Chapter 16 #2
“No, we got out. We’re…” Nadia glanced around the rustic bedroom. It was cozy and quiet, especially now that the water had stopped running in the bathroom. Outside, a horse neighed and another answered. “We’re safe,” she whispered. For now.
“I wish you were home, or here with me.”
“Me, too. But I can’t risk leading these guys to you. I’d never forgive myself.”
“I know you wouldn’t. And as much as I hate to admit it, Thomas is keeping you alive. You’re keeping each other alive. Just go somewhere safe and lie low as long as you need to. Ian and I will be here for you when this is all over.”
Nadia squeezed her eyes shut, knowing that wouldn’t be the case if Aimee discovered exactly how involved she’d been since day one.
Though she did take comfort in the fact that the one thing the Hidalgos didn’t have was her phone.
It was lying on a hillside somewhere, the screen shattered.
They wouldn’t be able to hack into her phone, look at her logs and see who her important people were.
As long as she kept her distance from Aimee and her mom, so would the Hidalgos.
They wouldn’t know who to go after to get to her, and, in turn, through her to get to Thomas.
Because the way it was looking, the cartel was picking off the Donatos one by one.
She despised the woman, but prayed Claire would come out of this alive, that she’d be found.
Nadia ended the call when she heard the door into Cammy’s office shut.
Thomas had finished using the bathroom. Before she got sucked into a dark head space, she pushed up from the floor and tapped lightly on the bathroom door, cracking it open when there wasn’t an answer.
Thomas had left the bathroom steamy. She opened the window partway and wiped down the mirror to peer at her face.
Her cheek was still swollen and bruised, the wound crusting over.
She gently prodded at the edges before turning on the tub faucet.
She showered, dressed in a new pair of jeans and an oversized hoodie over a fitted graphic tee, and when she noticed Thomas wasn’t in his room, she returned to the kitchen in search of something more substantial than shortbread biscuits to munch on.
Their mugs were still on the table, which Nadia took to the sink, her gaze drifting out the window as she washed.
An older chestnut mare with a graying muzzle trotted around the paddock, trailing a man jogging the gate’s perimeter, his gait familiar.
She leaned closer to the window, realizing it was Thomas.
He’d changed out of his black long sleeve into a white undershirt that stretched across his broad shoulders.
Whatever he’d been wearing over it was discarded on the fence in the late morning sun.
He stopped running and turned back to the horse, who trotted up to him, butting her muzzle against his chest. He laughed and ran a brush over the mare’s gleaming mane.
She nickered softly, leaning into his touch.
“That right there is a love affair.”
Nadia startled at having been caught spying on him.
Cammy came up to stand beside her at the window. A ghost of a smile touched her parched lips. “Paciente just adores him. We call her Paci.”
“Looks mutual to me,” she said. Thomas started jogging again, Paci trotting close behind. When he laughed, she felt herself smiling. He was goading the mare, getting her to run after him for a brushing.
“You know, that is a side of Thomas most people don’t get to see. He rarely puts himself first, even when he’s weathering some terrible ordeal. Rare to see him unguarded, especially now with everything going on.”
Nadia glanced at the woman beside her before turning back to watch Thomas again.
A longing unlike she’d felt before to learn that side of him Cammy spoke of crept inside her.
Jealousy followed the desire. She envied Cammy.
She was glad Thomas had someone he could be his whole self with, but she could now admit she wished she was that person. His person.
What had changed her perspective? And why now? He’d been her friend for decades. But hadn’t she always wanted something more with him?
Yes, she had. The wanting had been there all along, buried under layers of guilt, secrecy, and self-preservation.
But after two days of running, of sleeping mere walls apart, and watching him carry the weight of their survival on his shoulders, something had unraveled inside her. And she couldn’t pack it back down.
He’d scoff at her for harboring anything remotely romantic toward him. He thought of her as a younger sister, at least he used to. Besides, now was the worst time to dissect her feelings, let alone act on them. They were literally trying to stay alive.
Cammy plucked a grape from the bunch in the fruit bowl and offered some to Nadia.
