Wilde at Heart (Wilde Security, #3)(78)

“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 passed.

“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 f*ck 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.”