Susan Mallery - Straight From The Hip

“That’s a long list.”

“He’s a pretty bad guy. There’s been more. He’s come after everyone in the family, except for my niece and she’s only eight. Hopefully he isn’t going to do anything bad to a little girl. Two months ago I would have been a lot more sure, but then there was the explosion on the rig. And here I thought I didn’t have anything to lose.”

Nick heard the words and didn’t want to believe them. Not Garth. Garth was his friend. He’d said he was playing a game, that he wasn’t out to get anyone but Jed. He was just using the sisters to get their father’s attention. But what Izzy described was completely different. A dangerous vendetta that might have killed her.

Nick had met the Titan sisters. Lexi was pregnant. What was Garth going to do to her? Skye had a daughter. Who else was at risk? He swore silently. Had Garth really been responsible for the explosion that had nearly blinded Izzy? That could have killed her and anyone else on the rig at the time.

He wanted to say no. He wanted to say “not his friend.” Garth had always been one of the good guys. Like family. But how could he be sure nothing had changed? He and Garth had faced death together, but years had passed since then. Years of Garth channeling his anger, apparently toward the annihilation of the Titan family-innocent bystanders be damned.

“We know he has a plan,” Izzy was saying. “But we don’t know what it is. It started earlier this year.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe it was only a few months ago. This started in spring, it’s now late summer. By Christmas he could crush us all.”

“You don’t mean that,” he said sharply. “You’re not the type to be beaten.”

“I know. I’m being dramatic. We’ll be fine. It’s just we don’t have a good counterattack. Jed won’t talk to us about any of it. He’s doing his own thing. Sometimes it seems as if he’s almost proud of Garth. Like father, like son.” She sounded bitter. “So my sisters and I are on our own. Well, Cruz and Mitch help. Cruz is Lexi’s fiancé and Mitch is Skye’s.”

Jed wasn’t helping his daughters? Nick told himself not to be surprised. Based on the little he knew about Jed Titan, he only cared about himself. Everyone else simply got in the way.

“I never thought he’d come after me,” she said softly, looking sad. “When Lexi, Skye and I met to talk about Garth, I didn’t ever worry about myself. They thought I was safe, too. I guess we were mistaken.”

Anger burned inside him. Izzy had worked too hard to recover from what had happened to her to slide back now. He had to find out what was really going on. He had to know the truth.

But first he had to get Izzy back to the ranch.

He urged his horse to go faster. Jackson kept up easily and Izzy didn’t seem to notice the increased speed. As soon as he could see the barn, he turned to her.

“I have a meeting in town,” he said. “You going to be okay?”

“I’m more than capable. I have to get the horses ready for the guys who want to go riding, anyway.”

“Okay. See you later.”

He raced to the barn and handed his mount over to Rita, then got in his SUV and headed for Dallas. During the drive, he debated phoning Garth, then decided he didn’t want to talk to his friend. Not until he could see his face.

What was the truth? he wondered. Which Garth was the man in charge? The friend who had kept him alive during their captivity? The friend who never blamed him for what had happened? Or the ruthless stranger who might have caused Izzy’s death?

He drove faster than he should have and made it to Garth’s high-rise building in less than two hours. The doorman knew him and let him in.

“Evening, Nick,” he said with a smile as Nick crossed to the elevators that would take him to Garth’s penthouse condo.

“Evening, George. How’s it going?”

“Better now that football season is about to start. I think the Cowboys will go all the way this year.”

“I hope you’re right.”

The elevator arrived. “Have a good night,” he called before the doors closed.

The ride up seemed to take forever. Nick knew that George would have phoned ahead to let Garth know he had company so Nick wasn’t surprised when he saw the front door standing open. He stepped inside and pushed it shut behind him.

“I just got home,” Garth called from the kitchen. “I picked up takeout from the Chinese place. There’s plenty. Want some?”

Nick ignored the question and stalked into the kitchen. “You said it wasn’t about the sisters. You said you only wanted to get Jed Titan. You implied they wouldn’t be hurt and you lied. You lied to me, Garth. What the hell is going on?”

Garth turned and the overhead light cast shadows on his face. His eyes were unreadable, his mouth a thin line.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, sounding unconcerned.

“You went after all of them. Lexi and her spa. Skye and her foundation. Now Izzy.”

“I never touched Izzy. She doesn’t have a business I can fuck with. Which is kind of a shame, I admit.”

“You blew up the oil rig. You could have killed her and everyone else there.”

Garth walked out of the kitchen. Nick followed him into the large living room with its floor-to-ceiling windows. Garth crossed to a cabinet on the wall and pulled out a bottle of scotch. He poured a generous serving into two glasses and picked up one.

“I didn’t have anything to do with the explosion on the rig,” he told Nick, then took a sip. “I’m interested in taking down the Titans-all of them. But not by putting anyone’s life at risk. Yes, I did my best to trip up Lexi and I might have set the D.A. and the press on Skye and her foundation. I took advantage where I could. I’ve used people-exploiting their weaknesses. Especially Jed’s. But blowing up an oil rig? Not my style.”

“Why should I believe you?” Nick demanded, still furious.

“To me the more interesting question is why should you care, but we won’t go there. You should believe me because you know me. You’ve always known me. Come on, Nick. We’re family. I didn’t blow up the oil rig. I had nothing to do with it. But, according to my sources, it was deliberate, which means someone else is involved. Maybe to set me up. Either way, I’m going to find out who’s responsible.”

Nick didn’t know what to think. He’d never been in a position not to believe his friend before.

