Battered Hearts 3: Crossing the line (45 page)

“You can officially make anything taste good,” Wyatt said as he stabbed at the omelet. “It’s one of your many talents.”

“You can thank my mother for that.” Tabitha laughed bitterly. “I’ve put some pretty creative ingredients together to make something palatable.”

“Your mother’s a bitch, Tabitha,” Wyatt declared as he took another bite, and it felt good to finally say it out loud after thinking it since he was eight years old. “I hate her.”

Tabitha was silent for a long moment before she nodded. “Yeah, she is.”

“You just spent forty thousand dollars restoring her house,” Wyatt reminded her.

“I did,” Tabitha agreed.

“And I ain’t even gonna ask what the medical bills cost,” Wyatt went on. “Why?”

“I don’t know.” Tabitha shrugged. “I probably need to go to a support group for codependents and figure it out.”

Wyatt laughed. “Better late than never, I guess.”

“What’s one more support group, right?” Tabitha laughed with him. “I’m making a collection over here.”

“Do you have support groups in Key West?” Wyatt asked her seriously. “Have you been getting help with everything?”

“I have.” Tabitha gave him a wan smile. “I have a good network there.”

“Good.” Wyatt took a deep breath, taking comfort from that. “I want you to be okay. I want it more than anything.”

Tabitha seemed to consider that for a long moment, as if actually looking for a way to assure him she’d be okay if they broke up again. Then she looked back down at her breakfast and whispered, “Eat your omelet.”

Wyatt ate it rather than point out it could use salt. He noticed the shaker had disappeared off the table. Rather than irritate him, it made him smile as he stared at the lonely pepper now by itself. He couldn’t really complain about someone loving him enough to forgo salt and cheese on an omelet and appear to enjoy broccoli and spinach instead.

They were nearly done with breakfast when a knock sounded at the front door, and Wyatt frowned as he looked out of the kitchen. “It’s seven in the morning.”

“I can get it.” Tabitha pushed away from the table.

“No, I’ll get it.” Wyatt stood. “I’ll look for the saltshaker while I’m at it.”

Tabitha giggled again and announced, “Silly.”

Wyatt touched the top of her head affectionately when he took the long route around the table. “Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Wyatt pulled his phone out of his pocket as he walked to the door. He was looking for some sort of hint as to who it could be. Maybe someone had tried to call and hadn’t been able to get through. It had been snowing through the night, and it messed with his connection sometimes.

Garnet didn’t have the greatest cellular service.

No messages.

No texts.

Wyatt pulled back the curtain at the window next to the door. He found Nova Moretti tilting his head and looking at him, as if expecting the action.

Fantastic.

Wyatt opened the door. “Is everything okay?”

“Did you make the call yet?” Nova asked rather than answer his question.

“The call?”

“To the DOJ,” Nova clarified. “You didn’t do it last night after you left, did you?”

“Why do you care?”

“Did you make it or not?” Nova countered in a sharp voice.

“No. I was gonna do it after breakfast.”

“Okay.” Nova pulled his coat off and walked in without being invited. “So we’ll figure out your story over breakfast. I haven’t eaten yet.”

Wyatt just gaped at him. “You think I’m going over my story with
you
?”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

“Nothing personal.” Wyatt let out a laugh of disbelief. “But you’re not exactly the best person to go over a DOJ case with. This is my business. I can handle my own case.”

“No, it’s
my
business.” Nova gave him a pointed look. “Eluding federal investigators is one of my specialties. This is what I do, Conner. I make sure family doesn’t get caught. The money laundering is just the icing on the cake. I’m
capo bastone
for a reason, and today’s your lucky friggin’ day, because I’ve decided I’m gonna help you whether you want me to or not. The fee for it has been paid way in advance.”

Wyatt stood there in shock because he and Nova had come to an unspoken understanding when they’d first met that they wouldn’t talk about or even acknowledge what Nova did for a living.

Now he’d just blurted it out as if he’d never treaded lightly to begin with. It was one of the most bizarre things Wyatt had ever encountered.

“Your turn.” Nova gave him a smile, obviously knowing he’d shocked Wyatt speechless. “Time to spill it. I need all the gritty details. We can go somewhere else if you don’t want Tabitha to hear.”

“What’s a capo bastone?” Tabitha asked from the doorway to the kitchen.

“Mafia underboss,” Wyatt answered for her.

“Very good.” Nova’s smile widened. “Next you’ll tell me you know how to read and write too.”

“Screw you, Moretti.” Wyatt glared at him. “I ain’t stupid.”

Nova laughed. “You just said ‘ain’t.’”

“Oh my God; get the fuck out of my house.” Wyatt gestured to the door. “I appreciate the offer, but I got this, and I’m just going to pretend you didn’t say the rest.”

“Look at me, chipping at your morals one annoying rule at a time.” Nova sounded genuinely proud of himself. “We’re making good time. We could have you self-serving enough to pull this off before lunch.”

Wyatt just shook his head, because he’d been dealing with this family for almost a year now, and he knew they were loyal to a fault. “Is this for Jules?” he asked. “’Cause I think she’d disagree with this.”

“Her too,” Nova said cryptically and then gave Wyatt a hard look. “Look, Conner, if you’re in half as much trouble as I think you are, I’m your only chance at getting outta this. Is this guy you shot worth losing everything for?”

“No.” Wyatt’s stomach lurched at just the thought of Vaughn Davis being his downfall. “There ain’t even words for how much of a low-life motherfucker that asshole is.”

Nova held up his hands. “Then why not give me a shot?”

“And you think you know more ’bout the laws than I do? I was raised on the law.”

“The difference between us is they’re not laws to me. They’re loopholes,” Nova countered. “Here’s another secret for you. I’ve got a photographic memory. I have read a lot of law books in my life, and I remember all of them. If anyone can find you a loophole, it’s me.”

Wyatt was stunned speechless for the second time that morning. Anyone else, and he would call bullshit, but he had to admit Nova Moretti had an annoying tendency to know the answer to just about everything. He shouldn’t be nearly as surprised as he was. It was just such a remarkable thing to confess to.

“Is that true?” Tabitha sounded awed. “You remember everything you see?”

“Not just everything I see.” Nova turned to Tabitha with a genuinely warm smile rather than the sharp, cynical ones he gave Wyatt. “I remember everything. Period. I can fix this for you, Tabitha. Please let me.”

Tabitha looked to Wyatt, and he saw the small glimmer of hope in her gaze. She wanted to trust that the help was available. It was one of the things he loved about her. She could find hope even in her darkest hours. She believed in heroes and happy endings. Wyatt never wanted to see that rare light go out. She had managed to touch the whole world with it.

He would do
anything
to preserve that innocence in her…even align himself with Nova Moretti.

“Yeah, okay.” Wyatt spoke to Tabitha rather than Nova. “We might as well tell him and hear what he’s got to say.”

* * * *

Nova’s scowl grew deeper the more Wyatt and Tabitha explained.

Tabitha watched the story turn his handsome face and easy smile into something dark and menacing. It was hard initially to believe the young man who had been so determined at the hospital to make sure his family was well cared for could also be involved in the mafia, but now she saw it.

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.”