“Moretti.” Wyatt grunted.

“Hey, Conner.” Nova’s gaze darted back to Tabitha even though he was still speaking to Wyatt. “Bad night.”

“Yeah.” Wyatt nodded. “We really got to stop meeting like this.”

Nova let out a little laugh as he reached out and grasped Wyatt’s shoulder affectionately. “It’ll be okay, paisan.”

“They’re specialists,” Wyatt said, as if sensing Nova’s next question. “I wouldn’t let someone hack into my sister unless I was confident they knew what they were doing. Romeo wouldn’t either. She’s in good hands.”

“I still wanna talk to them.” Nova’s gaze darted back to her. “Tabitha.”

She smiled. “Yes.”

Nova held out his hand, and when Tabitha took it, he introduced himself. “Nova.”

“Hi, Nova. It’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry the circumstances are so difficult.”

“You don’t remember me,” he whispered.

Tabitha raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Am I supposed to?”

Nova seemed to think about it for a few seconds before he said, “No, you’re not. It’s better.” He wrapped his other hand around hers, holding it trapped between his warm palms as his smile broadened. “It’s nice to meet you too, Tabitha. I bet you like heroes.”

“I do.” Tabitha nodded. “I love them.”

“Yeah, I like them too.” His gaze darted to Wyatt, and he shook his head. “Unbelievable, Conner. I cannot believe you landed T.C. Rennoc. I knew those books were about you. I just didn’t know who actually wrote them. It’s a small fucking world.”

“Now’s the point where you let go of my wife’s hand.” Wyatt eyed Tabitha’s hand still trapped between Nova’s. Then he turned to her and said loud enough for Nova to hear, “He’s strange. He says weird stuff all the time.”

“I’m not even going to hold that against you.” Nova was still smiling. “I know you’re having a shit night.”

“Moretti.” Wyatt lifted his head and let out a broken laugh. “You don’t know the half of it. Let go of her.”

Nova threw his hands up in surrender and then turned to look toward the doors where Jules was having surgery. “Now where are these doctors?”

* * *

Jules made it through the surgery.

They didn’t take her uterus.

The twins were both okay.

Wyatt had a lot to be thankful for, but the DOJ investigators showing up at the hospital when everyone was still there wasn’t one of them. They’d waited until Wyatt had gotten a chance to see his nephews in the NICU. The babies had Romeo’s dark hair and Jules’s lungs. Wyatt could hear them through the glass, and it was a good thing.

Bawling babies were healthy babies according to the doctors.

Wyatt wished he could see his sister too, but she was still in recovery. The only one who’d gotten to see her so far was Romeo, who looked like he was going to drop where he stood from the relief.

“Sheriff Conner.” One of the investigators stepped forward as Wyatt walked out of the maternity ward and inclined his head to him. “Do you have a moment?”

“Sure.” Wyatt lifted his arm off Tabitha’s shoulders and leaned down to kiss her. “Give me a minute. Cop stuff.”

“Okay.” Tabitha nodded. “I’ll just go get another cup of coffee.”

Wyatt had taken two steps with the DOJ investigators before Nova called out from behind him, “Hey, Conner.”

He held up a hand to Jules’s brother-in-law. “It’s fine.”

“Yeah, no, it’s not.” Nova said with a laugh. “You’ve been up all night fearing for your sister and your nephews’ lives. You’re too tired and distracted to properly explain what happened. It would put the investigation in jeopardy, and I’m sure none of you want that.”

“Have you been up all night?” the investigator asked in concern.

“I have, yeah.” Wyatt nodded. “My sister’s in ICU. Her sons are in the NICU. She was medevaced in from Garnet earlier. This wasn’t a normal delivery. She had a uterine rupture.”

“We’re going to give you our card, Sheriff.” He pulled a card out of his wallet. “We understand this is a family emergency. You can call us tomorrow.”

Wyatt took the card and looked at it. “I’ll do that. First thing.”

The other investigator smiled. “I hope your sister and nephews get better.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that.”

Wyatt looked at the card again as the investigators walked off. Then he glanced at Tabitha, who frowned in response.

“What was that about?” she asked.

“Um.” He flipped the card over in his fingers and then stuffed it into his back pocket as he considered lying to her. Then he decided the two of them had enough lies between them to last a lifetime. “I shot Vaughn Davis during a traffic stop earlier this morning.”

