Chapter 23
Cormac stared at his cell phone.
Then put it away in his nightstand.
Leaned back against the headboard and counted to…all of four before he grabbed it again.
Even as he told himself not to call, he did. His oldest brother answered on the second ring.
“Hey, everything good? You guys need me?” Apollo asked.
“No. Not yet anyway.”
“So what’s up? My gorgeous fiancée is waiting for me—”
“Dude, I do not want or need details.”
“Don’t be jealous.”
“I’m not j— You know what. I’m not doing this with you.”
“Then get to the point.” He could practically see his brother’s smug grin.
“Micah asked me to clean up his place in case… Well just in case the cleaning lady decided to quit again.” He had to remind himself to use code language.
Mostly because Micah was a paranoid bastard.
But he’d warned them that the Feds might be listening in on their conversations.
Apollo would understand what cleaning meant—wasn’t even very coded.
He doubted the Feds could even get a warrant, but he wasn’t sure that would stop them from an illegal wiretap so he erred on the side of caution. He’d worked for the DEA once upon a time, knew that they didn’t always follow the letter of the law.
“Right.” Apollo’s tone was dry.
“He had a picture of D.” Cormac knew his brother would understand who D was. There was only one Daniela.
There was a long silence, then, “Huh. Have you reached out to them?”
Them, not her because yeah, better to be careful. “No.”
“Good. Keep it that way. The past is behind you.”
“No shit it’s behind me.”
“You know what I’m saying. If you’re thinking about calling because you think seeing their picture is a sign—”
“What if it is a sign?” That was the exact reason he was calling. His brother really did know him well. Not that he needed to see a picture of Daniela to think about her.
That was all he seemed to do.
Obsess over her. Try to find a way to gain her forgiveness.
That wasn’t likely to ever happen, but he still wanted to try.
Or more than that, he wanted to make things right. He hated feeling like he had this debt hanging over his head.
Also… Nope, he couldn’t let himself go down that road. Not now.
“It’s not a sign. Did Micah tell you what it was about?”
“No.”
Another sigh. “We’ll talk next time I see you. Do. Not. Call.”
“Fine.”
“Look, I can’t stop you from doing something stupid,” Apollo said. “You’re an adult and you know your own mind. But…if you go down that path, I don’t know if it’s one you get to come back from.”
Yeah, he knew that. And this was why he’d called Apollo, for tough love. Or just a reality check. “Thank you,” he murmured.
Once they disconnected, he set his phone down, and this time he didn’t pick it back up. Instead, he walked out of his room toward his small home gym and started rowing like hell. He needed to tire himself out in the hopes that he might gain a little rest.
Though the truth was, he felt like he hadn’t fully rested since he’d last seen Daniela.