Star-Crossed (36 page)

“Go for it.” Wyatt huffed and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket to text Jules.

“My sister is just dying to sue someone for libel. It’d make her year.”

“You’re a mess, Conner,” Adam said with a laugh. “And you should hear the shit going ’round ’bout you. People are saying you beat on Wellings like you’d lost your damn mind.”

Wyatt only half heard him. He was frowning at the text on the screen of his phone.

292

Wy Wy. I’m happy I came into this world by your side. I feel very lucky to be your twin.

You’re a great brother and an even better friend. Please know I’ll miss you every day that I’m
gone. Love you, Ju Ju Bean.

Wyatt had to reread it three times before he really fought past the shock and realized this was a good-bye text. He immediately dialed Jules, but it went directly to voice mail.

He tried the home phone and again came up with nothing but voice mail when she should be up and getting ready for work.

More than awake now, Wyatt called Clay next and barked into the phone when it was answered, “You gimme that bastard Wellings’s number.”

“Good morning to you too, Wyatt,” Clay grunted. “What the fuck?”

“Just gimme the damn number!”

“And catch it again from Jules, I don’t think—”

“I think Jules is gone, and I think your buddy Wellings is responsible!”

“Gone?”

“Jules and Wellings may have run off last night. I got to get home and check, but I—”

“I’ll call Romeo. You head home. Call me if you find her,” Clay said, obviously catching the urgency and not putting it past Jules to leave if she thought she could somehow help Romeo. “I’ll let ya know if I get ahold of him.”

“You get ahold of him, and you make sure he brings Jules back home ASAP.” Wyatt jumped up and fished in his pocket for his keys. Not seeing any other way to stress the emergency, Wyatt admitted to Clay and Adam and anyone else sitting in the station at six in the morning, “Jules is pregnant.”

“No shit?” Adam asked, wide-eyed in shock.

Clay wasn’t so easily convinced. “There ain’t a chance in hell she’d run off knowing she was pregnant.”

293

Wyatt winced. “She doesn’t know. Doc called, and I ain’t told her yet.”

“That’s why you beat on Wellings.” Adam pointed at Wyatt knowingly. “I knew it had to have been something. I told Kesha there must’ve been a good reason.”

“It’s like a dang TV show ’round here,” added Harvey, working dispatch. “Jules and the Gladiator, I can’t even believe that.”

“I’m tired of being the entertainment in this station,” Wyatt announced as he pushed at the glass doors leading to the parking lot. He turned to Adam before he left.

“You can work that double.”

“Let us know if you find Jules.” Adam followed Wyatt into the parking lot, understanding the direness of the situation in a way Harvey didn’t. “Call if you need anything from us.”

Wyatt waved to him, wishing he could express his gratitude, but all the words were trapped behind the fear in his chest. He got into his SUV and put his keys in the ignition before Clay cleared his throat, reminding Wyatt he was still holding the phone.

“Is she really pregnant?” Clay asked as if it took that long for the reality to sink in.

Wyatt sighed. “Doc says she is, and I’m guessing he ain’t wrong ’bout it.”

“If I can’t get ahold of Romeo, I’ll drive to the lake house.”

“I’ll check home. If she’s gone, I’ll meet you there.” Wyatt found exactly what he expected at home, a note on the door and evidence of Jules packing fast and leaving without thinking everything through clearly. She’d even left the glass door in their father’s room wide open, and the early morning rain had wet the carpet. Yesterday Wyatt would have gone insane over the damage; today all he wanted was one minute to tell Jules what he should have yesterday—she had more to live for than Romeo Wellings.

He called Clay as he ran out of the house, and by the time he got to the lake house, Clay was already there. They walked up to the front door shoulder to shoulder, and Wyatt used his fist to pound on it, hitting the wood so hard the frame shook.

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Tino Moretti opened the door, looking worse for the wear. His hair stood up in black spikes as if he’d been running his hand through it. His eyes were bloodshot, and his shoulders were stiff in defensiveness.

“Can I help you?” Tino asked, looking from Clay to Wyatt. “I don’t remember calling 911.”

“You can tell me where the fuck my sister is.”

