Page 103 of The Moment He Couldn’t Walk Away

“You’re lying.” He glared down at her.

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Nina said with far more bravado than she felt.

He started the car moving again, and on the short drive to her house—which was where she was convinced he was going—Nina realized one very important thing.

Finch may be angry and hurt by what she’d said, but he’d come looking for Nina if she didn’t return because that was the kind of man he was.

Your man. Even as terrified as she was, Nina knew the words felt right.

When the car stopped, Kurt said, “You’ll walk around the back and enter through the rear, acting as if it’s entirely natural for you to be here and not at that stupid tree lighting.”

She did as he said because he had a gun and she was out of options. When she walked into her house, she found two people. One of them was Amber.

“Hello, daughter. I wondered when we’d get the chance to finally meet,” the other said.

Chapter 28

Nina looked at the man she never thought she’d meet.

He was tall, so she didn’t get her stature from him, with thick gray hair. He wore dress pants, a button-down shirt, and a long navy woolen overcoat. Everything about him looked expensive, like he’d dressed for a boardroom instead of a home invasion. “Classy” would have been the first word she used for him. On the heels of that came “asshole.”

Suddenly all the longing she’d had for this man wasn’t there anymore. She’d spent years building him up in her mind into someone worth missing, and it had taken him all of ten seconds to burn that down.

He’d lied to her mother, and now he’d come after her, and for what?

“What is it you actually want from me, Mr. Falcon?” Nina said in a cold voice. “Because you and your—whatever they are,” she said, waving toward Amber and Kurt, “have inconvenienced me a lot.”

“I regret Amber’s decision to set fire to your house, Christina⁠—”

“My name is Nina.”

His smile was gentle, but she wasn’t buying it. She just bet he used that charm on anyone in his way, softening them up right before he took whatever he’d come for. “Nina, then. You’ll have to forgive me, as I’ve always thought of you as Christina.”

“You didn’t think about me,” she scoffed.

“I did, actually, but that’s not important right now.”

“It’s never going to be important. Now tell me what you want so you can take it and leave, and I never have to see you or your two lying cohorts again,” Nina said.

They were in the living area, and her back was toward the kitchen and rear door, which she’d just come through. Could she make a run for it? She measured the distance in her head—six steps, maybe seven—but Kurt still had that gun in his hand, so for now she’d wait and take her chance when it came.

“I’m your father, Nina. Surely you can spare me some of your time?”

He made it sound like it was her fault she didn’t know him. Like she was the one who’d been put in prison, leaving a wife with a three-year-old to care for while in shock over the fact that her husband was a criminal.

“So what? Merry fucking Christmas to me, my father has finally made contact?” she snapped. “Don’t make this more than it is, Mr. Falcon. You sent these two”—she pointed to Amber and Kurt—“to get what you wanted from me.”

“They came into my house, violating my privacy and possessions, and when that and the fire didn’t yield any results, you came yourself.”

The flash of anger in his eyes was only small, but Nina saw it, a flicker there and gone, like he’d tried to catch himself before it could show. Good to know he could be rattled. She filed that away.

“I apologize for their tactics, and I did not order them to take those actions.”

“Right, and of course I believe you,” Nina drawled. “Now tell me what you want, and then you can get out of my town and take your friends with you.” Nina raised her middle finger at Amber.

“Amber is your aunt, and Kurt is your cousin,” Falcon said, his tone now matching hers, flat and hard.

“Aww, now isn’t this sweet. A real family reunion at gunpoint,” Nina added, pointing at the weapon still in Kurt’s hands, her tone mocking. She wanted him to see she wasn’t afraid, even if her heart was slamming hard enough that she could feel it in her throat.