CHAPTER NINE
Kol
FURY COURSED THROUGH ME IN SCALDING WAVES. IT HAD blood rushing in my ears and that vein in my neck pulsing. A fucking reporter. I knew all about those snakes in the grass.
They’d hunted my brothers and me after our father’s death and the discovery of who he really was. They’d surrounded our property in Connecticut, some photographers even going so far as to scale walls to try to get a shot of us. They screamed their questions as we drove by in tinted-window SUVs.
Hell, Mav had only been eleven at the time, recovering from wounds that had almost ended his life, and they didn’t give a damn. They followed us across the country to Starlight Grove, waited just off our schools’ premises with long-range lenses, and sensationalized everything that happened.
And it only got worse when they started speculating about our mother’s disappearance.
Had she simply had enough and needed a fresh start like her email had said?
Were the pressures of being a mom to five boys and the wife of a prominent businessman too much for her to handle?
Or was it something darker? Had our dad killed her?
We still didn’t know. But assholes like this reporter loved to speculate.
I wasn’t about to let this piece of shit do that to Nova.
“Get out now, or I will help you out, and you won’t like that very much,” I snarled.
There was a flicker of fear in the man’s eyes, but he made the stupid move and doubled down. “Try freedom of the press. And you’d think there’d be a little gratitude. I pushed for coverage of Nova’s case. Even before anyone knew about Travis Moore.”
My teeth ground together so hard that an ache took root in my jaw. “I don’t care if you have a psychic connection to Elvis himself. You have no right to harass the victim of a crime.”
“This is a private business, and I’ll have to ask you to leave,” Wylder cut in, his voice going cold.
The reporter’s eyes flashed with anger, but he didn’t move.
“And you’ll need to leave now, or I’ll have you arrested,” Wylder went on.
“I’d be happy to do the honors,” I gritted out.
The reporter’s gaze cut to me as he pushed off his stool. “You’re a cop?”
He obviously wasn’t a very astute reporter, given the fact that I was in uniform.
“Forest Service.”
The man scoffed. “Tree cop?” But then his expression lightened, something dawning. “Shit. You’re the one who found her, aren’t you? I heard someone in the Forest Service did. I—”
“Out,” Wylder barked, rounding the bar to physically remove the reporter if he had to.
The man held up both hands and backed up. “I’m going.” He pulled a card out of his pocket. “I’d love to interview you, too.”
I didn’t take the card, so the reporter dropped it onto the floor.
“Call me. You deserve some accolades for all you did.”
My lip curled in disgust as I turned back to the bar.
Nova stood there motionless, her face pale.
Fucking hell.
I moved then. “Come on.”
“Not a dog, Boss.” She forced out the words, but there was a slight tremble to them.
“Please, Phoenix.”
She started to move then, crossing to the end of the bar.
“Wy’s office,” I clipped.
Nova moved, falling into step beside me. She tangled her fingers in front of her, braiding and unbraiding them, knuckles bleaching white before color rushed back in.
God, I wanted to reach for one of those hands. Let her strangle my fingers if she needed to. Let her pour her pain into me.
But I didn’t. I wouldn’t cross that unspoken boundary.
For so many reasons.
I held the door open for Nova, and she slipped inside. The moment the door was closed, quiet reigned. Wylder had gotten the room soundproofed so he could escape the noise when he needed to. But now, it was almost too quiet.
“They can just … find you, drag everything up,” Nova spat, a little of the color coming back to her cheeks.
“It should be illegal.”
Those gray eyes cut to me and turned silver. “It should be more than that.” She sucked in a breath. “I know they aren’t all that way. Dex’s friend, Ridley, wasn’t. I listened to her podcast. She was kind, trying to help.”
There were good eggs out there, just like with any profession. But something about reporters covering certain kinds of crime lent itself to predatory behavior.
“It feels like they’re cutting you wide open, and no one can do a thing to stop it.” My words came out just a little hoarse, because giving her that truth cost me.
Nova stopped pacing and stared at me for a long moment. “You say that like you know how it feels.”
