Page 114 of Running to You

Gone. And then dead. Or captive.

If she vanished again… No, Sam couldn’t do it again.

“I’m glad you called me.” Michael’s words had Sam shaking off the horrifying images.

“Eliza’s idea,” Sam admitted, “but… Me too.”

“I got us tickets on a nonstop. Leaves at nine.”

“I’ll pay you back.”

At that, Michael smiled. “I’ll let you. Government salary and all that.”

“Right.” And didn’t that just open a whole world of questions? Questions he’d have to ask another time. He climbed under the covers, his head buzzing with new information—from Eliza, now from Michael. It was too much to comprehend. And he was so tired.

Michael clicked off the light. Then, in the darkness, “You still hate me?”

“What? I don’t—?”

“For about thirty years.”

Oh. Not thirty. Not quite, anyway.

“I was a jerk when we were kids.” Michael’s voice was low and sincere. “I exchanged you for a bunch of losers I haven’t talked to since high school. I don’t know why I never… I should have apologized a long time ago.”

Sam wasn’t sorry for the darkness that hid his face. Because he could feel some very unmanly emotions coming on.

“I treated you like dirt,” Michael said. “So I know I don’t deserve anything different from you. And if you want to unload on me… Well, maybe not tonight, but I’ll listen to whatever you have to say. I owe you that. Or…whatever you want. The thing is, I’d really like you to forgive me. I want us to be friends again.”

The prickling in his eyes… He’d blame that on fatigue.

Could it be that simple? Could he just…forgive?

What had he said to Eliza? That she couldn’t be blamed for something that happened when she was a kid?

Michael had been a kid too. A teenager, but still young and dumb. Yet grown-up Sam had held a grudge against that kid for a long, long time.

Which made Sam feel a little like an idiot. A lot like an idiot.

“One condition,” Sam said.

“Anything.”

“Forgive me too. For—”

“Done. Long time ago.” The covers rustled, and Michael added, “Get some sleep, dweeb.”

He smiled at the old game. “You too, goober.”

Just like that, the past was cleared away. Just like that, Sam and Michael had a fresh start.

Sam couldn’t figure out how, but in the space of…he did the math and almost laughed out loud. Eliza had shown up on his doorstep Friday night. How could it only be Monday? In seventy-two hours, Sam had gotten back the woman he’d dreamed of and his favorite brother.

Tomorrow, they’d take the evidence Eliza had collected to the authorities. Hopefully, her enemies would scatter and leave her alone. And then Sam would start building the rest of his life, a life with family. A life with the woman he loved.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Unlike pretty much everything else in Eliza’s life for the previous four days, the nonstop flight was uneventful. Despite the bizarre events of the day before, she’d slept well. Maybe because she’d been so tired.