Chapter 14
It’s way tooearly to meet his family.
Cam’s hand froze on the seatbelt as she stared at the large brick two-story house. White trim decorated the windows and doors, giving it a fresh look. A welcoming teal front door was the focal point. The homey vibe made her ache for roots that she’d ripped out after she put Isaac in jail. Granted, she’d never owned a house like this. Just a studio pad in Detroit, two blocks away from her mama.
“You coming?” Brooks pulled the keys out of the ignition.
Staying in the car would be awkward, and boring, but she wasn’t one to smack herself in the middle of a family reunion. “Maybe you should talk to her first and then come get me once you get reacquainted.”
He brushed her fingers away from her belt and clicked the button. The material snapped away from her chest. He laced his fingers with hers. “Don’t be silly. I need you there.” Hesitancy crinkled the corners of his eyes. During the five-hour drive, they’d talked and joked and listened to music, stopping occasionally for snacks—she’d stayed in the car for fear someone would recognize her. Not once did he let on that he was afraid to meet his sister.
Now, his damp palm held hers a little too tightly.
She forced a quivering smile. “Okay.” He’d been through enough. If having her nearby while he got comfortable was what he needed, she’d suck it up and paste a smile on her face. Opening the car door, she got out and waited for Brooks to meet her at the walkway. He didn’t take her hand but kept his side sewn to hers as they ascended the porch. The front door yanked open.
“Oh. My. God!” A dark-haired woman launched herself over the threshold and into Brooks’s arms, moving far too fast for Cam to catch any other features. Brooks let out a grunt as he caught her. Sidestepping their encounter so she didn’t get kicked off the porch, Cam watched as Brooks lifted his sister off her feet as if he’d done it a million times.
“It’s you,” she wailed. “Oh my god, it’s really you.”
Pain split open Cam’s chest as she took in their exchange. She’d give anything to hug Stacey like that. But as much as it ached to see sibling love, some of her grief ebbed away knowing that the two of them had found each other.
Brooks’s deep, throaty laugh rang with a note she’d never heard from him before. Slowly, he lowered Lexi to her feet and she caught his hands, holding them both. “I thought I’d never see you again.” Tears flowed freely down her cheeks.
Brooks didn’t cry, but his relaxed jaw and glowing eyes told her he’d found a piece of his soul. “I missed you. I think.”
Lexi’s laughter rang through the air. She wheeled on her heel to face Cam. “You must be Camryn?”
With the moisture gone from her mouth, Cam didn’t bother summoning a greeting. Instead, she nodded. Lexi squished her in a hug. “I don’t know the whole story yet, but thank you for bringing him home.” Her genuine squeeze touched Cam’s heart. She hugged her back and smiled.
“Come in.” Lexi grabbed their hands and towed them in. The scent of roasted chicken and garlic reached her nostrils, making her mouth water.
Inside the foyer stood a huge, hulking dude with stone-colored eyes. Dark hair waved away from his face.
“This is Nash. He’s my fiancé.” Lexi skipped between the two men like a toddler hopped up on sugar. She stopped beside Nash and gripped his arm. “Nash, this is Brooks.”
Nash stepped forward and extended his hand. “We’re so glad to have you home,” he said, shaking Brooks’s hand.
Brooks nodded. “Thanks. I’m sorry, I don’t remember you.”
“We saw each other around the Lionsgate house.”
Brooks drew back, alarm painting his face. He jerked his head from Lexi to Nash, and his muscles bunched. Nash’s face struck Brooks’s memory bank. “You’re Conrad’s son.”
Nash scrunched his face into a grimace. “Adopted son,” he corrected.
“What’s wrong?” Lexi leaped forward, but Brooks retreated a step.
“You two are involved with Conrad?”
Cam caught Brooks’s hand. He held fast to her, as if he were about to grab her and run. She trailed a palm down his forearm. “Brooks, you knew Conrad well, right? I think it’s safe to say Lexi did too.”
