Going after a federal agent was pretty much a death sentence, and the older Bryant was hyper-alert as it was. I planned to push my concerns about the older Bryant at Webb until he promised to tell Wyatt to watch his back. I didn’t like that we were dealing with an unknown entity who had already proven to be extremely dangerous and cunning with questionable motives. I was biding my time until Web’s emotions weren’t stretched so impossibly thin. The idea of his brother being as much of a target as he was might send him spiraling out of control, and as much as I normally liked his unpredictability, now wasn’t the time for him to go off half-cocked.
The older woman made a face which made me stifle a laugh. “Wyatt went into law enforcement?” Her opinion of his career choice was evident in the twist of her lips and the tone of her voice.
Webb laughed. “He had to. It was the only way to keep me out of jail.”
The woman’s eyes shifted to me and one of her white eyebrows lifted. “So, this is your lady friend? I take it you’re not married. How about Wyatt? What about kids? Did either of you boys have little ones?” She sounded so hopeful that it pulled at my heartstrings.
Webb threw his arm around my shoulders and tugged me to his side. His lips brushed my temple. Suddenly the deep, dark swamp was the most special place on Earth.
“Well, I’m mostly still trying to figure things out, how to live a life not on the run. Ten has been awesome enough to agree to help me out with that for a little bit.” Belatedly, Webb introduced me to his aunt. His smile was sharp when he gleefully informed her I was also in law enforcement. The older woman looked like she was sucking on a lemon when she shook my hand. “No kids for either of us. Wyatt works too hard, but eventually, he’s gonna find the right person and settle down. He’s wanted a family of his own for a long time.”
Clara wrung her hands together and gave Webb a pointed look. “You mean he’s going to meet the right man and settle down, don’t you, boy?”
I felt Webb stiffen in shock next to me. “What? How did you . . . ?” He trailed off as the older woman waved her hand in front of him.
“He was always a good boy. Quiet, too serious, even when he was little. I remember how keen he was on the neighbor boy. Always wondered if that kind of interest was going to turn into something more serious as he got older.”
Webb huffed out a breath and lifted a hand to rake his hair back from his forehead. “Jolene wasn’t as observant as you. She didn’t take the news well. I overheard her once, screaming at Wyatt that the reason we didn’t have a home anymore was because of him. She told him you wouldn’t let a pervert around the rest of the kids on the property. I’m sure he knew it wasn’t true, but I think that a tiny part of him always wondered.”
His aunt made a pained noise low in her throat. “Oh no. We don’t care who you love around here. Lord knows we all tried to love that mother of yours through thick and thin. All we’ve ever cared about is you boys being happy.” Clara gave me a pointed look which made me smile at her. I liked she was protective of both the man and the boy. Webb needed all the belated mothering he could get. I hated Jolene even more than I already did for taking him away from this woman who obviously cared about him deeply.
Webb cleared his throat and shifted his weight. “I’ll be sure to pass the message along. I’m sure Wyatt will be happy to hear things aren’t always as they seemed. He won’t be surprised. Nothing with Jolene was ever cut and dry, much less shocking. I can’t believe you looked for us. I didn’t even know I needed to hear that.”
She reached up and grabbed his face between her hands. “I wouldn’t have let you go. I regret letting Jolene push me out of your life when you were little. I was always trying to keep a balance between making sure you boys were all right and letting Jolene live her own life. That girl, always such a mess. I’m glad our parents weren’t around to watch her ruin the lives of their grandchildren. Now you’re here, can you stay a while? Ana would love to see you; so would your uncle.”
Webb was shaking his head before she finished speaking. “I can’t stay right now, Aunt Clara. I have to find my twin before he does something else with my face to land me in more trouble. You need to be careful. If he comes around looking for family, remember, you don’t know anything about him. Growing up with Jolene was bad, but something tells me this guy had it even worse than we did. He looks just like me. You have to ask smart questions if he comes around.”