Wyatt could actually see the color drain from Tabitha’s face. She didn’t say anything, just stood there staring at him in muted horror.

It was Melody who voiced the question out loud. “You did what?”

Wyatt held up his hands and turned back to their crowd of spectators. It really was bad timing on the DOJ’s part. He hadn’t realized how large their family had grown in such a short amount of time until he had to announce to all of them, “He pulled a gun on me. Shots were fired. He missed. I didn’t. It wasn’t fatal. He’ll live. They were probably here to see him and happened to hear I was also in the hospital. Any shooting involving a cop requires an investigation. This is all standard procedure.”

“But Clay was with you earlier this morning,” Melody whispered, still the voice of the masses.

“Yep.” Wyatt nodded. “That was one of the unfortunate things ’bout it.”

“Aren’t you off on Tuesdays and Wednesdays?” Chuito asked.

Wyatt nodded again. “Also extremely unfortunate.”

“What did I say last night?” Tabitha finally asked in a quivering voice.

Wyatt bowed his head and took a shuddering breath. “This ain’t your fault, Tab. Not even a little. I pulled him over while I was off duty. It’s my fault.”

“Oh, Conner,” Nova said from behind them. “You and me, we gotta talk.”

“You got enough of your own problems, Moretti.” Wyatt shook his head as he turned around. “Now, if y’all will excuse us. I’m gonna take a few minutes to talk to my wife. Let me know when we can go in to see Jules. We’re going outside for some air.”

* * *

Tabitha wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel.

There were so many overlapping horrors to deal with it was impossible to sort them all out.

Fear, horror, embarrassment, and what she didn’t want to acknowledge, but did anyway, was that small flame of anger at Wyatt. That he would risk not only the life he’d made for himself, but the kindling of hope they’d had to make a life together.

He was an elected official in the County of Garnet. He was respected and admired. Everyone in this town loved him. He should be mature enough to know better. He wasn’t a twenty-one-year-old hotheaded kid anymore. She had a right to her anger. She knew it, but the circumstances with Jules kept her from lashing out at him as the two of them sat at one of the small tables outside the hospital. Tabitha was drinking coffee. Wyatt had a bottle of water, and for several long minutes, they just stayed there in silence, both of them finally taking a moment to fully absorb the secrets that had just been torn open and laid at their feet in front of all Wyatt’s friends and family.

“You’re mad at me,” Wyatt finally whispered. “I can tell, but I swear, Tab. I wasn’t intending to shoot him.”

Tabitha arched an eyebrow. “You left in the middle of the night to make a traffic stop?”

Wyatt considered her for a second before he looked down at the table. He picked at the peeling paint at the end. “Okay.” He huffed. “I’ll admit that was my knee-jerk response.”

“Oh my God.” She shook her head as she looked at him. “Wyatt, this isn’t the Old West. You can’t just go out and shoot someone for touching your girl.”

“Touching my girl,” Wyatt repeated in disbelief. “Unless I got it figured wrong, he drugged you badly enough to cause an overdose, and then—”

“Don’t say it.” Tabitha cut him off.

Wyatt leaned his elbows against the table and put his face in his hands as the sadness and tension radiated off him violently enough it almost made Tabitha sick secondhand. “I can’t stop thinking ’bout it,” he whispered miserably. “I can’t stop thinking ’bout what that had to have been like for you. I can’t stop wishing for a chance to go back and take that fight back. There’s just so much. So much. I can’t even begin to sort it out.”

“I know.” She choked back the urge to completely break down. “We’re broken, Wyatt. You think it’s not terrible for me too, knowing that you found out what happened. I wanted to stay beautiful to you. I should’ve never come back. I should’ve let my mother die in that rotting house. Nothing was worth ruining what we were.”

“You got it all wrong, darlin’.” He dropped his hands and looked at her, with tears shining in his light eyes. “You’re always beautiful. Always. There’s no way Vaughn could take that away. It’s impossible. You have always been perfect to me.”

Tabitha covered her face and let out a sob, because she heard the truth in his words.

For reasons she would never understand, Wyatt’s love for her was completely loyal and unending. It didn’t tarnish. It didn’t fade. It never curved to the winds of change, and her feelings for him were the same. She should be furious at him, but when it came down to it, the anger simply evaporated under the golden gleam that always radiated off her hero, and she just adored him instead. Life handed them true love; she just couldn’t decide if it was a gift or a curse.