Chapter 20 #2
“She still didn’t do casual.” Which meant he wasn’t just a one-night stand, and—maybe she shared the emotions dragging him under right now?
But he’d let himself hope once and look where it got him.
Struggling to stay afloat when he was drowning in fear and anger and loss.
She’d said she’d come back—but if she cared for him, why wouldn’t she allow him to help her?
Be there for her? “She’s been acting weird since her brother showed up in town and demanded she go home with him. She’s in trouble. I feel it.”
“What kind of trouble?” Alec countered. “If she went to see Dawson just so she could leave you a message, maybe not.”
“Alec’s right. Her brother can make all the demands he wants, but she didn’t have to go anywhere she didn’t want to,” Cole said. “Dawson said she was alone. She left on her own. That means there’s nothing you can do. And at least you know she plans to come back. That’s something.”
“Or nothing,” he muttered.
“What do you mean?” Cole asked.
“Is she coming back? Or was that just her way of getting a head start? Another lie?” Gage looked up at Cole. “Maybe she didn’t go back to Chicago at all. She could’ve just said that so everyone would think she’s on her way home—and to keep me here, but she could be heading somewhere else entirely.”
“Or she could be doing exactly what she said she’s doing,” Dawson said as he moved deeper into the building.
“Do you think her brother forced her? Kidnapped her?” Alec asked, looking murderous at the thought.
“I just told all of you that she went on her own,” Dawson said. “No one was with her. She was driving her car.”
Gage thought about the events of the night before and shook his head, knowing Dawson was right. Sloane had known she was leaving. That’s why she’d said goodbye the way she had.
“Sloane seemed clearheaded,” Dawson continued. “She was…determined. And I believe she meant it when she said she’d be back by Christmas.”
The door to the building opened again, and Noah Harrington walked inside.
Alec and Cole converged on Gage in an instant to keep him from rushing the man and pounding the answers out of him.
“Whoa. Did I come at a bad time?” Noah asked in a sardonic tone and raised an eyebrow at Gage, now being restrained.
“You,” Gage growled.
Noah’s gaze narrowed even more. “I take it my baby sister is gone.”
Gage let out a string of curses, and it took both his brothers to hold him.
“If I were you, I’d leave before they turn him loose and we all see you accidentally take a tumble into some shelving,” Dawson drawled.
Noah held up his hands and stepped back toward the door.
“You spooked her,” Gage called out. “What did you say to her? Huh? What did you say?”
Noah paused and met Gage’s gaze.
“I told her the truth. Her little runaway routine is over. Our father wants her home where she belongs, and hopefully she was finally smart enough to heed his command.”
“She was happy here. Did you threaten her?” Gage asked.
“No. But I think you already know that,” the man said. “Sloane’s obviously made her decision, and you’re not a part of it, which is why you’re having such a hard go of accepting her choice. Whatever you had with my sister is over. The sooner you deal with that, the better.”
Noah turned and stalked out of the building, and Gage stood there shaking from the force of his anger. Only after they heard the sound of a powerful engine starting and pulling away did his brothers release their tight grip. Still, they kept their hands on his shoulders in a show of support.
“If you really think she’s in trouble, I’ve got buddies I can call,” Cole said. “They can meet us in Chicago, and we’ll find out what’s going on.”
Noah’s words replayed in Gage’s head. Sloane’s obviously made her decision. You’re not a part of it. “No.”
The word emerged low and angry. Bitter. Because no matter how hard the realization was to choke down, Noah Harrington was right. “That idiot obviously didn’t know she was gone, or he wouldn’t have come to see her. She left on her own.”
Just like she’d left his bed on her own.
Just like she’d pushed him away at every turn.
Revealing only the barest number of details.
She’d kept him at arm’s length and said repeatedly that her presence was temporary.
She might not do casual, but he obviously hadn’t meant enough.
Hadn’t been important enough for her to stay.
For the first time, he acknowledged the anger boiling inside of him was directed mostly at himself.
He’d played it safe for so long. Never allowing anything to come before his work. Ending things and pushing his female companions away if they so much as hinted at wanting more.
Until Sloane.
Only he would fall for a woman who’d walk away without a backward glance. He’d given his brothers a hard time as they’d fallen in love and this—this was karma or fate or whatever other word one might use to describe the fact he was getting what he’d put out into the world for so long.
Love wasn’t controllable. He’d fallen as hard and fast as his brothers had. The only difference was that he was on the receiving end of that cold heartlessness he’d dished out so easily. “She’s gone. Time to get to work and move on like Harrington said.”
He jerked away from his brothers and turned, heading out the back of the building and stalking past the parking spot in front of the starfish where he’d first seen her that night.
First thing on the agenda was painting over that spot. Because God knew looking at it ripped his heart out even more…