The older woman nodded solemnly. “I understand. I hate to see you go after all this time, but as long as you swear you’ll come back, I won’t fuss.” She gave me a narrow-eyed look. “You can even bring her with you if she leaves the badge behind.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her I mostly found lost hikers and responded to wildlife reports, but it was too fun to watch her turn her nose up at the fact I was law abiding. Webb was totally a chip off her hardened block.
Webb squeezed the older woman one last time with a softly spoken promise to return with Wyatt in tow.
We stood in silence as she grabbed her weapon and climbed back into the rusted truck. We waved as she reversed out of the swamp, leaving us alone with nothing but the cicadas chirping.
I wound an arm around Webb’s waist, not bothering to ask if he was okay, because I could tell he was still reeling from everything that happened. When some of his weight leaned on me, I realized holding him up was hardly a chore at all. I didn’t feel like I was going to collapse or fold under the heaviness at all. It was illuminating. Somewhere along the way, playing this game of chase with Webb had given me back the inner strength that the professional and personal failures in my life had stolen away. Following Webb had led me to the woman I always wanted to be.
Now, I just had to figure out how to keep her around permanently, because Webb wasn’t the only person who liked her.
Webb
I was torn between asking Ten to spend the night with me, and needing some space to sort myself out. It would’ve been very simple to let myself get buried under all the revelations from the past. Everything I’d learned today, from facing my father for the first time to learning my family hadn’t wanted to let either Wyatt or me go, was enough to choke on. I was pushing back all the what-ifs and what-might’ve-beens with sheer determination. Being able to focus on Ten and all the ways our relationship was changing helped. Thinking about the future didn’t have the same hollow, airless quality that pondering the past did. When I pictured all the good things I could have standing right in front of me, it made it much easier to push forward instead of stumbling back.
When we got back to the hotel, Ten gave me a quick kiss and whispered, “Call your brother. Come find me when you’re done, if you need me. Text me if you don’t.” She silently slipped away, taking most of my heart and a huge chunk of my soul with her. I’d never met anyone who understood what I needed and went out of their way to give it without question. The unvarnished acceptance she gave me, even if it came reluctantly and sometimes with a bit of hesitation, was precious. I’d grown up feeling like I was cast off and thrown away. Instead of trying to find a place to belong like Wyatt did, I went out of my way never to stick around long enough for anyone or any place to feel familiar. Nobody could get sick of me or take issue with the man I was if I kept my bags packed and one foot out the door at all times. The way Ten fit me into her life, into her time, finally made me feel like I found my place. It was a spot she saved especially for me. It was mine, and I was pretty sure I would fight to the death to keep it.
I watched her hips sway and her hair swish across her back until she disappeared into her room. I’d been alone and dealing with my shit for a long time. I knew I could unscrew the cap off the bottle of poison that was my past, take a huge gulp and lay it all out for Wyatt, and still survive the way it burned. Knowing this time I didn’t have to suffer through the pain alone was a nice development. I’d never had anyone besides my brother to lean on, and Ten sure was a pretty pillar of strength. She was like the Parthenon: a strong, b
eautiful, precious thing that managed to stay standing, no matter the chaos and turmoil that surrounded it. A place where men once worshiped, but had been battered and worn with time.
Entering my room, I played with my phone for a few minutes before doing as Ten instructed and called my brother. It was late on the East Coast and I wasn’t even sure if Wyatt had been assigned a new case recently or not. He always worked weird hours, but when he was on a case, it was impossible to tell if he was awake when he should be sleeping or vice-versa.
“What’s wrong?” My brother’s voice was raspy with sleep, and I could hear the exhaustion wrapped around each word.
“Nothing. I wanted to talk to you about a few things, but you sound beat. I can just call you tomorrow.” I plopped down on the edge of the bed so I could pull my boots off. I suddenly felt a whole lot older than my thirty-two years, and weariness pulled hard at every muscle in my body. I rolled my shoulders and cracked my neck, but neither helped the tension coiling up and down the line of my spine.
