Chapter 37

37

Which child should he protect the most? That question ate at Timothy's gut as he drove through the Hughes Heights neighborhood. He'd loved this damned neighborhood from the moment he had stepped foot in it so long ago.

He'd imagined bringing his older daughters there. Building a home for them after they healed from their mother's death. They had been hurting so much. But their family on their mother's side had made it so difficult for him to even consider bringing them back to Finley Creek, where they belonged.

He should have fought for his daughters. All of them. Protected them more.

But Brianna? She was his eldest daughter, conceived two months before he had met his future wife, and she had agreed to give him a chance.

Brianna's mother had just been a way to let off steam. He most certainly hadn't loved her. Timothy hadn't wanted to mess up what he had with the woman he loved—or the baby born six months after Brianna. She hadn't wanted more from him than for him to allow her husband to think the Brianna was his.

Claireson had seen through that pretty quickly.

Brianna was far too pretty to be that old brute's daughter. Timothy was proud of her, but he wished she'd do something more productive with her life than just toying with running her late half brother's business ventures. She was bright enough if she just used it a bit more than she did.

He would have to talk to her about her future again. Soon. When he could.

His biggest fear was that she would get involved in something she shouldn't. If she did, it would be Trey's fault.

Brianna just skated too close to Trey's seedy secrets for Timothy's mental well-being now. And she didn't even realize it. Timothy was always trying to see that she didn't fall. That Trey's dirt didn't touch his sister.

His eldest son was far too arrogant, too careless. Too damned close to Banks Claireson for Timothy's comfort.

Timothy had kept his distance after Banks had paid him so well for discovering Sopalmitraln almost six years ago now. He hadn't wanted to know what Trey and his friends were doing. He just hadn't.

Maye he should have stepped in. Gotten Trey out of it somehow. Then they wouldn't be here now.

Trey still had poor impulse control and a trigger temper, for one thing. He'd called Timothy ranting just a few hours earlier about some woman he'd encountered in Wyoming not recognizing him from Texas. Timothy still hadn't deciphered what his son was so upset about now.

Timothy wasn't blind to Trey's faults either.

Timothy wasn't a fool in that regard.

Timothy's resolve firmed.

Trey was on a collision course with destruction. But he wasn't going to use Brianna's businesses to do it. He owed his sister better than that.