Page 38
“No.” This time it’s a bark, sharp and loud enough to make her jump and hug her door. For all I know, she’s considering jumping out. “You will not throw shit in my face when you don’t know the first damn thing about it. Don’t make me regret sharing with you.”
“Okay, fine,” she grumbles, folding her arms over her chest. “But you get my point. It hurts me to think of her being hurt.”
“You both could hurt a hell of a lot worse if anyone finds out where you are. Would you trust me on this?” I ask while she mutters incoherently. All I need is for Matteo to find her and use her against me. It was one thing for Victor to do it back when I didn’t know her. Even then, I took a supreme risk going after her.
Look where it got me. On a twelve-hour road trip with someone who insists on treating me like the antichrist simply because one of us needs to think rationally.
“Think about it this way,” I offer after miles of silence. “I need help, and I need it badly enough to reach out to my brother after years of no contact. That should tell you how dangerous this situation is. Showing up at Theo’s front door, eating crow, and begging for help? Pretty far down on the list of things I want to do. Doesn’t that tell you anything?”
“I guess so.” That’s as much as she offers, and her silence fills me with an unexpected sense of disappointment. I’ve yearned for silence for days, wishing she would run out of things to say. But now, watching her lips held tight together, I wish I could look inside her brain. As we drive with a painful quiet between us, I even miss the sound of her voice.
The sun is sinking in the west by the time we reach the last leg of our journey, and June speaks again after a quick pit stop at the service area off the interstate. “Beautiful out here,” she murmurs, gazing at the mountains in the distance. “I can see why someone would retire here. It’s so peaceful. Probably nobody to bother you but cows or bulls or horses.”
“I would go crazy within a week,” I mutter. The idea of living remotely is one thing—I’m not someone who enjoys dealing with people. But that doesn’t mean I want to live in the land of cow shit and heavy snow.
“I bet all this fresh air and scenery would be great for my writing.” She sighs.
“Are you saying you want me to leave you out here?”
She’s too deep in thought to come up with a retort. “What gave your brother the idea to come all the way out here for his retirement? It seems like an awfully long way to go.”
I turn off the main road, lightening the pressure on the gas pedal now that we are rolling over uneven terrain. Towering pines line both sides of what’s not much better than a dirt path through the woods. “There’s something you need to know before we get there.”
“Why do I feel like this is something I should’ve heard before we drove almost twelve hours?”
“Would it have changed anything?”
“Probably not,” she admits. “Lay it on me. What do I need to know?”
She can joke about it all she wants. Putting it into words isn’t easy. The last thing I need is for her to flip out when we’re only a few minutes from the house. “Theo didn’t technically retire.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means . . .” I had better be able to trust her with this. I wouldn’t tell her if we weren’t minutes away from reaching the ranch Theo has called home all this time. “It means he faked his death. He lives off the grid, in the middle of nowhere on a ranch.”
“Faked his death?” At first she sounds full of disbelief, but that doesn’t last long before breathless wonder leaks into her voice. “Faked his death. That is fascinating. That is really fascinating.”
“I’m glad you feel that way. You better hope I don’t find this story in one of your upcoming books.”
“Are you saying you would read one of my books?” she teases.
“You know what I mean. We aren’t characters. Theo is a real person who needed to get away from his boss. He needed to get out of the life. This was his only chance. And it’s a matter of life or death that you keep this information to yourself. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
“And don’t be surprised if he’s not exactly happy to see us. This isn’t some sappy family drama where everything’s forgotten all at once. Don’t be disappointed.”
“But you’re brothers.” Christ, how can she sound so naive after everything she’s seen and heard and learned? “You’re brothers who have been through so much together. You have to be able to put things aside. Family is more important than anything.”
“Okay. Do me a favor and explain that to him.” We’re closing in on the property now, meaning I have to climb out and open the gate leading up to the house. It sits in the middle of around a hundred acres, gleaming in the glow from a half-moon and a sky full of stars. A light shines above the front door, illuminating a deep porch that wraps around three sides of the first floor.
“What a beautiful house,” she breathes. I can almost hear the gears clicking in her head as she takes in the stone walls, the towering chimney, the rocking chairs on the porch, which I would bet good money my brother has never sat in once.
“Remember, take it easy on him. This is going to come as a surprise.” If I thought he would’ve answered, I would’ve called before setting out this morning. Last I checked, he had my number blocked. He’s a pro when it comes to holding a grudge.
Such a pro, in fact, that I’ve barely had time to kill the engine and step out at the foot of the wide front steps before the front door flies open and Theo himself appears, wielding a shotgun he wastes no time aiming at me.
“No!” June shrieks, scrambling around the car’s front before clinging to my side like that will help. “Don’t shoot! It’s your brother!”
