Wilde at Heart (30 page)

“Oh Jesus.” If Dylan had hauled off and punched him, it would have hurt less. “Why didn’t you come to me? Why didn’t you both just come to me? I’d have helped you, found you a good treatment center. I’d have even footed the bill if you needed me to. All you had to do was ask.”

Dylan shook his
head. “I didn’t want to admit I had a problem. And Alicia…she was just protecting me.”

“And you were protecting her. I get it. I do,” Reece said softly. “And I forgive you for it, but don’t ask me to forgive her. She tried to kill me.”

Dylan said nothing for a long time as emotions battled over his features. “I stand by her. For better or worse.”

“I respect that, but you can’t be a part of DMW anymore. You’re fired, Dylan.”

“I figured as much.” He nodded once and went to the door but glanced back. “I am sorry for all of this and I hope someday—someday you can forgive her.”

It’ll be a cold day in hell, buddy,
Reece thought and sank back against his pillows as Dylan walked away. He rubbed at his chest because, fuck, that conversation had hurt. It was like losing a brother.

Or, no, he decided when another knock drew his attention and his brothers—minus Greer—filed into the room. Not like losing a brother, because his brothers would never stand by a woman who tried to kill him.

Jude’s hands were full of smiley face plastic bags from their favorite Chinese restaurant and Reece smiled, some of the ache easing out of his chest. General Tso’s in hospital rooms was starting to become a Wilde family tradition.

“Dudes,” Jude said as he passed out the white cartons. “This hospital thing is getting old fast. Knock it off.”

Vaughn scowled and popped open his carton, grabbed his ever-present bottle of Tabasco sauce out of his pocket, and liberally doused his shrimp chow mein with the stuff. “You can’t blame me for nearly getting blown up.”

“Or me for being poisoned,” Reece added.

“I can, too.” Jude pointed his chopsticks at Vaughn. “You set yourself up as bait. And you?” He jabbed them toward Reece. “You should know better than to take coffee from strangers.”

“She wasn’t a stranger.”

“Still,” Jude muttered and stabbed a piece of chicken. “You’re supposed to be the smart one.”

Reece smiled slightly. His little brother usually had the best disposition out of all of them, was a silver-linings kind of guy, and only got crabby like this when he was scared. “I’m okay, Jude.”

“Yeah, well. You better be.”

After that, nobody said anything for a while. Just the sound of the TV and the occasional call for a doctor over the hospital’s PA system. After a nurse came in to check his blood pressure—apparently low blood pressure was a concern after a Xanax overdose—Reece finally broke the silence to ask the question that had been nagging at him since he regained consciousness. He shut off the TV with the remote by his bed and waited until his brothers all turned to face him.

“How did you guys know Alicia was behind everything?” He knew now that it hadn’t just been Shelby there that day, but also his brothers, Eva, and the cops.

His brothers all shared a look, each passing the conversational ball. Cam, being Cam, was the one to finally take it and run with it. “Shelby and Eva were confronted by the PI Alicia hired to dig up dirt on you—the guy their mother brought to our wedding. Apparently, he was using Katrina to get closer to Shelby, and therefore, to you, but it blew up in his face when he decided it wasn’t working and dumped her. She went off the deep end, dove right back into the drugs, and robbed you thinking she’d win her lover’s affection by bringing him information—your laptop.”

“Which is encrypted,” Reece said.

“Yeah, and maybe that’s part of the reason the guy decided to cut his losses. He couldn’t get any info off it, and things were spinning out of his control, so he took everything back to Shelby and bailed.”

“Assholes like that give PIs a bad name,” Vaughn muttered.

“No doubt,” Cam agreed and several beats of silence pass
ed.

“What about Katrina?” Reece asked.

“She was picked up yesterday for buying drugs from an undercover cop.” Cam rubbed the center of his forehead, eyes closed. Then he shrugged. “Maybe this time, she’ll get the help she needs.”

Vaughn grunted. “Doubtful. The system sucks.”

“You know,” Jude said, “I suddenly feel the need to call my mother-in-law and tell her how awesome she is.”

Reece could only work up the energy to glare, but Cam summed up his thoughts with a succinct, “Jude, you’re an ass.”

