Chapter 29 Colt climbed out of his Audi. The hospital was the last place he wanted to be. He should be home with Indie, making sure she was resting. But after what happened yesterday, he needed to talk to his father. He had words he needed the man to hear. Questions he needed answers to. Whether he'd get those answers though, he wasn't sure. The bruises on Indie's neck were on constant replay in his mind. She'd told him she wasn't in pain. But there was no way she wasn't hurting. And he saw that in small moments when she thought he wasn't watching. In subtle flickers of unease. In the way she cringed when she touched her neck. He stepped inside and strode down the hall. Everything about the previous day felt like a nightmare he couldn't escape. Hell, everything involving his father from the last month and a half felt like a nightmare. It was time for it to end...all of it. He rounded a corner to see Jesse and one of his deputies standing outside a room. Jesse wore a grim expression, but then, Colt had expected it. Jesse didn't want him here, but Colt had pushed. Thank fuck Jesse had agreed. "You sure you want to do this?" Jesse asked, the second Colt stopped in front of him. "No. I need to." Jesse's brows drew together. "Can I trust you to be in there by yourself?" "He's cuffed to the bed. There's not much he can do." "I'm not worried about him." "As much as I want to make him hurt for the things he's done, I won't." But only because he couldn't afford to be arrested when Indie needed him. Jesse stared him down. "Okay. Go. But, Colt...be careful. He's going to try to get a reaction out of you." Colt knew that. He was expecting it. He pushed through the door to see his father on a bed in the center of the room, his right hand cuffed to the frame, his foot raised and bandaged. Gordon's brow lifted, almost looking amused. "You finally decided to come see your old man?" "Who do you owe and how much do you owe them?" His father sighed. "Not even a hello?" "Answer the question, Gordon." "I take it they paid you a visit." Colt stepped forward, not feeling anything but revulsion for this man. "You know what I don't understand? How did my mother ever see anything redeemable in you? How did she ever look at you and think, yes, this guy is someone I want to spend time with? Make a family with. Love. Because when I look at you, I see nothing but scum." "Your mother saw who I wanted her to see. A good guy. Husband material. Father material. She had money. I didn't." He lifted a shoulder. "It's as simple as that." Simple? Nothing about that sounded simple. Manipulative. Underhanded. Psychotic. Those words fit better. "So you openly admit to using her." "I admit that when I met your mother, I saw what she could do for me. I saw all the ways she could support my addiction. I saw everything I could get out of her. I also saw how much she wanted a man in her life. She was easy prey." "Yet you couldn't manage to keep her." "The bitch cut me off. Do you know what they did to me the day those assholes came to our house, wanting that money from me? They cut off my right fucking toe!" Was Colt supposed to feel sorry for him? "You got into bed with criminals. What did you expect?" "I expected your mother to support her fucking husband! To give me the money I needed to get them off my back. Instead, she kicked me out. Hired that asshole protection of hers, who forced me to sign divorce papers. It was her fault, all of it!" He was delusional. His phone vibrated with a text. He pulled it out and scanned the screen. Jesse: I know who attacked Indie. He shoved his cell back into his pocket before looking back at Gordon. "Actually, it was your fault. Everything you've ever done in your life has gotten you exactly where you are. You deserve everything that's happened to you." That anger returned to his father's face. It was unfiltered and unhinged. "You say shit like that to me, yet you expect me to offer information?" "You were never going to tell me anything." "So why are you here?" "To tell you in person that I will do everything in my power to make sure you spend the rest of your useless life rotting in prison. And if you ever do get out and try to hurt anyone I love again, you'll either be sent straight back behind bars or straight into the ground." His father tried to pull at his restraints, anger reddening his cheeks. "You have no idea what I'm capable of!" "I do-and it's very little. Because you're nothing. You've always been nothing." Colt turned. "Get back here, kid!" Colt ignored him and stepped into the hall. Jesse frowned. "Everything okay?" "Same shit, different day. What did you find?" Jesse shot his gaze to the door, then back to Colt. "We ran the plates of the Harley-Davidson. The owner is a Roman Korr. He's been in the system before. He works for a guy named Chester Vane, who runs an unofficial lending operation." "Do you have his location?" "It's going to take a bit of time, but my team's working on it." Colt's jaw clenched, frustration throbbing at his temple. "Is my father going to be in here much longer?" "There was a complication with the surgery. He needs to go back under. The doctor said another week or so." Jesus Christ. He just needed this to be over. "How are you feeling?" Indie rolled Noah's question around her head as she watched him move in her kitchen from where she sat on the couch. "About the pregnancy or the guy who attacked me in my car?" A darkness slipped over Noah's face. It looked eerily similar to the one Colt had worn since yesterday. He filled a saucepan with milk. "Both." "Well, in regards to the pregnancy, I throw up every morning. I've realized that hunger is not my friend, so I've actually started keeping dry crackers on me wherever I go. And don't even get me started on the exhaustion. But at the same time, the symptoms are almost comforting, like my body's reminding me it's making a baby and doing what needs to be done." "That's great. After everything you've done to get here, you deserve it." A frown formed between his brows as