“After his mom convinced their board to give him the boot from the family biz, he showed up here unannounced, much like you two did today. He was in a bad way. Depressed, angry, barely holding it together. His whole identity had been based on that company. I’d only seen him like that once before. It was after they’d found James.”
Something like shock rippled through Nadia. She’d been so focused on herself and Aimee, and keeping what she’d known about James a secret, that she rarely gave thought to what Thomas must have endured.
“I insisted he stay with me for a while, hoping the change of scenery and some hard work would clear his head. Get his mind off his mother and the company.” Cammy popped a grape into her mouth.
“One morning, I found him out in the barn, saddling up my Paci. Now, that old gal is a gentle soul, but lordy, she’s not the easiest to ride.
She’s got a mind of her own and a wicked sense of humor. ”
As if on cue, Paci nipped Thomas’s shoulder and moved away at a fast trot, tossing her mane with a whinny. The horse was laughing at him. Cammy chuckled.
“There was Tom. Determined to take her out for a ride. I’m sure you know how he is when he gets an idea lodged in that brain of his.”
“Did he have experience?” She wouldn’t know where to begin saddling a horse, let alone riding one.
“Hardly a lick.”
Nadia’s brows shot up and Cammy popped another grape. She offered the bunch to Nadia again and she plucked a few off the vine.
“Oh, he’d watched me plenty. I’d taught him to saddle a horse and he’d ridden a time or two before.
But never with my gal, Paci. Of all my horses, he was convinced riding her would give him the perspective he needed.
And if anyone was up for a challenge, it was our boy Tommy.
Well, Paci’s a smart one. She sensed she had an amateur on her back because the moment he swung up into the saddle, she took off like a shot.
Poor Tom held on for dear life, all wide-eyed with a death grip on the reins while she galloped around the barrels at full speed like she was in a race. ” Cammy chuckled again.
Nadia had trouble picturing Thomas on a runaway horse. He was skilled at everything he set his mind to, always in control even when chaos surrounded him.
“What happened next?” she asked.
“Paci decided she’d had enough and came to an abrupt halt at the water trough, promptly dumping Tom right into it. It was like something out of those old Westerns. He came up sputtering, drenched head to toe. I half-expected him to curse up a storm and stomp off, but you know what he did instead?”
Nadia shook her head, a smile tugging the corners of her mouth.
“He started laughing, full-bellied until he had tears streaming. Then he looked Paci over and said, ‘I guess I needed that.’ He later told me he hadn’t laughed that hard in months, but that the whole escapade had done exactly what he’d set out to do, clear his head.
He spent the rest of that day brushing her down and sneaking her carrots, as if she’d done him a favor.
” Cammy’s expression softened, her eyes warmed with affection.
She wasn’t even trying to hide from Nadia how much she cared for him.
“That’s the thing about Tom,” she said. “Even when he’s at his lowest, he puts others first. His heart is too big for his own good. ”
Cammy went quiet, and Nadia reflected on the older woman’s story, watching Thomas go through the paces with Paci as he led her around the paddock’s obstacles so she could get in her exercise. She wondered if that was what he was doing now, clearing his head, until she felt Cammy’s attention on her.
“He cares about you, you know.”
Nadia jerked to look at the woman. Her weathered skin softened around faded brown eyes.
“I’ve known about you for a long time, Nadia.
You mean more to him than he’ll ever let on.
It nearly killed him when you found out he’d faked James’s death.
He didn’t want to wish that knowledge or the responsibility of carrying that secret on anyone.
He would have shouldered it on his own until it killed him.
But between you and me, having that secret between you two, as much as I’m sure you hated it, I believe it’s what kept him sane. ”
Nadia blinked, shocked by both Thomas’s interest in her and at this new level of awareness. She hadn’t seen how there could have been anything positive about her carrying the knowledge of James’s existence when everyone else believed him dead.
Cammy rinsed her fingers and dried them on the dish towel.
“Welp, I have to get back out to the stables and finish up some work before lunch. Join us when you’re ready.
” She patted Nadia’s shoulder and left the kitchen, leaving Nadia stunned.
She figured that Thomas cared for her to a certain extent.
They’d been friends since childhood. But for him to feel for her more on the level Cammy had described?