Page 74 of Devoured By the Forbidden Mountain Man

Georgia went to her brother before the officers were ready to move him.

“Can I have a minute?”

The older officer looked at Gavin, who was standing quietly beside his partner, and nodded. “Stay right here.”

Georgia crossed the small distance between them.

Georgia stopped a step away from him. Her gaze dropped to the cuffs, and her hands hovered before she decided where to put them.

Gavin solved it by leaning toward her.

Georgia wrapped her arms around him.

He could not return the hug properly, so he lowered his head and pressed his cheek against her hair.

The party continued beyond them, orange lights glowing against dark windows while people in costumes drank cider and laughed without knowing that two siblings were getting seven lost years back in pieces.

“I’m sorry,” Gavin murmured.

Georgia held him tighter before drawing back enough to look at him. “You’re going to be saying that for a long time. One dramatic apology in a hallway doesn’t cover seven years.”

Georgia touched his face with both hands, studying the changes seven years had put there.

“Whatever happens after tonight, you don’t disappear again. If the case is hard, if bail is hard, if Piper is furious, if I’m furious, you stay where people can find you.”

Gavin’s expression softened at Piper’s name. “She already told me almost the same thing. I plan to listen to both of you.”

Georgia breathed out shakily. “Is she waiting for you?”

“She knows I’m here. I texted her before I came inside, and I told her custody was possible.” A faint smile finally reached his eyes. “She told me if I turned around because I was scared, she would drive to Idaho herself and make me regret it.”

Georgia laughed, and the sound cracked around the tears she had been holding back.

“I definitely like her.”

“She’s going to like you too. I know both of you well enough to risk the prediction.”

The officer shifted slightly, not impatient but signaling that the minute could not become half an hour.

Georgia saw it and touched Gavin’s cheek once more.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too, Sis.”

This time when she hugged him, she loosened her arms before the officer had to prompt her. Gavin was still leaving in cuffs, but she let him go.

When Georgia stepped back, Gavin looked at me.

I expected history in his expression and found it, but there was something else there too. “McCord.”

I waited.

“Thank you for finding me.”

“Georgia found you. I helped.”

His mouth shifted faintly. “That sounds like something she would make sure you clarified.”