Page 12

Chapter

Eleven

TARA

W e are halfway through the drive to Reed’s when my phone rings.

I answer it instantly.

“What’s going on?”

“They got the fire out and were able to save half of the house. Ava, Jackson, and I are headed to Ricco’s house. Vance is pulling the security cameras as we speak. Whoever did this won’t get away with it,” Elio says.

“That’s good. We just got done with our meeting with Lilly. We are heading to my brother’s house. Unless you need us,” I say, hating that I’m not there to help them and that I caused all this to happen.

“No, we got this, but Tara…” The car falls silent, and pressure increases behind my eyes.

He doesn’t need to finish his sentence because I know what he is about to say.

“Be safe.” I finish for him.

“I promise I will be. I’ll be home as soon as I put an end to this.”

“Love you,” Elio says, and then the line goes dead.

I sit back in the seat and focus all my attention out the window, fighting the tears making the trees wobbly.

This whole mess has gotten more dangerous and complicated.

I never thought it would be easy, but I didn’t want this.

The plan was to make sure that no one else got dragged into the middle.

But yet here we are.

Elio might be able to hold his own and have people around to protect him, but I still don’t like this.

Thankfully, Gabe has the smarts to stay quiet and let me deal with my emotions alone.

I need to end this now before anything else happens.

The pressure builds inside my chest, constricting my lungs and making it difficult to breathe.

I know what I need to do.

Sighing, I unlock my phone and find the name I’m looking for.

I don’t disconnect the phone from the radio.

Once it starts to ring, I feel Gabe’s eyes on me without having to look.

“I don’t have anything—” Vance starts, but I cut him off.

“Find him,” I say, the words coming out weaker than I wanted them to.

“You sure?”

“This needs to end before anyone else gets pulled in. I might want to do this myself, but I will hate myself if someone I love gets hurt.” Gabe reaches over and interlaces his fingers with mine.

I squeeze his hand, drawing all the strength I need from him.

“I’m on it,” Vance says.

I don’t say anything else as I disconnect the phone call.

“You know, asking for help doesn’t mean you’re weak or incapable of doing it alone,” Gabe says.

I swallow around the lump in my throat.

“I know it’s just?—”

“What they did made you feel weak. They made you question your own strength, and by doing this all by yourself, you gained that back. But Princess, you regained your strength when you refused to give up. By continuing to live, you are taking back everything they took from you that night. You are showing them that they were wrong when they doubted you.”

With my head resting on the seat, I turn and look at Gabe.

He quickly glances at me, and I see pride, love, and understanding shining bright in his dark eyes.

Seeing that helps calm the storm inside me, and all of a sudden, exhaustion hits me.

Pulling our joined hands up, I kiss his knuckles before hugging them to my chest. My eyes close, and I sink into sleep.

“Princess.” Warm hands touch my face, push my hair back, and tuck it behind my ears.

“Just five more minutes, please,” I say, trying to turn away from Gabe so I can fall back asleep, but his hands keep me from doing that.

“I can’t. Your brother is five seconds away from ripping the door off and carrying you away from me.”

I force my eyes open, and Gabe lets me turn my head.

He’s right. Reed is standing right outside of the SUV door, staring at us.

The only thing I can register before the door is pulled open is the tears in his blue eyes.

Next thing I know, Reed’s arms are wrapped around my waist, his face is buried in my neck, and I can’t breathe, thanks to the sobs coming from deep inside me.

The day I showed up at his doorstep two years ago, I quickly concluded that my brother wasn’t one to show his emotions easily.

But I’m seeing a completely different side of him now.

I’m not sure what to say, so I keep my mouth shut and just hold him with all my strength.

I feel Gabe behind me, but he never moves to touch me.

I think he knows that Reed and I need this moment—this moment of just holding onto each other and reassuring ourselves that I’m here and this isn’t a dream.

There is a lot that we need to talk about, but it can wait a few more minutes.

The moment is broken when a little voice floats across the open space.

“Is Daddy okay?”

I look up and see a woman standing by the open front door with two little boys right beside her.

This must be Ali, the woman who stole my brother’s heart.

She is beautiful, and I easily see why Reed didn’t stand a chance when it came to falling for her.

My eyes go to the two boys, and they are the most adorable toddlers I’ve ever seen.

Their green eyes pull me in, and I just want to squish their chubby cheeks together while telling them how cute they are.

“Yes, Daddy is okay. He’s just really happy that his sister is here,” Ali says before offering me a huge smile.

Reed finally pulls back, but not before he kisses my forehead and lets out a long, loud sigh.

“Come meet my Ali and our boys.”

Gabe steps up beside me and wraps his arm around my shoulders.

We follow behind Reed, and I marvel at the sight of my big, strong, sometimes scary brother crumbling when he gets close to his little family.

He drops down, opens his arms, and catches the boys with ease.

He stands up with one on each hip and bends down to press a very inappropriate kiss to Ali’s lips.

He turns around and introduces me.