“You don’t remember?” Lexi’s wide blue eyes darted back and forth between Brooks and her.
He gave a sharp shake of his head.
Lexi stepped forward and, for a second, a river of unease trickled inside Cam. Brooks had little control when it came to his rage toward Conrad. No fear touched Lexi’s face as she wrapped her arm around Brooks’s waist, fitting herself into his side. Only concern. “Conrad is a mutual enemy, believe me. I devoted every day since your disappearance to exposing him—and I did it with your help.”
Confusion wilted Brooks’s formidable stare. “I helped?”
She chuckled. “I have a lot to explain. Let’s eat. Nash made us a huge dinner.” She gestured down the hall, where the kitchen opened into a living room.
“And him?” Brooks said, nodding toward his soon-to-be brother-in-law.
“I couldn’t have taken Conrad down without Nash’s and his brothers’ help. Please,” Lexi said, giving Brooks a gentle shake. “Hear us out.”
Cam squeezed his hand in reassurance. He glanced down at her and she smiled. His tension eased and he grunted. “Okay.”
Lexi stayed by Brooks’s side, so Cam drifted away, not wanting to crowd them.
“Nice to finally meet you.” Nash’s grin told her he’d seen her on the news.
She accepted his handshake and then followed him to the kitchen. Lexi and Brooks entered the room behind them. “Don’t believe everything you hear on TV,” she said, humor lacing her voice. She’d deliberately kept the radio off during the drive, so she didn’t have to hear about the heinous things the media was claiming she’d done.
She turned her attention to the spread of food covering the island. “Holy cow.” Her stomach grumbled in anticipation, even though they’d had fast food a few hours ago. Nothing compared to the smell of a homecooked meal.
Nash handed her a plate. “Sorry for the feast. Lexi insisted we make everything.”
Lexi elbowed him. “I haven’t seen my brother in almost a year. Least we could do is feed him.”
The laughter faded from Nash’s face. He looped his arm around her neck and kissed her forehead. “I know, honey.” Nash nodded at the food. “Dig in. I just carved the chicken.”
“Looks delicious,” Brooks said, taking a heaping forkful of juicy meat.
Cam immediately dug into the cheesy potatoes that would surely collect on her ass within hours and then reached for the tongs to snag some green beans. Next came carrots, a roll, and what appeared to be freshly pressed juice. “What’s in this?” Cam took a sip.
Lexi tapped her index finger to her chin. “Oh, this one’s delicious. It has orange peppers, pineapple, ginger, and lemon.”
The sweetness of peppers zinged her tongue, followed by the juicy flavor of pineapple. “Oh my gosh,” she murmured, chugging back another gulp. “That’s amazing.”
“It should be. That damn juicer cost an arm and a leg,” Nash said, over the mile-high pile of food on his plate. He made his way to the adjoining dining room.
“Shut it,” Lexi shot back without venom. “He begs me to make juices every day. This one’s a good one.” She winked and filled her plate.
Cam followed her to the table and took the seat next to Brooks. Lexi sat across from her and swung her gaze from Nash to her brother with interest.
“This is so good,” Brooks said. “I’m going to put weight on now that I’m out.”
The air in the room changed. Lexi froze, her fork midair. Cam wiggled in her seat under the stifling tension. “What do you mean ‘out’?” Lexi asked.
Brooks took a bite of his dinner roll, chewed, and set the rest of the bread on the side of his plate. He washed it down with the golden-orange elixir and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Uh, sorry.” His gaze moved awkwardly to Cam, and he reached under the table to grab her knee. “It’s a lot to explain. I don’t know where to start.”
Lexi pushed her plate forward and pasted her forearms, one over the other, on top of the table, her expression making her intent clear: she wasn’t letting this go. “Start with how you two met. We’ll piece in the rest as you go.”