Tino gave him a wide-eyed look of innocence. “Is your sister missing?”

“Listen, boy.” Wyatt pushed into the house, forcing Tino to back up. “I ain’t fucking with ya. I suggest you get over your amnesia and tell me what you know.”

“You can’t come in here without a warrant!” Tino snarled when Clay closed the door behind them. “This is fucking bullshit! You think I don’t know my rights?”

“I’m sure you’re very familiar with your rights.” Wyatt snorted. “But you’re in my town, and you lost your rights the moment your brother ran off with my sister.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Tino’s eyes darted from Clay to Wyatt. “This shit actually happens? Redneck pigs. It’s like the laws are a friggin’ suggestion. How do you guys walk with the big-ass elephant balls you got hanging between your legs?” Clay snorted, and Wyatt couldn’t blame him. The gall of this kid was awe inspiring.

Wyatt glared. “Your mouth is ’bout to get you in a whole heap of trouble.”

“You just busted into my house without a warrant.” Tino huffed, holding up his hands in disbelief. “You’re gonna have to deal with my mouth.”

“Sit down. We’re having a talk.”

“Nah.” Tino shook his head. “I got nervous leg syndrome. Sitting makes me twitch.”

Wyatt gaped in disbelief. “I’m ’bout to haul this kid in.”

“Moretti.” Clay stepped forward as if tired of the back-and-forth between them.

“We’re not attacking you. Stop acting like we are.”

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“I feel fucking attacked,” Tino assured him. “If my brother Nova was here, he’d tell you the forty-seven different ways we could sue your ass for this shit.”

“We’re worried ’bout Jules,” Clay went on evenly. “We just wanna know what you know.”

“I know nothin’ about nothin’.”

“I’m not a cop,” Clay reminded him. “I’m Jules’s friend. I’m Romeo’s friend too.”

“Great friend. Thanks for stepping in and helping him out yesterday.” Tino glared at Clay before he pointed to Wyatt. “This guy kicked the shit outta him for no damn reason. I lost my friggin’ brother ’cause of that shit. You can shove a probe up my ass. I got nothing to say to you guys.”

Wyatt stepped forward, looking down at Tino furiously. “I had a reason.”

“What? Balling your sister?” Tino snorted. “Fuck you, Conner.” Wyatt ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. He knew he couldn’t arrest Tino when he’d just muscled into his house, but it was
very
tempting.

Knowing intimidation was not going to work on Tino when he was so angry and defensive, Wyatt changed course out of desperation. “Look, I’m gonna give ya the short version of why I had a moment yesterday. My mother died—”

“Cry me a fucking river. My mother died too. You don’t see me going bat shit for no reason.” Tino folded his arms over his chest. “There’s a couch with your name on it.”

“If you would shut your trap for two damn seconds, I could get to the part where Jules is pregnant!” Wyatt yelled, completely fed up. “I ain’t saying that was a good excuse to do what I did, but I got real issues with it. My mother died having us, and Jules has this long history of female problems. I know this pregnancy won’t be easy on her, and even if it goes well, she still ain’t married. The whole damn town’s gonna be talking ’bout it forever. There’s a lot of reasons why putting my fist in your brother’s face felt good, okay?”

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For the first time Tino was silent, just looking at Wyatt with stunned disbelief. In that moment there was an innocence to Tino that was missing when he was on the defensive, and Wyatt felt a little bit guilty because he could see how young this kid really was.

“My brother’s having a baby?” Tino finally whispered.

“No, my sister’s having a baby,” Wyatt clarified, still mad enough to have an edge in his voice. “Your brother’s just the cause of it.” Tino took a shuddering breath, those soulful eyes brimming with emotion. “I’m gonna be an uncle?”

Something hit Wyatt in the chest. Tino wasn’t the only one who was going to be an uncle. In that moment Jules’s pregnancy became something besides a problem.

Wyatt felt more than the fear for his sister’s health and panic over the gossip that was going to be fierce. Their tiny family was about to increase. All that emptiness that was left by their father’s death seemed a little less suffocating.

Wyatt swallowed against the rush of emotion and nodded. “Yeah, I guess you are.”