“What’s your end game?” he asked at last. “How much destruction will make you happy?”

“I haven’t decided.”

Another lie, Nick thought grimly. Because Garth always had a plan. So was his friend using him? Or had Nick simply been caught in the cross fire?

“You lied to me,” Nick said.

“I didn’t tell you everything. There’s a difference.”

Semantics. Misrepresentation. Lies. They were the same. “You used me.”

“I asked you to look after Izzy. Aren’t you helping her? Isn’t she getting better?”

“Yes, but that’s not why you asked me to do it.”

“Does it matter why, if she gets better in the end?”

The expected answer was yes. Did the road matter if Izzy got where she needed to go? If she had the surgery and got on with her life, wasn’t that enough?

He didn’t want this to be Garth. He didn’t want to have to doubt his friend. He didn’t want to have the questions. But they had been planted and taken root. Now he didn’t know how to make them go away.

“It’s been a lot of years,” Garth said, holding out the second glass of scotch. “We’ve been through more than most. I trust you with my life and I’d like to think you’d say the same about me. Don’t let this come between us.”

Nick ignored the glass. “I’m not the one who made the decision to put our friendship on the line.”

Garth returned the glass to the cabinet. His expression was still unreadable, but tension crackled in the air.

“You’re either with me or against me,” Garth told him.

Nick smiled. “What a cliché.” His smile faded. “Don’t make me choose. You may not like the outcome.”

“You’d pick a woman you barely know over me? Over all we’ve been through? Have you forgotten I’m the one who helped you survive college? I’m the one who taught you how to get the girl?”

It was true, Nick thought, sad that he and Garth had to have this conversation at all. His friend had saved him countless times. Nick had been a geeky, innocent kid. He’d been picked on unmercifully until Garth had stepped in to protect him. Nick might have all the smarts, but Garth knew about getting along in the world.

Later Nick had tried to repay him by figuring out how to exploit one of the largest untapped oil reserves in South America. An expedition that had nearly killed them both. To this day, the majority of Nick’s wealth was tied up in Garth’s collection of companies.

“I haven’t forgotten anything,” Nick told him. “This isn’t about choosing you over her. It’s about what you’re doing and what that says about you as a person. When did you change?”

Garth’s lip curled. “Maybe it was when I rotted in a South American prison, getting tortured day after day.”

Nick knew he deserved that. “Blame me if you need to. Just know that I’m not someone you want as an enemy.”

“You don’t scare me,” Garth told him.

Nick walked toward the front door, before pausing. “Then I guess you don’t know me any better than I know you.”

THE RANCH WAS QUIET after the corporate types left. Izzy was still busy, working in the stable, but she hadn’t realized how isolated she’d become until everyone was gone. She didn’t go anywhere, talk to anyone other than Nick, Aaron, Norma or Rita. Occasionally her sisters called, but they were busy and didn’t have time to chat very long.

Maybe she should speak to Nick about going somewhere. The problem was she didn’t have a destination.

She couldn’t drive, there wasn’t bus service, even if she could figure out how to use it. The ranch was isolated-she didn’t even know the neighbors, so a drop-in visit wasn’t going to happen. What on earth was she going to do with the rest of her life?

Unable to answer the question, she went into the house after dinner and made her way upstairs to Aaron’s room. He was busy getting ready for his date with Steve, but she wanted to talk to someone and for the past couple of days Nick had kept to himself. Every time she was around him, she had the feeling she’d done something wrong. But she couldn’t figure out what.

Sighing heavily, she walked down the hallway and knocked on Aaron’s door.

“It’s me,” she called.

“Come in. I’m nearly ready. You can tell me how fabulous I look.”

Izzy laughed as she pushed open the door. “Hardly. I can’t see anything. You know that.” She stepped into the room. “But I am confident you are beyond fabulous.”

“But you don’t know for sure, do you?” Aaron snapped. “We both know it’s time for you to get the surgery so you can get on with your life. Have a little courage, Izzy. It’s so exhausting having to deal with your world of self-pity.”

AARON’S WORDS WERE an actual slap. Izzy felt the heat on her cheek, as if he’d hit her. She stood frozen for a moment as they echoed inside her, then she turned and ran.

She took the stairs two at a time, then paused at the bottom, not sure where to go or what to do. Tears-hateful, weak tears-filled her eyes. They made it even harder to see in the dim light of a few lamps. She wanted to scream that this wasn’t her fault, that she was doing the best she could. But she didn’t. Wouldn’t that simply be more self-pity?

Every part of her hurt. Shame made her skin burn. She’d been so happy. She thought she was fitting in. Had it all been a joke to everyone else? Had Nick mocked her feeble attempts to seduce him? Had those really been pity kisses?

She covered her face with her hands, then dropped them back to her sides when she heard footsteps upstairs. She didn’t want to run into Aaron, she thought grimly. She raced toward the front door and stepped out into the night.

It might be early September, but it was still warm after dark. Humidity hung in the air, a wet blanket of moisture. Crickets called to each other. Other bugs chatted and sang. This was their time. Still, Izzy felt cold and she hugged herself as she eased toward the benches she knew lined the porch.

The darkness seemed a good place to hide, she thought as she sank down and pulled her knees to her chest. Aaron would go out through the rear of the house. She didn’t have to worry about running into him here. She could gather her strength and figure out what she was going to say the next time they crossed paths.

He hadn’t tried to be mean, she told herself. Not really. He was just being Aaron. He’d been good to her and he was very much a friend. But with affection and connection came the ability to wound.