30. Easton
Easton
“Looks like you need this.” Inside the living room of my sister’s suite, she offers me a glass of bourbon—Legacy Ridge, her dad’s brand.
I accept the tumbler, unsure if I should be drinking. My phone is burning a hole in my pocket, and alcohol tends to make me text first and think later.
Gwen sent me a follow-up text asking if I’m going to come over and watch the movie. Instead of answering her, I wandered to Juliette’s room, hoping she’ll talk some sense into me. The problem is, I’ve yet to tell her what’s wrong so she can do that.
“Remember that time I snuck out my window and went to the party my mom told me I couldn’t go to?” she muses while returning the bottle to the bar cart.
“Hard to forget.” Miss Rule-Follower rarely did anything wrong whenever she stayed with us in Kansas City.
I take a sip of the drink, and it settles nicely down my throat and into my chest.
“That’s how we discovered you can’t hold your liquor for shit,” I joke. Though, it’s a fact. My sister’s low tolerance is slightly comical given her father runs a liquor company, and she now owns a Scotch business with her husband.
“No lies detected,” she answers with a light laugh. “But that night was also the first time you had to protect me from some jerk who wouldn’t stop bothering me, and you’ve been protecting people ever since.”
I set the glass on the coffee table, deciding I can’t have my senses dulled in case I do lose my mind and find my way to Gwen’s room.
After she kissed the inside of my hand earlier—and that’s still stuck in my head when it shouldn’t be—we spent the rest of the day apart chasing leads.
Well, more like our tails. I needed to breathe in air that wasn’t shared by her.
Find a place I could think straight. That wound up being Carter’s suite, where I spent most of my afternoon and evening working alongside him and Griffin.
We ended the day about thirty minutes ago with absolutely nothing helpful to go on.
Even if the mission Sebastian pulled Nash in on is tied to this, we haven’t been able to prove it. Someone already cut whatever strings there might have been.
And as for the hotel traitor theory, all the staff and security reporting to Malachi checked out. No red flags. Hell, the only red flag is that there aren’t any when there has to be one.
Oh, and Zoey’s source? Carter hesitantly gave the go-ahead for Zoey and the others to leave for London, but Molly’s still MIA.
“You’re lost in your head. Are you okay?” Juliette sits next to me and pats my knee. Such a mother, I swear.
“I’m frustrated that we have some of the best minds working the case and still have no clue what’s going on, other than someone knows us well and has been playing us hard.”
“Your team will get to the bottom of it,” she says without hesitation, then offers me a small, but reassuring smile. “Maybe get some rest, though? Start fresh tomorrow.”
I check the time on my watch. 22:35. “Too early to sleep.” I’ll just toss and turn, and if I do manage to pass out, I’ll startle awake from a nightmare and spend the next ten minutes checking my hands to ensure they’re not soaked in blood. Just one more lovely souvenir from hell island.
I look over at her closed bedroom door where Constantine is now. I accidentally woke their daughter when I showed up, so he went into the room to help get her back to sleep.
I glance over at the second bedroom door. “No way Colin’s already asleep, is he?”
“On the phone with his girlfriend, I’m sure.” She shrugs. “Or he hooked up his PS5 to the TV in his room and has the volume low.”
Kid’s got the right idea. Find a good distraction. One I can handle on my own.
“Well, I know you’re not here for Daddy’s bourbon.” Juliette waits for me to look at her. “I assume you’re here for advice.”
I inhale deeply through my nose and slowly let the breath go from my mouth, hoping some of my restless energy will leave with it. “Gwen kicked Wyatt out of her suite so she can be alone.”
“I know. I saw Jesse and Ella switch suites earlier.” She angles her head, waiting for me to continue getting to the point of what I don’t want to say out loud.
“And she’s asking me to come watch a movie with her so she can relax before bed.”
She smiles. “You two watch movies together all the time, right?”
I nod.
“So, what’s the problem?”
I close my eyes. “The problem is something’s changed these last few days.” If I’m being honest with myself, it changed a long damn time ago, but I refused to see it.
“Of course it has. You two already went through something heavy with the crash, and now this.”
“No, it’s not that.” Don’t think it is.
“You’re into her, right?” she asks, and I open my eyes but keep my mouth shut. “I’ve known that since my wedding. The way you two were dancing—it was obvious.” She innocently lifts her shoulders and grins. “This isn’t new.”
