Her Name Is Knight(Nena Knight #1)(103)

“She’s okay, Bill,” Cort said, locking eyes with her. “Thanks.”

She waited for Cort’s next move, but he only stared at her, a storm gathering behind his eyes.

Georgia pointed the TV remote she’d been holding to turn the volume down, her eyes anxiously ping-ponging between Nena and her father.





81


AFTER


Nena broke their three-way stare, hoping she could make it through the moment she’d have to pay the piper with Cort.

“You are unharmed?” she asked.

Georgia nodded vigorously while her father countered with, “What happened to the man who took Peach?”

“Dead.”

They looked at her. Georgia already knew, having passed Ofori on her way out of the house; Cort looked as if he were about to be sick.

“This is like a fucking movie,” he fumed, grimacing as he tried to adjust himself in the bed.

Nena said, “You two are no longer in danger.”

“How big of you,” he snapped, his face screwing into unrestrained anger. “Aren’t you like an assassin or something? It’s what Peach says. Hell, come to think of it, it’s what you’ve been saying the entire time I’ve known you. And here I thought you were joking.” His voice was gaining strength. “That’s your job, for real? To go around killing people?”

“Not good people, Dad,” Georgia quipped.

That wasn’t true, Nena thought. They weren’t always bad people. But she wasn’t about to correct the girl now.

“Peach, be quiet.”

“Something like that. Yes,” Nena said carefully.

Cort narrowed his eyes. “And it’s true you killed two guys the night you brought Peach home?”

“I told you, Dad, they were gang members who were trying to kill me. Nena saved my life.”

Cort’s nostrils flared. He turned slowly to his daughter. “Georgia.”

Nena had never heard Cort speak to his daughter so sharply and full of barely restrained anger. Misdirected anger. It was her Cort was really angry with. Her who’d betrayed him. Georgia must have known not to push him, because she quickly snapped her mouth shut.

Nena said, “It’s true.”

Cort deflated, looking so hurt Nena’s heart broke with him.

“I thought we connected,” he said. “I thought you were opening up to me that night at the beach.”

She stepped forward. She wanted to go to him so badly. She wanted to touch him. “We have. I did.”

“I thought you trusted me.”

Nena hesitated. “Trust is not why I didn’t disclose that part of my life, Cort.”

“Then what was it? Because my fourteen-year-old child knows more about you than I do. She may know the most important thing about you that I should have known.”

“She only knows by chance. Only because she was there, not because I chose to tell her.”

“Hey.” Georgia spoke up softly, insulted.

They ignored her.

“What made you confide in her and not in me, even after sharing what happened in your past with your home and family?”

“Well, she didn’t tell me that part.” Georgia pouted, trying to lessen the blow. “Paul, the creep, did that. He was so creepy, like heebie-jeebies creepy.”

Nena said, “Georgia, perhaps you can give your father and me a moment?”

Georgia hesitated, as if she didn’t want to leave them alone, afraid the adults would screw things up without her there to mediate. In her face, Nena saw a discord of emotions, the want to be defiant and demand she stay, the awareness of her place as a child and that she should do as told. Begrudgingly, Georgia stood, casting an apprehensive glance at her dad.

“I didn’t get hurt and I’m not scarred for life, so don’t say anything stupid, Dad,” she warned, heading toward the door.

As she passed Nena, Georgia suddenly threw her arms around her in a hug that lasted longer than Nena was accustomed to. Nena allowed it and found she liked it, even though Georgia hadn’t asked. Eventually, she extricated herself from Georgia’s grip and waited until Georgia left them alone.

Nena moved closer to the bed, assessing Cort’s injuries. He looked so beautiful, despite his abrasions and swollen face. Her hand reached to touch him, but she managed to stop herself before she made contact.

“Why didn’t you tell me everything?”

She balled her hand, bringing it back down to her side. “Because if you knew, then you would walk out of my life and take Georgia with you. I couldn’t bear it.”

He searched her eyes. “Do you understand that I am an agent of the justice system? I prosecute criminals, killers. You are a killer, Nena.”

He was right.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re only killing other criminals for the benefit of your mobster family. It’s still a crime.”

She inclined her head. “The Tribe is not a mob—”

“You all are criminals.”

She shook her head vigorously. “We are not. My team, when deployed, tries to right the wrongs our more problematic members inflict on others, wrongs that may fracture and weaken our organization. Any we feel impede the advancement of the African people, we handle.”