Nick was silent for a minute then he shook his head. “That makes no sense at all. Try again.”
Josh felt tears of frustration slip down his cheeks before he could blink them back.
“Shit. Go.” Nick released him and stepped back. He stopped and picked up Josh’s
phone. “Here.”
Josh took the phone then turned and unlocked his car. His hands were shaking so bad he wondered if he should drive, but he didn’t have any choice. He got in the car and slammed the door shut, not giving his not-so-friendly neighbourhood stalker another glance.
The car started and Josh slapped his seatbelt on as he was backing out of the parking space.
He wasn’t surprised when a big truck pulled up behind him and proceeded to follow him until he turned off onto his brother’s drive. Then Josh promptly forgot about Nick as he saw the flailing arms and angry expressions of the three people on the porch.
He sped down the drive, his little car groaning and scraping over bumps, threatening to get hung up in the ruts. He hit the brakes and threw the gear in park, then unbuckled and jumped out of the car. His right foot slid, his ankle twisting painfully, but Josh didn’t let it slow him.
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“Stop!” Josh shouted, trying to be heard over the cursing and screaming coming from Justin, Annabelle, and Evan. Damn Nick for holding him up! And damn himself for being a clumsy idiot. “Justin! Shut the hell up!” He wasn’t sure who was saying what, because the other three were all hollering at the same time, but he knew his brother and the temper they both had. Josh’s just took longer to kick in, but once he was mad, he tended to stay that way while Justin’s anger always flamed bright and fast then passed quickly. Of course, that meant Justin blew up and said all sorts of cruel crap that he later had to apologise for.
But Josh took one look at Evan’s stricken face and wondered what his brother had said and whether there’d ever be an apology that could undo the hurt he saw in Evan’s sad eyes.
Whoever the idiot was who said confession was good for the soul didn’t know jackshit. Josh shot up the steps and flung himself between Justin and Evan at the same time Annabelle did.
The impact of her shoulder catching him mid-back sent Josh’s breath shooting from his lungs, but he didn’t notice, not when Justin was trying to side-step him, and one of Justin’s big hands was clenched into a fist.
“Stop being an idiot, Justin, before it’s too fucking late!” Josh punctuated his order with the only thing he could think to do to get his brother’s attention. He slapped Justin, cutting off the curses and accusations he was spewing. Josh felt his knees quiver at the look his brother turned on him.
Fuck, I’m gonna die!
Justin blinked several times and his mouth dropped open. “What the hell?” he
spluttered, and Josh concluded that no one had tried slapping some sense into Justin in far, far too long. “You hit me!”
“Justin,” Annabelle growled as she stepped forward.
Josh glanced at her and shook his head. “Take Evan inside. Justin is coming with me for a twenty-four hour time out.”
“No, I’ll leave,” Evan said from behind him, and Josh gave Justin a glare he hoped conveyed the promise of castration if his brother dared to open his mouth. Then Josh turned and caught one of Evan’s arms as Annabelle grabbed the other.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Annabelle said before Josh could. “Justin’s being an ass and he can go pout until he realises how much he’s fucked up and how much he needs to grovel at your feet. And mine.”
Josh almost felt sorry for his brother, but Evan…Evan looked so hurt. Josh couldn’t feel sorry for the man who’d put such a hopeless look in Evan’s eyes, even if that man was WHAT MATTERS MOST
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Justin. Josh shook his head and pointed towards the door. “No. If my brother wants to play the wounded party here, then he can come spend the night with me. After all, he’s throwing a fit over not being told about something that happened to me, right? Because”—now Josh turned to glare at Justin—“he’s furious that I was endangered by a pedo, and he’s wanting to hurt you, Evan, because
you
protected
me
, and you did it without winding up spending twenty to life in prison or getting the needle. Obviously my brother has lost his marbles.”
“That’s not—” Justin began but Josh wasn’t giving him a chance to dig himself a
deeper hole.
“Shut the fuck up, brother mine, and get in the car before you drive away the two people who, other than me, love you the most in this world.”
“Josh, really, I’ll leave, it’s only fair.”