I stare up at the ceiling. “I’m struggling to keep myself in check. Didn’t have that problem before.”
“Why are you suddenly—”
“Because I’m fairly certain she’s giving me the green fucking light that she wants me, too,” I bite out, knowing damn well my sister hates cursing. But I’ve got a sailor’s mouth, just like her husband. I should probably work on that. Maybe one day.
“Wait, you didn’t think she wanted you before?”
I lazily roll my head to the side to peer at her.
“Nope. Just thought it was friendly teasing shit, I don’t know.
” I can’t believe I’m going to say this out loud.
“Maybe we’ve always had chemistry, and I just missed the signs on her end?
” I admit. “But still, I figured if we acted on it, it’d be a friends-with-benefits thing since we can never be more. ”
“And why can’t it be more?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” I grit out. “It may be fine now, but when I’m sixty, she’ll only be forty-seven.”
She snorts. “And?”
I ignore her and continue, “I’m friends with her father, so there’s that. And, like I just said, I’m also her friend and we work together. I don’t want to fuck that up. Look at the damage I already caused when I tucked tail and took off after the accident.”
“We all make mistakes,” she says softly.
“And you came back.” She holds up a hand to stop the denial she knows I’m about to give her.
“Don’t give me some garbage about you’re only back because of the case, and you wouldn’t have returned otherwise.
” She rests her hand on top of mine and whispers, “Wow.”
“Wow to what? That I’m a fool?” I face her, shooting her a self-deprecating smile.
“No, that’s not . . .” Her voice trails off, and she blinks a few times. “Sorry, I had a delayed reaction to something you said.”
“Which part? Said a lot.”
“That you want to marry her.”
She’s not asking. She’s stating that as a fact. And now I’m even more confused.
Marry? “When did I say that?”
Her brows shoot to her forehead, and she returns her hands to her lap as I replay the exchange, trying to understand what I said to give her that idea.
It clicks a few seconds later than it should have—the sixty-year-old comment.
Before I can say anything, I look over to see Constantine carefully opening the door. He shuts it behind him and walks over, gripping the back of his neck in the process. “Everything okay?”
I drag my hands through my hair, trying to process what I accidentally said: I want Gwen to be my forever.
“No.” My voice breaks on that one word as I stand. “Not even a little bit.”
“Wait up.” At Constantine’s request, I stop in the hallway outside my door. I thought I successfully escaped without him trying to co-parent me alongside my sister, but I guess I’m not that lucky. Cursed is more like it, considering how I feel about my friend’s daughter.
I hesitantly face him, unsure of what kind of conversation I have ahead of me.
“Listen,” I start before he says anything, “whatever my sister asked you to say, just tell her you did. No need to actually do it.” I shove my hand into my pocket in search of my keycard and find nothing but my phone and an empty pack of gum.
He holds it up between us, the side of his mouth lifting into a partial smile. “You forgot this.”
I go to snatch it, and he pulls his hand back. “But since I’m here, and you’re clearly shook the fuck up, you wanna talk?”
“Doesn’t my sister hate when you swear?” I smirk.
He briefly glances over his shoulder, his subtle way of saying I don’t see her, do you?
I reach forward and grab the card from him. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
He rests his hand on the wall by my door, an excellent indication he has no plans to bugger off. Shit, did I just think that word? Gwen’s influence, of course.
Lines deepen across his forehead. “I don’t like to see my wife upset.”
“Good. We’re in agreement on that.”
His eyes turn to slits. He’s not relenting on his fatherly expression, which consists of one part concern and three parts pain in the ass. “She’s worried about you, so now your situation is mine.”
I fake a low laugh. “When has there been a time Juliette’s not worried about me?”
“Fair point.”
Assuming we’re done, I turn away, but he slaps a hand over my shoulder, stopping me. “Easy where you put those big paws of yours,” I joke. “My back still hurts.” It’s not nearly as bad as the other day, but it’s still not a lie.
He lets me go, and I hesitantly turn around.
“I’m fine, okay?”
“That’s the opposite of what you said to me before leaving the room two minutes ago.” He slides both hands into his pockets and stares me down like I’m Colin, not his brother-in-law, and he’s waiting for me to fess up to something.
I bite down on my back teeth and lift my eyes to the ceiling. I can’t talk about Gwen, but I know he won’t leave me alone unless I give him something.
“Do you ever feel like a tally mark gets etched into your soul whenever you take a life?” That’s probably not the direction I should’ve gone. Too late now.