“That makes us like—” Tino’s gaze ran over Wyatt with uncertainty. “We’re like family now, right?”

Wyatt pulled a face. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“We’ll be at the same birthdays and shit,” Tino said as if it made perfect sense to him. “Christmas and Easter and baseball games. I’m not missing that. Are you?”

“I don’t want to miss it.” Wyatt gave Tino a pointed look and reminded him, “But we’ll both be left out if we don’t find them. My sister’s health could be in jeopardy. She needs to come home.”

Tino let those words sink in for a few seconds before he announced, “I need to make a phone call.”

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He reached into his pocket for his phone, and Wyatt expected him to walk out of the room, but he just turned his back on them. Then he started speaking rapid Italian that made it apparent why he didn’t feel the need to leave.

Wyatt could tell by the tone and rising level of the conversation that he was having an intense argument. Wyatt and Clay would be completely in the dark if Tino didn’t occasionally lose track of himself and bark out something in English.

“That’s not my fault!”

“I’m not lying! I woke up and it was here!”

“I was tired, not drunk!”

Tino began pacing. Between that and the Italian, Wyatt was exhausted just watching him. He was waving his hands around to make his point as if the person on the other end could see him.

“Not like I invited them in! Do I look new?” He glared back at Wyatt before he said something else in Italian and then lapsed back. “Yeah, that’s right, no friggin’

warrant and I asked.”

Then Wyatt started to hear the word
bambino
. That one he understood. Tino’s tone softened, some of the tension slipped out of his shoulders, but he was still sending dark, suspicious looks back at Wyatt as if whatever he was hearing on the other end cast doubt in his mind.

Then the passionate flow of foreign words ended, and Tino walked up, holding out his phone. “He wants to talk to you.”

“Who’s he?” Wyatt asked, though he already suspected the answer.

“My brother Nova.”

Wyatt took the phone, holding it to his ear, feeling more curious than anything.

“Yes?”

“You expect us to believe your sister took off knowing she was pregnant? I don’t think so. Even if she was inclined to be that irresponsible, no way would Romeo go for 298

it. I call bullshit.” Nova’s tone was dark and cynical. “You’re playing my brother, and I don’t appreciate it.”

Wyatt huffed and tried to keep his guard from going up, knowing he’d be asking the same questions if the roles were reversed. “The doctor called yesterday, and I ain’t got a chance to tell Jules yet. I asked for some time because I didn’t want her to get upset.”

“So you beat up her boyfriend instead? How’d that work out for you?”

“Obviously not very well,” Wyatt growled, losing his tight hold on his temper.

“Now I’m asking nicely,
what do you know
?”

“So asking nicely in Garnet County equates to barging into the house without a warrant and interrogating Tino without reading him his rights?” Nova asked, his voice icy with fury. “Pick on my little brother again, and I will descend on your town like the wrath of God and shut down your ramshackle sheriff’s department faster than you can say Miranda rights.”

“I don’t need you. I don’t even know why I thought you’d give a shit.” Wyatt growled, his body shaking in fury. “And hear this, Moretti, when I find my sister, I’ll make damn sure she cuts you
and
Wellings out of her life. Believe she’s pregnant or not, I don’t give a fuck, ’cause you ain’t never gonna know that kid. Over my dead body will I let my kin get mixed up with the likes of you.”

Wyatt handed the phone back to Tino and turned to leave. Clay gaped at him for one long minute before he followed Wyatt out the door. They were in the driveway before Clay whispered to him, “That’s the biggest piece of bullshit to ever leave your mouth. You couldn’t make Jules take off a hat at the dinner table if it was something she didn’t wanna do.”

Wyatt looked back to the house, seeing Tino arguing on the phone again, and then arched a smug eyebrow at Clay. “They don’t know that.”

“Conner, wait!” Tino called as he ran out the door. “I know something!” Wyatt turned around, folding his arms over his chest. “I’m waiting.”

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“Romeo took off about one o’clock last night. I thought he was gonna go alone,” Tino started. “But he came back here with Jules close to two. They left the Ferrari and took her car instead.”