Chapter 39

The momenthe disengaged the deadbolt, Zeke pushed it open.

Although they were the same height, his brother had a good twenty pounds of solid muscle on him. Where Ash leaned toward Captain America, Zeke bulged like Thor.

His dark brown eyes looked almost black in the fading light and his thumb beat against his thigh like a bat’s wing, a sure sign of his agitation.

“You’ve got some explaining to do, brother.” His hand still rested on the door as if he didn’t trust his welcome.

“Now’s not a good time.”

Zeke scanned the room, stopping on Kayla’s sneakers by the sofa and her handbag hooked around the back of a dining room chair, then noting Ash’s bare feet and rumpled clothes.

“I’ll make this quick.” Zeke shouldered his way past Ash, then stood in the center of the living room, arms crossed.

Ash blew out a frustrated breath. Of all the times his brother could have picked to visit for the first time in five years, he’d chosen the day Ash had crossed a professional ethical line. “Zeke?—”

“What the hell were you meeting with Liv about?” The fury in his voice might have shaken the heavens.

Closing the door, Ash stepped into Zeke’s personal space. “Keep your voice down.”

Zeke bent close enough that Ash could’ve head-butted him into next Tuesday. “Answer the question.”

Ash hoped Kayla was making use of his shower. “I had finished an interview in Maggie Valley and took the opportunity to stop in Steele Ridge to see how my former coworker was doing.”

His brother’s nostrils flared, sensing deception. “Why now? She left the FBI months ago.”

“Which confirms my reason for stopping. My visit was long overdue. Who told you we met? Liv?”

“That answers my next question. You met at Randi’s place to avoid the Friary. Why?”

Old grievances clawed up the back of his throat. He squeezed muscles and swallowed until they returned to the pit of his stomach. “You know why.”

“Avoiding me?”

“In part.”

“Why else?”

“None of your damn business.” No way was he sharing how he felt like a stranger any time he walked into the Friary or Annex.

“My source said your convo with Liv looked serious. Did you talk to her about the issue I brought up about Kayla? The one I specifically told you to keep her out of?”

Ash slanted a look at the bedroom door he’d pulled closed, but not completely shut. He envisioned Kayla standing on the other side, listening. But he prayed she was oblivious to the volatile conversation a room away.

“We were talking about something more personal.”

That cranked his brother’s back into the upright position. “Personal to whom?”

Ash hesitated. Before Zeke’s arrival, he assumed Liv would have given her fiancé an earful about how his overprotectiveness had let their secret out of the bag. Unless she was Zeke’s source, which he doubted, Liv had kept their discussion to herself. He almost wished she hadn’t. Maybe this entire uncomfortable conversation could have been avoided.

“Ash, personal to you or Liv?”

“To you and Liv.”

Zeke stared at him for what felt like a full rotation of the sun. “Liv told you?” His voice held notes of confusion and jealousy.

“No.”

“How’d you figure it out?”

“You.”

“I didn’t fucking tell you.”

“No, you wouldn’t, would you?”

“Can you blame me?—?”

Ash held up a hand, cutting off his tirade. “I used my investigative skills. Why else would you have been acting so squirrelly and way overprotective at lunch the other day.”

“Bullshit.”

“Believe me or don’t. Doesn’t change the fact.”

Zeke scraped thick fingers through his dark brown hair. “Was she pissed at me?”

“No, bro,” Ash said. “She seemed relieved to be able to talk to someone about the baby.” He forced a smile. Not because he wasn’t happy for him, but he doubted the gesture would be welcomed or returned. “Congratulations.”

A grin split across his brother’s face, surprising Ash and revealing a set of white teeth that he hadn’t seen for way too long.

“I still can’t believe it. We’ve been dying to notify everyone. I’m sure Liv mentioned we’re waiting until the end of the first trimester, which is just a few weeks away.”

“Understandable. It’ll be great having a little Blackwell running around. With any luck, Phin, Rohan, or Cruz will produce a cousin or two pretty soon.”

Zeke’s attention strayed to the women’s sneakers next to the sofa. “What about you?” The question seemed reflexive. A ghost of the past, when banter between them was as common as breathing. As if realizing the same thing, Zeke winced. “Never mind. None of my business.”

