Chapter Thirty-Five
Brady
Nora’s voice was raw, jagged with a panic that instantly froze the air in my lungs.
The background noise of the diner, the clinking silverware, the low murmur of customer chatter, and the steady hiss of the espresso machine didn’t just fade.
It became entirely surreal, like a movie playing on a television screen.
Elise’s hand was still laced securely through mine across the table, her fingers warm and solid, but my entire body went rigid.
A physical shudder hit my spine, locking my chest before I could draw a full breath.
For weeks, I’d treated this entire trip like some strange, sun-drenched adventure.
I’d been playing cards with seniors, guiding burros off the blacktop, and tracking down a mystery, all while my real life was left completely unguarded.
“He went out early to check on the horses,” Nora said, the words tumbling out of her in a frantic, terrifying rush.
“He never came back to the house, Brady. That’s not like him, he always comes right back.
Tim found his phone tossed on the side of the driveway.
There are . . . God, there are signs of a violent struggle inside the main barn. There’s blood on the hay.”
A fractured, breathless sob broke through the speaker, tearing straight through my chest. She took a rattling breath before adding, “Tim has every police officer in the county looking. Laurent and Harper are already organizing search sweeps on horseback through the timber lines. Your dad’s got his chopper up in the air right now and he’s calling in every contact he possesses.
Drew is doing the same. So far, we’ve kept it out of the national news, but Tim told me point-blank that the barn looks like a crime scene. ”
I swallowed hard against a sudden, violent surge of nausea. “Do we have any idea who did this, Nora?”
“No,” she whispered, her voice trembling under the weight of the unknown. “Absolutely no one has a grudge against Evan. Unless . . . Brady, did you uncover anything out in Nevada that could be related to this? Bella said you hadn’t found anything worthwhile, but is there anything we need to know?”
My eyes lifted, slamming into Elise’s across the table. We didn’t say the name out loud. We didn’t have to. Thomas Steele sat between us anyway, heavy as a third person crowding the vinyl booth.
Was her father capable of this? He hated my family. From the paperwork we’d found, he certainly had a reason to. But this? Evan had nothing to do with what happened thirty years ago.
The thought clawed at my ribs. This was my fault.
I’d spent days trusting my gut, withholding critical pieces from my family because I thought I could feel my way through this mess better if I had more time.
More time to understand Thomas. More time with Elise.
More time watching those guarded, beautiful dark eyes soften for me.
While I was busy being charmed, someone had drawn a crosshair on my brother’s back.
But was that someone Thomas Steele?
“I don’t think so.” I forced my voice to come out steady, because Nora needed an anchor, and the static in my own chest didn’t matter right now. “I’ll be there as fast as humanly possible, Nora. I’m still in Nevada, but consider me on my way.”
“When you get here, Cookies and Coffee is what everyone is using as home base,” Nora said, actively fighting to regain her operational control.
“Understood. Hang in there, Nora. We’ll find him.”
I ended the call. A deep, familiar ache settled into my ribs.
My family was already tearing the valley apart looking for Evan—without me.
They were still trying to protect the youngest brother.
Or maybe they thought I wouldn’t be of much use when things turned brutal.
Both possibilities stung, but I shook those negative thoughts off. Evan was all that mattered.
Elise was already typing into her device, her face entirely devoid of color but her expression perfectly focused.
Her thumbs flew across the glass. “A private transport jet is being diverted to the closest private airfield right now,” she said, her voice dropping into that clinical, high-stakes cadence I’d heard her use at the compound.
“They’re requesting clearance for a direct flight to New Hampshire, with a private helicopter transfer on standby at the tarmac to drop you straight into town.
It is the absolute fastest logistical route available. ”
I stared at her across the table, completely stunned by the sheer speed and accuracy of her response. Had I mentioned Mabel’s to her during our late-night conversations? Maybe. “You have the address?”
She paused for a fraction of a second, giving me a soft, fiercely protective look that held zero apology. “Of course I do. I unindexed your entire family’s network the night we met, Brady. I know everything.” Her breath caught, her voice dropping an octave. “As I’m sure my father does.”
The statement hit hard. She was looking at the exact same variables I was, weighing whether her father had crossed the line into violence. “Do you think—?”
