Chapter Twenty-six – Selfish #2
“I know. It doesn’t make any sense for either Adam or Ike to come at them now.
And why come after Fallon and not Rafe? We’re still missing something.
But if Tony Cantori was working for the same men Ace Turner is, it was absolutely not a coincidence and most likely led to his death.
I’m not sure we can rule any of them out. Not even JJ.”
“Honestly, I can’t see it being JJ. Not only does he not have the skills or cahones , but what would he get out of it? She really had nothing to do with his arrest. Ace, on the other hand, didn’t hide how pissed he was.”
“And his wife, Celia. Have you found her yet?”
“Not a trace.”
“So we’re nowhere,” I said, frustration blooming.
Dad’s voice held the same exasperation I felt.
“We know what happened to Lauren wasn’t an accident, and we didn’t know it was related before this.
We can spiral back, pull in all the data, and we’ll find an answer, Park.
In the meantime, I’m sending someone to protect Lauren at the rehab facility, and I’ll get Rafe up to speed. ”
“Keep him away, Dad. We don’t need him showing up with Sadie and the kids and putting them at risk too,” I said. “And you and I both know Sadie won’t let him come on his own.”
She might not put her kids at risk by bringing them to the ranch, but Fallon’s stepmom wouldn’t leave Rafe’s or Fallon’s sides if she thought they were in danger.
She’d proven just what lengths she’d go to in order to protect them when she’d taken a beating for Fallon and shot Adam in the shoulder before he could hurt either of them further.
Sadie was a fighter. She fought for the people she loved with every fiber of her being. I respected the hell out of her for it.
The guilt of that day still hung on me. It should have been me who’d taken the beating, not them.
Rafe had sent me with Fallon and Sadie specifically to protect them, and I’d left hours before my replacement had arrived.
When I’d found out Fallon had been hurt, almost killed, I’d questioned my ability to be a SEAL.
I’d left someone unprotected, and they’d almost died.
It was the one and only time I’d considered leaving the Naval Academy and giving up my dreams. It had been Will who’d talked me into staying.
When Fallon ended up at the University of San Diego with me stationed there, it had felt like a second chance to redeem myself, to protect her when I’d failed before.
But I hadn’t. I’d let JJ close to her for three years when I could have done something about it.
I could have done exactly what she’d wanted the night I’d found her at the bar and taken her home.
If I had, she would have been mine and not his.
None of this would have happened.
That ate me up from the inside out.
I’d wasted so much time with her and caused her untold amounts of anguish.
Dad’s voice drew me away from the path of self-reproach I’d started down. “Let me call the warden at Ike’s prison and see if we can speed up the approval process for the two of you. I’m already on the list for Adam’s jail. I made damn sure I could see him whenever I wanted.”
That surprised me. “You’ve met with him before now?”
“Twice,” Dad said. “He was sending letters to Lauren, and I ensured he stopped. Then, he had his cellmate send letters to Fallon, and I returned and talked to him and his friend.”
That foreboding I’d felt earlier returned. “Fallon never mentioned it.” And I was sure she would have told me if her uncle had contacted her.
“Neither Lauren nor Fallon ever saw the letters. Rafe and I intercepted them.”
So Fallon had been right. Our dads had kept things from us. It pissed me off as much as I understood why they’d done it.
“What did the letters say?”
“Nothing, really. Long rambles about the Hurlys and Harringtons being in some symbiotic relationship. What happened to one happened to the other. ”
A chill went up my spine. “Adam is in jail. He wants a Harrington in jail too? Wants Fallon in jail? That would hurt Rafe far more than Rafe going to prison himself.”
Dad inhaled sharply. “Damnit. Maybe.”
We discussed the possibilities for a few more minutes before saying our goodbyes. He promised to let me know what he heard back from Ike’s warden.
I shoved my phone in my pocket, mind spinning with all the puzzle pieces that we had and the ones we were missing. Something still felt off. Something I couldn’t quite see yet.
Lost in my thoughts, it took several minutes before the panorama from the windows of the ranch spread out below me finally registered. With the rivers, mountains, and castle twining together, it was a stunning glimpse of Eden. But just like in the Bible story, betrayal had rocked the land.
When she looked at it, Fallon saw much more than the physical rocks and trees and water. She saw a legacy worthy of continuing for future generations. She felt a responsibility to the forest and wildlife as much as the man-made structures.
My earliest years had been spent on naval bases, but I barely remembered those locations. The home I remembered most was the one we’d had in Las Vegas. Dad had settled us there before he’d even met Rafe. It was a tract home in a nice neighborhood.
We could have afforded to move to an even better neighborhood after Rafe’s business took off and Dad became a shareholder in a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, but we hadn’t.
We’d stayed right where we were and lived a very typical American existence.
Mom worked at a local women’s shelter, Dad worked for Rafe, and I went to public school, played football, and took a leadership role in the campus ROTC.
Fallon had never known normal. She’d never been an average kid or an average teenager.
Not because of the screwed-up love triangle she’d been born out of, but because she’d been an heiress even when the ranch was nearly bankrupt.
She’d been Rafe’s only child until she was fifteen, the sole heir to Rafe’s fortunes.
Even now, with two siblings, the money she’d eventually inherit from him would mean neither she nor her future children would ever have to worry about money, as long as they played it smart .
But she’d never acted like an heiress. Growing up on the ranch had grounded her.
The hard work she’d put in each day had ensured she hadn’t thought she was better than others.
She’d shoveled shit and hay and ran the tractor like any good farmer’s daughter.
She’d put in the time earning what she’d inherited.
I refused to let anyone take it from her. Refused to let someone send her running permanently or lock her in prison for crimes she hadn’t committed. For simply being the last remaining ancestor of a feud that had gone on too long between the Hurlys and the Harringtons—or the goddamn Puzos.
