Page 45 of Bennett (HC Heroes #15)

Theo inhaled a slow breath. “He didn’t tell me he was going to prison.

He told me to take Lexi and leave. Said to get out of town, get my shit together, raise my kid somewhere better than that mess.

I thought he was just helping me cover my tracks, buying me time to fix it on my own.

” His voice cracked. “I didn’t know until I came back. ”

Bennett’s chest tightened. “Came back when?”

“Six months after my daughter was born,” Theo replied, thrusting a hand through his hair.

“The guilt was eating me alive. I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

About everything I left behind. I came back to apologize.

To come clean.” He looked up, gaze haunted.

“That’s when I found out he was gone. That he’d been convicted.

That he’d died in prison the month before I got there. ”

The world went quiet in Bennett’s head. He stared at Theo, not moving, not blinking, just trying to breathe through the crushing pressure behind his ribs.

Across the room, Laurel sucked in a breath, quiet but sharp enough to cut through the silence. Her arms curled around herself like the ache in Theo’s words had reached across the floor and wrapped around her too.

Her gaze found Bennett’s, full of sorrow and something else…empathy. Depth.

She looked at Theo then back to him, her voice soft but steady. “I’m sorry you both went through this. And that you both had to carry it alone.”

Her words landed like a balm and a blade all at once.

Bennett’s throat tightened. The room still felt too small, the air too thin, but Laurel’s voice anchored him. The softness. The truth. The way she saw them both. Him and Theo. Not just for what they’d done, but for what they’d carried.

And damn if that didn’t unravel something deep inside him. He held her gaze, and her support and affection spoke volumes. She wasn’t just here for him. She understood him. And for the first time since his father’s arrest, he didn’t feel like he was standing in it alone.

But he still needed answers. Long overdue ones.

“Why, Theo?” he finally asked. “Why the hell did you take the money in the first place? Why would you steal from a fund my father was responsible for?”

This was something he could never understand.

Sorrow and pain tightened Theo’s features. “For Lexi. To buy her freedom from a biker gang in Cheyenne.”

Laurel’s indrawn breath echoed around them.

Bennett glanced at her just long enough to see the stunned look in her eyes, the way her hand pressed lightly to her chest.

Then his gaze locked back on Theo. “A biker gang,” he repeated, trying to get his mind around the confession. “You stole from an account my father helped oversee—to pay off some gang?”

Theo didn’t flinch. “To save her,” he said, his voice raw. “I didn’t even think. I knew about the fund through a buddy on the admin team. I figured it was just corporate fluff. Money nobody would miss for a few weeks. I didn’t know your dad was the one signing off on disbursements.”

Bennett’s jaw clenched.

Everything in him rebelled against the justification. Against the image of his father taking the fall for something he never did. Dying in prison while Theo built a new life.

But beneath all of it, deep in his gut, a bitter truth seared.

If Laurel were in danger—like she had been downstairs a few hours ago—he’d do whatever it took to protect her.

Lie. Steal. Burn the world down.

And he hated how much that made him understand.

He blew out a breath and looked away, one hand scrubbing hard down his jaw. “I get why you ran. I even get why you did it. But you should’ve come back the second you knew. You should’ve stood next to me at that damn grave.”

Theo nodded slowly. “You’re right.”

Bennett’s chest felt too tight for the breath he took in. He could barely process the shift in tone between them, but it was as if something had been exhaled, heavy and long overdue.

“You let me think he broke,” Bennett said, the words coming softer now, but weighted with years. “Like he gave up.”

“I know.” Theo’s voice cracked. “And I’m sorry for that most of all. But he made me promise not to come back. Not to confess. I didn’t want to and told him that, but your father could be so damn stubborn at times…”

Bennett looked away, throat working. His father had died carrying a secret meant to protect someone else’s future. He’d always been selfless like that. Quiet in his sacrifices. Steady. Strong. And, yes, so damn stubborn.

God, he missed him.

The silence that followed didn’t cut like it had before.

It wasn’t peace. It wasn’t exactly forgiveness. But it was something.

And maybe that was enough—for now.

Laurel’s voice broke the stillness. “Where are Lexi and your daughter now?”

Theo’s shoulders twitched. The flicker of pain in his eyes was fast, but it was real. “Lexi died in a car accident before our daughter turned one.”

Jesus.

