squeezed his guts. Once he and Dan had been close. No longer, for the cold anger flaring in his cousin’s eyes told him everything. “I couldn’t.”
No use getting into the past, how Silas had browbeat him until Nick felt smothered, and how if he hadn’t left, he’d have either turned into a ghost of himself, or he’d have gone mad. The old man had kicked him out when he was only sixteen, telling him to “learn to straighten out and you can return.”
Nick survived six months being homeless, living by his wits, until the bitter cold weather drove him back, humiliated and ashamed, to his father. He remained at home another three years and then joined the navy.
No one knew the real reason he stuck it out. He preferred to keep that reason private.
Still, Dan should know his decision wasn’t capricious. “You remember that day when I was fourteen and I found the puppy by the roadside? How I begged Silas to keep it?”
His cousin nodded. “Always thought it was a bad deal that the dog was so sick you had to put it down. Tough call, but Silas said it was for the best.”
Nick gave his cousin a level look. “The dog was fine. I secretly brought him over to the vet to have him checked over. He didn’t need anything more than a deworming, Dan. Silas wanted me to shoot it because he said I needed to grow a set of real balls, and not get all ‘female’ over a damn stray dog.”
Dan blanched. “Silas would never do that.”
Nick gave a grim smile. “Oh, he would never do that to you. But me, he did crap like that all the time. Guess you’ll never understand. But before you go judging me for leaving here, understand I had my reasons.”
His cousin looked away, but not before Nick caught a flash of guilt on his face. “Silas could be tough, yeah. But if he didn’t take us in after my dad died, we’d have been really bad off, Nick. I guess that’s why I could forgive anything he did.”
“You had your reasons for staying, just as I had mine for leaving.” Nick stood and went to his pack, then unzipped it. “Thanks for letting me stay here.”
Dan started for the door. “Like Felicity said, it’s your home, too. I’ll be downstairs if you need anything. Make sure to lock your window before you go to sleep.”
Lock his window on the second floor? Nick looked up, but his cousin was gone.
Nick went to the closet and opened the door. A black silk suit hung there, the dry-cleaning plastic still encasing it. He tore off the plastic and then tried on the suit. A little tight around the shoulders, but it would suffice.
He hung it up and then went into the adjoining bathroom to shower. When he emerged, in clean jeans and a gray T-shirt, the two boys stood in the doorway. Nick waved them in. They entered, their big blue eyes wide.
They watched him as he unpacked and rummaged through his clothing.
“Daddy says you’re a hero. You’re a Navy SEAL,” Mason said.
Hero? The thought soured him, even as he appreciated his cousin’s compliment.
“I was a Navy SEAL.” Nick hung a hat on the bed’s post.
“Mommy doesn’t like hats on the bed,” Miles informed him.
Wonder if Mommy likes anything on the bed, he thought, and sighed. The boys stood opposite him, so stiff that they resembled wooden bookends.
He wasn’t good with kids, except his best friend Cooper’s family, and these boys looked too wary, too uncertain of this stranger in their home.
Their home, not his.
Nick dug into his knapsack. He removed his one good white shirt, wondering if Felicity had an iron he could borrow. Judging from the woman’s attitude, she probably kept a dozen.
The gun case was stashed at the bottom. He removed it and stared at the pistol encased within.
He’d have to keep his SIG Sauer locked up and wondered if Silas still kept his shotguns and rifles in the downstairs study. Ah, hell.
Bracing his hands on his knees, he felt a bout of piercing grief at what had been lost between himself and the old man. Silas had taught him how to shoot when Nick was ten. Took him hunting in the mountains, and had pride in his first kill.
The old man showed him how to be an expert marksman. Insisted he take care of his weapons, clean them and make sure they were locked up, away from curious fingers.
It was one of the few areas they had in common and didn’t clash about.
“Is that a gun?” Miles asked.
Nick nodded, replaced his sidearm in the backpack.
“Can we see it?” Mason said, his voice growing excited.
Giving his cousin’s son a long look, Nick shook his head. “Hands off. I never let another man handle my sidearm.”
The boy pouted a little until hearing the word man.
“Dad wants to take me hunting, but Mommy says guns are dangerous,” Mason said.
“They are, if you don’t know how to use them. Maybe your dad can convince your mom to let you go hunting next year, when you’re a little older.”
“Daddy keeps a gun under his pillow,” Miles told him, but clammed up when Mason frowned at him.
Odd. Dan had always been a bit squeamish around guns. Necessary on a ranch, but his cousin let Silas do the shooting. Why would he feel the need for home protection with a gun, especially with vulnerable children living here?
Next he removed a small black velvet box and opened it, studying the gold winking in the lamplight.
“What is that?” Mason asked.
Nick removed the pin and showed them. “That’s my Budweiser, my Navy SEAL pin. Only real Navy SEALs get these.”
The boys examined the pin with avid interest while Nick went to the window. He lifted the curtains with the back of one hand, peering into the darkness at the twin carriage lights on the garage. Shelby lived out there. Cute, curvy Shelby, who had turned his world upside down ten years ago with that killer kiss...
“If you’re sleeping here tonight, make sure to lock your window. We all have to make sure the house is locked tight before we go to bed,” Mason told him.
Nick recoiled. He glanced down at the ground two stories below. “Why?”
“So no one breaks in, like they did last month.”
Crime, here at Belle Creek? “What happened?”
“Someone went into Mommy and Daddy’s bedroom.” Mason looked troubled.
Nick squatted down by the solemn little boy. “What happened?”
“Daddy says not to talk about it outside the family,” Miles told him.
Nick smiled.
