Chapter Thirty-Three
I’m doing everything one step too late.
Frustrated, Nash stumbled into the vast foyer of West’s lavish Nashville home Sunday morning. He was worn and exhausted. His boots shuffled over the white marble flooring.
He’d entered a lot less hopeful than when he’d raced down these elegant halls to pick up the love of his life. It was his turn to make everything right, but what would he lose in the pursuit of his conscience?
Lizardman let out a joyous bark at being home, running on ahead. His claws scraped over the slick polished floors. At least someone was happy to be home.
West wandered through the living room, already fashionably attired in a gray pinstriped suit and eating a bowl of cereal. He stopped short when he saw his brother.
West’s sneer was ruined with the exuberant greetings from his puppy. Lizardman jumped at West’s knees, begging to be loved. West’s lips tilted up, though after one glare from his brother, his mouth flattened into a line. He set the bowl aside and dragged up his pet. “I see you decided to bring my dog back.”
Lizardman was ecstatic that his owner actually picked him up. He licked West’s face and barked loudly about all his adventures. West’s hand squeezed the dog a little tighter than usual. If Nash didn’t know better, he’d think that West had actually missed his dog.
He knew better.
Nash made a sound of irritation, dropping his duffel bag on the floor. “I just want to know one thing. Was it you?”
West’s brow rose. “What are you talking about now? You mind being more specific?”
He wanted specific? Nash slid out his phone from the back pocket of his worn jeans and threw the screen under his brother’s nose and played the blackmail clip.
West’s forehead lifted in surprise. His blue, green speckled eyes rose over the phone to Nash’s when the horrid scene was through. “Sorry to disappoint you. I’m really not that interested in following you around with a camera.”
“But you knew that Lynch’s men did something to me. You said I had no choice but to go through with the appraisal.”
West snorted in mean amusement. He set his puppy back on the floor. “They said they talked to you, but voyeurism isn’t really my thing.”
Nash didn’t believe him. There was a reason West had suggested Emily come along. “You aren’t going to win this time.”
“Don’t be so dramatic.” West rolled his eyes, turning from him. “Emily will be fine. She doesn’t have to know anything.”
Was he kidding him right now? “Either you don’t know women or you’ve never been in love,” Nash said.
West shrugged. “And you are? What is this, your eighth time falling in love this year?”
He wasn’t listening. “Emily told me that she doesn’t care about the video.”
“You told her? Ooh boy.” West whistled. He tugged up one of his expensive boots from the ground. His casual gesture that he didn’t care was ruined when Lizardman decided that West was playing a game. The dog’s jaws chomped over the expensive leather. “Hey!” West tried to wrestle the designer boot from his puppy. His hair jostled from its stylish cut. He freed the boot. His head whipped to the side while he tilted his head at Nash with a sarcastic look. “Now who doesn’t know women?”
“I didn’t have a choice…”—Nash left Eva out of this for now—“though I should’ve told Emily before, maybe then we’d…” He didn’t know what he was saying. Did he think that they wouldn’t have fought and parted ways? Of course, they had to stay far from each other after this. She wouldn’t be able to follow Nash where he was going. “Emily told me to let the video get out.”
“Oh, so noble,” West mocked her sacrifice, the same sacrifice that had made Nash swallow and consider everything that he’d ever done with his own life. West sat down on his pristine white couch, shoving his foot into the boot. “I’m not surprised that she doesn’t care. She’d come out of this like the star she is, thanks to you—the sexy bad girl you’ve made her into. She’d release a few angry girl songs about her pain and that would be that.”
“She’s done pretending to be something she’s not.” Nash thankedallthat was holy. He could never live with himself if he changed the one perfect thing in this world. And still, he’d do everything he could to stop that video from getting out there.
“That’s a mistake,” West said with a shrug. He caught up his other boot. “But that’s not my problem. Her manager can deal with the fallout of little boring miss nobody. You, on the other hand? You’d be ruined if you back out of this deal. I’d think twice before doing anything stupid.”
Nash was fed up with West’s backhanded threats. “Stop pretending that you care about me.”
“I don’t get what your problem is anyway. This widow will be happy with her twenty-five million. She won’t have to worry about another thing in her life… which can’t be much longer, to be frank.”
“Do you even hear yourself?” Nash asked. How had his brother reached the point that he could justify everything that he did by dismissing it with a joke? “You’re a crook.”
West leaned back against the soft cushions, hardly offended. “I do what I have to do to get by.” He threw his arm against the back of the couch, resting his ankle on his knee. “Good things come from the bad. Look at Mom. We got her on that heart donor list with some pretty underhanded wheeling and dealing.”
Nash shook his head. “Well, I can’t do it anymore. I won’t be able to look Emily in the eyes again if I cheat Millie.”