Page 26 of Fearless Protector

“You need to call Brian. He needs to be updated about this.”

“No,” Nick asserted. “It’s the ranting of a woman who isn’t well. She’s motivated to keep quiet about an affair she had. Brian isn’t going to have access to any more information than we do. Telling him now is just going to add to the pressure he’s already dealing with.”

“Transparency is important.”

“And we’ll have full transparency when we have anything worth sharing. Right now, the best thing we can do is get back and try to find some answers.”

“We’re not going to talk to Ronnie’s mother. Triggering her further, stirring things up is going to bring unwanted attention to Ronnie, Carter, and Sammy.”

“The information we need is in town. You remember what Willa said when we were there trying to sort out what to do for the farm.”

“Willa is pretty eccentric.”

“I trust her. She said it was the church groundskeeper. He was in town visiting family. We have leads. The answers are there. We just have to know where to look. Once we have a name, we’ll have the resources through Kinross to track down who he is and what he’s done. Then we can take steps to protect Ronnie and everyone who needs it.”

“This is not my area of expertise.” Cleo felt nervous energy closing in around her throat. She’d already been operating outside her depth here. It wasn’t the legal hoops she worried about navigating. That was how she liked it. There were laws to follow. Selling part of the farm. Working on terminating Don’s parental rights. In everything they’d done for the last month, she’d tried to stay focused on her role. But it was getting blurry. She hated blurry.

Nick reached over and took her hand in his. “There isn’t exactly a handbook for these types of things. It’s life. That can get messy. You’ve got affairs. Mental illness. Custody battles. Finances.”

“It’s why I’ve always tried to steer clear of family law. Taking the job with Kinross was supposed to be corporate law. Mergers and acquisitions.”

“That sounds perfectly boring.”

“Predictable.”

“You may not think you’re good at all of this, but you are. Ronnie looks to you as someone who can help and not just with the legal stuff. You're great with Sammy. You have good instincts for what they should be doing with the house and their future. Her sisters aren’t here, but you’ve been a fantastic stand-in.”

Cleo cringed at the compliment. “I’ve never been called that.”

“What?”

“A fantastic sister.”

“You’re too hard on yourself. I’ve let my siblings down dozens of times. I’ve screwed up plans and really made things hard on everyone. It happens, especially when we’re young. It sounds like you have to forgive yourself for whatever you’re hanging on to.”

“They’d have to forgive me,” Cleo corrected. “And trust me, they wouldn’t. There are elements of my family that sound very similar to yours. I don’t want to get into it, but I imagine you understand the idea of unforgivable family sins. Some things you just can’t come back from.”

“The woman I’m sitting with right now, the one who worries about making sure everyone is safe and happy and healthy... you can’t convince me she doesn’t deserve a happy life. You can’t tell me she doesn’t deserve love.”

“You’re seeing a little snapshot of my life. I have things together right now. I’ve made sure of that. Through sheer will and stubbornness, I was determined to make something of myself. I’m a lawyer. I’m working for a company that I love. It turns out there might be more to life than that. And in those areas, I haven’t exactly figured it all out.”

“I’ll help you.” He gave her a simple look. “I’d help you with anything. No matter what.” She opened her mouth to counter, but he cut her off. “Don’t give me the line that I don’t even know you. I know you. I know the you that is here right now. That’s enough for me.”

She only nodded, not able to articulate the gratitude for his no-strings-attached support. That had never been her experience before. There were always strings. Always rules. But Nick just cared about her. That was enough for him. And it was starting to feel like enough for her too.

CHAPTERELEVEN

Nick

“Thanks for meeting with us,” Nick said as he took off his baseball hat and tucked it under his arm. He was oddly at ease in church even though his faith had lapsed many times over the years. His family was a pillar of the old stereotypes of Irish Catholics of Boston. Their parents had their own pew in church and never missed a Sunday when the family was small. Nick and all his brothers were altar boys. Sure they were the kind that snickered during mass and snuck wine any chance they could get. But they were still there. Still faithfully marching their candles toward the altar for years.

He hadn’t been inside a church like this since his parents’ funerals. That was the day he’d sworn it all off. The failure of the faith that his mother held so tightly to had created a wave of anger in him he hadn’t really reckoned with until this moment. The stained-glass windows and the large vaulted ceiling painted with cherubs and saints brought it all back. The smell of the incense. The sound of a kneeler thudding against a creaky wooden floor as it was lowered.

Out of instinct, his back straightened even without his mother there to gesture for him to do so.

“You okay?” Cleo whispered, obviously noting the shift in him. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“This place holds a lot of ghosts for me.”