“Care to tell me what this is about?” he asked the group as casually as he could manage.
Cam was the first to speak. “This is an intervention. We’re worried about you.”
Disbelief roared through him, and he stared at each of his brothers in turn. The disturbing hollowness in Vaughn’s eyes since Lark disappeared was even more pronounced. Cam looked exhausted and frazzled, probably stressed out from a mix of worrying about his twin’s increasing emotional distance and his wife’s emotional health. Even Jude was a bit haggard. Apparently baby-making was exhausting work.
Reece shook his head. “An intervention for me? Have you all looked at yourselves lately? I’m not the one who needs it here.”
Cam stepped forward and slapped a tablet against his chest. “You’re the only one here who’s lost his fucking mind.”
He caught it before it fell and looked at the picture on the screen of him and Shelby at the club last night, covered with paint. There were several other photos on the popular tabloid website, including one of him kissing her.
And he didn’t care. He. Didn’t. Care.
Holy hell, that was freeing.
He shrugged. “So what?”
Vaughn’s brows slammed together. “That isn’t you.”
“Uh, yeah, it is.”
“He means,” Cam said in exasperation, “that’s not like you.”
“How would you know?” He didn’t raise his voice, but the room went pin-drop silent. He set the tablet aside on Jude’s desk. “Really, how would any of you know? None of you know me. To you, I’m the workaholic, the uptight asshole who strangles himself with a tie every day because he feels powerless without one, and he’s so fucking afraid to fail. But I don’t want to be that guy anymore. At heart, I don’t know that I was ever him, and Shelby’s the only one who saw it.”
“Shelby’s a liar,” Eva said, a catch of emotion in her voice. “I’m sorry, Reece. I love my sister, but—”
“No. If you truly loved her, she wouldn’t think of herself as unlovable.”
Eva flinched and shut her eyes, sucked in a breath through her nose. “She makes it very, very hard sometimes.” When she opened her dark eyes again, they were glossy with tears. “Reece, I know she told you she owes The Headhunters money, but she doesn’t. They’d never come after her because her father is Alec Hudson. Their leader.” She nodded toward Cam, who held out a folder.
He didn’t want to take it, didn’t want to see what was inside, which was exactly the reason he snatched it from his brother’s hand and flipped it open. On top of the pile of papers was Shelby’s birth certificate, listing none other than the notorious Alec Hudson as her father. Her birth name had even been Shelby Hudson, and there were a few old photos from the 80s attached to the documents. A very young girl in pigtails—obviously Shelby—on Hudson’s shoulders or sitting in front of him on his motorcycle while he sported The Headhunters’ patch on the back of his jacket. There were other papers, including documentation of her name change from Hudson to Bremer, her mother’s maiden name, after her father was sentenced to life in prison for murder, drug charges, and a handful of violent racketeering-related offenses.
Reece suddenly couldn’t breathe. Needed some space from his brothers and Eva before he did something stupid like pass out from lack of oxygen intake.
Smacking the folder closed, he slapped it down on the nearest desk and walked to the back of the room, toward his tiny office. But he didn’t go in. Just stood there in front of the door, eyes closed against the riptide of betrayal threatening to suck him under. “Why would she lie?”
Eva pushed out a breath. “I don’t know. She’s been lying to me for years. It’s just…what she does, part of who she is.”
“No.” He couldn’t accept that Shelby was simply a pathological liar. Wouldn’t accept it. He’d seen her at her most vulnerable, had seen her beaten down and broken by her mother’s constant lies. “She has to have a reason.”
“C’mon, man,” Vaughn said on a groan. “She made up this sob story about owing bad guys money so you’d marry her. Look at the evidence in front of you.”
“You’re one to talk,” Reece snapped. “Chasing after a woman who doesn’t want to be found.”
“Yeah, well. You’re smarter than I am. Always have been.”
No. He shook his head, pushed past his brothers and out into the cold bite of January. He wasn’t deluding himself here. He knew Shelby. She didn’t want his money, hadn’t even taken the credit card he’d offered when she went shopping with Libby.
No, there was another reason for her lie, and he’d damn sure find out what it was.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The apartment was empty when Shelby finally dragged herself out of an exhausted sleep. She wasn’t surprised to find Reece still gone and smiled, spotting the note he’d propped up on the nightstand.