“No. I’m up. I was going to text you, but I fell asleep watching the news, which has my baby brother’s damn face plastered all over it. I flagged the accounts you told me about. If anyone tries to access the money, an alert will go out, and we can track down our missing sibling. It’s not much, but if money is his primary motivation for getting you out of the way, he might go for it even without you being locked up.” I heard him moving around. There was a thunk and then a loud string of dirty words as something rattled and fell to the floor. “Fuck me. I kicked the edge of my coffee table. Hurts like a son of a bitch.”
I laughed and threw myself back onto the bed. “Ten still thinks you need to be careful. She thinks you’re a target as well.”
“Tell Ranger McKenna I am perfectly capable of handling whatever comes my way. She’s got her hands full with you.” I could hear the smile in his voice.
“She does. Very full. But she’s smart, and she’s worried about both of us. It’s kind of nice to have that for once.” I tapped my fingers on my abs and stared up at the ceiling. “I need you, Wyatt. If something happens to you, my entire world will fall apart.”
My older brother grunted. “You needed me then, Webb, you don’t need me now. You aren’t a wild, aimless kid anymore. Without even trying, you grew into a competent, reliable man. I know you don’t see those things in yourself, but they’re there.”
I blinked in the darkness, slightly taken aback. Wyatt always told me he loved me and believed in me. This was the first time he’s ever mentioned trusting me enough to take care of myself. “I went to the family compound in the swamp tonight. I wanted Ten to see how little we had growing up. I wanted her to understand why I did so many of the things I regret in my past. While we were there, I saw Aunt Clara.”
I heard Wyatt suck in a sharp breath. He exhaled it a moment later, and I swore I could feel his emotions vibrating through the phone line. “Are you okay?”
Of course, he thought of me first. It’s what he always did.
“It was actually good. She looks so old, but still the same. She rolled up with a loaded shotgun.” A chuckle escaped when I recalled the bizarre scene. “If she’d been a few minutes earlier she would’ve got quite a show. Ten helped me exorcise a lot of old ghosts tonight.”
Wyatt groaned. “Not as wild, but you’re still impulsive as hell.”
“I know.” I sighed. “Aunt Clara swears up and down she looked for us. She didn’t think Jolene was going to take us and disappear. She made her leave the property because she found out that Jolene gave away the other baby. She was pissed. She cried for us, Wyatt.”
My brother was quiet for a long time and when he finally spoke his voice held quiet fury in it. “She could’ve done more. I know she tried to help, but before you came along, it was just me and Jolene. I was alone so much . . .” He trailed off, and I heard him swear under his breath. “Besides, I can only imagine if she found out I was not only a federal agent, but a gay federal agent. She would have a heart attack.”
I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me. “She asked about you. I told her you went into law enforcement and she already seemed to know about you liking dick. She wasn’t even slightly fazed by it. Though she was properly disappointed you decided to become a civil servant. She’s nothing like Jolene. I’ve been trying to stop myself from wondering how things might’ve been for us back then if she’d gotten her hands on us before Jolene bolted, what it would be like if she’d managed to find our brother and bring him home?”
“We don’t get a redo. All we can do is make the most of what we’ve got now. We’ve always had each other, and it was enough. Now you have Ten, which is even better. You’ve always needed someone strong enough to hold you in place. I was terrified if I tried to hold you still, you’d resent me, accuse me of trying to control your life, so I always let you go.” Wyatt sounded slightly guilty about the fact he’d never been the one to put a leash on me, when in reality, it was the best decision he ever made. I would’ve chewed my own arm off back then to get away when the walls started closing in on me.
“We deserve a redo though. I’m okay with where we ended up, but it’s okay to want more than what we were given. I told Aunt Clara we turned out all right despite Jolene’s best attempts to ruin us, and it’s true. I told her I would try and get you to visit when I have time to come back. You need to consider it. I think you need some kind of closure. I think you need to see we have a family, something you’ve always wanted.”