he added cocoa powder to the pan. "And the other stuff?" "I've been trying not to think about it." Although, she was not always successful. This morning, she'd made Colt check the back seat of the car three times before she felt safe enough to get in. Three. That fear probably wouldn't go away for a while. "You know you're safe with Colt, right?" Was the fear as thick in her voice as it felt in her chest? "I know. I'm mostly scared something will happen to me and hurt the baby." Even thinking about the possibility made a shudder crawl down her spine. "Nothing is going to hurt you or the baby." The ringing of Noah's cell cut through the room. "Hang on, it's Addie." Instead of putting the cell to his ear, he hit speaker while he continued to prepare the hot cocoa. "Addison, everything okay?" "Addie," the voice on the phone corrected. Indie frowned at the instant smile on Noah's face. Did he call her that, knowing she preferred Addie? Just to get a reaction out of her? "Addie. What's happening?" "I'm just finalizing details for the opening party and someone named Burt called. In fact, don't worry about it. I'll call him tomorrow. I like Burt." "You like Burt, but not his pizza?" "Yeah, he's great." "Uh...okay. I'll leave it with you, then." "Good. Everything else okay?" "Yeah. It's been easy. You've left some great notes." "I have been told that I'm the master of note leaving. Call if you need anything else." "I will." Noah hung up, another ghost of a smile on his face as he lifted two mugs and carried them into the living room. "Who told you you're the master of note leaving?" Indie asked, unable to wipe the smile from her own face. "Plenty of people." Yet he couldn't name a single one of them. She took the steaming cup of cocoa from his outstretched hand. "I'm sure that's what it is." He lowered beside her. "What what is? And why are you smiling like that?" "You like her." He scoffed. "She's younger than me." "You like her." "She works for me." "You like her." He shook his head. "Can we talk about something else?" He liked her. She didn't need his confirmation to know she was right. She lifted her mug and sipped the warm liquid. It was good. Really good. But that shouldn't surprise her. Her brother was good at everything. Had been his entire life. Someone should really hurry and wife the guy up. "Okay," she finally answered, the smile falling from her mouth as she said her next words. "I don't believe you're doing as well with the fact that you're not a Marine anymore as you want people to think." There was a small tightening of his eyes. "I'll always be a Marine, Indie. Once a Marine, always a Marine." "Okay, I'll rephrase. I don't think you're doing as well being home as you want me to believe." "Indie-" "And if you don't want to talk about it, that's okay. But I need you to know that I'm here if you ever do want to talk." He scrubbed a hand over his face, and she noticed the scar peeking out from beneath the short sleeve of his shirt, on his biceps. It was long and red, like it was still kind of new. "What's that?" She leaned forward to touch it, but Noah shot off the couch. "Noah-" "It's nothing." "It's not nothing. It's a scar!" "People get scars in the military, Indie. It happens." There was a thread of something in his voice. Annoyance, maybe? It wasn't like him at all. "That looked like a knife wound," she said quietly. "I'm going to do a perimeter check." Before she could say anything more, he was out the front door. What the hell was that? Why was he acting so strange at the mention of a scar? She had questions, and it was so unlike Noah to not tell her things. The questions were still flickering through her mind when his phone rang from the table. She glanced at the screen...and her muscles immediately locked. Bonnie. She hadn't spoken to her sister in years. Thirteen, in fact. It had been thirteen years. Slowly, she reached for the phone and pressed it to her ear. "Bonnie?" Silence. It filled the line. Then, "Indie?" Bonnie's voice...it made immediate tears gather in her eyes and a million emotions rise in her chest. Some good. Most sad. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "How are you?" "I'm okay. What are you doing answering Noah's phone?" "He, um, stepped outside. I saw your name on the screen and..." And what? Wanted to talk to her? Ask her where she was and why she hadn't come home in thirteen years? "Congratulations," Bonnie said. Indie frowned. "What?" "Noah told me you're pregnant." He had? "When?" "Last night." "Oh. You talk regularly?" "Lately, yes." How often was regularly? Weekly? "I've called most days in the last week," Bonnie explained. Hurt kicked at her ribs, but she wasn't sure why. Noah had told her they were talking, but not daily. "I should go." "Bonnie, wait-" But her sister had already hung up. The door opened, and Noah stepped in. "All clear," he said, as he locked the bolt. When he stepped into the room, he looked down at the phone in her hand. "Everything okay?" "Bonnie called." "Really? And you spoke to her?" "I did. She mentioned you've been talking daily." He ran a hand through his hair. "Indie...I wanted to tell you." "Tell me what? That you've been talking to our sister so often? That's between you two." "She asked me not to say anything." More hurt. But maybe it shouldn't. Of course she didn't want Indie to get involved. Noah crossed the room and sat beside her. "I'm sorry. But I was scared that if I didn't agree, she'd cut contact." She swallowed hard. "Is she okay?" "She seems happy. And safe." Indie nodded. "Good. That's good." Noah's brows flickered before he touched her knee. "Hey. Are you okay?" "Yeah. I just haven't heard her voice in a long time, and I had so many questions, but she couldn't wait to get off the phone with me." "I'm sure that's not true." "It was." He squeezed her knee. "I'm going to get her home." "How?" The word was barely a whisper. "I'm not sure yet. But I will. Trust me." She did. She trusted her brother with her life. It was her sister she was worried about.