He rolled out of bed onto his bare feet and stepped out of the bedroom into the adjoining living room just as the person switched on the lamp by the couch, illuminating none other than Zach Marshall. Joel came to a stop, and from across the room Zach stared at him, his chin lifting belligerently, as if anticipating some kind of confrontation or fight.
Joel's first thought was that his friend looked like shit. His dark brown hair was even longer than Joel's had been before his haircut, and the strands were dripping wet and tangled around his head, as if he hadn't bothered to run a comb through his hair in days. His eyes were dull, and what he could see of Zach's unshaven face was pale and gaunt.
Then there was the black and blue bruise ringing his swollen left eye and the fresh cut on his lower lip that added to his unkempt appearance. He was wearing a long, tan trench-like coat that was old, worn, and dirty, and Joel noticed that his left hand and arm were plastered in a cast. He knew without asking that Zach's broken arm and his messed-up face were courtesy of the men who wanted their money from him. And those were just the injuries that he could see. There was no telling what else they'd done to Zach over the past few weeks.
As much as Joel hated seeing Zach in such a sorry state, he wasn't about to pity the other man, or let him off easy. No, Zach had gotten himself into this predicament, and he needed to pull his head out of his ass before he completely flushed his life down the toilet.
"Nice of you to make it," Joel said dryly.
The corner of Zach's lip curled into a bitter smile. "Better late than never, huh, Wilde Man?"
Before Joel could reply to that snide remark, Lora came out of the bedroom behind him, obviously having heard the exchange and recognizing her brother's voice. She came to an abrupt stop next to Joel, her hand fluttering anxiously to her throat.
"Oh my God, Zach?" she asked, her voice trembling with shock, "Is that you?"
Zach's narrowed gaze traveled from Joel, to Lora, then back to Joel again in a heated and furious stare. Too late, Joel realized how the situation looked from Zach's perspective… with his sister walking out of the same bedroom Joel had, and her wearing one of his black T-shirts and her legs bare, while he was in nothing more than his boxer briefs.
The next time Zach looked at Lora, he managed a small smile meant solely for her. "Yeah, it's me." He spread his arms out in front of him. "In the flesh, big sister."
"Oh, Zach," she breathed, obviously still stunned to see him. After a moment, she rushed across the room to give her brother a hug.
Zach returned the embrace, though he still glared at Joel over Lora's shoulder. Joel crossed his arms over his chest and remained where he was, deciding to let brother and sister handle this reunion on their own and without any interference from him.
"It's been forever, and I've been so worried about you, and…" Lora pulled back and glanced from his drenched hair and coat to her own damp T-shirt, and frowned. "You're all wet."
"Yeah, well, there just happens to be a rainstorm out there," he drawled, the beginnings of sarcasm lacing his tone.
"And your face…" She swallowed hard and reached up to touch his discolored cheek.
Zach flinched away before she could make contact. "I'm fine, Lora. Stop fussing over me."
"You're far from fine," she argued, a hint of anger creeping into her voice. "You've got a black eye, a split lip, and your arm is in a cast. And you've been drinking. I can smell the alcohol on your breath."
Zach's lips thinned, and his own temper flared. "If I'd known you were going to reprimand me like a little kid, I never would have shown up."
Now that her initial surprise had ebbed, Joel could see her mind working and trying to make sense of her brother's spontaneous arrival at a cabin miles away from civilization.
She shook her head in confusion and ran her fingers through her sleep-tousled hair, which only added to the appearance that she'd spent the night in Joel's bed having hot sex. "What are you doing here, Zach?"
"What, Joel didn't tell you?" he replied mockingly.
She turned around and tipped her head, looking to Joel for answers, just as Zach had no doubt intended. "Tell me what, Joel?"
Refusing to let Zach make him into the enemy, Joel moved forward into the living room, his gaze on Lora. "Tell you that I set up a meeting for you to see Zach," he said, and went on to explain his reasons for withholding that information before Zach could twist things around to suit his own purposes. "But I didn't say anything to you because I had no idea if Zach would show up, and considering he was supposed to be here, oh, a good sixteen hours ago, I'd given up hope of that happening."
Zach clearly didn't like taking responsibility for his actions and didn't hesitate to deflect the attention off of himself. "Well, it looks like it was more than enough time to nail my sister, now wasn't it, Wilde Man?"
Joel saw that confrontation coming from the moment Lora had walked out of the bedroom behind him, but she obviously hadn't anticipated such a derogatory remark. She gasped in shock and whirled around to face her brother again.
"Zach!" The one word rang with a firm warning for him to back off. "What the hell kind of comment was that?"
"Well, it's the truth, isn't it?" Zach said, and shifted his challenging gaze back to Joel. "I asked you to protect my sister, Joel, not fuck her."
The crude remark spurred Lora into action, and before Zach realized what she intended, she'd hauled off and slapped him across the face, hard enough to make his head snap to the side. "That's enough, Zach!"
Joel couldn't help but silently applaud her bold and gutsy move. She'd just made it more than clear that she wasn't about to take any crap from her brother, and if Zach had any smarts left, he'd watch what he had to say.
Zach worked his jaw and narrowed his gaze at Lora. "Wow, nice greeting, sis."
His obnoxious attitude pissed her off even more, and it seemed like all the pent-up fear and anger toward her brother that she'd been suppressing the past few weeks finally came bubbling to the surface.
"How dare you come here and make Joel the bad guy, or make any kind of assumption about our relationship!" She punctuated her statement with a forceful finger jab to Zach's chest that made him wince. "It's none of your business what's going on between Joel and me. For that matter, I wouldn't be in this situation with Joel if it wasn't for you and your stupid, idiotic idea of using my insurance policy as collateral on a gambling loan. What were you thinking, Zach?"
The first faint signs of remorse flickered in his gaze. "I had no choice."
"That's a pile of bullshit!" she said, not letting sympathy for her brother get the best of her. Instead, she took a tough love approach that Joel admired. "Every time you put money down on a table in hopes of winning you make the wrong choice, Zach. The right choice is to walk away."
Zach's shoulders slumped in defeat, an oddity in a man who'd been trained to be strong and tenacious in any given situation. "You have no idea what it's like," he said quietly.
She exhaled a deep breath and dragged her fingers through her disheveled hair. "Look, you're here, and that's what matters," she said, her voice softening with concern. "Why don't you take a hot shower, and I'll make you something to eat, then we can talk."
Zach nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that."
Joel had been watching their exchange from the sidelines, and now addressed Zach. "Come on, I'll show you where the bathroom is and get you some dry clothes to change into."
He wasn't sure what to expect from Zach, but the other man suddenly appeared exhausted and weary, as if he just didn't have any more fight left in him. Most likely, he didn't. Zach was probably at the end of his rope and barely hanging on for his life, and his sister's.
Zach followed him down the hall to the second bedroom, where Joel first pulled on a pair of black jeans, then retrieved a shirt and a pair of pants for Zach, along with his toiletry bag, which contained shampoo, a razor, and shaving cream if Zach wanted to use any of it. After showing Zach where the bathroom was located, Joel joined Lora in the kitchen.