Cam pulled back her shoulders and took Lexi’s cue. “I recently moved to Timber’s Terrain in Utah. I’m an RN, and I got a job at a rehab facility out in the desert.”
All eyes turned to her. Cam jiggled her knee, but Brooks’s heavy hand stopped her nerves from running out of control. She had to spit it out. If it was too hard for Brooks to talk about what he’d endured, she’d do it for him.
“During my first shift, I was instructed to inject Brooks with his medication—a sedative. But as soon as I looked at him, I knew something wasn’t right. He was covered in dirt, cuts, and bruises.” She dropped her gaze to the damask tablecloth. “I was late giving him his medication and then... he woke up. And I quickly learned he wasn’t there voluntarily.”
Her words landed like a bomb in the center of the table. The detonation was almost deafening. No one moved. Not a single person chewed or took their eyes from her. Scanning their faces, Cam’s belly twisted.
Brooks leaned forward. “Conrad kidnapped me. He held me out in the desert for months. Then he sold me to Dr. Leonetti.” Brooks’s hand dug into the tender flesh of her knee.
She circled her fingers around his forearm, and he quickly loosened his hold.
“They used me as a lab rat.” He held out his arm to reveal the scars that marred his skin. “They tortured me for hours, sometimes days. Had me living on a medication that made me violent, easily controlled, and gave me immense strength and endurance.” His mouth hooked up. “It also made me heal incredibly fast.”
Cam lifted her attention to Lexi. Her face was as pale as the white sweater she wore, her fingers crushed against her lips. Nash swept his arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek, but it did nothing to stop the flow of tears.
“Tell me everything you remember,” she said on a choked gasp.
Cam sat quietly while Brooks unloaded the ways in which he’d suffered: the lack of food, his cell nine stories in the basement, and the psychological warfare he’d been up against.
“I can’t believe all this time Conrad could have told us where you were. He’s out on bail right now awaiting trial. The detective said the only thing they couldn’t get him to talk about was your whereabouts.”
Brooks flattened his hand next to his plate. “I’m going to kill him, Lex. I have to.”
Silence beat through the room again. Cam stared at Lexi and Nash. Even his newfound family wouldn’t be enough to settle the fury inside Brooks. He’d kill Conrad and anyone else in his path without a blink.
And Cam would be left with her heart exposed while Brooks suffered the consequences.
***
Brooks kept oneeye on Cam, who was chatting softly with Nash at the island, while he sat with Lexi on the couch. After dinner, Nash and Cam had volunteered to clean up and Lexi had pulled him aside to talk. Had he known his dry comments about his enslavement would have caused her so much upset, he’d have found a gentler way to tell her. As it stood, he had a sobbing sister on his hands.
“You don’t remember anything from before? The drug did that to you?”
He rested his elbows on his knees and laced his fingers together. Lifting his eyes to her deep blues was like staring in a mirror—or at a sibling. Whatever. Their similarities struck him every time he looked at her. How had he gone months and forgotten about her?
“Memories hit me, but they usually happen so fast it’s a blur.”
She circled her arm around his bicep and pressed her side to his. “You remembered me, though. That’s a good sign.”
He winced, sensing more questions.
“Do you remember Mom and Dad?” Her voice was low and hesitant, as if she were afraid to spook a horse.
He rubbed his palm over his knuckles. A woman’s face and a face that looked just like his whirled through his mind often, followed by screams. But those memories were the ones that slipped through his fingers like sand. “Not really.” Keeping his gaze on the ground, an iron fist closed around his heart. He pressed his fingers to his temples as images flooded his head. Heat. Fire. A house ablaze.
“What is it?” Lexi’s presence softened some of the tension in his body.
“I don’t know. When I think of them, I feel like I was near a fire.”
Several seconds passed. Lexi remained silent. He pulled his hands away from his face to look at his sister. Her large blue eyes were rimmed with tears, and the tip of her nose turned pink as she struggled to stop herself from crying. “What?” he asked breathlessly.
