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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THIS WASN’T THE HOMECOMING I’d envisioned.
I’d pictured happy hugs, a few relieved tears, and a couple of tasteless jokes about my affinity to disappear because rocks were more important than my brother. Instead, I had one man doing his best not to come across as threatening even though he looked like a bear standing in the corner with long hair and a scruffy beard, and another who looked as if he was two seconds away from grabbing a knife and stabbing that bear in the heart.
Belting my robe tight so I didn’t flash inappropriate leg or cleavage, I made my way to my couch and sat down. My eyes sca
I grabbed the pillow and placed it over my legs.
It was still warm from Kas’s head.
Had he slept okay...before Josh woke him?
I should’ve offered him an alternative to the couch. But then again, I had no other options, seeing as I only owned one bed, and the other bedrooms were extensions of my work and exercise regime.
“Come here, both of you.” I patted the couch and pointed at the opposite chair that matched my ivory suite.
Kas moved first, eager to repair the situation, not because he felt bad for my brother but because he loved me and wanted to fix this to make my life easier.
I gave him a smile for that. I would’ve given him a kiss too, but Josh hadn’t taken his eyes off me since I’d entered the living room.
Kas sat beside me, his fingers seeking mine and curling tight. The spark between us hadn’t faded in the weeks we’d grown closer; if anything, it’d increased until it hummed and throbbed instead of just crackled with power.
There were layers between us now.
Layers of heart co
“If this is the friend you mentioned on the phone, Gemstone, then you and I need to have a serious chat.” Joshua reluctantly left the kitchen and went to sit in the chair opposite the couch. “Did you seriously drag a rabid stray back from the national park with you? Is he even housebroken?”
“Stop that.” My tone went sharp. “I know you’re angry and pissed, but it doesn’t give you the right to be cruel.”
“Not being cruel. Just stating the obvious. Did you lose your shaving kit in the woods, buddy?” Josh wrinkled his nose, peering closer at Kas. “Is that a leaf in your hair?”
“Enough.” I tensed. “I’m in charge, and I say that’s enough.”
“Fine.” Josh crossed his arms. “Explain away. I’m all ears.”
The vibe between us prickled with tension and violence. A faint bruise had already appeared on Josh’s clean-shaven jaw, and my poor TV looked as if it’d been a murder victim. A random frown appeared before I could stop it. Would Kas insist on paying me back for that? Did he have any concept of money? Did he know the difference between two hundred dollars and two thousand? What would he try to do to repay a three-thousand-dollar flat screen?
“You okay?” Kas asked softly, squeezing my hand.
I nodded and tore my eyes off the broken TV, focusing on my suspiciously glaring brother. I hadn’t exactly rehearsed this. I’d thought we wouldn’t catch up with my mom or brother until tonight or tomorrow. I understood why Joshua had let himself in to visit early, but he’d caused a complication I wasn’t sure how to get out of.
I inhaled hard, glowering at Josh. “First off, you know I don’t like you barging in before nine o’clock. Just because you’re a morning lark or whatever they’re called doesn’t mean I am.”
Josh crossed his arms. “It’s past ten.”
“Wow, is it?” My eyes searched for my tablet on the coffee table, but Kas must’ve put it away when he’d cleaned. I didn’t have clocks or watches, so I’d have to take my brother’s word for it.
“Thank you, by the way.” I squeezed Kas’s hand. “For cleaning up after my brother made such a mess.”
“I made a mess?” Josh pointed at himself, his dark blond hair shivering with his speed. “What did I do?”
“You left my place looking like a herd of wild boars were living in it while I was gone.”
“You weren’t gone,” Josh snapped. “You were missing. I was trying to find clues. The police came. The local neighborhood watch snooped around. The mess was a combined effort.”
I flinched. “I owe you another apology for vanishing, but you owe me one for not putting my things away.”
“Sue me if I was panic rushing.” His eyes filled with hurt. “Are you seriously going to give me the third degree for trying to find you after the past few weeks of hell?” His lips twisted as if holding back emotion. “I thought you were dead, Gemstone. I would’ve burned this place to the ground if it gave me a clue to where you’d gone.”
Oh, God.
Leaping to my feet and tossing the pillow to the floor, I closed the small distance between us and bent to give him a hug. Kas didn’t move from his place on the couch, and Josh stiffened before relaxing. He hugged me so hard, I choked.
He dragged me into his lap, shuddering with relief. “God, it’s good to touch you. To know you’re real. That you’re home.”
I struggled for air, even while comforting him.
