JACK STARED OUT at the ocean where the moon cast a streak of white across the water. He’d spent the evening working with Bree and two other agents as they scoured FBI notes, updated files, and input data, all in hopes that they could find a way to put an end to this. With news that the senator was asleep and stable, the family had gone to bed after an exhausting day. Bree had been close behind them. He was enjoying some time alone, sitting out on the veranda of the senator’s house, drinking decaf coffee and working through the data they’d compiled one last time before finally turning in for the night.
He pushed back his computer, dropped his chin to his chest, and slowly moved his head in a circular motion, trying to work out the kinks in his neck. He was thankful the McKenna family had offered him a room at the house so he could stay close and protect Bree. Today had taken him by surprise. He’d been impressed—though not surprised—at how she’d responded to her situation. But he wasn’t sure about the other feelings he was having, seeing her again after all these years.
He’d spent years trying to forget her, telling himself it was okay to leave her in the past. But seeing her again had resurrected all those feelings he thought he’d managed to bury. And now that he was here—with her—he had no idea what to do with them.
The back door of the house creaked open, and his brother stepped out on the veranda.
Jack looked up as Adam crossed the stone flooring. “I thought you’d left to go home.”
“I was almost out the door when I got a call from CCPD. The judge denied Hwang bail. I thought you’d want to know.”
“Good. I’m still going through the contact information on his phone.”
“Anything?”
“Maybe. One of his contacts is Peter Cheng, who was investigated by the FBI about five years ago for Chinese espionage.” Jack sat back in his chair and looked up at his brother. “Surveillance of him went on for almost a year, but in the end, the agents failed to come up with enough evidence to prosecute him, which unfortunately made many believe it was simply an example of racial profiling. But while that might be true of some investigations, I know the agent who led that one, and honestly, I can’t see him bending his principles just to arrest someone. With what I’m finding, I think there’s a good chance the investigation was right on. Cheng could be Bree’s father’s handler.”
“That would be huge.”
Jack nodded. Ramsey’s handler would be the one he passed information on to, primarily through encrypted communication tools, emails left in draft folders, and possibly even in person. In return, Ramsey would be compensated financially. And Ramsey wouldn’t be Cheng’s only asset.
“But we’re still missing something,” Jack said. “We don’t know specifically what her father did that made the Chinese want him eliminated.”
“Well, my suggestion is that you put it aside for now and try to get some sleep. It’s been a long day, and all of this will still be here in the morning.”
“I know. There’s just so much information to go through.”
“Like I said, it will all still be here in the morning.” Adam sat down in the matching wrought iron chair next to him. “You remember that big kingfish I caught the last time you were here?”
Jack glanced up at his brother, surprised by the shift in conversation. “The one you were always exaggerating about its size?”
Adam laughed. “It wasn’t an exaggeration, but yes.”
“You’ll never forget that, will you?”
“That’s just my way of telling you I miss you,” Adam said. “You need to come back more often. A day out on the water arguing over who’s going to make the biggest catch of the day would be nice.”
“I miss you too. I just wish it wasn’t so . . .” Jack searched for the right word. “Complicated.”
“What’s complicated about coming back here more often? Shoot . . . if I had it my way, you’d move back here. The pace is slower, and family is closer, and I’ve been dying to try out your H&H Magnum rifle on the range again.”
Jack laughed. “So now the real reason comes out for your wanting me to come back.”
Adam smiled, but his grin quickly faded. “There are other reasons. Mom and Dad are less than three hours away, you’re near the ocean where you can go boating, windsurfing, hunting, and eat the best seafood for miles. Or if for no other reason than we can hang out together more than once a year.”
The comment stung. He’d been gone for too long, but that didn’t mean moving back here was the answer.
“You’re right about coming back more often,” Jack said. “But I like what I do. I like where I am in life.”
“I just miss having you around. I can hardly remember the last time we just hung out.”
Jack took a sip of his coffee. “I’ll make a deal with you. We’ll set a date before I leave. We’ll see if we can borrow the senator’s boat and take it out for a few days. Just the two of us. We’ll see who can make the biggest catch of the day, eat way too much beef jerky and trail mix, and catch too much sun.”
Adam smiled. “I’d like that.”
“I have to admit, despite everything that’s going on, it’s good to be back. I miss the warm winter, the ocean, and you and your family, of course.”
“You still need to come to dinner before you leave. Kristy’s going to be upset if she doesn’t see you.”
“I have a feeling I’m going to be staying a bit longer than I originally planned.”