I struggled to swallow, my throat sticking on the movement as if I hadn’t had anything to drink in hours. “I do.”
She was quiet. Waiting. I knew she wasn’t a stranger to silence. She’d had to live with it for countless hours during the year Travis held her. But this was different. Her silence now was a gentle request with infinite patience on the other end.
She deserved to know. For so many reasons. First and foremost because she’d be moving into my house. And some people didn’t want to risk being in the same vicinity as someone who shared DNA with a killer. Skylar’s mother certainly hadn’t. Maybe my mother hadn’t either.
“Brae hasn’t told you about our father, has she?”
Dex had shared that she wanted to wait. Not burden Nova or frighten her when she was still getting her sea legs. But it had been four months now. And it felt like a lie more than anything at this point.
Nova’s brows pulled together. “I know that you and your brothers came to live with Waylon when you were kids.”
I nodded, but the movement felt robotic. “When I was seventeen. Mav was eleven. Dex was twelve. Orion was fifteen. And Wylder was eighteen. After we found out our father was a serial killer.”
Nova sucked in an audible breath, but she didn’t move. She didn’t run. Or scream. Or look at me with horror in her expression.
Instead, her gray eyes filled with sorrow. “Kol. I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine.”
“So I know all about reporters. Ones who will do anything for a headline. For their name above the fold.”
Nova did something I never would’ve expected. She moved closer. For a second, I thought she might reach out and take my hand. She didn’t. But she got so close I could feel the heat coming off her body, see the faintest smattering of freckles on her nose.
“I hate that you know how it feels,” she whispered. “That you lived through that.”
I stared down at her in wonder. “Why aren’t you running?”
Her mouth puckered in an adorable little frown. “Why would I run?”
“Because I come from the same kind of monster that nearly killed you.”
Nova didn’t look away from me as she spoke. “You lived with a monster, just like I did. It makes sense why you understand me so well. I hate that that’s why. But I’m also grateful. Because the darkness doesn’t scare you. Because you lived in it, too.”
Hell, she was right. Maybe that was why I felt such a kinship with Nova. Because we could face the darkness the way others couldn’t. “Phoenix,” I whispered.
The sound of her nickname swirled in the air between us. We were so close. My fingers ached to reach out, to skim across her cheek.
The door swung open, and Nova jumped back and away from me.
Wylder filled the doorway, his gaze pinging back and forth between us. “Sorry. I just wanted you to know he’s gone. Got a photo so we can show it to the rest of the staff. Make sure he doesn’t come back. I should’ve gotten his name—”
“Reese Gatlin.” Nova’s voice was stronger now, as if she’d shoved all the hurt and pain down, and her mask was back in place. I hated it.
“I’ll add that to the info we already have,” Wylder said.
Nova nodded. “I gotta get back out there.”
She skirted around Wylder without a backward glance, and I felt some sort of invisible tug as she went, an urge to follow her. But I locked it down. Instead, I pulled out my phone and typed out a text.
Me:
Need you to pull everything you can on a Reese Gatlin. Reporter. Wylder will send you his photo.
It only took a second to get a reply.
Dex:
Are YOU seriously asking me to do something illegal?
I scowled at the screen.
Me:
Are you going to help me or not?
Dex:
On it. This have something to do with Nova?
Me:
Yes.
That was all I could give him. Because if I gave him more, the rage would take hold.
I shoved my phone into my pocket and looked up to find Wylder watching me. “Need you to send Dex that photo of the reporter.”
“I can do that,” he said slowly. “Since when do you activate Dex?”
He had a point. In the secret work we did in the shadows, I steered clear of anything that crossed a black-and-white line.
If something strayed into less-than-legal territory, I wasn’t part of it.
Because I had more to lose than the rest of my brothers.
I had a daughter who counted on me. I was her only parent, and I couldn’t risk being a part of something that could create blowback on me—on her.
“I’m not breaking any laws. I’m just asking Dex to dig a little.”
Wylder arched a brow. “You might not be breaking any laws, but you are bending them.”
Which wasn’t something I did. Ever. But for Nova? It felt like I’d do anything.