“I already have a house guest,” she said bluntly. “I just don’t know what his time frame is.”
“Well,” he said, “believe me, that wedding and rehearsal dinner and related drama has all dropped on the radar to be much less important.”
“For you, yes,” she said, “but for your brother, no.”
He groaned. “Back to that?”
“Yep,” she said cheerfully, “it’s the only way to deal with it.”
“Well, I sure am glad it’s a morning wedding. We’ll go and leave almost immediately.”
“Are you expecting trouble to follow you there?”
“Again, I’m not expecting anything,” he said, “but neither do I want something like that to happen on my watch.”
“Right,” she said, “and I guess, as much as I hate to say it, do you think it’s even safe to go now, what with the shooting?”
He gave her a lopsided grin. “Well, I’d love to say, Hell no, so that I can get out of it,” he said, “but it probably won’t get me out of anything, just cause more negative feedback.”
“But, if getting them killed is part of going to the wedding,” she said, “that’s hardly a good idea.”
“And yet think about it. Will anybody in the family actually believe me?”
“No,” she said immediately, “and that’s a hell no.” She laughed.
“And is there any serious danger? I don’t think so. We’ll have to take great care to make sure that we’re not followed, and, other than that, we’ll hit the wedding and not stick around.”
“That should do it,” she said, thinking about it. “You don’t need to be there for very long.”
“Nope, not planning on it.”
“He did want you for his best man.”
“Well, that won’t happen, since he decided to sleep with my wife.”
“Or before you married his fiancée.”
He stopped and looked at her. “What?”
She looked at him in shock. “Did you not know they were engaged?”
“No,” he said, staring at her, before tugging his gaze back to the road.
“Wow, she really didn’t tell you much, did she?”
“No,” he said, “I was away on missions. Remember?”
“Well, it sounds like you missed a lot while you were away.”
“You think?” he snapped.
She looked at him and asked, “It still bothers you?”
“What bothers me is that I was such a dupe,” Caleb snapped. “I mean, obviously a lack of human decency bothers me that she would do what she did, that he did what he did. Am I hurt by it all? No. I’m angry,” he said. “But I’m angry because I was so stupid. They should have kept me out of their little games.”
“Agreed,” she said with a wince.
“What?” he asked, suspicion in his voice.
“Okay,” she said, “I’m not at all happy to hear that you’re hurt emotionally by it all, after four years.”
“First, some of this information is seconds old to me, and, second, I told you,” he said in exasperation, “that I no longer care in any way, shape, or form.”
“You can say the words,” she said, “but it’s your reactions that count.”
“It’s emotions that count,” he said, “and I can tell you that I’m not feeling anything except anger toward him and her.”
“But we’re never angry for the reason we think we are,” she said.
He glared at her. “Who are you quoting from some damn place? Really? You’ll throw that New Age bullshit at me?”
At that, she burst out laughing, and he could feel his own sense of humor lighten up. It still pissed him off that his brother had been in his married life to that extent. But, as Caleb realized just how much his brother’s and Sarah’s lives were entwined, Caleb realized the two of them were probably better off together. At least then they couldn’t go around hurting anybody else. He thought about it for a long moment as he kept driving.
She finally said, “I’ve got the area on the GPS, and these dirt roads just keep going around and around.”
“Yeah, most of them won’t even show up on GPS either,” he said.
She looked at him. “What’s the problem? You’re looking serious.”
“No,” he said. “I’m just realizing how that stuff with my brother was just games to them. She went out with me to make him jealous. But, once I realized she was pregnant, I was bound and beholden to do the right thing,” he said in a mocking tone, “and she probably didn’t know how to get out of it at that point.”
“I think you’re quite right,” she said. “Remember. She’s pretty damn young.”
“She’s only young emotionally,” he said. “She’s just a couple years younger than you.”
When she kept staring, he looked at her in surprise. “Isn’t she?”
He watched as she tilted her head, thinking about it, and then slowly nodded. “She is. Funny how I never put that together.”
“That’s because she’s immature,” he said.
“Yep, got it.” She looked up at the road ahead and said, “Should be a Y up ahead. Take the right.”
He followed her instructions, and they slowly went around the massive property.
“I’m not really seeing any ins or outs,” she said.
“Oh, they’re there,” he said. “I won’t be going in through the established roads anyway.”
“And how are you planning on getting in, and why are you planning on going anywhere close to that place?” she asked quietly.
“Well, I have to see if the dog is there, don’t I?”
She took a long slow deep breath.
He grinned. “Remember? It’s what I do.”
“I’m trying to forget that right now,” she said.
“Well, you can try, but with me comes that kind of job.”
“I got it,” she said slowly.
“So good,” he said. “I’m coming after this dog. If it’s here, I’ll be taking the dog away.”
“What if it’s happy there?”
“With an asshole for an owner? I don’t think so. The dog has spent its time here chained up and probably beaten to make it hate humanity, so that, when it gets a chance, it’ll go after whatever it was that they want it to go after.”
“Do they deliberately turn these dogs into killers?”
“Sure they