“The memory you’re having is of the night everything happened.” She brushed her sleeve underneath her eyes. “You were investigating Lionsgate while being employed—”
He stiffened. “I worked for them?”
“You and Dad both did. But you found some suspicious records and reported it to Dad, and then Conrad found out...”
“What happened?”
She sighed heavily. “You discovered that Lionsgate was trafficking children through their group home. You didn’t tell me what was going on because you didn’t want to endanger me, but you hid evidence for me to find, in case something happened to you.” She sniffled, and tears rushed out of her eyes. “I was staying with Mom and Dad that night to help Mom organize donations for the women’s shelter. They went to bed, and then you called and told me you had something huge. Something you couldn’t tell me about, especially over the phone, but you said you were coming over.”
His chest tightened with every breath.
“I fell asleep and woke up to the smell of smoke. When I went into the hallway, it was full of flames—I couldn’t make it past. I told Mom and Dad to get downstairs and I’d go through the window.” Lexi wrung her hands as she spoke.
“Then what happened?”
“I climbed out and saw a man running for the woods behind our house. I got down and chased him—”
Brooks tensed. Of all the stupid things to do.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she scolded, her eyes hot. “All I wanted was something to identify him with. He stabbed me and ran.” She paused and took a deep breath. “Mom and Dad died, but I know they were murdered because I saw them make it downstairs, so close to the front door. And you were nowhere to be found.”
The air around Brooks thickened as if he were sucking in steam. His mind fell back in time to that night. He remembered lurching to a stop in his car and seeing his childhood home up in flames. He’d run inside, and a man had struck him in the neck with a stun gun. His body had jolted as he fell to the ground, smoke closing in around him. Then he’d woken up chained to a stained mattress in a bunker somewhere in the fucking desert, where he’d done slave labor until Leonetti showed up with a van and bought him as if he were a bag of barley.
Bastards. All of them.
Lexi touched his shoulder. “You remember that night, don’t you?”
He nodded.
She rested her head on his arm. “I’m just glad you’re okay. Everything else will fall into place.”
He bristled. “No, it won’t.”
She straightened. “What do you mean?”
“Conrad trafficked children and is out on bail.”
“Not for long. The detective working his case—”
“Bullshit.” Brooks stood, and Lexi toppled to the cushion he’d vacated. “I need to find him. Where is he?”
Lexi sent a wild gaze to Nash, who quickly entered the living room. “Hey,” Nash said. He stood at eye level with Brooks. “Relax, man.”
“I can’t relax. They killed my parents, stabbed Lexi”—he gestured at his sister—“trafficked innocent children and sold me as a fucking slave and guinea pig.”
Cam brushed around Nash and pressed her body to his. Her hands locked around his waist. His insides melted a little at her touch, but part of him wanted to revolt. To break away from the calm that she brought. He needed to be angry and carry out his revenge before it was too late.
“They’re after me. They want me back at the lab, and they’ve marked Cam as a kidnapper and a danger to society. It won’t be long before they find us.”
Lexi pushed to her feet. “That’s not going to happen.”
“So what are we supposed to do?”
Nash came forward and gripped his shoulder. “You’re right. You need to get your revenge and you’re entitled to that. I’ll help you.”
“Nash,” Lexi hissed. “You’ll both go to jail.”
“Given that he’s had a drug in his system that affects his behavior and reactions, it might be hard to convict him.”
Lexi scoffed.
Nash reached into his pocket and twisted a key off a key chain. “I’ve got a place on the other side of town. It’s my safe house. You two are welcome to stay there until you accomplish what you need to. We’ll arrange to have groceries delivered. I’ll come by tomorrow after you rest, and we’ll devise a plan.”
Gratitude filled him. He closed his hand around the cool metal and met Nash’s eyes. All this time, he’d thought that his family was gone.
Nash had just proved to be more than that. He was a friend, too.