Kas moved, shifting just enough to let me know he’d seen. He was watching, and he may or may not retaliate if my safety was in danger.
Pulling away, I kissed my brother on the cheek. “I’m very sorry for making you worry. But like I said on the phone, I’m back now, and everything is fine.”
“I don’t think you said that.” Josh cleared his throat and sat back, letting me go. His glossy eyes followed me as I returned to my place next to Kas. “You were more interested in talking about a pet squirrel.”
“Josh...” I pointed at his face, deciding to ignore that last bit and reply to his previous sentence. “Well, if I didn’t say that, it’s still true.” I waved a hand, my mind racing for ways to explain Kas’s place in my life and to truly apologize to my brother. The second part of that plan might have to wait a few days, but for now, I worried about how to make the two most important men in my life co-exist.
I ran fingers under my eyes, trying to figure it out.
I should’ve come up with a lie before this, but with the long drive yesterday, the exhausted sleep, and the rude awakening, I hadn’t been able to form one.
“So...” Josh turned his attention to Kas. “Just who the hell are you then?”
“I’m...eh—” Kas turned to me, looking for guidance. I’d told him to hide the truth, but after what’d just happened...Josh wouldn’t buy that Kas was just a hiker in the woods who’d shacked up with me. There were too many holes in that story. Why hadn’t I left the valley sooner? Why was Kas not relaxed in company?
Ugh...the truth.
It had to be the truth because I didn’t have the mental faculty right now to fib successfully.
Taking a big breath, I looked at Josh and spilled everything as fast as I could. “I went looking for that boulder—as you know. I got lost. I found an abandoned mansion tucked in a valley. It intrigued me enough to go and investigate. I found Kas inside. And he...well, he wasn’t exactly happy that I’d trespassed.” I sped up, rushing past punctuation and pauses, racing to get it done, lying where I could so Josh didn’t kill Kas immediately. “Kas had been alone for eleven years, you see, and having company was a bit much for him, so he kept me for a few days while he acclimated, but then he released me, and he apologized, and we talked about me going home, but then...um, my Jeep had a dead battery, and my PLB wasn’t working, and, eh, a bunch of other stuff happened, which meant Kas got hurt, and I had no choice but to stay and look after him.”
Kas sat frozen beside me.
Josh’s mouth fell wide before he laughed out loud. “Do you honestly expect me to believe that load of crap?”
I sat taller. “Why? What’s wrong with it? It’s the truth. Mainly.”
He shook his head and held up his hand. “Right now, I can’t even address the fact that he stole you. That he imprisoned you.” His eyes shot daggers at Kas.
“That’s not exactly what I said.”
“It’s what happened, though, right?” He locked his attention on me. “Reading between the lines and all that. He had to have trapped you to release you. God, Gem. How could you let him do such a thing?”
It wasn’t like I had a choice at the time.
Stiffening, I muttered, “It’s in the past. Let’s talk about something else.”
He huffed harshly. “Fine, I’ll come back to that because if I talk about it right now, I might go rent a gun and unload a few bullets into this asshole.”
“His name is Kas, and you’re not shooting anyone,” I snipped.
Josh glowered at me. “I’m not buying your story because it’s ridiculous.”
I frowned. “What’s ridiculous?”
“Well, for starters, you always unhook your battery so it doesn’t die—that was one of the very first things you learned when you started going off track. And that locator beacon? It was pretty much indestructible. The shopkeeper said it could withstand a tumble off a cliff and still work.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what happened. I don’t care if you believe it.” I crossed my arms. Hoping that he wouldn’t ask for details because, in my current a
To an outsider, our tale would sound preposterous and require serious psychiatric help. But I knew what I felt, and I knew Kas felt it too, so no one else mattered because we’d survived and grown and were together, for better or for worse.
Josh looked back and forth between us, his temper darkening his handsomely boyish face. “Has he got something over you, Gem? Is that why you’re protecting a man who locked you up like a dog and stopped you from coming home to us?”
Kas tensed, but I squeezed his hand and raised my chin. This was my fight, not his. “I wasn’t able to come home, brother, not because of Kas holding me but because of what I did. I was the reason Kas had an accident. He fell off a cliff—” I gulped, remembering that day. The way his eyes locked with mine and filled with absolute acceptance. He’d fallen into death and hadn’t even cried out.
My heart squeezed. “I was the reason he fell.” I gave Kas a sad shrug, hoping he knew just how sorry I was for causing him to trip into the sky.
He raised our joined hands and kissed the back of my knuckles.