“I know.”He’d found it by accident riding around one night when he couldn’t sleep.It was well out of his price range—like most things—without Hadley money, but he could still dream.Camping gear was one thing; buying property was another.“I thought in Reid territory, I might get the chance to actually live again.Get my inheritance and start over.”
He’d begged for their intervention when he’d first crossed into their territory and had been curtly told no.The Reids wouldn’t want a war with the Orlans, he understood that, but the bitterness remained.He’d come so close to having what he wanted, only to have it snatched away.It wasn’t Lance’s fault, and he liked him too much to blame him.But he wanted Lance to know that he wasn’t the man in the dossier.He wanted more than blood and sleepless nights.
“You want to buy this place,” Lance said.
“Yeah.”
Lance stared out the windscreen.“Looks fairly run down.”
“It is.I might have jumped the fence one night and had a look around.”
“You like to make plans.”
“Always.”It was all he’d had for years.Though most were only dreams, not plans.
“If you’ve got the money, why not buy something that doesn’t look like it’s falling apart?”
“Because I want to build something.I want it to be mine.I’ll go to uni, and I’ll learn how to make wine and?—”
“And you’ll have the life that was taken.”Lance scowled as if not really understanding.“You really wanted out of the family business?”
“Yes.That’s what I said.”And Lance had thought him a liar all this time?“I’m good for more than murder and fucking.”
Lance shot him a glare.“I didn’t say that you weren’t.”
“You didn’t need to.”He reversed out of the driveway.He’d shown Lance his deepest desire, and Lance hadn’t been excited.He barely believed that Nix could be something other than what he’d been made into.Nix wanted his walls back so he could hide behind them.He wasn’t brave like he’d once been.He knew how bad a broken heart hurt.This time, he wouldn’t be alive long enough for it to heal.
* * *
Lance wasn’tsure if Nix was trying to give him a heart attack or if he always drove like he wanted to be pulled over for speeding, driving recklessly, and half a dozen other charges.
The winery Nix wanted was a dump.He’d tried to say it nicely, but Nix hadn’t taken it well.Having spent the last three days together, Nix had only three settings: smiling and impossible to resist, distant and morose, or dangerous, like trying to handle a pissed-off tiger snake.He also hadn’t slept through a single night, always ending up on the sofa or an armchair with a knife in his hand as though he could fight the ghosts that wouldn’t let him rest.
Lance sucked in a breath as a tourist bus passed them with what had to have been only millimeters.“Maybe I should drive?”
Nix grinned.“I haven’t driven for years.Let me have this fun.”
Lance debated if he should press to get the keys back, but Nix’s smile was returning, and he didn’t want to waste it.“Why didn’t you drive.”
“There was an incident.”
That wasn’t in the dossier.“How many people died?”
Nix glared at him.“Not because I had an accident.But afterward, I wasn’t even allowed to drive myself to the beach at night.”
“To surf and play with the sharks?”
“Yeah.I can’t surf during the day.The sunscreen washes off too fast.Besides that, I think my mother liked to make sure I had someone with me just in case…”
Lance hated to say it but had to.“In case you were the target for one of us?”
He nodded.“There were three attempts.”
“Because you were her son or because you were so efficient?”
“I don’t know, both?How many times has someone tried to kill you?”
“Today, I think about four times.”His foot pressed the floor, wishing he had a brake.Nix skated through the stop sign and around the corner.“I’m sorry I said mean things about your winery.But please slow down.If you get arrested, who’s going to bail you out and make sure the cops don’t jail you?”
