Shattered (Hostage Rescue Team #11)(11)

He hadn’t answered. Hadn’t even attended the funeral, no matter how much Taya had tried to reason with him, saying it would bring him a sense of peace and closure. Always trying to see the best in people and give them a second chance. But why would he go, when the woman who’d given birth to him had been dead to him for years now?

“She wants money,” he said flatly. That was usually Dara’s prime motivation.

“You don’t know that.”

“I do know that.” And it pissed him off that Taya would question his judgment on this. She didn’t know Dara, hadn’t grown up with her. He’d purposely cut his mother and sister out of his life a long time ago, back when he’d left and joined the Air Force, and it was the best thing he’d ever done, other than marrying Taya.

A week after the funeral, Dara’s lawyer had sent him paperwork about his half of the inheritance, less than two thousand bucks that Nate hadn’t collected. Dara wanted it, and she wouldn’t stop until she got what she wanted. And even then she’d keep going, keep searching, see what else she could get from Nate or anyone else she might be able to collect from. It made him sick.

At his angry tone Taya went quiet and turned away to look out her window. Nate reined in his temper with effort. He wasn’t mad at Taya. But the news had taken him off guard and hit a raw spot inside him. It infuriated him that his sister would stoop to try and weasel her way back into his life now through Taya, who didn’t realize she was being taken advantage of. Dara smelled that kind of opening a mile away and seized on it like the predator she was.

“If she contacts you again, ignore her.” It was important Taya understand how toxic his sister was. “Dara is selfish and a user, on top of being an expert manipulator.” She’d learned it all from the best, after all. No one played people or the system like Janet Schroder had. “I don’t want her in my life, period, and especially not now. I don’t want her to touch us. Ever.”

“I was just being polite. It’s not like I asked her to come up and visit us.”

He didn’t care. “Swear you won’t talk to her again.”

Taya gazed at him a long moment, studying him, then relented with a nod. “All right,” she said, her voice soft. “I promise. And I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stir up trouble.”

He knew that. But her promise to avoid contact with Dara only mollified him a little. He was still stewing about his useless and calculating relative when they got home. Taya met him around the front of the truck, her gray eyes searching his.

If she was waiting for an apology for his reaction or stance on the issue, she was in for a disappointment. The shit he’d gone through with his family for all those years ran too deep and he wasn’t going to change his mind about this, not even for his wife.

But instead of pressing him for answers, Taya slipped her arms around his neck and hugged him, pressing her sweet body into his. And just like that, Nate calmed, a long exhalation rushing from him as he wrapped his arms around her. After a few moments, the worst of the anger drained away. He held her to him, breathing in her cinnamon-vanilla scent, drinking in that uncanny sense of peace she always had about her.

This was honest and real. The past couldn’t touch them anymore, unless he allowed it to.

“I hit a nerve there, huh?” she murmured against his shoulder.

“Yeah.” A big one.

He wasn’t proud of it. Most of his issues he’d dealt with. But some were too ingrained and he didn’t feel like wasting energy on them.

He searched for the right words. “It’s just…you don’t know how toxic things were when I was growing up.” The constant shame when landlords had come to evict them from yet another place, knowing his mother had used up all her lies and they had to move on again. Or when the creditors had come after them and repossessed their stuff.

His mother had been a pro at working the welfare system, but even her maneuvering had its limits. He’d told Taya about most of it, but hearing about it wasn’t the same as living it. He’d sworn to himself that the moment he was old enough, he’d leave and never look back. And he hadn’t.

The words kept coming. “I did everything in my power to escape all that, and I’m not going to let anything jeopardize what we have now.”

She nodded, easing back to meet and hold his gaze. “I understand.”

No, she didn’t, not really. How could she, when she’d grown up in a loving, supportive home, and was still close to her father and brother? And he didn’t want her to. But he appreciated that she was trying to see where he was coming from. That she had his back. It calmed him.

He ran a hand through her long brown curls, the strands wrapping around his fingers. Clinging, as if they didn’t want to let go. He knew the feeling. “You’re wiped. Let’s get you to bed.”

“Okay, Doc.”

“Hey.” He swatted her butt gently, loving the way her eyes sparkled with humor. “Only the guys get to call me that. Not you.” With a grin, he dropped a light kiss on her lips and tugged her toward the door.

The mention of his past had stirred up a lot of memories best left buried. He resented that even more considering he was leaving tomorrow for a training op, and had only a few hours left to spend with Taya.

To clear his head, he hopped in the shower, stood there letting the hot water beat down on him. The past was the past. He and Taya had a bright future to look forward to. They were what mattered. Thinking about his sister for one second longer was pointless.