Susan Mallery - Straight From The Hip

“Is there a net?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s no fun.”

Ethan laughed. “If we kill them, they tend not to rebook.”

“Oh. Good point.”

She stepped out onto the rope bridge. She had to feel for the thick bands and place her foot there. It was slow work, but she moved fairly quickly. Before she expected it, Ethan was telling her she was only a couple of feet from him. Then strong hands pulled her onto a platform.

“Like a pro,” he said. “Good job. Are you really blind?”

“Enough that they won’t let me drive.”

“Impressive.”

“Thanks,” she said, heading down and wondering why Nick couldn’t be more like him. Supportive and complimentary. But, no. Nick was only interested in pushing too hard.

Once she reached the ground, Aaron took her back to the barn. She climbed out of the Jeep and headed toward the entrance while Aaron drove back to the retreat. She’d barely stepped into the shadows of the doorway, when she heard a familiar voice say, “Hello, Izzy.”

IZZY TOOK A STEP BACK, so she was in daylight. It seemed safer. “Dad.”

Jed Titan stood up from the bench by the door. “How are you doing?”

“Fine.”

“Still blind?”

She shook her head. “I suppose the real miracle of this is you asked how I was first. No. I haven’t had the surgery.”

“What are you waiting for?” he demanded. “You’re no good to me as you are. You’re nothing but a liability. At least if you could see, you’d be worth something.”

“I’m sorry to hear my stock is down,” she said, determined not to let him upset her. She would see the ridiculousness of the situation, nothing more. She wouldn’t think about how he hadn’t bothered to visit her in the hospital. That she was nothing to him but a possible means to an end. She wasn’t anyone he cared about. Certainly not a daughter he had ever loved.

“Are you getting the surgery or not?” he asked, sounding annoyed. “If you don’t, you’re an idiot. At least if you can see, you can marry well. You weren’t ever going to inherit the family business, but you could have done something.”

The words weren’t a surprise, but they still hurt. Her mother hadn’t left her anything, either. Apparently she was quite the disappointing child.

“You’re only interested in what I can do for you,” she said.

“What you could have done for me. You’re stubborn and difficult and now you’re blind. What a waste. That’s all you are. A waste.”

“Then you shouldn’t be standing here, talking to me,” she told him. “Get out, Jed. I don’t have time for this.”

“Right. Too busy learning Braille. All three of my daughters are a disaster. Don’t bother moving back to Glory’s Gate. You’re not welcome there.”

Glory’s Gate had been the Titan family home for generations. Izzy had grown up there with her sisters. She hadn’t been back since Skye had moved out after Jed had threatened to have her declared an unfit mother and lock her away. Izzy had no plans to go back now.

But knowing it was no longer her choice bothered her more than she wanted to admit. Rather than listen to any more of Jed’s vicious words, she retreated into the barn, thinking that for the first time since she’d arrived at Nick’s ranch, the shadowy space felt like a sanctuary.

Jed didn’t follow her. She hoped he left, but refused to find out. Instead she led Jackson out of his stall and quickly saddled him. Then she walked him outside, swung onto his back and let him pick his way.

She didn’t know where they were going and she didn’t care. As long as it was away from here. Away from her father and Nick and the jackass who’d attacked her the previous night. Men were becoming a serious problem in her life.

Jackson rode toward the sun. He started to run. She could feel the heat on her face and the rush of the wind. Riding felt good. She wouldn’t think about anything or worry. She just hung on for the ride.

When he finally slowed, she brushed her face with her hand and refused to admit the moisture there came from tears. She didn’t cry. She was stronger than that. Stronger than anyone knew.

But not strong enough to risk the surgery.

The truth hung on her shoulders, heavy, like a thick, damp cape. She wanted to be different, wanted to face the darkness bravely, but she couldn’t.

She turned Jackson back the way they’d come. “Time to go home, boy,” she told him.

A few minutes later, she heard the sound of hoof beats racing toward her. She reined in Jackson and waited until the rider approached.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Nick demanded. “You took off without telling anyone where you were going.”

“I didn’t know where I was going,” she snapped, too exhausted by one emotional upheaval after another to deal with Nick and his tantrums. “I can’t see, remember? I just went for a ride and now I’m coming back. What’s your problem?”

“What’s yours? You just admitted you can’t see, but you took off on a ride by yourself?”

Oh. Good point. “I was upset,” she admitted. “I needed to get away and think.”

“Can’t you go sulk in your room like everyone else?”

“I’m not sulking. There are things in my life I have to deal with.”

“You could have been thrown. It might have taken days to find you. Resources would have been wasted because you needed to think.”

She ignored him and urged Jackson forward. “Because that’s all that matters,” she muttered. “Resources. How you’d be put out. Tell you what. Next time I go riding, don’t bother coming to look for me. I wouldn’t want you wasting your time.”

“I’m not going to leave you out here to die.”

“Why not? I’m not good for anything. I’m useless. Taking up space, right?”

Jackson came to a sudden halt. Izzy wasn’t sure why, but she had a feeling that Nick had grabbed his bridle.

“What happened?”

His tone was soft, curious. The anger was gone.

“Nothing. Let me go.”

Jackson began to move again. Nick moved next to her.

“What happened?” he asked again.

“My father came to see me.”

“And?”

She sighed. “What do you know about Jed Titan?”

“He’s a successful businessman with a reputation for being ruthless.”

“That’s a good start. He’s determined, egotistical and only interested in how the world serves him. And that’s on a good day.”

