Page 109 of Everything We Found

“Do you know where those assholes were holding her?”

“Only that she was held with some DEA agent’s family.”

Thomas lifted his head. “Kane Mitchell’s?”

James shrugged. Names probably hadn’t been released to the public. He’d never forgive Kane for giving up his and Nadia’slocation at the safe house, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been worried about the agent’s family. He hoped his wife and kids were safe at home.

“Ruiz had an elaborate network set up. Guards, agents, so many people had been bought off or families kidnapped to force their cooperation. He had people keeping him off-grid, moving him from one location to the next, edging him closer to the border where he could meet up with his sons and they’d fly him home. It’s been all over the news,” James shared.

Thomas studied his face, the lines that came from age as well as from horrific trauma, and a paralyzing grief settled over him. “I’m so sorry about what I did to you.” James narrowed his eyes. “I took so much from you.”

James moistened his lips. “You did what you had to do.”

He shook his head. “No, I disregarded everything. I saw one option and ran with it. I’m sorry?—”

“Tom—”

“Shut up and let me fucking apologize.” He took a deep breath, fighting the exhaustion that wanted to drag him under. “I’m sorry.”

James looked at him for a long moment. “I don’t hate you.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t. I have a good life. A very good life. Look, uh…” He scratched his temple. “If it’s because Aimee and I didn’t end up together, don’t beat yourself up about it. I loved her, I really did. But I’d done some things that we kind of ignored dealing with. Sooner or later we would have had to confront our issues, and… I can’t honestly say we would have lasted. Had we married, we probably would have divorced by now.”

The air left Thomas. “Wow. Okay.” He scratched at the short beard that had grown in. “Didn’t see that coming.”

“Aimee’s good with it. We’re both happier with the people we’re with than we ever would have been with each other.”

Thomas breathed through the burn in his throat. “All right. I still think you hate me.”

“No. I don’t. But there is something I need you to understand.”

Thomas lifted his brows.

“You don’t have to protect me anymore.”

“I will always?—”

The chair scraped backward as James abruptly stood. He laid a hand on Thomas’s shoulder and looked him straight in the eye. “I know this has to do with the promise you made me when we were kids, when Dad used to take the belt to us. When Phil would beat me up. Never again sacrifice yourself for my sake.Please.I release you of that responsibility.”

“James, I?—”

“I love you. Just be a brother. Can you do that for me?”

Thomas inhaled a shaky breath. He nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”

James gently clapped his shoulder and sat back down.

When Thomas felt like he could talk again, he asked, “How’s Mom handling what happened to Phil?”

James just shook his head. Thomas took that as not good.

Movement dragged both their gazes to the door. Claire entered the room wearing a loose scalloped shirt and haunted eyes. For a woman never known for her affection, she walked over to them, laying her good hand on James’s shoulder and her bandaged hand on Thomas’s shin. James reached up and clasped their mother’s fingers.

Claire’s eyes fluttered. “Give me a moment with Thomas, James.”

Thomas’s eyes widened.