Garth turned and the overhead light cast shadows on his face. His eyes were unreadable, his mouth a thin line.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, sounding unconcerned.
“You went after all of them. Lexi and her spa. Skye and her foundation. Now Izzy.”
“I never touched Izzy. She doesn’t have a business I can fuck with. Which is kind of a shame, I admit.”
“You blew up the oil rig. You could have killed her and everyone else there.”
Garth walked out of the kitchen. Nick followed him into the large living room with its floor-to-ceiling windows. Garth crossed to a cabinet on the wall and pulled out a bottle of scotch. He poured a generous serving into two glasses and picked up one.
“I didn’t have anything to do with the explosion on the rig,” he told Nick, then took a sip. “I’m interested in taking down the Titans—all of them. But not by putting anyone’s life at risk. Yes, I did my best to trip up Lexi and I might have set the D.A. and the press on Skye and her foundation. I took advantage where I could. I’ve used people—exploiting their weaknesses. Especially Jed’s. But blowing up an oil rig? Not my style.”
“Why should I believe you?” Nick demanded, still furious.
“To me the more interesting question is why should you care, but we won’t go there. You should believe me because you know me. You’ve always known me. Come on, Nick. We’re family. I didn’t blow up the oil rig. I had nothing to do with it. But, according to my sources, it was deliberate, which means someone else is involved. Maybe to set me up. Either way, I’m going to find out who’s responsible.”
Nick didn’t know what to think. He’d never been in a position not to believe his friend before.
“What’s your end game?” he asked at last. “How much destruction will make you happy?”
“I haven’t decided.”
Another lie, Nick thought grimly. Because Garth always had a plan. So was his friend using him? Or had Nick simply been caught in the cross fire?
“You lied to me,” Nick said.
“I didn’t tell you everything. There’s a difference.”
Semantics. Misrepresentation. Lies. They were the same. “You used me.”
“I asked you to look after Izzy. Aren’t you helping her? Isn’t she getting better?”
“Yes, but that’s not why you asked me to do it.”
“Does it matter why, if she gets better in the end?”
The expected answer was yes. Did the road matter if Izzy got where she needed to go? If she had the surgery and got on with her life, wasn’t that enough?
He didn’t want this to be Garth. He didn’t want to have to doubt his friend. He didn’t want to have the questions. But they had been planted and taken root. Now he didn’t know how to make them go away.
“It’s been a lot of years,” Garth said, holding out the second glass of scotch. “We’ve been through more than most. I trust you with my life and I’d like to think you’d say the same about me. Don’t let this come between us.”
Nick ignored the glass. “I’m not the one who made the decision to put our friendship on the line.”
Garth returned the glass to the cabinet. His expression was still unreadable, but tension crackled in the air.
“You’re either with me or against me,” Garth told him.
Nick smiled. “What a cliché.” His smile faded. “Don’t make me choose. You may not like the outcome.”
“You’d pick a woman you barely know over me? Over all we’ve been through? Have you forgotten I’m the one who helped you survive college? I’m the one who taught you how to get the girl?”
It was true, Nick thought, sad that he and Garth had to have this conversation at all. His friend had saved him countless times. Nick had been a geeky, innocent kid. He’d been picked on unmercifully until Garth had stepped in to protect him. Nick might have all the smarts, but Garth knew about getting along in the world.
Later Nick had tried to repay him by figuring out how to exploit one of the largest untapped oil reserves in South America. An expedition that had nearly killed them both. To this day, the majority of Nick’s wealth was tied up in Garth’s collection of companies.
“I haven’t forgotten anything,” Nick told him. “This isn’t about choosing you over her. It’s about what you’re doing and what that says about you as a person. When did you change?”
Garth’s lip curled. “Maybe it was when I rotted in a South American prison, getting tortured day after day.”
Nick knew he deserved that. “Blame me if you need to. Just know that I’m not someone you want as an enemy.”