He strode into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to find something for dinner.
Eliza entered the kitchen, taking a seat at the island.
Selecting some thawed chicken breasts, he retrieved a pan and put some oil into it, flipping on the gas burner. Then he went about chopping up the chicken to make a stir-fry. Cooking would give him something to do with Eliza so close. And inquisitive.
“Was he abusive?” she asked him again.
He stopped cutting the chicken to look at her. She’d asked the question, but she sounded as though she already knew the answer.
“He was, wasn’t he?”
“Leave it alone, Eliza.”
“It’s me, Brandon. I’ve known you a long time. I remember all the days you missed in school. You wouldn’t talk about it. You still won’t. I didn’t piece it together then, but now...”
Now she was a grown woman and she could see things much clearer. There was a reason for his bad-boy persona during school. “Some things are better left unsaid.”
“Not something like that.”
Her eyes misted. David had died with his secret. Brandon still had a chance to free himself of his. He could feel her thinking that. She was backing him into a corner.
“Leave it be, Eliza,” he said more sternly.
“Did he beat you before your mother died?”
No. Her death had spawned the hell he and his brother had lived through until Brandon was able to send their father where he belonged. The change in their father had been startling. He’d always been a drunk, but not an abusive one. A week of surreal grief had passed after Brandon’s mother died. He and David had helped their dad plan the funeral. They’d received condolences from everyone in town. And then they’d gone home to the emptiness.
One night when his father was well into his bottle of whiskey, he’d flown into a rage and gone after David first.
“You did this!” he’d roared. “You drove her to her grave, you sniveling brats!”
The quicksilver violence had stunned Brandon. He’d watched in terror as his father beat David. After the third or fourth blow, he’d regained his senses and stepped between them. He’d tried to stop his father, and when he’d become the next punching bag, he’d struck back. At nine, he was hardly a match.
He and David had missed a week of school that time.
Eliza moved the burning chicken from the stove and turned it off. She put her hand on his shoulder, eyes soft and warm, ready to comfort.
That was what he always hated. Women who thought they could make it better. While no other woman had guessed the abuse he and David had suffered, some of them had tried.
“You need to talk about it, Brandon. If not with me, then someone.”
That was awfully selfless of her. If only she understood all of it.
After that night, Brandon had protected David as much as he could. There were times when their father’s unpredictable temper had been unleashed on David. It had been enough to push his little brother into a vulnerable shell, one some kids at school picked up on. David had been teased a lot. The wimpy kid of Vengeance High. More than once, Brandon had beaten the lunch out of boys who had dared to taunt him. He’d gained a bad-boy reputation. David had become a shadow of his older brother. He didn’t have many friends. But it had soon been established that anyone who touched him would have Brandon to deal with. And Brandon had no qualms about doing some damage to any boy’s face who tried to hurt his brother.
It had led to the use of the same method with his father. At sixteen, Brandon had grown into a big kid with a crackling voice. He’d honed his fighting skills. On one rainy night, his father was working on his usual indulgence of whiskey and in a particularly foul mood. Brandon had gotten good at flying below that radar and had trained his brother to do the same. Stay in Brandon’s shadow.
Except that night David hadn’t listened. He’d yelled back at their father’s insidious remarks, the blame for their mother’s death, the hatred he harbored for his own sons—all of it David had rebuked.
His father had attacked him in a vicious rage. It had spurred one in Brandon. Such a fast reaction. One second he’d been calm, the next a mad animal. He’d beaten his own father. Even to this day he couldn’t recall every detail. So blinded by fury, he’d let go of every fiber of control. Let anger take over.
That time it had been his father who couldn’t leave the house. The next two years were a new form of torture. Brandon had to constantly look over his shoulder. And every chance he got, his father beat David. He couldn’t beat Brandon anymore, but he could beat the life out of David. Brandon couldn’t be there every time to save him. But he retaliated every time David’s face was battered and bruised. He made sure his father’s face looked the same. But that had only made the beatings worse. Brandon worried he’d kill David. That’s when he began looking for ways to send his dad to prison. Luck went his way. Or maybe luck had nothing to do with it. Jack Reed was a felon who’d managed to avoid arrest. All it took was someone to watch him. Brandon had watched for only a few months before the hit-and-run.
But the damage was already done. David was a shell of a man, and Brandon had grown up learning how to fight. Using violence to right a wrong. He wasn’t proud of that.
“Brandon?”
Eliza still stood close to him, her hand on his arm.
“David never escaped it,” he said without thinking.
“The abuse?”
“He suffered the most.” The words kept coming. “My father wasn’t a pedophile. His was a crime of hate. He beat us repeatedly because he blamed us for our mother’s suicide.”
“Oh, Brandon.”
Her sympathy made him nearly cringe. He couldn’t stand sympathy.
As though sensing that, she lowered her arm. “I always knew there was something he wasn’t telling me. And he looked up to you so much. And then...not.”
Living in his shadow...