I also refused to leave her. Never again would I make the mistake I’d made in Tennessee ten years ago or three years ago in San Diego. She’d be safe, and she’d be mine.
? ? ?
I spent the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday running the investigation from Fallon’s home.
Her staff had respected my wishes and sent their questions and updates to me rather than her.
I knew Fallon would be pissed when she finally realized it, but she’d spent much of the last twenty-four hours doing exactly what the doctor had recommended, sleeping and resting in a darkened room.
Her parents had called several times. The conversations with her mother had been tense and frustrating, but that was nothing new.
I wasn’t sure how much of the truth Fallon had given her about what was happening.
Since Spencer had died, everyone had treated Lauren with kid gloves, and it had only gotten worse after the accident.
The conversations with Sadie had been full of laughter as much as tears, but it was Rafe who’d called the most, and she’d been exhausted after every one of them, the burdens of the ranch hanging over her even more.
When Rafe called again on Sunday evening, I took the phone away and told him that he needed to let Fallon rest. He’d been as pissed at my gall as she’d been. But once I’d calmed him down, he’d said he was grateful I was looking out for her and making sure she actually gave herself a chance to heal.
As I tucked Theo into bed, I had to fight back my frustration at another day spent getting nowhere. I forced myself to smile, to show him only the love he deserved. And after he fell asleep, I went in to check on Fallon for the hundredth time.
She was doing the same thing she’d done for two days now—watching her favorite TV show.
I wasn’t sure how she could look so exhausted after all the sleep she’d gotten, but she did.
Her eyes still looked bruised, and her face was still pale.
The ugly knot on her head seemed even more pronounced. It made my chest ache.
I joined her on the bed for the first time, sliding over until we were shoulder to shoulder and our heads shared a single pillow. She glanced at me warily.
“I’m going down to the ranch tomorrow,” she said, lifting her chin, eyes flashing with defiance.
“Give it one more day, Ducky,” I said softly. “You still look like hell.”
She shoved at me with her shoulder. “You sure know how to charm the pants off a girl.”
Our eyes met, and she bit her lip as if realizing what she’d said. It drew my gaze to the soft, pink flesh. I wanted to taste it again. Wanted to devour it. Wanted to burn myself into her in ways that left us both scorched. Marked. Branded.
Even more, I wanted the flashes of family I saw when I was with her to be permanent.
I never wanted to come home to a stale, silent apartment again.
But could I really leave her and Theo for months at a time, knowing every moment I was gone they were worrying about me?
Knowing the worst could happen with one tiny slipup?
Knowing they could end up at yet another funeral after they’d already been to one too many?
Worse, knowing I wouldn’t be here if and when they needed me.
Not just for protection from unseen killers but to soothe hurt feelings and help with the day-to-day chores of life.
I cleared the emotions clogging my throat and looked toward the television while I passed along the latest update I’d gotten from Cranky. “Video footage puts JJ at the coffee shop the same day as the receipt left in the car that ran your mom off the road.”
She muted the show. “You really think this is JJ?”
“Honestly, not nearly as much as I think this could be Ace. Even if JJ is pissed at you for breaking up with him and turning on him, what does he get out of ruining the ranch?”
“He didn’t want me to keep it,” she said .
“What?” My eyes jerked back to her.
Fallon swallowed, suddenly seeming nervous. She twisted her fingers around her thumb before running it along the edge of the comforter. “He wanted me to sell the ranch and build a life with him in San Diego.”
I scoffed. Anyone who knew Fallon realized she’d never leave the ranch for good. San Diego had simply been a means to an end.
“So you think he’s trying to, what? Ruin the ranch, run it into the ground so you’ll go running back to San Diego? Even now? With him going to jail?” It seemed ridiculous.
“What if he put it all into motion before the police arrested us?” she said.
“He had to know there was no way you’d stay in San Diego forever.”
“That’s exactly what he thought. He assumed if I was pregnant, I’d choose him and marriage and San Diego over raising a child on my own. He knew I’d hate everyone in Rivers looking down on my kid like they’d always looked down on me.”
My stomach turned cold, and my lungs squeezed so tight it was hard to grunt out, “You were trying to have a baby together?”
Fallon laughed, but it wasn’t light and humorous. It was dark and pained and raw. “No. I didn’t want a baby, but he did.”
I frowned. I couldn’t follow the dots she was trying to connect for me any more than I could connect the dots about who was doing all this. It pissed me off because I was usually the guy my team relied on to do just that. “What are you saying?”
She looked at me quickly and then darted her gaze away. “He was sabotaging our condoms.”
Instant, hot rage washed through my veins. I had an uncontrollable urge to destroy him. An urge that would be difficult to contain if I ever ran into the asshole again.
“What the actual fuck?” I growled.
“He rented an apartment in the Kleindyke building and filled it with brand-new furniture, including an entire nursery.”
I stared at her, disbelief and hate and fury mixing in.
“You see,” she said, swallowing hard before continuing, “if I was pregnant, if I had his kid, and we got married, he’d be able to sink his hooks into my money.
He’d always be entitled to some of it via alimony and child support.
He’d finally have the wealth he’d always wanted just so he could rub it in the face of everyone who’d put him down growing up.
He didn’t want an actual kid—I really don’t think he did—but he wanted what would come with it.
” She was accelerating as she talked as if she was speeding up a ramp before getting onto a freeway.
But then she stopped, took a huge breath, and said, “That’s why he can never, ever, ever find out that he succeeded. ”
She placed a hand protectively over her stomach.
And every thought went out of my head except one.
She was pregnant.
Fallon was having a baby.