Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
INDY
Of all the places I expected to find my brother, an oasis in the middle of the desert was not one of them. His surprised eyes meet mine, and a smile crosses his face. “Hello, brother.”
“Brax, let him up.” Brax grumbles something before releasing him, and I reach out and help him up. Instead of letting him go, I pull him into a huge hug. “Apollo, you idiot.”
“Yeah… I know.”
I pull back to look at his face. His now scared face. “You know you’re an idiot?”
“Well, if you found me a week ago, I would have denied it. But over the past couple days, something has helped me see the truth of my actions. I was an asshole to leave you like that, Indy. I’m sorry, truly.”
“Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?” I ask in surprise. I expected to find him angry and cursing me to leave him alone, this Apollo was almost… happy? What could make him change so much… “Where is she?”
“Who?” he asks, tilting his head. But I can see the light in his eyes.
“You know who, the woman that put that smile on your face.”
“Oh, you mean my fiancé, Angel.” I must have it wrong then, he already had a woman, Angel.
“Angel, that’s her name?” I ask.
“Yep, would you like to meet her?”
“Ah, sure,” I say, rubbing the back of my neck. I really want to see my woman, and the fact that we aren’t going to be married to the same person makes me feel a little queasy. It was always supposed to be us together.
“I don’t suppose you’ve got our woman hanging around here somewhere?” Ryker grumbles.
“Well, I don’t mind sharing,” Apollo says before yelling loudly. “Angel, get your cute butt out here!”
There is a moment of silence before I hear her yell in return, “That’s cheating!” My gaze meets Brax and we both frown. That sounded a lot like Penny, didn’t it?
“Change of plans, just get out here, I have a surprise for you, I promise you’ll love it!” he yells back, giving me a wink like I was in on some secret with him.
“Apollo, are you sure her name isn’t Penny?” I ask him carefully.
“Penny?” he asks in confusion, before shaking his head. “I don’t know anyone with that name.” My shoulders slump and the sound of soft footsteps has us all glancing up as someone emerges from the trees.
My eyes go wide, and I don’t know what to deal with first.
“Penny?” Ryker asks in shock.
“Why are you covered in blood?” Brax asks angrily.
“Why are you naked?” Silver asks.
She halts in her tracks, dropping whatever was in her hands when she hears our voices, staring at us for a moment in shock.
“You’re here!” she yells, running full force towards us. I’m lucky enough to be closest, so I scoop her up in my arms and spin her around, kissing up and down her neck.
“Sugar,” I groan, before lifting my head and licking my lips. “Why do you taste like raspberries?” I gently set her down to better assess her red body. Every inch of her normally white skin is covered in red berry juice.
“Red, you’re red!” Ry says, pulling her from my grasp and hugging her tightly. “Fuck, I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too,” I hear her whisper against him.
“Give her to me,” Brax demands, and Ry releases her, letting Brax move in. He holds her face in hands as he studies her face. “You’re okay?”
“I’m okay, yeti, are you okay?”
“I am now.” He leans his forehead against hers and closes his eyes. She gives him a moment before she presses her lips to his.
“Not to break up this reunion but, Penny, are you okay? Why are you all red?” Silver asks, looking concerned.
I hear my brother groan before he scolds her. “I told you not to rub berries all over you.”
“But it’s the best camouflage for hide and seek,” she whines.
“Yeah and it makes you a tasty snack for bugs,” he shoots back, making her eyes go wide.
“Baby, your feet,” Brax says, pointing at her legs before throwing her over his shoulder and walking into the pond, fully clothed.
When he’s waist deep, he drops her down, supporting her back while they both wipe at her feet.
“Hey! I want to help!” Ryker yells, wasting no time as he strips off completely naked and jumps in after them. He sandwiches her between them before turning her to face him. He kisses her gently then starts licking her face, making her giggle.
I feel the tension leaving my body, seeing her laughing. I glance at Apollo, who’s watching her with a smile.
“You said you didn’t know anyone named Penny,” I state with a raised eyebrow.
“Is that her name? I call her Angel.”
“I told you that wasn’t my name!” she yells from the water.
We both smile as Brax and Ry try to clean her off, but she just seems to want to hug them.
“I better go check on the horses,” Silver says, quickly leaving. I sigh, watching him leave.
“So, what’s up with him?” Apollo asks quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“Why is he dragging his feet with Angel?”
I narrow my eyes at him before asking, “What did she tell you?”
“About Silver? Nothing, but I can read between the lines.” So she mentioned Silver to him, that says something. And he’s right, it’s clear he’s interested in her, and I see that way she glances at him, but for some reason he refuses to accept their connection.