Wyatt made a rude noise, and I heard sheets rustling and the sound of something heavy hitting glass. I would almost bet he was putting his gun and badge on the glass nightstand next to his bed. “I want a family, but I never said it needed to be our family.”
“Making peace with our family might help you get some much-needed perspective on what you need to start your own.” Wyatt wasn’t as open with the details of his love life as I was, but I knew he had issues with commitment and found every man he was with lacking in some fundamental way. He was searching for perfect, a recreation of that teenaged boy who vanished when Jolene shattered his world. His plan was bound to fail because perfect didn’t exist. I’d asked him once if he set his standards so high because he knew no normal person could reach them, assuring that he remained alone. He told me he wasn’t going to waste his time on a man not willing to reach for the stars.
“I’m too tired to fight with you about this. I’ll think about it, which is more than I ever thought I’d be willing to do. I need to catch a few Zs. I have a briefing for a new case in the morning. Where are you off to next?” He let out a jaw-popping yawn, which made me respond in kind.
“We’re headed back to Wyoming. I’m sick of chasing my tail. I have no idea where to look for this guy, no one even knows his damn name. Jolene is MIA. Bernard is useless even if his statement about knowing there were twins will get the FBI off my ass for now. If my twin wants me, he knows where to find me, which is why we think he targeted banks in that region in the first place. I’m gonna stay in town for a few weeks and see what happens. I don’t want to bring any more drama to Cy’s doorstep. He’d shit a brick if I put Leo in danger on purpose.” Plus, I was ready to go home. I’d never had one before, so I had no idea I would miss it as much as I did.
“Be careful. When you get back to Sheridan, talk to that sheriff and let him know trouble might be headed his way.” The command was heavy handed, but there was something else in my brother’s voice I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
“That sheriff has a name. I thought all you guys with badges respected each other without question.” I was teasing him, but I was starting to wonder if there was more to Wyatt’s animosity than he let on.
“Goodnight, Webb.” The terse farewell was followed by silence, letting me know he’d ended the call.
I laid in the dark for a while, thoughts swirling, nerves stretched taut. Eventually, I hauled my ass up and made my way into the shower. Messy sex in the swamp, and stress sweat
on top of the natural mugginess of the South, had left me feeling grungy and sticky. It wasn’t until I was washing the day away that I realized I needed to be clean because I didn’t want to crawl in bed with Ten smelling like something that escaped out of a sewer. I didn’t want to be alone. Not just for tonight, but for all the nights in the foreseeable future.
I wanted someone to hold me in the dark and tell me the monsters didn’t matter. I wanted a warm body pressed against mine, and the sound of someone else’s heart beating in my ears.
I wanted Ten.
When I was clean, I wrapped a towel around my waist and padded over to the adjoining door. I knocked and waited for a response from the other side. When a soft, “Come in,” hit my ears, I slipped into Ten’s room, zeroing in on the bed and the woman in the center of it. She had the lights off, and she was under the covers, but I could see she had her eyes open, and my gaze lingered where she had one bare leg sticking out of the fabric. The phone in her hands cast her face in a pale blue glow.
Without saying anything, I walked to the other side of the bed, dropped the towel, and crawled in next to her. Naked skin pressed against naked skin as I pulled her into my body. One of her arms went around my neck as I nuzzled down into the curve of her shoulder.
“How did it go?” Her lips touched my temple as I traced random patterns on her flat stomach with my index finger.
“It went. He’s stubborn, and he had to deal with a lot worse from Jolene than I did. I hate that he carries so much hurt around with him.” I let myself sink into her warmth and sighed in contentment when I felt her knee press between my legs. “I told him we were on the way back to Wyoming tomorrow. I’ve missed it, and I want to know what happens once we get back.”
She hummed a little and rubbed her nose along the outside of my ear. The light contact sent shivers throughout my body. “I thought we agreed to let your brother make the next move. This is his game, and we don’t have a rulebook.”
Runaround Page 14