“What?” He held up his hands. “All I’m saying is I didn’t realize how good I got it with Mrs. Pruitt. Could be a lot worse than the occasional meddling and the when-are-you-going-to-give-me-grandbabies talk. Next to you two, I won the mother-in-law lottery.”

“An ass,” Cam repeated.

“Yeah, I got one. It’s a fine one, too. Ask my wife.”

At the resounding groan from everyone in the room, Jude grinned and pushed himself out of his seat. “And speaking of my beautiful wife, I’m going home to her now.”

The twins stayed for a few more minutes, but eventually they left Reece alone with his thoughts. He didn’t like it. Too much nasty going on inside his head right now, too many conflicting emotions, and the longer he stared at the TV, the more depressed he got.

Why hadn’t Shelby come to the hospital today? Did he want her to? What would he even say if she showed up right now? He didn’t know. He wanted to forgive her, but a small sliver of him was still pissed off at all her lies. And if he did forgive her, pretend like none of this happened, would that sliver fester into something more than anger? Would he eventually grow to hate her?

Jesus.

Restless, he muted the TV again and grabbed his cell phone from the over-bed table. On a whim, he tried Greer’s number for the simple reason he missed hearing his older brother’s voice. Didn’t really expect an answer—

And sat up in shock when Greer’s deep voice came on the line. “What’s wrong?”

He exhaled the tension he hadn’t known he’d been carrying since Greer disappeared. “What isn’t wrong? Where the fuck are you?”

Greer said nothing for several seconds. “There was something I needed to take care of.”

“And you’re not going to tell me what it is?”

“No. But I might not be around for a while, so you’ll have to watch over our brothers for me. Especially Vaughn. I’m afraid he’s driving himself straight off a cliff.”

Reece snorted. “I feel like I’m right there with him, riding shotgun.”

Static silence dragged out over the line.

“Reece,” Greer said eventually. “I don’t know what all’s going on there, but you
can
handle it. Dad always knew you’d make something of yourself. Something big, something more than any of the rest of us. He’d be proud of you.”

A hard lump took up residence in Reece’s throat. “I miss him. Every day.”

“We all do.” Greer’s voice was rough, and he cleared his throat. “But Mom? She’d kick your ass for pushing Shelby away.”

Reece groaned. Greer wasn’t even here and hadn’t been for days. How could he possibly know this was about Shelby?

“Because I’m not an idiot,” Greer said and shit, did the guy have mind-reading abilities or what?

“This call has nothing to do with Shelby.”

“If not, it should.” Greer pushed out a sigh. “Listen, I was wrong to tell you to end things with her. We were all wrong, and Mom would smack the rest of us for sticking our noses in your personal life.”

“No, you weren’t wrong. Shelby’s been lying to me from the start.”

“Yeah,” Greer said softly. “I know.”

Figured. Reece leaned back in bed and shut his eyes, too tired to care that Shelby wasn’t the only one he loved who had been keeping secrets. “I’m not even going to ask how.”

“Good. Don’t. And what you do now about Shelby is your choice, but we
were
wrong to interfere. Thing is, all of us, we’ve always felt like we’ve had to protect you because you’re…”

“A computer nerd?” Reece suggested dryly.

Greer snorted out a gruff laugh. “Well, yeah. You’re not like the rest of us. You don’t have the same…brutality in you. I don’t know if it’s because you never saw combat or if you were just born without the gene that makes the rest of us—”

“Aggressive? Belligerent? Combative? Thick-skulled?”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. We’re knuckle-dragging mouth breathers.”

Reece rubbed his eyes under his glasses. “I’m not like you guys, but that doesn’t make me weak.”

“I know. In some ways, it makes you the strongest of us all.” There was a short pause, then Greer said, “I have to go, but first lemme say I think you should forgive Shelby. She hasn’t had a lot of good in her life until you came along. But that’s your decision, not mine. However it shakes out…just do what makes you happy.”

“I could say the same to you,” Reece murmured, but the line had already gone dead. He pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it for a long time.

Do what makes you happy.

Well, he sure as fuck wasn’t happy sitting here in this hospital. In fact, he hadn’t been happy since he walked away from Shelby. Sure, he had every right to his anger, but was he angry enough to completely give up on her?