“He was jealous of you.”
That was painful to hear. He leaned both hands on the stove’s edge and bent his head. Although the truth had always been there, having it voiced made it undeniable.
“You were always taking care of him. And people didn’t see him when you were in the room,” she said, making it worse.
That’s because they were afraid of him. He turned his head to see her. “I had a reputation.”
“You protected him. You weren’t a bully. I was there, remember? Don’t make it something it wasn’t.”
His heart lightened unexpectedly. Had she really seen it that way? Had everyone else? He straightened from the stove and faced her.
“You were a superhero.”
He breathed a derisive laugh. “That’s a little much.”
“Most kids revered you. They cheered you on when you beat up a bully.”
Brandon hadn’t noticed any of that. He’d been too wrapped up in anger that anyone would try to harm his brother.
“If you hadn’t been such a loner, you’d have been the most popular boy in your class,” Eliza said.
What about David? She was missing that piece. David had been the helpless kid who always needed his big brother. “You said it yourself—no one saw David when I was in the room.” Including her.
He saw her remember. She’d been just as guilty of not seeing David.
“That’s what I mean when I say David never escaped. My father beat him and bullies beat him, but only when I wasn’t around. His only existence back then was as a weak kid.” One who’d grown into a handsome man who hid behind his looks and bad habits.
And then he’d come to Brandon’s ranch for a visit, only to discover Eliza had only married him to spite his older brother.
“Brandon, David wasn’t helpless. He went to college and became a very successful journalist. He was smart and kind and loving. He just had some demons in his past that he never dealt with. That’s why he made bad choices, and that’s why he isn’t here now. He isn’t here because of anything you did. If
anything, he made it as far as he did because of you.”
All flattering and whimsically optimistic. “He’s dead because he had a drinking and gambling problem. He had a drinking and gambling problem because he hated living in my shadow.”
“He was abused by his father. Not you.”
Their father had made David prey to bullies. That’s what she was saying.
“What would have happened to David if you hadn’t been there?” Eliza persisted.
He would have been beaten far worse by their dad and the bullies. Maybe their dad would have killed him. Because Brandon was certain he was capable.
“You see?” She moved a step closer to him, once again putting her hand on him, this time on his chest, and this time her other hand joined in.
There was so much more that she didn’t understand. Taking a hold of her hands, he removed them from his chest. “Talking about it isn’t going to make it go away. Or change what is.”
“No, but it will heal you. Why do you think you’re such a recluse? You haven’t stopped running from the abuse you suffered. Don’t make the same mistake David made. Don’t keep it all bottled up tight and secure from the world until it eats you alive.”
“I’m not running.” He’d never run from it. “I’m the one who sent my father to prison, remember?”
“You may think you have it all resolved in your head, but you don’t.”
“Yeah? Well, you may think you understand, but you don’t. I’ll ask you again, leave it be.”
* * *
Just when Eliza thought she had Brandon figured out, he surprised her yet again. There was more, still more to what made him the solitary man he was today. The abuse he’d suffered was one piece. His brother’s jealousy another.
She let him leave the kitchen, abandoning dinner to turn on the television in the other room.
Eliza resumed his task, salvaging the chicken and making a quick stir-fry, guessing that’s why he’d chopped the chicken. As she finished, her cell phone rang.
Going to her purse in the living room, she passed Brandon. The caller was Ryker.
Was he going to apologize for the way he’d left her the last time they’d spoken? “Hi, Ryker.”
“Eliza. I need you to come and get me.”
“Where are you?”
“I’ve been arrested.”
Chapter 8
Brandon wouldn’t let her go alone, so Eliza brought him with her despite his grumbling over being dragged into more drama. He’d gotten mad when she’d reminded him that he didn’t have to go with her. He was being protective. He’d protected his brother and protected her when they were growing up, and he was still doing it.
If only this didn’t stem from his abusive father. She was afraid of how much more he had to hide about that. How much worse could it get? He and David were beaten as children, blamed for their mother’s death. What more could there be?
The police released Ryker on bail and he emerged into the front area of the police station, where she and Brandon had been told to wait.
Ryker was a mess, his brown hair uncombed, dark circles under his green eyes.
“What happened, Ryker?” Eliza asked as they walked toward Brandon’s truck.
“Aegina moved out.” He raked his fingers through his hair, mouth an upset line.
First the affair and now this. “Did she move in with that man?”
“No. She went to stay with her mother. She said she needed time to think.” Ryker punched the side of Brandon’s truck.
Brandon grabbed his wrist, his eyes an unmistakable message to cool it.
“She won’t even talk to me.”
“Then you should give her what she wants. Time to think about it.”
“Don’t you mean time to convince herself she’s better off with my mechanic?”
“Ex-mechanic.”
He smirked at her.
“Stalking her at her mother’s house will convince her faster than anything,” Brandon said.
“Who asked you?”
Brandon put up his hands. “Just saying.”
Ryker wilted. His shoulders slumped and his head lowered.