“Does any of that have to do with Aubrey?”
Jack hesitated. He’d never told Adam about his feelings toward Bree and, as far as he was concerned, never planned to. That wasn’t a road he wanted to go down right now.
“It’s been a long time, and I hadn’t realized how much I missed her. But I bet you’re enjoying seeing her as well. There doesn’t seem to be any awkwardness between the two of you like I would have expected.”
“We worked things out years ago. Our breakup was mutual, and we’ve managed to stay friends. She’s even come by the house a couple times and met Kristy.”
Jack swallowed the last of his coffee, then pushed it aside. “I’ll be honest. Being back does make me question why I left sometimes. There was a time when I planned to grow old and retire here. I’ll always consider it home. I miss the beaches, the sunshine, and a taqueria on every corner.”
Adam leaned back in his chair. “In case you’re still in doubt, I know why you left. You were in love with her.”
His brother’s words took him by surprise. “With Bree?”
“That is who we were just talking about, isn’t it?”
Jack set his empty coffee cup on the table. He hadn’t expected the conversation to go in this direction. He’d barely admitted his feelings to himself, let alone to anyone else. And that was years ago. Nothing was going to change now.
“If I remember correctly, you were the one in love with her back then, not me,” he said.
“That’s where you’re only partially right. I thought I was falling in love with her—for a while—but you were the one who was in love with her.”
Jack pushed back his chair, feeling the urge to cut their conversation short and leave. His brother had always had a tendency to exasperate him.
“Come on, Jack. You might not have thought anyone else knew, but it was pretty obvious. Maybe not at first, but the day you left . . . I don’t even remember now what you said, but I realized why you were leaving, and it had little to do with that job you took and far more to do with Bree.”
“You never said anything.”
“Maybe I should have, but what was I supposed to say? She was my girlfriend at the time, and I didn’t want to lose her. I just never thought I’d lose you instead.”
Jack’s frown deepened as he shook his head. “You never lost me. We might not be as close as we used to be, but you’re my brother, and that will never change, even though I’m not around as much as I wish I was. And as for Bree . . . We were close friends, but that was it. At least for her. She had no ties to me romantically, and the two of you . . . Things were very different back then. I didn’t want her to know how I felt. Definitely didn’t want you to know.”
“Why not?”
He leaned forward, not sure why they were even having this conversation. “Because she was in love with you, not me. And you felt the same. I figured the two of you were going to get married and live happily ever after. What would have happened if I had said something to her? I couldn’t ask her to leave you. To choose between the two of us. That wouldn’t have been fair to you or her. So in the end, leaving seemed like the right thing to do.”
“But we didn’t end up getting married, and I’ve always been convinced that part of the reason we broke up was because of you.”
Jack turned back to his brother. He was exaggerating the situation—just like one of his fish stories. “Why would you think that? We were never anything more than friends.”
“Maybe not, but I always believed she felt the same way about you.”
“Adam—”
“The two of you were close friends, and I think you were both so afraid of anything going wrong and messing up your friendship that you missed what was right in front of you. I bet you anything that she was in love with you too. I probably should have said something back then once I realized things weren’t going to work out between the two of us. Looking back, I think your leaving was the wake-up call that she’d chosen the wrong brother. I think that’s when something changed in our relationship. But by then . . . I don’t know . . . we both ended up losing her.”
Jack frowned, working to put his emotions back in place. With his brother’s OCD tendencies, once he got fixated on an idea, there was no stopping him. But this was nothing more than another one of his brother’s tall tales. Except this time, it hit on a far more personal level.
Jack shook his head. “You’re wrong. She was never in love with me. I would have known it.”
“Would you have?”
Jack shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with the way the conversation had turned. All that had been years ago. All three of them had moved on, and she had her own life now—one that didn’t include him. Maybe he should have said something all those years ago, but he couldn’t go back and change the past. It was behind them, where it should be.
“Even if what you’re saying was true, it isn’t anymore. It’s way too late for anything to happen between me and Bree. We’re going to solve this case, then I’m heading back home, and she’ll go back to Houston. End of story.”
“Why does it have to be the end of the story?”
Really?
Jack tried to brush away his irritation from his brother’s dogged line of questioning, wondering how he’d suddenly ended up on the receiving end of an interrogation. Just because Adam had found “the one” didn’t mean Jack wasn’t okay being single. He just hadn’t found the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
“It’s the end of the story,” Jack said, “because for starters, we’re both different people than we were back then.”
