“I don’t know about all that, Michelle.”
The tears started, and neither person made a move to wipe them away. “Spee’s dead because I didn’t call and tell where Grant had her,” she moaned. Brendan recalled that he hadn’t been able to call it in either. “But I only had her cell number, so I was helpless. I’m useless.”
Brendan crouched next to the bed and pulled the oily hair off her face. She’d grown a few more wrinkles since they were kids, but she still looked about the same. One time she’d fallen off a horse and broken her arm, eliciting the same tears she cried now. Brendan had consoled her then, and here he was doing so again.
“That’s not your fault.” Her sobs slowed down as she paid him some attention. “You got out there as fast as you could and tried to help them. What else could you have done?”
She nodded and sniffed wetly. A tissue box sat on a small table, so Brendan passed her a tissue to blow her nose. That done, she settled down and sighed deeply.
“Mom told me you were hanging out with Kim.”
“I was.”
“Do you like her?”
“Yes.”
“Take her away from here.” She turned her head toward his. “Promise me.”
Brendan mulled over his response before opening his mouth. “I’d like to give that a shot, but she’s pretty damn pissed about us having sex.”
“I’ll clean that up,” she said. “Just promise me you’ll take her away. She deserves more than living in Mom’s garage, and this place is dangerous now. Just because Grant’s gone, that doesn’t mean the senseless violence will just stop.”
When she tried to shift in the bed, she gasped and immediately gave up, quickly reaching for her IV button to click some morphine into her bloodstream. Brendan gently rested his hand on her shoulder as he stood up, not really knowing what kind of physical affection was needed by a gunshot victim. Out in the sandbox, dragging the wounded through a hail of gunfire was about all the touching necessary.
“Hey, Michelle—”
Brendan turned to find Kim stepping into the room. She paused at the sight of him.
“I didn’t know you’d be here.” She looked back to her sister. “I’ll just come back later. Maybe.”
She spun on her heels and made to leave.
“Stop, Kim,” Brendan said. “I’m the one who should be going.”
She regarded him coolly before very deliberately stepping farther into the room to let him out.
“This is going to sound weird, but I was drugged, and I really don’t remember it,” he said quickly, trying to squeeze all the words out before his brain kicked in to shut off the ill-advised verbal torrent.
“It?” she said. “Is that what you old people call sex now?”
Brendan took a deep breath and excused himself, hoping that Michelle could keep her promise to clean this all up. If she did, he knew he’d keep the promise he hadn’t actually agreed to yet.
Chapter 52
The phone stared him down, but Brendan didn’t feel like turning it on.
He pocketed the small device and rested his chin on his hands. The door to Michelle’s room was closed now, and presumably the sisters were engaging in one of the most difficult conversations of their lives. A bit of an unfortunate way to rekindle their relationship.
And speaking of trying relationships, Brendan hadn’t even told his parents yet that he’d killed their eldest son. That would be a fun one, he was sure.
The guard at the door nodded to Brendan. “Rough night, guy?”
Brendan leaned back in his chair, which faced Michelle’s door. “Yeah, you could say that.”
“Heard you killed your own brother.”
“That’s the rumor.” Brendan put his head back against the wall.
A nurse pushed a bed past them, prompting Brendan to slide his heels back under his seat. Once the hallway was clear, the cop spoke to him again. “Also heard you tried to save that hot DEA chick.”
“Tried.”
“Shitty.”
Brendan sighed and looked up and down the hall, searching for any kind of distraction. On cue, the latch on the door to Michelle’s room clicked and Kim appeared, tears brimming in the soft hospital lights. Brendan had barely stood up before she strode and grabbed him in a tight hug. He returned the gesture uneasily, not entirely sure what was going on.
“Is Michelle okay?”
“Yeah, she’s fine.” Kim sniffed against his shoulder. “Thanks to you.”
“It was nothing.” He moved his lips close to her ear. “Are things going to be okay between you two?”
Kim didn’t answer immediately, but then said, “It’ll take time, but I think it’ll be okay. Eventually.”
“Are things going to be okay between us?”
“Michelle told me the details of your—” She searched for the right word, shooting a sideways glance to the guard. “Encounter.”
“Not my proudest moment,” Brendan said as Kim broke their embrace.
“It’s totally gross and weird that Michelle did that to you, but she said Grant forced her into it to blackmail you, or something like that?”
“Something like that.”
“It’s not like I expect you to be a virgin or anything.” Kim ran a hand through her hair. “I mean, we’re not in high school anymore.”
“No, we’re not,” Brendan mumbled, arguing internally over the merits in sharing the exact details as he knew them. No smart couple ever shared every little secret, right? Was it worth trying to explain that Grant had wanted Michelle to totally fake it, in order to guilt Brendan into leaving Shallow Creek? With Grant dead, he was a good enough scapegoat, at least for now.
Another thought popped into his head. He asked Kim to stay out in the hall for a second while he went in to see her sister really quick. Once by her side, he gently roused her from a shallow sleep.
“Hey, when you ran out of the diner crying and those assholes jumped us, did you and Grant set that whole thing up, too?”
She immediately burst into tears again. “I’m so sorry.” She grabbed onto the bottom of his shirt. “Grant promised you’d leave if you got beat up. He told me he wouldn’t have to kill you then.”
“Nothing like brotherly love, huh?” a voice said from behind.
Brendan turned to find Special Agent in Charge Norman lurking in the entryway to Michelle’s room. Michelle’s grip on the front of Brendan’s shirt slackened, and then she finally withdrew completely.
Norman scowled, as usual. “We need to talk. Now.”
Chapter 53
Brendan and Norman stood in the doorway to Michelle’s room. Kim slid past both of them and took a seat on the far side of her sister’s bed. Brendan kept an eye on the pair as they chatted quietly.
“What are you doing here?” he asked the agent.
“I was visiting Tyson again,” Norman said. “Docs are still trying to work out how to fix his face after the beating your brother gave him.”
The tone riding through Norman’s words reeked of blame towards Brendan, but he ignored it. His brother had battered one agent and killed another, and Brendan made an easy target. He tried to divert the conversation.
“I’m sorry about Spee.”
“Nothing you could’ve done.” Norman’s tone indicated otherwise.
So much for diverting the conversation. Brendan took a different tack. “How did you find us out on the road anyway?”
“Because we bugged their phone,” Norman said plainly. “If you’d given a better description of the location, we could’ve arrived earlier.”
And saved Agent Spee. Those words didn’t need to be said for Brendan to hear them. At least he now had a clearer idea of why Norman blamed him so much for what had happened.