Chapter Forty-Four
Brady
Going in to see Evan alone should have made it easier, but it nearly broke me. All of my attention should have been on my brother and my relief that he would be okay, but I was also worried about Elise.
Was she handling the conversation with her brother well? Was he upsetting her? I hated not being able to be there for her.
I stopped just inside the doorway.
Evan lay propped against a stack of pillows, his face swollen on one side, a nasty bruise blooming across his jaw and down his neck.
One eye was shadowed dark enough that I had to force myself not to stare.
An IV dripped into his arm. A heart monitor traced green lines across a screen.
There was medical tape on his hand and a cut near his hairline that had been cleaned and closed but still looked too angry against his skin.
He looked banged up.
Taped together.
But alive.
When he saw me, he smiled, but it came out crooked and a little pained. “Finally, you can say you’re the better-looking Holliston.”
“I’ve always said that,” I said with a half laugh then crossed the room in three strides and pulled the chair close to his bed. “You scared the hell out of us.”
“Yeah.” His voice was rough, scraped thin. “Sorry about that.”
I lowered myself into the chair before my knees could make that decision for me. The relief of seeing him awake hit me so hard my hands started shaking. I folded them together between my knees and pressed down.
Evan’s gaze dropped to them anyway. Of course it did. He was my brother. “Doc says I’m not broken,” he said. “Just . . . rearranged.”
“That’s not funny.”
“It’s a little funny.”
“Not yet.”
“Too soon?”
“Yeah.” I let out a shaky breath and looked at the floor for a second.
I had imagined this moment a hundred times on the way here, and in every version I had something useful to say.
Something steady. Something brave. Something that proved I could handle seeing my brother in a hospital bed without coming apart.
Instead, I sat there with my hands locked together, trying not to throw up.
Evan’s voice softened. “They told me you’re the reason they found me.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t want your inheritance.”
He laughed, then moaned. “Don’t make me laugh; it hurts.”
I swallowed hard.
“Hey, I know this is difficult for you,” he said.
I stared at him. “Me? You’re the one who nearly died.”
“Yeah, but I was unconscious for most of it. You weren’t.” His mouth tightened. “How are you doing?”
I didn’t know how to answer that.
Because he was being the big brother he’d always been. Thinking of me. Protecting me.
“I’m glad you’re alive,” I said.
“Yeah, me too.”
The machines kept beeping. Slow. Steady. Annoyingly calm.
I looked at the bruise on his neck, then forced myself to look at his eyes instead. “What do you remember?”
Evan stared at the ceiling for a few seconds.
“Not much.” His voice dropped, losing the thin humor. “Went out to the barn before dawn. It was dark. Cold. Horses were restless, but not like something was wrong. Just hungry. I remember thinking maybe one of them had kicked a stall panel loose.” He strained to remember more.
“You don’t have to—”
“I do.” He took another breath. “I heard something behind me. Turned. Then nothing until I woke up in the woods.”
My hands curled into fists before I could stop them.
“When I came around, I was outside. Cold ground. My head felt like someone had split it open and put it back together wrong.” His jaw worked. “What bothers me is not knowing why. They didn’t steal anything.” His face went a little pale. “They didn’t go into the house. Thank God, they didn’t.”
A cold line moved down my spine. I hadn’t thought that far down the dark possibilities. Nora.
Evan turned his head toward me. “This wasn’t random.”
I nodded once. “No.”
“Trouble’s been circling the family for a while,” he said. “We didn’t tell you about it.”
I went still. “What do you mean?”
Evan looked at the monitor for a second. Green light moved across the screen in small, obedient lines.
“Maybe Bella’s wrong,” he said. “Maybe all of it’s separate. You with the frat boys. The problems she had afterward. This.”
My stomach dropped. “I don’t understand. You’re saying the problem I had my senior year has something to do with this?”
Evan closed his eyes briefly, like the answer took energy he didn’t have much of. “Bella and Drew think it might. I don’t know. Someone has it out for us.”
I stared at him. “I don’t understand.”
“When everything went down at your school, Bella and Drew pulled in some favors and maybe that ruffled some feathers.”
“What does that mean?”
“They killed the win before it became one.”
“The win?”
Evan’s voice stayed quiet, but something hard moved through it. “If someone wanted Dad humiliated through you, Bella and Drew stopped it. That’s when trouble started for Bella. That’s why Dominic Corisi got involved. He went to The Beacon as a way to lend his support.”