She hasn’t had a lot of good in her life…

No. He wasn’t that angry. Despite it all, he still loved her. It hadn’t been the Xanax or fear talking when he reached that conclusion on the bathroom floor. And if he’d learned anything from his parents—and from his brothers—it was that love wasn’t easy, wasn’t neat and tidy, and sometimes wasn’t even fun. But it was worth the trouble.

And he didn’t want to lose it, wasn’t ready to give up on her.

Reece shoved up off the bed and shuffled over to the closet for his bag of personal belongings. Fuck this. If his wife wasn’t going to come to him here, he’d just have to drag his sorry ass home to her.

Chapter Thirty

“W
hat the fuck are you doing here?” Jude said when he opened his door the following morning to see Reece standing there. “You should still be in the hospital.”

“I checked myself out last night.”

Jude shook his head and stepped back, opening the door wider. “You’re supposed to be the smart one, remember?”

He stepped inside. “Yeah, but I’m also a Wilde.”

“And there’s no hope for us as a species. C’mon, sit down before you fall down.” Jude motioned to the living room in a sweeping gesture with his coffee mug. “Libby’s in the kitchen making breakfast. I’d offer you coffee, but that didn’t go so well for you last time.”

“Oh, man.” He groaned as he lowered himself to the couch. “I’m never going to live that down.”

“Eh, eventually.” Jude sat in a recliner and leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands linked in front of him. “Okay. Why are you here?”

“I went home last night. Shelby wasn’t there.”

“Well, what did you expect? You told her to leave, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. I did. I’m good at opening my trap and saying things I don’t mean.” He lifted his gaze and felt like a heel all over again for some of the things he’d said to Jude in the past. If anyone understood what he was getting at here, it’d be his youngest brother. “I see you when I look at her.”

Obviously uncomfortable, Jude glanced away and sat back in his chair. “Dude. I love you, but that’s just nasty.”

“Not like that. Jesus, you can be such a douchebag sometimes.”

“Takes one to know one.”

“A douchebag with a five-year-old’s comebacks.”

Back on familiar ground, Jude grinned, all smug and unapologetic. He picked up his coffee mug again, lifted it to his lips. Drank. Waited in silence for Reece to continue, which said something about the level of his smugness, because the youngest Wilde brother was not known for his patience.

Reece heaved out a breath in frustration. “What I mean is everyone has always kept her down, talked down to her. Like we did to—no, like
I
did to you. Nobody has ever given her a chance to be something more. Including me.” His throat tightened. “I want to be the one to finally give her that chance.”

Jude’s smile faded into a rare serious expression. “Bro, I’m going to ask you something, and I don’t want you to think about it. Just answer from your gut. Do you love Shelby?”

He hedged. “She’s my exact opposite…”

“Answer from your gut.” Jude patted his abs. “Stop thinking about it. Does the idea of not seeing her every day make your chest tighten up like you can’t breathe?”

“Yeah.”

“You love her?”

“I love her.” He tried out the words, and the world didn’t burst into flames around him. He couldn’t even remember why he thought it would, because the words felt satisfying as hell, like the last puzzle piece snapping into place and showing him the image of the rest of his life.

With Shelby.

If he could make it up to her.

He slumped back on the couch. “Oh shit. I fucked up. She’ll never forgive me.”

Jude lifted his mug in a toast. “You’ll be amazed at what your woman is willing to forgive.”

Surprisingly, that bit of sage advice gave him a sliver of hope. After all, Libby had forgiven Jude his stupidity. Of course, it was after eight years, and the wounds between them had time to heal. Would he have to wait that long too? He didn’t want to, but if that’s what it took, he would. He’d do anything to win her forgiveness for being such a jackass.

Even if that meant he had to beg his annoying younger brother for help. “What do I need to do?”

Jude gave his best Dr. Evil laugh and rubbed his hands together. “Oh, am I going to enjoy this.”

“I swear,” Reece said through his teeth, “I will slug you.”

“Nah. You adore me.”

“Won’t stop me.”

Jude waggled his brows, then got serious again. “Tell me how you fucked up with her.”

Resigned, Reece explained the whole situation. The drugs Shelby was caught with, the undercover work she’d done, and even the marriage manipulation to get closer to him and his company. Before he finished, he paused and grabbed Jude’s coffee because his throat felt too tight, and he was afraid his voice would crack. “So that’s it. I didn’t react well. Basically told her to fuck off.”