She thought there was darkness in Wyatt, but it wasn’t born of the same sinister anger like Nova’s. He cursed in Italian when Tabitha told him about Vaughn drugging and raping her, but in the next breath he reached across the table and squeezed Tabitha’s hand.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he studied her, his dark gaze swirling with concern. “Is that why you moved to New York?”

“Yes. I didn’t want Wyatt to find out.” Tabitha didn’t break out of his hold, but she did frown at him. “How did you know I was in New York?”

“I read it in your bio.” Nova took a sip of tea, grimacing over it, but that was all they had to offer him. “You don’t have any coffee?”

“No, sorry.” Tabitha shook her head. “I threw it away.”

“Oh Jesus,” Wyatt said with a snort of laughter.

“I don’t have a detailed bio, Nova.” Tabitha continued to study him. There was just something about his face that she liked, even with the dangerous scowl. “I’m a very private author.”

“Did you have any money when you first got there? You said you were twenty-one when you left. That’d be ninety-nine. Your first book didn’t come out until almost three years later. What’d you do for cash back then?” Nova asked, as if it were pertinent to the story.

“I had a job at a bakery on Thirty-Seventh.”

“Rubio’s. I know that bakery.” Nova nodded. “They don’t pay very well. You must have been struggling financially.”

“Did we meet there?” Tabitha asked, because now that he had opened the floodgates about his memory, she could see how easily he could pull up random facts. “You asked me if I remembered you in the hospital.”

“Yeah, Tabitha, we’ve met before.” His smile turned warm once more. “But I can understand why you wouldn’t remember me.”

“Why?”

“I was twelve.”

“Oh, I guess you would’ve been. God, that makes me feel old.” Tabitha winced at Wyatt before she turned back to Nova, now beyond curious. “What happened?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said with a grin. “Tell me the rest. What happened when you got back?”

They told him the rest of the story. After Wyatt had explained the details of the shooting, Nova just pushed his empty plate aside and dropped his head to the table. He folded his hands together behind his neck as if deep in thought.

“This is a huge friggin’ problem, Conner,” he mumbled against the wood. “There are a lot of loose ends there. If you hadn’t done what you did when you were younger, we could get you off on technicalities, but with that—”

“I know.” Wyatt shook his head. “I’m not just losing my job; I’m to going to jail. Vaughn had every right to fear for his safety. Pulling a gun on me was self-defense. I had very real motivation to kill him.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you shoot him a second time? Just kill him and then make the call to dispatch. It would’ve solved your problem. Dead men don’t tell tales. A sheriff’s word would’ve been more than good enough. Now you got him alive and likely to run his mouth.”

“That’s great advice now. Thanks,” Wyatt said sarcastically. “I know I should’ve killed him. I’ve thought ’bout it myself, but at the time I was in cop mode. Maybe when I was younger, I would’ve done it, but I’ve been sheriff for a long time. It’s sorta ingrained.”

“Friggin’ hick integrity.” Nova was still speaking with his face pressed against the table. “You said there was a witness to the first incident. What’s his name?”

“Jason Wiltkins.”

“And Tabitha’s brother, Brett. He’s the only other person who knows about it?”

“Clay knows. Jules knows.”

“Okay.” Nova lifted his head and rubbed a hand over his face. “I really wish you had coffee. I got a headache.”

“Sorry,” Tabitha whispered, feeling guilty now that she’d thrown it away. She probably should’ve thought to keep some for company.

Nova pushed away from the table and stood. He paced and said something in Italian, as if speaking to himself.

“What’s that?” Wyatt leaned forward with a scowl. “You said Tino’s name in there? Did you tell him I was in trouble?”

“You think the DOJ can walk into the hospital and ask to speak with you, and it wouldn’t set off every paranoid sensor Tino has? He started hounding me for information the second we were alone. He knows you’re in trouble. They all do to an extent.”

“No one’s told Jules, have they?” Wyatt asked in horror.

“No, Jules and Romeo don’t know anything.” Nova shook his head. “They got enough to deal with right now.”

Wyatt sighed, looking appeased. “So that’s it. The loophole man doesn’t have an answer. I might as well just make the call and face the music.”

“I didn’t say that,” Nova argued. “It’s just more complicated than I anticipated.”

“More complicated?” Wyatt repeated in disbelief. “I’m fucked, Moretti. I know that. There’s no solution for this problem. I knew it when I let you sit at this table and start asking questions.”

“There’s always a solution.” Nova arched an eyebrow at him. “It’s just way outside your moral compass. I was hoping to avoid that.”

“No,” Wyatt growled. “No fucking way. I give your brother shit all the time about this mafia crap, and now you think I’m gonna go along with you killing someone in cold blood—”

“He raped your wife, Conner.” Nova’s scowl became dangerous once more. “Get over your ethical bullshit.”

“Get the fuck out of my house.” Wyatt pointed to the door.

“I’m not gonna shoot him,” Nova said rather than leave. “That’s not my style. Very sloppy. We don’t need this prick dead. We just need to make sure he doesn’t talk to the DOJ.”

“So what?” Wyatt let out an incredulous laugh. “You’re gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse?”

Nova quirked an eyebrow, but he didn’t say anything.

“Look, he’s an addict. He’s unstable,” Wyatt went on. “It’s not going to work, and getting yourself involved with this will just make things difficult for you and my sister. I can deal with the consequences of my actions. I want you to forget we had this conversation.”

“Yeah, but see—” Nova held up his hands and gave Wyatt a bitter smile. “I don’t forget things, and right now the only real issue is the statement you’re going to make to the DOJ. You’ve got a fuckload of loose ends, so let’s go over them.”