Josh pointed to Justin. “Get in my car, now.” Then he turned back to address Evan’s comment. “There is nothing,
nothing
fair about you being punished for trying to protect me and Justin. We both know that eight years ago, Justin wouldn’t have handled that whole incident well at all. He likely would still be in prison, and that’s not an exaggeration. He never has been good at thinking first then acting or ranting. Just do me a favour, Ev, Annabelle?” Josh waited until they both nodded. “Just try to remember, he’s not a horrible guy. He’s just protective, and not only of me. I imagine part of the roaring, snarling beast in him is pissed that Evan put himself in danger by confronting my would-be seducer. The asswipe’s dad was very wealthy, and he wouldn’t have hesitated to crush Evan, Justin, or me—or all of us, if he thought it’d make his son happy.”
Josh said a quick goodnight and jogged over to his car, wincing as each step made his ankle twinge with pain. He got in and glared at Justin, then felt his anger melt a little at the dawning realisation on Justin’s face.
“Don’t even consider getting out,” Josh muttered when Justin reached for the door handle. “Just buckle up and resign yourself to a sleepless night at my place. You need to cool off, and Evan needs to recover a bit from whatever it was you said to him, and Annabelle was about ready to rip your balls off. So yeah, you get a time out.”
“I told him he was a liar and I couldn’t trust him and if I couldn’t trust him…” Justin rushed the words out. Josh smacked himself in the forehead, completely unsurprised but still flabbergasted.
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“Are you ever going to learn to just…shut up when you’re mad?” Josh shook his head as he turned the car around and headed down the drive. “Really, Jus, look at how you’re acting now. And it’s not over me, ‘cause I am an adult now and not in any danger from”—
Josh thought about Nick, and finished his sentence with less confidence than he would have liked—“anyone.”
Justin groaned and dropped his head to his hands. “I know, but Josh, why didn’t you tell me?”
Josh snorted and pulled the car onto the road. “Uh, because what I said was true, and Evan knew it too. You would have tried to kill Crane, and we
needed
you! If your temper wasn’t so volatile, we would have felt able to come to you, Jus, but you make it very hard to confide in you when we have to worry what the repercussions may be.”
“I try,” Justin rasped, and Josh couldn’t miss the silvery streaks trickling down his brother’s cheeks any more than he could miss hearing the sniffle or the strain in his voice.
“That’s why I don’t get too close to people, why I was afraid to really give Annabelle a chance. I know I say things when I’m mad I shouldn’t, and I hurt people I love, and how long are they gonna want to put up with that?”
Josh’s heart broke a little even as he noticed a vehicle behind him. Was it Nick? Josh couldn’t tell in the darkness, and really, what did it matter if it was? He shrugged the questions away and focused on his brother. “Evan’s put up with it for years, hasn’t he? And surely he’s lost his temper and said stuff he didn’t mean. People do that, no couple—or ménage—can live together in perfect harmony all the time. We’re all human, and we screw up. I can remember once when Evan broke up with you, years ago, but it was over something stupid.”
Justin’s laughter was watery, but it gave Josh hope. “Yeah, it was actually right before…before you went to work for the Cranes’. He dumped me ‘cause he’d had a bad day and we got into an argument over whose turn it was to do the dishes. That’s why to this day we try to do them together.”
Josh nodded as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “See? Y’all got past that, and y’all will get past this, too. You’re gonna have to grovel, I wasn’t joking about that, and maybe you’ll be humbled enough to be more careful next time you get mad. I can tell you for sure Annabelle won’t let you and Evan split up. She’s keeping you both, and nothing will change that.”
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“I can grovel,” Justin said with an enthusiasm that Josh was sure even Evan in his distraught state would have found endearing. “Maybe you should take me back and—”
“Nope,” Josh cut off his brother without having to think about it. “Take tonight and tomorrow to think it through, come up with the perfect apology, and mean it. Remember this night the next time you’re tempted to throw a hissy. And make the apologies great, because I don’t want you as a permanent couch resident. You’ll cramp my wild bachelor ways.”