“I have no idea,” she answered in a husky voice.
The fact that she didn’t try to soften that answer or offer a hollow reassurance sent a chill straight down my back.
I threw a generous amount of cash onto the table.
We bolted out of the diner and sprinted toward the car, the dry desert heat hitting us like a physical insult.
I tore into the parking lot of her apartment building, the tires kicking up dust, and we sat there for a brief, heavy moment while the engine idled.
There was nothing inside that building I needed. Beyond her.
“It’s all set,” she said, her breathing shallow but controlled. She shared the coordinates of the nearby private airport.
I didn’t want to leave her behind in Nevada, but I couldn’t stay. “Elise . . .”
“Yes?”
The survival instinct my father had drilled into us tried to spark. Don’t do it. Until you have more information, the less she knows the safer Evan might be.
I swallowed hard, looking at her profile. The taste of her was still on my lips. The memory of every inch of her skin was still seared into my brain.
She couldn’t be involved. There would have been signs. I was a good judge of people and situations. I would have known.
Her father was bitter, but if he wanted to hunt my family, surely he would have come for them decades ago?
Unless my presence had triggered the response. This was the first time his daughter was fraternizing with the son of a man he hated. Had my relationship with Elise pushed Thomas over the edge? “I shouldn’t want you to, but . . .”
“Yes. I’ll go with you.”
If her father was truly capable of harming Evan to execute a thirty-year-old grudge, I couldn’t leave Elise vulnerable on his home turf. If she had broken from him to stand with me, he might turn his security apparatus against her next. I couldn’t risk her safety.
Then she hesitated, her eyes searching mine as if she were testing a fragile, narrowing boundary. “Unless you think having me there will make things harder.”
I almost laughed at the brutal irony of it. Of course it would make things harder. For countless reasons. The simplest one being that I couldn’t be honest with my family about who she was, not while my brother was bleeding somewhere in the timber lines.
Hi, everyone. Fun fact, this is Thomas Steele’s daughter and he may or may not be involved in what happened to Evan, but, anyhoo, we’re dating, so I thought I should bring her along.
“There’s not a part of this that will be easy, but . . .” I chose my next words carefully, forcing my jaw to set. Voicing my doubts wouldn’t locate my brother. I needed to focus on the reality in front of me. “I want you with me.”
And that was the hardest truth to face. Despite the ugly possibilities spinning through my head, by my side was exactly where I wanted her.
She gave a single, decisive nod. “Give me two minutes. I’ll grab an overnight bag from upstairs. Keep the engine running.”
She was back in a heartbeat, throwing a small duffel into the backseat before sliding back into the passenger side. As I gunned the engine and tore out toward the private airfield, she resumed her frantic typing against the screen.
“Keaton will know I am leaving the state,” she murmured, her lips pressing into a hard, defensive line. “I’m letting him track my departure, but I’m not disclosing the emergency about Evan.”
“You’re testing him?” I asked, weaving the Chevy through the heavy highway traffic.
“I have to,” she said, her voice dropping to a near whisper that barely carried over the roar of the road. “I want to believe my family isn’t capable of this, but I don’t know.”
God, this is complicated.
A second later, her phone chimed with an incoming high-priority alert. She read the glass, letting out a small breath.
“What is it?” I asked.
She typed a response with clinical speed before answering me. “Do you know who Dominic Corisi is?”
“Of course. Everyone does.”
If the country had an elite class that operated completely outside the law, the Corisis sat at the absolute peak of the pyramid.
Dominic Corisi wasn’t a corporate executive; he was a phantom who wielded enough power to topple an infrastructure and enough leverage to ensure his name never hit a news feed.
He was a man without visible enemies because the people who stood against him didn’t remain standing for long.
I remembered my father once referring to him as one of the most dangerously influential assets on the planet.
“Why?” I added, feeling a sudden, dizzying spike of disorientation. Was it possible my family had tangled with a network that deep? Bella knew better than to cross lines with someone like Corisi. Did Evan? If he had, I’d probably get myself killed trying to find him.
No. Stop it. Evan isn’t dead. He’s hurt. Or he’s hiding.
Or the blood in the barn isn’t his.