“Well,” Ash said, “if that’s all, I need to get back to my guest?—”

The bedroom door swung open and out walked Kayla, wearing a lightweight cream sweater, skinny jeans, and brown booties.

She snagged her handbag from the chair and stopped by Ash to kiss him square on the lips. “I’ll meet you downstairs.” She eyed Zeke, a slight curve to her mouth. “Congratulations. I expect to be invited to the baby shower.”

Zeke’s gaze sliced to Ash. “You told her?”

Once again, his Bureau training kicked in, and he slammed the gate down on the flood of words bursting to be heard. But further inflaming an inferno would only lead to one thing.

Total destruction.

Unfortunately, Kayla wasn’t on the same de-escalation page.

“Pillow talk, the vessel for so many wondrous secrets.”

Fucking hell.

To his regret, the lobbyist wasn’t done. She paused at the door and aimed one more salvo at Zeke, though the hit was really meant for Ash.

“You should trust your fiancée more. Women aren’t as breakable as you seem to believe. Especially not Liv.”

Revenge delivered, she looked at Ash and the contents of his stomach curdled. The lively brown eyes he had a love-hate relationship with were blank and her breezy facade transformed into a dead calm.

“Don’t be long.” Then she was gone.

“Kayla—”

When the door clicked shut behind her, Ash braced himself for Zeke’s right hook. But the blow never came. He chanced a glance at his brother, who stared at him as if he were an ugly-ass extraterrestrial life force.

“What the actual fuck, Ash?”

Ash closed his eyes.

Kayla had been listening at the door and she’d just delivered the payback of all paybacks.

He couldn’t even blame her. The evidence of his betrayal was damning. She’d already figured out that Zeke had come to him about her alleged pay-to-play, but somehow hearing Zeke talk about it had made the whole thing feel sordid and underhanded. She didn’t know the Blackwells had asked him to intervene because of their love and concern for her.

He stared hard at the door. Why the hell did he have to complicate things by sleeping with her? Why was he vibrating with the need to go to her, to apologize, to explain his part until she forgave him?

“I asked you to talk to her, not fuck her.”

Ash surged forward, his face in Zeke’s. “Watch your damn mouth.”

Some of the flame left his brother’s eyes, and he nodded.

Ash stepped back.

“What’s going on, Ash?”

“I’ve asked myself the same question a million times.”

“Well, what’s the answer?”

He turned toward the bedroom. “Don’t have one.”

“Is this thing between you two serious?”

He retrieved his socks and shoes, then sat down on a living room chair to put them on. “Whatever it was, it’s no more, thanks to your stubborn ass.”

“Why didn’t you tell me she was in the other room?”

Ash tipped his head up just enough to shoot laser beams from his eyes straight into his brother’s thick skull.

Zeke exhaled. “Liv’s going to rip my balls off for this.”

“A little less testosterone wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

“This isn’t funny, asshat.”

“Do you see me laughing?”

Standing, he threaded his arms through his shoulder holster, tossed on his jacket, and grabbed his keys and credentials from a handwoven bowl on a table by the door.

Twisting the door handle, he motioned for his brother to precede him. “To be continued—in another five years.”

Zeke didn’t budge. “Why’d you tell Kayla”—he waved his hand in the air as if he could conjure the right words—“about all of it?”

“You’re not going to believe anything I say, so why waste energy on this?”

“Be square with me, no matter how damning, and I’ll take you at your word.”

Ash didn’t bother pointing out that he would have no way of knowing if he was being square or otherwise. “I didn’t betray your confidence, but Kayla and Liv are . . . ” Now he was the one searching for an appropriate word.

Zeke lifted a brow, waiting.

“Perceptive. They key in on the slightest anomaly, then go in for the kill and don’t stop shredding you apart until they get to the juicy marrow.”

“You caved. They put the pins to you and you sang like a soprano.”

Ash gritted his teeth, unwilling to go into the complexity of his verbal boxing sessions with Kayla and Liv. He bolted through the door. ”Lock up when you’re no longer drowning in your disappointment.”

He strode away, figuring it would be the last time his brother graced his doorstep and envisioned the small foothold he had in Zeke’s life inching back and the door closing with a solid thud.