Jesus.
Gene couldn’t believe this.
She’d done something he’d never believed would happen. She made a miracle by getting his brothers to come here.
His parents were dead, but he’d missed this. For the longest time, he was alone. Yes, he had this family, but Ethan always had Callen, and Elizabeth had Duke.
He and Chris were alone.
“We let you down,” his one brother said. “And for that, we’re sorry. We missed the middle part of your story, Gene, but we’d love to be here for this part.”
Ethan set his hand free, and just nodded.
The choice was his.
And like normal, Gene didn’t let them down. He had a streak of compassion a mile wide, and he didn’t hold a grudge.
Instead of having every right to be hurt, the big man headed toward the two men who looked so much like him.
“We missed you,” Benjamin Cantrell said. “We’d like to have a chance to make up for it.”
Gene hugged his brother, and then his other brother spoke.
“We did you wrong, Gene, and we can only hope that now that you’ve found your path, and family, that you’ll let us back into your life,” Mattias admitted.
Gene hugged him, too.
“You’re both my brothers,” he said. “That has never changed. Blood is blood.”
No, it hadn’t.
“We missed you,” Mattias admitted.
Oh, Gene missed them, too.
When he set them free, he headed back up to his mate to let what was planned play out, but he couldn’t believe it.
“Thank you, Elizabeth,” Gene said, wiping his eyes on his tux sleeve.
She just smiled at him.
“A wise man once said,Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others.”
And that was the truth.
When the next person stood, it was Dakota Rakin. He’d spent time with Gene as a Hunter.
“I was part of your time away from Ethan, and man…it wasn’t fun,” he said. “You are a cranky bitch when you’re not with him.”
Gene actually laughed.
“I mean, our job wasn’t fun,” he said, leaving it at that. A day didn’t go by that he didn’t think about how Preston had died in front of him.
To that day, he blamed himself.
Dakota continued.
“When you came into our lives,” he said, pointing at the Hunters who were sitting near him, “you were an annoying homicide captain. You hitched your wagon to a man named Preston, and it was a good run too.”