Justin didn’t laugh but he did grin as he leant back in his seat. “I can do that. I
will
do that. Hey Josh,” Justin leant up and craned his neck around as he peered out the back windshield. “You think it’s strange that vehicle’s been following us since right after we pulled out from home? You’ve taken two turns since then, and it’s still behind us. Why don’t you take this left up here?”
Josh squashed the butterflies swarming in his stomach. “No, I think it’s just someone who happens to be going in the same direction. Don’t be so paranoid.” Josh took the left and cringed when the other vehicle followed.
Shit.
“Hey Josh,” Justin said quietly, but Josh wasn’t fooled. He knew that low, soft tone meant trouble. “There something you want to tell me before I have you pull in at this convenience store and have a chat with whoever that is behind us?”
“Mm, no?” Josh refused to look at his brother. “I’m telling you he isn’t—”
“He?” Justin asked even more quietly.
“Or she,” Josh said as beads of sweat popped up on his forehead and above his top lip. “Whoever it is—”
“Then turn,” Justin ordered.
Josh couldn’t think of an argument not to, so he turned into the parking lot of the closed convenience store, praying the other vehicle would pass on by. He nearly wept with relief when it did, until it pulled in the second entry way and parked a dozen feet away. Big black truck with Montana plates.
Shit!
“Just someone going the same way?” Justin snapped as he reached for his seat belt. “I don’t think so,” Josh snapped back, flooring the gas pedal. His little car groaned but the tires spun and they were peeling out in a semi-respectable hail of pebbles, dust, and screeching as rubber left marks on asphalt. “You’ve already had one temper tantrum tonight that caused damage, you are
not
going to have another.”
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Justin glared at him, but Josh wasn’t a kid any more, and Justin needed to get that through his head.
“I do know who that is, and I do know why he’s following me, and it’s fine—”
although he wasn’t sure about that, “and it’s none of your business, either.” Josh wasn’t sure about
that
, either, but there was no way he was letting Justin handle his problems. “We get to the apartments, you’re gonna march your happy ass up to my place and go wait for me inside. If it makes you feel better, you can watch from the living room window, but you
will
not
interfere. Just for once stop thinking of me as your little brother, and realise I am, actually, a man.”
Justin looked behind them, no doubt watching the truck follow them. He turned and glanced at Josh, giving him a bare dip of chin. “All right, I’ll try, that’s all I can promise, especially when I think there’s more to it than what you’re telling me. Like, I’m thinking this is the guy who put that big ol’ mark on you.”
Geez, Justin is never going to forget that huge hickey Nick planted on my neck before I racked
him!
“I put a mark or two on him, too,”
like a kneecap to his balls.
“It’ll be fine, I’m telling you.
Let me be a grownup for once.”
Josh didn’t believe Justin was capable of doing that, but true to his word, his brother hopped out of the car and walked away, only stopping once to watch as the black truck pulled into the parking lot. Josh got out and made a shooing motion with his hand, and Justin continued without looking back again, although Josh did see him peering through the window once he’d gone upstairs. Then Josh turned away as he heard Nick get out of his truck. Time to see what stupid game the other man was really playing at.
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God, Josh had just had it with stupid men and stupid egos and stalkers and bad days and getting hurt! He now understood what it meant when someone said ‘But he seemed so normal, then he just…snapped’.
Josh was damn well ready to do some snapping himself. Necks, nuts, knees—he
wasn’t feeling particularly picky as he waited for Nick to approach. It wasn’t until he realised he’d actually parked by the one working light in the parking area that it dawned on him
he
would have to go to Nick.
God forbid he
see
the stalker, harder to identify him in court that way. “Stupid freaking—” Josh bit his lip to keep from spewing more ugly words. Hadn’t there already been enough of that tonight? Still, he was less than civil when he stomped—okay, hobbled, but stomped sounded so much better in his mind—over to where Nick leaned against the bumper of his truck. A glance behind him assured Josh Nick had picked this spot for more than just the darkness. Anyone looking out of Josh’s windows would see shit-all that happened.
Justin would surely be pounding down the cement stairs in under five minutes. Josh glared hard up at his brother staring down at him then turned back to glare at Nick as Josh made his way between parked cars to reach the man.