I pushed a hand through my hair and looked toward the dark window. My reflection stared back at me, pale and stunned. “Why haven’t I heard anything about this?”
“Because they thought they had handled it.”
I stood because sitting had become impossible. Took two steps toward the foot of the bed. Stopped. There was nowhere to go. “By calling in favors. That’s why there was someone following me in Nevada. One of Dominic’s people. Because someone is targeting our family?”
“It sounds related. I don’t personally know Dominic, but from what Drew says he’s intense.” After a pause, he added, “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe all of this is separate. College. Bella. Me. Maybe I’m lying here seeing patterns because my head got knocked around.”
“You don’t think that.”
“No.” He swallowed. “I think this isn’t over.”
A chill moved through me. “Who’s doing this?”
“If I knew, I’d be out of this bed handling it.” Evan’s face went flat in a way that told me the answer before he gave it. “But we need to be careful with who we let close.”
I looked away.
“Brady.”
Elise wouldn’t do this.
And her father? He’d seemed surprised to see me. If he was obsessed with our family, I feel like Elise would have known who we were.
No, this was someone else.
Evan took a slow breath. “I know this is going to be hard for you, but I’m asking you to not be so open to letting people in.”
I almost laughed because he had no idea how late to the party that advice was.
“You trust people,” he said. “It’s what you do.”
My jaw tightened.
“That’s not a bad thing.” His voice softened. “In fact, it’s one of your strengths. Normally. But right now, it’s a liability.”
“Evan—”
“I’m not telling you to stop being you,” he said. “I’m saying don’t trust anyone new. Not for a while. Not unless we vet them.”
The warning hung heavy in the air.
Elise’s face came into my mind before I could stop it.
I hated that.
Not because I doubted her.
Because I didn’t. And I didn’t want to.
Trusting Elise felt good right down to the bone. But Evan was lying in a hospital bed, bruised and bandaged, and for the first time in my life, my certainty that my way was the best way wavered.
This wasn’t a game. I could not only be wrong, but dead wrong.
His lips moved faintly. “Hey, Nora said you brought someone home with you. Elise?”
“Yeah.”
“Everyone seems to like her.”
I nodded.
He made a pained face. “Tell her I’m sorry I’m not up to meeting her yet.”
“She understands.”
“Bringing her home in the middle of this mess, that’s one way to test a relationship.”
My mouth went dry. “It wasn’t a test.”
“You’ve never brought anyone to Firebrook Valley.”
“Elise is different.”
He smiled. “I’m glad you have someone and that she’s the type who walks into chaos and stays. I hear even Mom approves of her.”
“She’s pretty amazing.” I squeezed his wrist once, then let go. “I’m going to let you rest, but I’ll be back soon.”
He seemed grateful for the reprieve from talking. “I love you, Brady.”
“I love you too, Evan.”
At the door, I looked back.
Evan was drifting now, his face slack with exhaustion.
Someone wanted to hurt us.
Was I putting Elise in danger by involving her?
I stepped back into the waiting room of the suite with my chest tight and my hands cold.
Elise rose the second she saw me.
She had been standing near the far side of the room, close enough to be included and far enough to disappear if anyone looked too hard. Her phone was in one hand, her other arm wrapped across her middle. When our eyes met, she came toward me fast.
I wanted to ask what her brother had said.
I wanted to tell her everything I’d learned.
She searched my face. “How is he?”
“He’s okay.” My voice came out steadier than I felt. “Awake and talking. They’re keeping him for tests, but the worst is over.”
Relief moved through her so visibly I felt it in my own body.
She didn’t say anything.
She just stepped in and wrapped her arms around me.
I held her tight.
After a long minute, I pulled back to look at her. “How was your talk with your brother?”
Her mouth curved faintly, but her eyes were tired. “Better than expected. He thinks I’m hiding out somewhere romantic with you, and I convinced him to give us some alone time.”
I waved an arm at the hospital around us. “Are you saying this isn’t romantic?”
We shared an exhausted laugh, then I squeezed Elise’s hand once. “Let’s get out of here.”
She nodded.
We said our goodbyes and walked out together.
My chest stayed tight with everything I had not said to Evan.
Everything I was not ready to say to Elise.
Everything I had only started to understand.
As the automatic doors slid open to the cool night air, I begged whoever above might be listening.
Don’t let this lead back to her family.
Anyone but them.