good morning to the staff and attorneys he passed and only hesitated a moment outside Nic’s closed door.
He’d texted him to come right down, after all.
He pushed it open. And greetings, questions, words, all died on his lips.
Nic stood next to the window talking to a shorter man, the Marine.
Cam recognized the uniform from his younger brother’s closet, but Keith was nowhere near as highly ranked and decorated as this man.
A major. Who was standing closer to Nic than an old Special Forces buddy probably would.
Hand on his arm, he gazed up at Nic like they were the only two people in the world.
Jealousy snaked through Cam, and on its heels, the sharp claws of fear and doubt. The shared intimacy between the two was obvious, making Cam feel like an intruder.
“I’m sorry,” he said, making his presence known. “I should’ve—”
Nic’s gaze shot to his, and he backed away from the other man. “I told you to come down here, didn’t I?” His voice was as terse as his text.
“Yes, but—”
“Close the door, Boston.”
Still terse, but Cam read the use of his nickname as a good sign. He’d take all those he could get right now amid the weird tension. He closed the door and stepped farther into the room, intending to introduce himself.
Nic, however, spoke first. “There’s been a development.”
“On one of our cases?” he asked obliquely, not sure how to proceed with the other man in the room. Nic was speaking like he was somehow involved, yet . . . who was he, exactly? Did he have clearance? He trusted Nic not to compromise the case, but what the ever-loving fuck was going on?
“In a manner of speaking,” Nic said.
Not a fucking answer. “Don’t lawyer me.”
The major huffed a laugh. “He spoke like that as a kid too.”
Nic glowered at him. “I did not.”
“You so did. Not to your father but to everyone else.” A childhood friend, then. “Mom would catch him doing something he wasn’t supposed to, and he would dodge and swerve, making any argument he could as to why he shouldn’t be in hot water.”
“I was developing a skill.”
“I hope you’re better at that skill than dancing.”
The verbal roundhouse to his gut, combined with a lightning strike of clarity to his brain, forced Cam to grab the back of the closest chair.
The last time Nic had danced . . . Them . . .
The Marine stepped forward, hand outstretched. “Since Nic’s lost all his manners, I’m Major Garrett Sare.”
“GS,” Cam mumbled.
“I’m sorry?”
Cam glanced at Nic for confirmation and caught just a glimpse of Nic’s pained expression before he directed his gaze out the window. He’d take that as a yes, then. One answer, a million more questions.
Cam cleared his throat and shook Garrett’s hand. “Special Agent Cameron Byrne.”
“You work with Nic?”
“I do.”
“We live together too,” Nic added.
Garrett’s hazel gaze whipped back and forth between them. “You’re together?”
Nic stepped away from the window and leaned a hip against his desk. “We are, which is why I called him down here. He needs to be brought up to speed, professionally and personally.”
Cam was both comforted and annoyed. “He is still in the room,” he sniped, then added more civilly, “but thank you.” Nic nodded, and Cam returned his attention to Garrett. “You’re here about Curtis?”
Garrett looked to Nic for guidance. “Everything?”
“Yes, everything.”
“All right, then.” There was a Southern twang to his voice. Not like Jamie’s drawl—Cam would bet Garrett wasn’t raised in the South—but he’d lived there long enough to pick up some of the accent. “I’m here about Curtis and my and Nic’s sister.”
All thoughts of accents vanished. “Your sister?”
“My mother, Victoria, was pregnant when she left Curtis.”
So that’s why Victoria had finally had enough and packed their bags to leave that day. She’d had another life to protect.
“On Nic’s graduation day,” Cam said.
“He’s told you?”
“Some of it.” Crossing his arms, Cam moved next to Nic, worry of a different sort filtering through his investigator’s mind. “So you’re here now to collect?”
“Cam,” Nic admonished.
“I’m here about you.” Cam wanted both men to be clear who his priority was in this scenario.
“My father was providing a stipend for my sister.”
“The offshore account?”
Nic nodded. “And Nicolette is also provided for in the will.”
“I’m not here to collect,” Garrett said. “We don’t need Curtis’s money anymore. Mom never wanted it in the first place.”
“But you took it?”
“I did.” Not even Cam could deny the heavy regret in Garrett’s voice. “To pay for her college and to buy an extra life insurance policy that would pay out if I was killed in combat. I was recruited into MARSOC. That’s—”
“Marine Corps Special Operations Command,” Cam said. “My brother’s a sergeant.”
“Then you understand how dangerous it is.”
“To a degree.”
“I had a risky deployment coming up, and Nicolette had just been accepted into a prestigious arts academy. Mom and I had scraped together all our money to pay for it, but we were still short. If anything happened to me, then it would have been a massive shortfall. I didn’t want Nicolette’s dream to die.
So I paid for and insured it the best I could. ”
“With money from Curtis?”
“He owed Victoria the child support,” Nic argued. “Years of it.”
“She didn’t want to ask for it,” Garrett said.
“Money never comes without strings. We didn’t want to owe him or be connected to him.
After the way he reacted when Mom tried to take you, we didn’t want him to have some claim on Lette.
That’s why we never asked until it was necessary.
If we could have found any other way, we would have. ”
“How’d you get Curtis to pay?” Cam asked, still trying to piece together the past. “I can’t imagine he did so willingly. You’d been gone almost twenty years then.”
“I had pictures of what my mother looked like after he beat her.”
“Not to mention an illegitimate child.”
“I’m not proud of what I did, but I’m proud of my sister. It was worth it.”
“You should have told me,” Nic said.
Garrett shook his head vehemently. “I wasn’t risking your future either. You’d already sacrificed enough for us.”
“You’re risking her future now by being here.”
“So tell me what the fuck is going on,” Garrett demanded. “You’re acting like we’re in more danger now than when we left.”
“You are!”
“Where’s your sister now?” Cam asked.
“Back at the hotel with Mom.”
“Mel’s on them,” Nic said, answering his next question. “I told them to stay inside.”
“You freaked them out is what you did.”
Nic straightened, voice booming. “I’m trying to keep them alive!”
Cam drew closer, laying a hand on his back, calming as much as claiming. “If you’re not here to collect,” he said to Garrett, “then why are you here?”
“We were here in the area—Nicolette had a job interview—and we saw the news about Curtis. We got the call from Dennis that same afternoon. We gave Nicolette the choice, and she’s always wanted to meet her other brother.
We thought the coast was clear, that it was safe with Curtis out of the picture. ”
“Well, it’s not,” Nic grumbled, practically vibrating.
“I’m gathering that. So tell me why.”
“Curtis was in debt,” Cam explained. “To some very dangerous people, one in particular who’s made threats against Nic.”
“And now you’ve just handed him another Price heir,” Nic said. “Another point of leverage he can go after directly or use against me.”
“He doesn’t necessarily know about Lette yet,” Garrett said.
“He’ll know as soon as we file the will with probate.”
“Which is delayed because of the autopsy.” Cam found himself in the unlikely role of peacemaker.
De-escalation seemed in order all around.
“If we can quickly wrap our case, then no one will be the wiser about your sister until our target is indicted.” He turned his attention to Garrett. “When’s your flight home?”
“Sunday.”
“Okay, we’ll keep you and your family safe until then.”
Garrett gestured at his uniform. “We’re not helpless.”
“I can see that, but Nic deeply regrets the way things went down last time.” Cam moved closer still to his lover, arms brushing, fingers tangling between them. “I won’t let him go through that again.”