But he’d never forgotten. After he’d become a SEAL he’d investigated and learned the whole story behind the cover-up and why the government had wanted to protect this guy so badly. The diplomat was a CIA asset, and they were using him for information about terrorists. He’d been of negligible use, stringing them along for years before they cut ties with him.
In the envelope, Brandon had given her all the information she needed, even suggesting that it would make a good story.
He’d just given her the starring centerpiece in the article she was writing on abuses of diplomatic immunity.
There was one more piece of information Brandonhad given her. The diplomat’s son had been killed in a car accident a couple years ago, when his father was stationed in Pakistan.
When her tears had finally dried, she looked up at John. “Was Brandon ever deployed to Pakistan?”
John’s expression went stony—maybe a little too stony. “I can’t say.”
She’d thought the secrecy thing would make her angry. After what they’d gone through, she was surprised that it didn’t. She understood why he couldn’t share things with her.
But she knew the answer anyway. There was something in his eyes. And maybe she knew her brother a little better now, too. Brandon had gotten his justice. It might not have been the way she would have done it, but she wouldn’t pretend she was sorry.
God, how wrong she’d been. She would give anything to be able to go back and change things. “Why didn’t he tell me?”
“I think at first he was ashamed.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“He thought he should have protected you better.”
“He was only eighteen.”
John shrugged as if he understood Brandon’s perspective. “After he found out the whole story about the cover-up behind your parents’ death, he changed his mind. He wanted you to know the truth. But every time I asked him, he said he was waiting for the right opportunity.” John looked at her. “He never stopped loving you, Brit. You were the most important person in the world to him.”
Brittany felt her throat closing again. “Aren’t you supposed to be making me feel better?”
He gave her that one-sided smile that she loved so much. “You will. But he wouldn’t want you to feel guilty because of what you read in there.”
No, she supposed not—especially because her brother had something to feel guilty for, too. So did John. “You lied to me.”
John frowned. “How?”
She handed him the letter and pointed to the last section. “You told me Brandon didn’t interfere five years ago. But he did. He told you to stay away from me.”
John scanned the letter, obviously surprised by what he was reading. Brandon wrote that he was wrong to have interfered. At the time he hadn’t known John as well, but there was no one he would have been happier to see her with. John finished and then shook his head. “Not exactly.”
“What do you mean?”
“He didn’t tell me to stay away from you. He gave me a choice.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What kind of choice?”
“The ‘state your intentions’ or ‘beat it’ kind of choice.”
Her eyes widened. “He told you to marry me?”
“Not in so many words, but that was the direction I needed to be heading.”
Brittany made a “jeez” sound. “No wonder you went running for the Boobsie Twins.”
He winced with a grimace—and not just at the bad joke. “Yeah, well, about that. That was kind of a lie, too.”
Brittany was floored. “You didn’t sleep with them?”
He shook his head.