“What about you?” I ask, as a bit of trepidation enters my voice.
“What about me?”
“Come on, don’t play dumb, what’s going on between you two? Don’t think I didn’t notice you playing naked hide and seek.”
He laughs, turning to watch where she’s splashing Ryker, then using Braxton as a shield.
“We’ve grown really close the past couple days.”
“How close?”
“Close enough to see how amazing she is, to know I love her, and to want to marry her.” He turns his worried gaze to me. “I hope you can forgive me, Indy.”
“Of course. You’re my twin, you don’t even need to ask. I’ve been searching for you since you left, you know?”
“Yeah, she told me. But that’s not what I’m asking for forgiveness for.”
I frown at him. “What do you mean?”
“When she first arrived here… I didn’t treat her very well.”
“What did you do?” Brax asks as he approaches carrying Penny, who’s clinging to his chest.
“Apollo, I’ve forgiven you, you don’t need to bring it up again,” Penny says with a sigh, like this is something he keeps rehashing.
“I beg to differ,” Brax says, placing her on her feet and gently pushing her behind him.
“Braxton!” She tries to move around him, but he swiftly turns to face her, pressing his finger to the tip of her nose. “No. Stay.” He spins back around and I see her eyes go wide as her jaw drops open and her cheeks turn red.
Ryker must see what I do because he grabs his shirt and quickly pulls it on over her head. “Let’s get you covered up, Red. Do you have a brush here somewhere?”
“I want to hear,” she pouts, watching Brax, who looks like he’s about to throttle my brother.
“Apollo, tell me what you did to her.”
“Brax, he took care of me. I was poisoned from the sandcrawler and had heat stroke. I’d been wandering for three days and he found me probably moments from death. He helped me recover.”
“Is that true?” Brax asks, looking slightly more relaxed.
Apollo nods. “I did. And once she was better, I basically ignored her for four days before I accused her of marrying you all just so she didn’t have to be alone and told her she was a selfish, annoying spoiled brat who was nothing but a burden to you.”
I expected Braxton’s fist to fly, I even clenched mine in preparation, but it was Ryker who struck first. Considering he was standing furthest from Apollo, it says a lot about his anger.
“How dare you say such things to my wife? If she didn’t clearly care for you, I’d kill you for upsetting her.” He turns and picks up Penny, who wraps herself around him.
I can see tears leaking down her cheeks as she looks at Apollo.
He nods as he tells her softly, “Go with him, I’ll be okay, this is something we need to work out between us.
” I hear a small sob escape her as she presses her face tightly to Ryker, and he heads towards the large cave they obviously use as a base.
I turn to Apollo and rub my right fist in my left hand.
“I don’t want to hit you, brother,” I tell him honestly.
“You have to. I was an asshole.”
“Do you believe any of those things you said?” Brax asks, grinding his jaw.
Apollo thankfully shakes his head quickly. “No, I didn’t even believe them when I said them. I honestly didn’t even know her, we had barely spoken. I was projecting my own issues on her.”
“Calling her a burden, saying she only married us to not be alone, that’s her biggest insecurities, so I’m going to have to hit you, but then since she’s forgiven you, we’ll be good,” Brax says, surprising me at his insightfulness of Penny.
Apollo nods and Brax gives him a swift punch to the gut, forcing the wind out of him as he bends over.
Brax pats his back twice before turning the way Silver went, presumably going to help with the horses and cart.
“You know she’s nothing like Caroline, right?”
He stands up straight, rubbing his stomach as he nods. “Yeah, I see that now. It was hard to believe until I saw her reaction to my magic.”
I smile. “She loved it, didn’t she?”
He laughs. “Yeah, I made it rain.”
My eyes widen. “You can do that? Wait! Was that yesterday morning?” He nods. “Holy shit! We saw the dark cloud, it’s how we ended up here! We were north east of here and we would have kept going east, but your storm cloud drew us in this direction.”
“That’s lucky.” I nod. “Indy, you need to hit me.”
“I don’t feel angry anymore.”
“You have to, we need to put it behind us and you need to punish me for treating her like that.”
“I’m not sure I can,” I tell him honestly, most of the anger having drained from me after finding both my wife and brother not only alive and well, but already caring for one another.
“You know, when I refused to talk to her, she tried to make peace with me. She brought me berries to eat, help build the fire and replenish the firewood, and I threw it in her face, asking if she thought doing that would make me like her.”
“That’ll do it,” I grumble before I punch him in the gut. He bends over my fist and I wait for him to recover.
He finally stands up and smiles at me, asking, “Better?”
“Much. Now, let’s go help with the horses.”