He raises the little boy on his left.

“Tara, this is Jacob.” Then he does the same with the other one.

“This is Caleb. And this…” He looks down lovingly at Ali and says, “This is Ali. Everyone, this is my little sister Tara.”

“Nice to finally meet you, Tara,” Ali says, offering me that huge smile again.

She turns to Jacob and Caleb.

“Boys, can you say hi, Aunt Tara.”

Caleb turns and buries his head into Reed’s neck, but Jacob stares me down.

“Hi, Aunt Tara,” he tries to say, and even though it doesn’t come out completely correct, it melts my heart to hear his acceptance of me.

“Sorry about Caleb?—”

I raise my hand to stop Ali and say, “No need to apologize. He doesn’t know me, but that’s okay. We have plenty of time to get to know each other and become best friends.”

“That you do,” Gabe says, leaning over and kissing my cheek.

He turns toward Reed, and something passes between them.

“Ali, will you take the boys?—”

“We have plans to go see Grandmama anyways.” Ali takes the boys from Reed and heads toward Reed’s truck.

After she gets them in their seats, she turns back toward me.

“I’m glad you are back, Tara, and I’m sorry about what you went through. If you ever need someone to talk to… Well, I’m here for you.”

There is something in her gaze that says she knows exactly what I went through and that she also went through it.

“Thank you,” I say, hoping that I’m wrong.

I don’t want anyone going through what I did.

No one deserves to have that happen to them.

Reed clears his throat, and when I finally look back at him, he motions for us to follow him.

No one says anything until we are in his office.

Gabe looks at me, and I know he is going to let me tell this story.

So I do, I tell Reed everything over the next thirty minutes.

The air in the room turns colder and thicker as I talk, but I don’t stop.

Once I’ve run out of things to say, Gabe starts talking about a family that Reed’s company helped cross back into the country from Mexico.

Reed slams his hands on his desk.

“Are you saying that we helped the person who hurt Tara and tried to hurt Ali?”

“I’m pretty sure we did,” Gabe answers, and I hear the rage in his words.

I hold up my hand toward Reed, who is literally vibrating with anger.

“Neither of you knew what he would turn out to be. Not one single person can predict the future. None of this is on you, me, or Ali. All of this lays solely on their shoulders.”

“But—”

I push out of the chair, slap my hands on Reed’s desk, and lean in close, getting right in Reed’s face.

“There are no buts older brother. You will not take any responsibility for this. You are only responsible for not answering my call that night. That is the only role you played in this outcome.”

I watch the anger in his eyes fade, his shoulders slump, and regret consume him.

The last thing I want to do is hurt him, but I need answers.

I’ve wondered why he never answered my calls for the past year.

Before that night, every single time I called, he picked up.

Even if he was in the middle of a case, he answered.

Sometimes, he told me he couldn’t talk and that he would call me back, but he answered.

“Shit Tara. I’ve spent all night and today trying to figure out why I didn’t answer.” He runs his hands over his face before dropping back down into his seat.

“I remember everything from that night and the following day. The moment Gabe called me saying you never came home is burned into my memories, but I don’t remember you calling that night. I was with a woman I had been hooking up with for a few weeks, but I would have answered if you called. You know that, but…”

“Princess, when you called, did it go straight to voicemail or ring?” Gabe asks.

I shut my eyes, and my head drops down.

“The first time, it rang and rang, but the second time, it was straight to voicemail.”

“Could it be possible that the woman silenced your phone and then turned it off?” Gabe wraps his hand around my arm and pulls me until my legs hit his knees.

I allow him to pull me down onto his lap.

Reed sighs before answering us.

“Maybe. We had a few drinks before getting started that night. My phone was off the next morning, but I thought it had died throughout the night. I plugged it in, then jumped in the shower. Right after I got out, you started blowing it up, and then all I could focus on was finding Tara.” Reed pushes out of his chair, rounds his desk, and squats in front of me.

“It doesn’t matter what happened, though. Tara, I’m so fucking sorry that I wasn’t there for you. I will never be able to take back what happened, but I can make sure that I’m there for you from here on out. Could you ever forgive me?”

Tears stream down my face, and Gabe wraps his arms around my waist, hugging me tightly.

I wipe the tears away before framing Reed’s face.

“I forgave you the moment I woke up in Elio's home. I held onto the anger to protect me from getting hurt anymore. That night, I was afraid that you?—”

“Don’t finish that fucking sentence, Tara,” Reed growls and lays his hands over mine, pushing them into his face. “You’re my fucking sister. My blood. There is nothing you could do that would make me turn my back on you. I will willingly give my life for you and not think twice about it. I will and have taken someone else’s life for you. I love you. You are stuck with me for the rest of your life.”

I wrap my arms around Reed’s neck and pull him closer. We stay like this, holding onto each other while Gabe holds me for a while. Once the tears have subsided, I release Reed. “Now that all of that is done with. Let’s find this motherfucker so I can finally move on,” I say.