Eliza rubbed his back a little.
“I can’t believe she moved out.”
Eliza met Brandon’s gaze, at a loss for what to say. If she said too much it would make patching things up with her brother that much harder. But the truth was he’d driven his wife away.
“Do you want to come out to the ranch for a few days?”
Ryker lifted his head, a lost man in love. “No. I want to be home in case she changes her mind.”
“What did you do to get arrested?” Eliza gently asked.
Her brother sighed and opened the back door of Brandon’s truck. She climbed into the front passenger seat.
When Brandon began driving, Ryker finally spoke. “I came home from work to a note. Her clothes are gone. All her cosmetics. Even her shampoo.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I went crazy.”
“Did you hurt her?”
“No!” he shouted. “I would never hurt Aegina. I love her. I didn’t realize how much until now.”
Until she was gone.
“I went there, and her mother said Aegina didn’t want to talk to me. She said to give her time to think.
“I forced my way inside and found her in the kitchen at the table. I pulled her up by her arms and pleaded with her to come back home. When she refused, I started yelling. I wanted her to come back home.”
“Her mother called the police?” Eliza asked, and Ryker nodded, head low again.
“Stay away from her,” Brandon said.
And Eliza wondered over the hint of passion in his voice.
“I can’t,” Ryker said meekly. “I have to convince her that I love her and I always have.”
Eliza was glad to hear that he was finally coming to terms with his bitterness over being stuck in Vengeance. He’d never been stuck.
“You’ve had what I always dreamed of having, Ryker.”
She said it without thinking. Brandon’s sharp glance made her realize that.
“You have what you want,” Ryker said.
“My event planning company? Yeah, I have that. But I don’t have a family. I don’t have two beautiful children and a husband who loves me.”
“You did have that. A husband, I mean.”
Until David died.
Turning toward the window, she said, “No, I didn’t.”
Silence in the backseat told her Ryker was thinking about that. “You and Brandon should have stuck it out.”
“We were just kids,” Brandon spoke up.
“None of this would be happening if you had.”
Brandon’s eyes shifted to look into the rearview mirror.
David wouldn’t be dead and Aegina wouldn’t have left Ryker. Ryker wouldn’t have resented Eliza and she wouldn’t have married David.
“You can’t be certain of that,” Eliza argued. “I would have left Vengeance with or without Brandon.”
“Another reason why you and I would have never worked.”
Not back then. Now...? Eliza would be better off never having that question answered.
* * *
When she and Brandon returned to Reed Ranch, someone was waiting for them. Jillian. She was returning to her car just as Brandon drove over the hill on his long driveway. Going on nine at night, it was late for a social visit.
Eliza approached behind Brandon and caught Jillian’s unwelcoming glance. She was in tight jeans and a deep V-neck tank top, her dark hair silky and falling onto the bare skin of her chest. But it was her beautiful blue eyes that chilled her, so full of animosity, leashed but ready to break loose.
“I tried calling,” Jillian said. “I came by to tell you how sorry I am to hear about David.”
“Thanks, Jillian.”
“If there’s anything I can do...”
“I appreciate the thought, but there really isn’t anything anyone can do. Eliza and I
will handle it.”
Jillian’s gaze slid briefly to Eliza. “When is the funeral?”
“We’re waiting for the body to be released for burial.”
“Will you tell me when it is? I’d like to help in any way I can.”
“Sure. I’ll make sure someone lets you know.”
Instantly, Eliza saw how that remark chafed her. Jillian’s back jerked ever so slightly, stiffening. She stared at Brandon. Then she glanced furtively at Eliza.
Brandon strode toward the door, clearly ready to leave Jillian standing there.
Eliza looked at Jillian, whose dangerous eyes held a clear threat.
Brandon slammed the front door shut behind him.
Damn him for leaving her to get rid of Jillian on her own. “I—I’m sorry. Brandon’s dealing with a lot right now.”
Jillian’s brow lifted higher on one side. “Is he now?”
This was a woman who’d hollered and pounded on the door after Brandon had broken up with her. Something warned Eliza to tread lightly. “Aside from his brother’s death, yes.”
“And he talked to you about this?”
The image of Brandon talking freely was funny in her mind. “Brandon doesn’t talk to anyone about his problems.”
“And yet he talks to you.”
Eliza smiled with an ironic laugh. “Not willingly.”
The other woman put her hand on her hip. “But you know him so well that you get him to...open up to you, is that it?”
“Well, I have known him since I was in grade school.” A cool breeze made her rub her arm. She’d like to go inside now—and yell at Brandon for doing this to her.
“Yes, I heard all about that. Didn’t he dump you in high school or something?”
Dump her... “He broke up with me, yes.”
“So, what is all this about?” She swung her arm toward the house. “What’s going on between the two of you?”
“Nothing.” Eliza felt her face begin to heat.
“Yeah...it looks like nothing.”
A Rancher's Dangerous Affair Page 12