“Moretti—”

“What do you have to lose by having a foolproof statement? We’ll forget about the rest of it until later. Let’s just worry about your story.” Nova rubbed at the back of his neck again. “You were on the way to your sister’s house. She was in labor. You picked up Clay on the way. You took Harkin road rather than—”

“That’s way out of the way,” Wyatt argued.

“It doesn’t matter. So you went outta the way. You took the time to drive by the bar to make sure there were no drunk assholes out on the road. It was three o’clock. Last call. You were just double-checking to make sure your town was safe.”

“While my sister was bleeding out?” Wyatt arched an eyebrow at him. “No one’s gonna buy that.”

“She wasn’t in distress yet. She just had some pains, and you wanted to be there in case they needed to get to the hospital.”

Wyatt picked the DOJ card up off the table and tapped it against the wood as if considering it. “I guess that would make sense. I’ve been after drunk drivers for a few years now. Everyone knows it.”

“Perfect.” Nova looked pleased with that development. “You saw him swerving. You made the traffic stop. He pulled a gun. You shot him. That’s it. That’s what happened, Conner.”

“But that’s not what happened. He wasn’t swerving.”

“Yes, he was.” Nova raised his eyebrows. “He was all over the road. You had an obligation to pull him over. I saw his numbers while I was in the ICU. He was above the legal limit.”

“How’d you manage that?”

“Just hanging out at the nurses’ station.”

Wyatt grunted in shock. “You hit on the nurses to get his blood alcohol limits?”

“You highly underestimate me.” Nova pulled back at the insult. “He’s in ICU. Jules is too. So I spent a few hours talking to a couple of the nurses until I saw the numbers on the screen. I didn’t have to ask. That’s a loose end. We don’t like loose ends. Now tell me your story again.”

Tabitha looked to Wyatt, who seemed to be debating with himself before he shrugged as if he had nothing to lose. “I was on the way to my sister’s. I picked up my friend Clay.”

“Why’d you pick him up at three in the morning?” Nova barked, sounding like an investigator.

“He’s lived with us since me and Jules’s were teenagers. He’s like another brother to her. She wanted him there.”

“Okay, then why did you go by the bar?”

Wyatt flipped the card over in his hand, staring at it before he said, “I dunno; habit, I guess. It was on the way.”

“Not really,” Nova argued, his words still sharp as if he was looking for a lie. “It’s way outta the way.”

“Ever since I found that Johnson kid dead, I always drive by the bar if I can. I had time. She was just feeling a few pains.”

“Then why make the trip at all?”

“My brother-in-law’s been so stressed out. My sister’s been on bed rest. Clay and me figured we could give him a break if she had him up at three in the morning. Keep her company for a little while if it was just that false labor she’d been having for the past month.”

“And what happened then?”

“I stopped and took a few minutes to wait for the last of the patrons to leave the bar.”

“You weren’t on duty, Sheriff Conner. Why would you do that with your friend in your vehicle?”

Wyatt threw up his hands. “I probably shouldn’t have, but the truth is, I’m always on duty. This is my town. I never stop being sheriff.”

“Good.” Nova nodded, clearly pleased with that. “And when you saw Mr. Davis swerving and pulled him over, why didn’t you call in the stop?”

“I dunno.” Wyatt shook his head at that, clearly stumped on the question. “It should’ve been called in.”

“Your radio’s on the fritz. You tried, but it cut out, and you made the decision to make the stop anyway.”

“But my radio isn’t on the fritz,” Wyatt countered.

“It is when I get done with it. Now how long’s your radio been on the fritz?”

Wyatt seemed to think about the answer before he looked to Nova and offered, “I just noticed it Monday. I planned on getting it replaced when I went back to work on Thursday.”

“But you made the call to dispatch on the way to meet your sister at the hospital. How is that?”

“I don’t know.” Wyatt threw up his hands again. “I have no idea how I did that if it’s supposedly on the fritz.”

“It goes in and out.”

“It does?”

“Yes, it does.” Nova gave him another annoyed look before he started in again, “Why didn’t you take your police-issue weapon on the stop, Sheriff?”

Wyatt frowned again. “I dunno that either.”

“You’re a paranoid redneck, Conner. You have a concealed-weapons license, and you always pack heat when you’re off duty. You already had the .45 on you, and you were in a hurry. You left the 9 mm in the glove compartment. Clay didn’t know it was there, and he’s your best friend. You didn’t think about it too much.”

“I was packing a .45 on the way to see my laboring sister?” Wyatt laughed. “Have you seen a .45, Moretti? It ain’t exactly a casual weapon.”

“You love guns. Romeo told me you have a whole friggin’ gun safe full of them. They are one of the rare joys in your life, and your .45 is your favorite weapon. Keeping it on your person gets you off.”

“It was my favorite weapon.” Wyatt winced. “It was painful handing it over to Adam.”

“Why didn’t you take your police-issue weapon on the stop?” Nova asked again.

“I was in a hurry. I already had the .45 in the back of my jeans.”

“That’s a pretty big weapon to conceal in the back of your jeans.”

“I ain’t exactly a lightweight. I can hide a .45, and it’s my favorite weapon. I didn’t think anything ’bout it. I wasn’t expecting to shoot Mr. Davis. That was the last thing in the world I wanted. I was just trying to get a drunk off the road and get to my sister.”

“You’re getting good at this.” Nova smiled proudly. “I almost believed you. The key to this is to stay as close to the truth as possible. Don’t add anything. Just answer their questions in a calm, rational manner, because you have nothing to hide. You didn’t do anything wrong. He shot at you. You pulled your weapon and fired before you even realized you’d done it.”