“So he didn’t stop by to see how you’re doing?”

“No. He came by to see if I was still blind. Because if I am, I’m no good to him. I can’t even marry well. Not that he was going to leave me any of his considerable fortune.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not. I never wanted the money. None of us did. We wanted a father. Pretty dumb, huh?”

Nick didn’t say anything. Izzy drew in a breath.

“You’ve met my sisters. Lexi is the oldest. She’s a brilliant businesswoman. After college, she went to work for Jed, where she was pretty successful. But she quickly realized she would never have her own identity at his company, so she left and started her own day spa. Skye went to finishing school, if you can believe it. When she came home, she married the man Jed picked for her, had a perfect daughter, then used her inheritance to start a foundation that feeds hungry children.”

“Good for her.”

“Yeah. Good for her. I, on the other hand, barely graduated from high school. I’ve held a series of jobs that require minimal skill. The only thing they had in common was that they were dangerous. I knew I wasn’t the son my father wanted. Maybe going fast or higher is my way of getting his attention. Not that it ever worked. I guess I hoped I would be enough for him.”

But she wasn’t. She never had been. Lexi and Skye weren’t enough either, but somehow knowing that didn’t help.

“I was nine when my mother died. Prudence Lightly.”

“The actress?”

“That’s her. She left everything to Skye. I wasn’t mentioned in her will. And I’ll never know if she did that on purpose or if she just never got around to making the change. It’s not like I was six months old and she was busy, right? I mean eight-plus years is a long time.”

“Izzy, there could be a lot of reasons she didn’t change the will.”

“List five that don’t include me not registering on her radar.”

“Is that what you think?”

She stared at the blurry horizon. “What would you think?”

“I don’t remember my mother. She dumped me in foster care when I was four.”

She turned to him. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I got over it.”

Had he? Did any child get over being rejected?

“What happened?” she asked.

“I grew up. I got lucky. I was in my first home nearly five years, so I had some stability. Joan, my foster mother, realized I was pretty smart and encouraged me in school. I skipped a couple of grades. Then she got sick and I was moved somewhere else.”

Losing his family all over again, she thought sadly. It put her pain in perspective.

“After that I moved around a lot,” Nick said. “It’s never easy being the smartest kid in the class. I buried myself in books, graduated at fifteen and got a full ride to Texas A &M.”

“At fifteen?”

“I was nearly sixteen by then.”

“Still.”

“It was better than foster care. I became an emancipated minor, so I was out of the system.”

Easy words, she thought. But a much harder life. Was his past the reason he kept everyone else at a distance? Was it the reason no one got close enough to touch any part of him? Or was she just looking for a way to mitigate the fact that he didn’t want to sleep with her?

“What happened after college?” she asked.

“I went to work for an oil exploration company a friend of mine owned.”

“So you raped and pillaged our natural environment?” she asked, teasing.

“I did my best not to. I had some ideas about drilling that were different. We tried them out.”

He paused for a long time. There was something about his voice, she thought, not sure what it was. Staring at his face didn’t help, either. She couldn’t really see any details.

“How did you get from oil exploration to here?”

“By car, mostly.”

“Very funny. You know what I mean.”

“I had some second thoughts about my career choice.”

She remembered Aaron telling her that Nick had a mysterious past. “Someone told me you traveled the world or something.”

“For a while.”

“What were you looking for?”

“Peace.”

“Did you find it?”

“No.”

“Before the explosion I would have told you I’d found what I was looking for,” she said.

“You would have been lying.”

“What? That’s not true.”

“You chase the thrill for a reason. What are you hiding from?”

“Nothing I’m going to discuss with you. Besides, I’m not hiding.”

“Look at what you do with your life. Your extreme sports. What you do for a living.”

“I was a welder. That’s not dangerous.”

“An underwater welder.”

“Okay, sure, but it’s not all that different. And it’s not like I drowned. The explosion wasn’t my fault. I’ll admit it’s not a completely normal job, but it’s not totally crazy, either. As to the explosion…” She hesitated, not sure what to say. “I think it was deliberate.”

“What are you talking about? Someone trying to get the oil company?”

“Not exactly.” She drew in a breath. “It seems that Jed had an affair before he married Lexi’s mom. He had a child-a boy-with the woman. While he set her up with a lot of money, he wouldn’t marry her. It’s an old story. Flash forward thirty-plus years, the boy in question grows up and he’s pissed. Something happened to his mother. She had an accident or got sick. We don’t know, but she’s no longer completely normal. She’s sweet and lovely, but different. My sisters and I wonder if Jed’s responsible for that. We’re not sure. So maybe it’s that, maybe he was just born mad, but our half brother, Garth Duncan, is doing his best to ruin the entire family.”

Nick didn’t say anything. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

She frowned. “Is this boring?”

“No. Sorry. I was listening. What do you mean he’s trying to ruin the family?”

“You name it, he’s done it. He tried to take Lexi’s business, legally, but it was pretty ruthless. We think he’s responsible for doping Jed’s race horses, for sending a false tip to the district attorney that Skye’s foundation was a front for money laundering. He also planted a software program into the books at Skye’s foundation making it look like executives were paid bonuses and that Skye was taking money. It’s nasty stuff. Skye doesn’t even take a salary. So money that could have gone to feeding hungry kids had to go to legal counsel. He’s planted illegal arms in some of Jed’s international shipments, so now Jed’s being investigated for treason, and we’re guessing he’s behind the rumors of mad cow on the Titan ranches. I have to say, Garth isn’t my favorite person.”