“You could’ve contacted me.”
“You? Yeah, I don’t have your direct line.”
Jake’s eyes narrowed at my thinly veiled accusation. “Is that my fault?”
Indirectly, yeah, but I wasn’t going to tell him that because I believed his heart had been in the right place that night and he hadn’t purposely led me astray. Plus, Jake was as close to a hero as a guy like me got. He was the frontline warrior who’d paved the way for us wounded souls, proving you could always rise above. At least in theory.
“Look, Rory, I’ve got nothing against you, but if I’m going to pick a side, it’s going to be my sister’s every single time.”
I didn’t fault him for that. How could I? Knowing Grace had a support system many bodies deep had helped make the decision for me years ago, the one that still pained me today. The one he’d helped push me to.
“And I haven’t asked you for anything since…”
There seemed no reason to finish the sentence. We both knew what I was referring to. The reason he now held my trust for the secrets he hadn’t betrayed.
“I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about Grace. Dude, you destroyed her. What was going through that head of yours, making her think you left for another girl?”
I clenched my jaw shut. He was seriously asking me this after the pep talk he’d given me just before my life forever changed?
“What was I supposed to do? Tell her the truth? Or worse, disappear? She never would’ve stopped looking for me.”
Jake seemed to consider my words before replying. “You’re probably right. Hating you kept her away.”
“You see?” I threw my hands up in barely controlled anger. “I’m a fucking genius.”
“Where do you live now?”
“As of a few months ago, I’m back in LA.”
Jake tipped his head in surprise. “That’s permitted?”
“I wasn’t in prison,” I sneered. “I fulfilled my duties, and then, after a while, I decided I was done hiding. And now I’m back.”
He nodded in that deliberate way that let me know he’d been following the case. “How was it?”
“How was what?”
“Testifying?”
“It was super fun,” I said, pushing through the bitterness. “Got to relive it all, piece by piece. Too bad you never got the chance, but then you skipped right over the trial part, didn’t you?”
Jake immediately retaliated. “There was a trial. I found him guilty as charged.”
Oh, he’d definitely found the defendant guilty, and the whole world knew how Jake had chosen to sentence him. An uncomfortable laugh passed between us. Honestly, I couldn’t believe I’d just said that to him. More shocking was his reply. There were clear lines with Jake that most people didn’t dare cross; the kidnapping was at the top of that list. But I wasn’t most people, a fact that became evident years ago when the similarities between the two of us came to light.
“So, you’re back, then,” he said matter-of-factly.
“I mean, yeah.”
“Now what? You’re going to start right back up with my sister like nothing ever happened?”
“Like it would be that easy.”
“It shouldn’t even be an option. You can’t just pop into her life whenever you feel like it.”
“Whenever I feel like it?” I bristled at his depiction. Everything I’d sacrificed had been for her. To give her a better life, away from me and the kid in the mirror. “I’ve stayed away for years. I did my part. She graduated high school. Went off to college. Met that bespectacled nobleman that she claims to be in love with. I’d say she was doing just fine until tonight.”
“Until you show up and make things so much worse.”
