“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?”