If Bennett’s chest hadn’t already been wrung dry, that would’ve done it. He closed his eyes for half a second, grounding himself with a slow breath.

He imagined Theo, twenty, grief-stricken, raising a baby alone while carrying the weight of a lie he hadn’t even fully understood at the time. It didn’t excuse anything, but it explained too damn much.

“What’s your daughter’s name?” Laurel asked gently.

Theo hesitated for the first time, like saying it might make it heavier somehow. Then he looked up. “Claire.”

Bennett stilled. His heart rocked hard against his ribs. “You named her after my mother?”

Theo’s voice was quiet. “Yes.”

That one word hit harder than anything else had all day.

Because for all the lies, the silence, the years lost—that was the part that rang true.

A kind of penance. Or maybe just a promise.

Bennett swallowed hard and nodded. Just once.

It was all he could manage.

Laurel stepped closer, her hand brushing against his arm. She didn’t say much, didn’t have to.

“You honored her,” she said softly, her gaze on Theo. “That matters.”

Bennett glanced down at her fingers, the way they lingered on his skin like they belonged there. Like she knew exactly when to speak and when to let silence say the rest.

He was so damn lucky to have her.

And he was done pretending he didn’t need her. He slid his arm around Laurel’s waist, pulling her in close, anchoring himself to the one person who made all the wreckage feel survivable.

Theo’s throat bobbed. “I hoped it would. And just so you know, yes, she’s mine. She has the Vaughn birthmark.”

“The one that looks like a stretched star on the right…um…cheek,” Laurel stammered, a blush rising swiftly into her face.

It was a mark passed down through the Vaughn lineage.

His cousin nodded, acknowledging Laurel’s statement but not her embarrassment. “I’m hoping you won’t hold any of this against Claire, or keep her from knowing you, Bennett. Besides me, you’re the only family she has.”

He jerked his head back. “I would never do that,” Bennett said immediately, meaning every word.

Theo blew out a breath. “Good. Because I’m counting on you to watch over her in four years, when she turns eighteen and finishes high school, because I’m going back to Wyoming then to confess.

Clear your father’s name, officially. I know the Statue of Limitations will have run out, but I intend to stay there and do whatever it takes to set your dad’s name straight with the community.

I’ll work off my debt with the agricultural society for however long it takes. ”

Bennett’s heart kicked his ribs hard.

He didn’t speak right away, because for a moment, he couldn’t. The weight of it—the offer, the sacrifice—slammed into him like a second blow.

Then he shook his head. “No. You don’t get to do that.”

Theo blinked. “Bennett—”

“You have a daughter,” he said, releasing Laurel to step to Theo and grip his shoulders. “You don’t fix the past by robbing her of your present.”

Theo’s mouth tightened, guilt rising behind his eyes.

“I’m not saying it doesn’t matter,” Bennett went on.

“It does. But she matters more. Your life with her—that’s what my father would’ve wanted you to protect.

That’s what he died protecting.” He held his cousin’s gaze, something raw flickering in his chest, the same rawness he saw in Theo’s eyes. “Are we on the same page?”

Theo looked down, his jaw flexing. And for once, he didn’t argue. He just nodded. That’s when Bennett pulled him in for a hug.

Theo stood frozen for a second before his arms came up and returned the gesture. It wasn’t long or showy. Just solid. Real. Two men finally letting the weight of the past settle into something they could carry.

When Bennett stepped back, Laurel was already there. She slipped her hand into his, no words needed. He laced their fingers together, grateful for her touch.

Theo looked at them—at her—with something close to gratitude in his tired gaze.

“I should go,” he said quietly. “Give you two some space. But thank you for letting me say it. But most of all, for actually listening.”

Bennett gave a short nod. “Stay in touch.”

Theo looked like he might say more but didn’t. He nodded, sent Laurel a small smile, and let himself out.

When the door clicked shut behind him, silence settled again, this time softer. Lighter.

Bennett turned to Laurel. She was watching him with that open, steady gaze that always seemed to cut right through the noise.

“You okay?” she asked.

He nodded slowly. “I think I finally am.”

Something bright and warm filled her eyes. She rose onto her toes and kissed his cheek. “Proud of you,” she said, before slipping her arm around his waist and resting her cheek against his chest.

And just like that, Bennett knew he could carry the rest of this. Knew he could start to rebuild trust with his cousin again.

Not because he had to.

Because he wanted to.

Because he wasn’t alone.