“I’m not sure things have changed that much. I see the same thing in your eyes when you look at her that I saw all those years ago, and I’m pretty sure I see the same thing in her eyes. You’re both just too stubborn to admit it. And here’s something else.” Adam leaned forward and met his gaze. “Have you ever wondered why she didn’t get married and move on? The only thing that makes sense is that she lost her heart to someone else, meaning you.”
Jack stared out over the water. A cloud had covered half the moon, dimming its light and making him wonder if a storm was coming in. He knew Bree was glad to see him—that wasn’t the issue—but the idea of her having romantic feelings for him was totally off base.
“Feel free to go ahead and ask her,” Jack said. “But she isn’t waiting for me. I can promise you that.”
“What if you’re getting a second chance to see if something could happen between you?”
Jack shook his head. “She never knew how I felt, and somehow telling her now would be—”
“Would be what? Think of it this way. What do you have to lose? Either she felt the way you did, or she didn’t. Why not take a chance and find out?”
“Because I’m not in love with her anymore. That part of my life was good. She was my best friend, and I have a lot of good memories.”
“And how did that friendship work out with you living a thousand miles away? You can’t lose what you don’t have now, and on the other hand, you have a lot to gain if I’m right.”
Jack didn’t answer, because his brother was right about one thing. He’d left to save their friendship, then watched as it slowly crumbled because of the miles between them. But none of that mattered. Not really. Because not only did he have no idea what she felt, he had no idea what he felt anymore.
“All I’m saying is that it looks to me like you’re being given a second chance. Or more accurately, a chance to see what could happen. Like I said, what do you really have to lose?”
Jack’s heart twisted inside his chest, but as far as he was concerned, it made much more sense to simply leave the past where it belonged. In the past. “If she felt something, she would have told me years ago.”
“Like you told her?”
His brother’s words stung.
Adam stood up. “I’m just giving you my two cents, but I still think she’s good for you. I just want you to be happy. I’m heading home now. I’ll call you if I hear anything.”
Jack nodded, grateful for the reprieve. He was happy. And he didn’t need someone in his life to complete him. Not even Bree. He watched his brother head back into the house. Part of him wanted to slug Adam square in the jaw. The man was infuriating. The other part wanted to believe everything he’d just told him.
He grabbed his computer and empty coffee cup and headed back into the house, locking the back door behind him. The house had a high-tech security system, and a couple of CCPD officers were parked outside. At least he didn’t have to worry about Bree being safe tonight.
But did he have to worry about his heart?
She was standing in the kitchen, her hair down around her shoulders, wearing gray sweats and a pink T-shirt while fixing a cup of tea.
She looked up as he turned off the adjoining room light. “Jack? I didn’t think anyone was up. Adam just left.”
“I saw him.”
She held up her mug. “I thought I might try some more of that chamomile tea.”
“Having trouble sleeping?”
“Yes, but I think I’m just too tired to sleep.”
He leaned against the counter while she waited for the tea to steep. “It’s been a long day.”
“With more questions than answers. What’s next?”
“I’ve been working to see what we can get out of Hwang’s phone contacts. Your father isn’t the only person I’m looking for.”
“I spoke with my boss and arranged to take a few more days off. He couldn’t exactly argue when I told him I was going to be helping out the FBI.”
He watched as she squeezed the tea bag into the mug before tossing it into the trash. “Do you ever regret not staying here?”
Her brow furrowed. “In Corpus?”
Jack nodded, not even sure himself where he was going with this conversation. Adam’s suggestion that he tell her how he’d felt all those years ago was crazy.
“Why? Feeling sentimental about being back?”
“Not particularly. I was just talking to Adam, and he told me that I don’t come down here near enough. Made me realize that I miss my family. That I always tend to get way too caught up with my work.”
She took a sip of her tea, then set it down on the counter and caught his gaze. “You’re good at what you do, and you have a job that makes a difference.”
“Maybe, but I just can’t help but wonder what might have happened if I had stayed here.”
And if I’d told you how I felt all those years ago.
But he wasn’t going there.
“Anyway,” he said, steering the conversation back somewhere safe. “Do you have everything you need before I head up to bed?”
“All my stuff was already here, so I’m good. And you?”
“I had my things brought over, so I’m set up in one of the guest rooms.”
She picked up her tea. “I’ll see you in the morning then.”
“Good night. And Bree . . .”
She stopped in the arch leading out of the kitchen. The soft glow of the light made a halo around her head. “Yeah?”
He swallowed hard. “It really is good to see you again.”