Close Range Christmas by Nicole Helm (best free ebook reader .txt) 📕

her hands protectively over her belly. “Caring about this baby doesn’t mean I don’t care about the safety of everyone I love. If some long-lost half brother is after them, it’s not just them. It’s my sisters too and—”

Duke’s hands tightened on her shoulders.

“What did you say?” he demanded, suddenly fierce.

Sarah blinked at the sudden change in his demeanor. Had he not thought the dinner was as serious as that? “They got notes. All the brothers. From one of Ace’s sons they didn’t know about.” She didn’t add the part about Dev knowing. Didn’t need to get into—

“I have to go.” Duke released her abruptly and was immediately striding for his truck.

“Wha—”

“Liza will be over in a bit. You stay put, now.” He got in the truck, pointed at her like she was a little girl again. “I mean it.” The dogs sat on their butts as if he’d been talking to them.

Then he drove off, and Sarah stood in the stark winter afternoon wondering what on earth had gotten into everyone.

IT WASN’T ANY easier telling the truth to the rest of his brothers. Jamison was the oldest, the one who’d saved them all from the Sons, the one Dev had idolized before he’d ended up broken—so Dev had assumed that would be the worst. Letting down the person you most wanted to make proud.

The others were younger than him. They hadn’t spent as much time in the Sons as he and Jamison had. They didn’t fully...

But of course they did. Ace had kept Cody’s wife on the run, resulting in his daughter being a secret from him for seven years. Ace had almost killed Gage last summer and had been instrumental in Felicity’s own biological father hurting her. Ace had been in the periphery of Tucker and Brady’s troubles this summer—but he’d been there. The reason. Always.

“It didn’t occur to you to tell us once Ace was dead?” Brady said, his expression cop-blank and his voice grim.

“No. I thought it was over. Just like you.”

“Clearly it’s not.”

“Clearly,” Dev echoed.

“I’m still not following,” Gage said. Usually the most easygoing brother, or at least the one more likely to tell a joke, there was nothing remotely light about Gage right now. “This Anth guy saved you?”

“He said he would make sure I didn’t die if I promised to never tell anyone about his existence. I figured it was some kind of...conscience or whatever. We all have one. Why wouldn’t this... Wyatt?” Which of course had an easy answer. Ace was always the why.

“And you don’t have any idea who his mother is?”

Dev shook his head. “We didn’t have much time for a heart-to-heart.”

“After. You didn’t even think to tell us?”

“I was a little busy, you know, recovering from a coma and learning how to walk again.” Dev knew it was wrong to snap at his brothers. Their questions were valid, necessary even. “In the moment, I would have agreed to just about anything. After... Well, he’d held up his end of the bargain. Clearly he knew who I was, if not all of us. If he wanted to be a part of us, he could have been.”

“Clearly he didn’t want to be.”

“Regardless, I’m alive, aren’t I? I certainly don’t know how. Ace wanted to kill me that day. None of this ‘you’re my progeny’ stuff like he had with Jamison and Gage. He wanted me to be the lesson to all of you. So, whatever Anth did—I’m alive because of it. At the time, telling you guaranteed that I’d be bringing Ace back to our doorstep.”

“He could have been behind any of what happened last year,” Jamison said. “Framing Felicity for murder, everything that went down in the Badlands with Brady and Cecilia.”

Dev was still struggling to deal with how utterly destroyed Jamison sounded. As if it was a personal betrayal he’d never get over. Because Jamison couldn’t imagine it. Dev knew Jamison was good through and through, and he would have rather died than make a deal.

Just like then, Dev couldn’t live up to Jamison’s perfect example. “He wasn’t behind any of it though, was he?”

“That we know of,” Jamison said softly.

No matter how soft, the truth of that was like a knife to the heart. Obviously he’d considered Anth might have something to do with all the danger that had befallen them last year. How could he not consider it? But there’d never been any evidence pointing to someone other than Ace or one of his Sons of the Badlands cronies.

But you didn’t have to be the perpetrator of something to be involved. Ace had escaped connection with who knew how many crimes.

Duke burst into the kitchen, looking a little wild as all the brothers turned to him.

“What is it? Is something wrong?” Dev demanded, thoughts immediately going to Sarah and those contractions this morning.

“Tell me what’s going on,” Duke said, a little out of breath. “You were threatened.”

“Duke, I can’t tell you not to worry when there’s a threat against us and your girls are involved, but it’s being taken care of,” Jamison said calmly, none of that hurt in his tone like it was when he spoke to Dev.

“Don’t take that high-handed tone with me. Not only are all my daughters in the crosshairs here, but... Tell me about this son of Ace’s.”

All Dev’s brothers turned to him. Because Anth Wyatt was his cross to bear. “I don’t know much about him. Anth Wyatt spared my life back when Ace wanted to kill me. I don’t have the slightest clue why he’d be threatening the six of us now, but I think it’s him.”

“He could have others,” Tucker offered—speaking for the first time. “If Ace had one son with another woman, there could be more than one.”

Duke scraped his hands over his face. “Could be, it’s true, but this one...this Anth...” Duke trailed off on a pained breath.

“You know something about him?” Jamison asked.

“Not exactly. But I know who his mother is.”

“How?”

Duke’s expression was so grim,