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Nash recognized West’s voice above him, floating in the stars somewhere. His brother shoved Stein aside. “I told you to take it easy.”
“Orders from the head honcho,” Stein said. “We gotta make him sorry. Take it up with him.”
Nash ripped his chin up to stare at his brother, seconds before Crawley’s knuckles ran into his nose. His other hand got his eye, and he groaned, seeing flashing lights.
“Enough!” West hissed. “I need him in one piece.”
Stein grumbled out a laugh. “Sure, sure. Hey, Nash… Trout wanted me to give you this too.” His hand went to where his gun was stashed. Nash tried to scramble back, but his instincts were too slow after that fight. Through the fog, he saw that Stein had a wad of cash. The musclebound man tried to push the money off on him.
What was this? More blackmail? Bribery. “I don’t want it,” Nash rasped. He coughed. His voice wasn’t coming out right. Crawley must’ve gotten him in the throat with one of his vicious punches.
“Too bad,” Stein said. “Trout doesn’t like being beholden to anyone. You’ll take it.” He shoved the cash into Nash’s hands. This had just taken a weird turn. Now Trout thought he owed Nash? What did Trout want from him?
“Get away from him.” West pushed between them, leaning down over his brother. “What are you doing here? I thought you were Porter at first. Are you crazy or something?” He tugged out a black, polka-dot hanky from his suitcoat pocket.
“Just stupid.”
West nodded, clearly not needing to be reminded of that fact as he cleaned off the blood dripping from Nash’s face. He sighed heavily. “I should’ve known that my brothers were too good for this kind of job.”
Nash stared at him through blurry eyes, not understanding why West hung around with this scum either. His mind flew back to Lynch with that poor woman. He needed to talk West into letting him go after them. “So are you,” he said.
“Nah.” West shrugged. “I’m perfect for it. Strangest thing… they found Eva’s diamond earring in Lynch’s car.”
“What?”
“Yup.” West pinched Nash’s nose to stop the bleeding. “Trout was furious. The dirt bag denied all knowledge of it, but we all know how Lynch is with the women… the confetti was a perfect touch by the way.”
Nash winced when West’s hand brushed his cheek, but he was listening closely. His brother had said that he wouldn’t let Nash go down, and he’d come through. West looked incredibly casual about it, almost like he was the one running Trout’s business and not the other way around.
“I had to tell Trout everything else that Lynch has been hiding from us, of course. He wasn’t happy, but none of it would have come to light if you hadn’t caught Lynch with his daughter.”
Nash could scarcely believe what he was hearing. “Eva?” She’d worked with West to take Lynch down? His eyes drifted to Crawley and Stein before going back to his brother. “She didn’t tell me anything about this.”
“Why should she tell you?” West asked, looking extremely put upon, but even if the guy was using his best playacting to sell this strange story to these lunatics, Nash saw right through him. “Eva was embarrassed to come to you. Turns out that Lynch was bothering her.”
West was going to owe her big time for planting the diamond in Lynch’s car. To think the two were plotting this behind Nash’s back. They could’ve said something! And the bigger question was, what would Eva want from West for being so cooperative? It would be nothing short of a marriage proposal. “What did it take for Eva to tell you all of this?” Nash asked.
“Only that she was dying to tell me everything on her mind—that and a few other things.”
Like how much she adored West? It wasn’t exactly a secret. “Trout won’t be happy,” Nash said. He tried to warn West without these brutes overhearing. “Eva’s his little princess. She always gets what she wants.” And Trout would crush West if he tried to go for her.
West smiled, his blue eyes glinting with steely determination. “Hmm, we’ll see. Anyway, the point is that Trout pulled out all his investments and told his friends to do the same. Lynch is a ruined man, unfortunately for him.” West glanced over at Crawley, who was nursing a bruised lip. “Still, we managed to find work for his best employees.”
“Trout ordered the hit on me?”
“Oh, you got what you had coming,” Stein said. “That was for ruining the deal with Millie. Trout’s still not happy what you did there, but… the money’s for uncovering what a cheat Lynch is. He was doing more than messing with Trout’s daughter. He would’ve cost Trout his business.”
“Why don’t you spend the money on something nice,” West said. “Get yourself a place with Emily in Nashville.”
“I’m not going anywhere near Nashville.”
“Fine, then go home to Momma.” Once again, West sounded impatient.
Nash listened to the opening notes of Emily’s new song. She was singing about late nights on the porch; even a poor man could enjoy those simple pleasures. What he’d do for another night like that with Emily. Was it actually possible? He couldn’t dare hope. And still, his mind went to that woman with Lynch. She needed his help. Nash took a deep breath and turned away from the music. “There’s something I’ve got to do first. I saw Lynch before Crawley and Stein jumped me.” West straightened, and Nash knew he had his attention. “He’s with that woman from the party, the one who was pregnant. I don’t think she wanted to be with him just now.”
West’s lips pressed together, just as his phone rang. “Hey!” he answered. “Where are you?” He listened tensely. “Slow down. I can’t hear you. I don’t know where that is, describe it better. Okay, okay, I’m coming.” He hung up, his eyes running over Nash. Nash knew how beat-up he looked, but it didn’t matter. Nash pushed up to his elbows. He had a feeling that this was about Lynch. West grabbed his arm and pushed him back down. “Just stay put. I’m on it.”
“Was that call about that woman?”
