“Hey,” he said, for lack of a better greeting, as he shut the door behind him.
“Noah!” Serena jumped up and rushed over to him to throw her arms around his waist and hug him, a big grin on her face. “You got the guy!”
“Yeah,” he said, patting her back awkwardly while looking over at Olive. Whatever showed on his face must have been enough to convince the other woman to clear out, because she unfolded her legs from beneath her and stood.
“I’m going to go check on Allie and Gracie,” Olive said, hurrying upstairs. “Be back in a little while.”
Noah just stood there for a moment, holding Serena, enjoying how good she felt in his arms. He knew this might be the last time it would happen. Finally he kissed the top of her head, inhaling her fragrance, then stepped back to let her go. “Sit down for a minute. There’s something I need to tell you.”
“Is it about the mercenary? Did he put up a fight? I bet you kicked his ass good,” she chattered on as she took his hand and led him over to the sofa to sit beside her. “I wish I’d been there. I’d have liked to punch him again too.”
“Listen, Serena,” Noah said, swiping his hand through his hair. “The mercenary—Spencer—had his cell phone with him. That was how he’d been contacted about the job. We got it off him and Clint was able to trace the text messages on his SIM card back to the person who’d hired him. The police are already making plans to bring that man into custody.”
Serena’s eyes widened and she gasped. “Oh. My. God! That’s fantastic! That means you’ve taken them all down.” She clapped her hands with glee. “Who was it? Was it the drug cartels, like you thought? Or no. Maybe it was someone related to the charities. After you said that, I got to thinking about some of the mega-corporations we’ve pissed off over the years by backing legislation to stop their polluting and raping the land all over the world. Or maybe—”
“No.” He took her hands and held them in his, sighing and staring down at their entwined fingers. “It wasn’t anyone we thought it was.”
“Really?” She frowned. “Then who?”
Noah took a deep breath and just came out with it, thinking quicker was better. Like ripping off a bandage. “It was your brother. Nate. He’s the one who put a target on your back.”
For a moment, Serena just looked at him, not saying a word, and he wondered if maybe she hadn’t heard him. But then the light in her eyes slowly faded and her face fell. “No. That can’t be right. Nate wouldn’t do something like that.”
“It was him, Serena. We have proof.”
“What? Phone calls? Some texts?” She pulled away from him and stood to pace the room. “Anyone could’ve sent those. Maybe someone stole his phone and used it to throw suspicion off of them.”
He exhaled slowly and shook his head. “There were funds sent to Spencer that tracked back to Nate’s bank accounts. It was him, Serena. I’m sorry.”
And he was. Sorrier than he’d ever been in his life. Even though it wasn’t his fault, somehow it felt like it was because he was the one who’d had to tell her, the one to break her heart.
Still, she didn’t seem to want to believe him. Serena crossed her arms and stopped across the room from him, scowling. “It makes no sense. None. Why would Nate want to have me killed?”
“My guess is the money.”
“Money?”
“Yeah.” He slumped back into the cushions and toyed with the hem of his shirt, not looking at her because it hurt too bad to see the pain in her eyes. “When your parents died in that crash, you told me they put you in charge of the company. You became CEO—with all the money and perks that come along with it. People have done worse things for less.”
“But Nate and I talked about it.” She threw up her hands. “I told him that it was probably just a formality. We were still going to run the company together. Nothing was going to change.”
“Except you’re a billionaire now and he’s not.”
“That’s a shitty thing to say,” she growled at him.
“Not as shitty as trying to have your own sibling killed,” Noah countered before he could stop himself. He’d never met Nate Carson, but right now, Noah could have killed him with his bare hands. “The police are with Levon and Clint organizing a sting to capture him.”
“I…” She snorted then turned away, rubbing the heels of her hands into her eyes. “I can’t believe this. I just can’t…”
Noah got up and walked over to her, pulling her into his arms despite her resistance. “Like I said, I’m sorry this is how it turned out. I really am. But at least now we know, and things can get back to normal again.”
“Normal?” She shook her head against his chest, her words muffled by the cotton of his T-shirt. “How the hell can things ever be normal again?”
Good question.
He’d been asking himself the same thing since last night. He’d woken up well before dawn to get ready for the takedown, but instead of getting up right away, he’d lain there in the dark trying to think of a reason for him to stay in her life after the mission wrapped up.
He couldn’t think of a one, except Gracie.