No Regrets (Bomar Boys #1) (34 page)

Cash scratched his jaw, “Yeah, I mean no, I mean… you’re not intruding.”

“Good. Good.”

He looked at his brother as the other man glanced around the apartment. He was fidgety, clearly nervous, and Cash couldn’t blame him for that. He had to swipe his hands against his jeans since they’d started to sweat. He’d thought about seeing his older brother again a hundred times but somewhere, in the back of his mind, he hadn’t truly believed he ever would.

Remy had been gone for ten years. He hadn’t been in the military that entire time. He hadn’t been deployed overseas for ten straight years or stationed somewhere he couldn’t come for a visit. He’d left the Army at some point and instead of coming home, he’d stayed gone.

Of course, Cash only knew that much from the sporadic phone calls he received every couple of months. If the calls came more frequently for a while, it was only because Remy had drunk-dialed. Lately they’d gone nearly an entire year without hearing from him and then he’d called Colt out of nowhere a couple of weeks ago and now there was this. He was here.

“You said you talked to Colt?”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, we talked.”

Cash eyed him skeptically, “He knew you were coming?”

“Nah, not exactly. He just said we could talk after I helped him out so I thought…” Remy shrugged, shifting around to look around the apartment again, “Nice place you boys got yourself. Good to see you got out of the ol’ homestead.”

Something painful dug into his gut at the mention of their childhood home, “You’re glad we got out of there huh?”

He’d left them there, the angry voice in the back of his mind took the opportunity to speak up. Remy had left them with their abusive, alcoholic father. Left them with their absent, druggie mother. He’d left them and he’d never looked back.

“Yeah, course, I…” Remy met his eyes for the first time since he’d come inside and a hundred things he couldn’t read stared back at him but there was one that he could, guilt, “There’s so much I want to tell y’all but I don’t deserve to have ya hear me out. I know that.”

Did he deserve a chance to explain himself? For leaving them when they were helpless? For never coming back for them? For ten years of almost complete radio silence? He knew what his twin would say. No. And that gave him pause as something he’d missed clicked into place.

Remy had spoken to Colt already. What had he said about helping him with something? Some sort of situation that Colt had asked him to help with and in return, his twin had told him they could talk.

A cold chill swept down his spine and the same worries that had been twisting in his gut earlier took hold again. Colt had been keeping something from him. He’d known that. He’d known it was bad when he’d heard of his involvement with their cousins too. But he’d never thought that whatever was going on could make Colt turn to
Remy
before he talked to him about it.

“What’d you do for Colt?”

“Huh?” Remy’s dark brows furrowed, confusion taking over the intensity of his face.

“You said you did something for Colt. That’s why you’re here. He told you that he’d talk to you if you did something for him and I want to know what it was you did. You want to talk, start talking about that.”

Remy shrugged, “I did what he asked. I delivered the message. That fucker isn’t going to be threatening any of us ever again.”

He frowned and looked his older brother over again, more closely this time. He checked him the same way he checked Colt when he came home, looking for signs of a fight. There was a small bruise on the underside of Remy’s jaw but there was no way of knowing what it had come from. The bruises on his knuckles were far more telling.

Bruised knuckles. Red and angry skin broken from repeatedly punching something or someone. He knew the look. His own still looked bad from his most recent bought with his dark nature, but not that bad.

Remy had delivered a message the Bomar way. He’d been asked to hand out a beating. He’d used his fists to right some perceived wrong. It wasn’t anything new, not in their family. It happened every day. But usually he didn’t have to worry about the role his brothers were playing in those dangerous games.

Remy had been gone, long gone and he’d never given a thought to trying to protect him. Colt on the other hand, he’d made the mistake of assuming was safe. Just how wrong had he been?

He’d thought they decided to stay out of the dark family business and that was that. No boosting cars or trading in weapons or drugs. He’d thought the closest they ever came to illegal were the underground fights their cousins ran but he’d been wrong. Colt was into something and now he’d dragged Remy into it from ten years and hundreds of miles away.

“What’d you do for him?”

Remy gave him that confused look again, “You know what I did.”

No, he didn’t, but clearly Remy thought he did. He had to play along. If his older brother figured out that he was in the dark on this, he would snap his jaw shut and stop talking. He would assume whatever reason Colt had for keeping him ignorant of their actions was a good one and he wouldn’t say another word. That was another part of the Bomar way, don’t reveal anything to anyone unless they’re already on the inside. He needed Remy to think he was already in.

He shook his head “I want to hear you say it.”

He wasn’t sure what he expected but Remy didn’t fidget or shrink in any way. If anything, he stood taller. His slumped shoulders went back. It was a position that could have looked proud but Cash knew better because he’d seen it all his life with Colt. It was defensive.

“I did what I’m good at, what the Army trained me to do with the sharp edges I was born with. I delivered the message I was asked to deliver in the most violent, hurtful ways imaginable. Is that what you want to hear?”

“No.”

Remy smirked, “Then tell me little brother, what is it you want to know?”

“I want to know what Colt sent you to do… and why.” He crossed his arms over his chest, waiting.

“Huh, well that’s interesting.” Remy mirrored the position and it was like looking at a fun-house mirror, the image so similar to his own but twisted, stretched taller and thinner and dark everywhere he was light. “You’re really gonna play it like you don’t know?”

Cash refused to budge. He kept himself perfectly still. Remy didn’t know him or Colt anymore. If he wanted to imply something about them, he’d have to do better than that.

“It was just as easy as he said it’d be.” Remy finally shrugged, “Slipped right in, nobody even looked at me twice. Course I had to get me one of those fancy lookin’ suits but Colt was right, resembled enough nobody looked twice when I went in.”

“Fancy suit?”

“To get into the ivory tower. That rich fuck hardly ever came out alone so I had to go in to get to him. Took me a couple of days but I managed it. Recon and intelligence, thank you very much United States Army.”

Ivory tower? Where had he heard that term before? Cash sucked in a startled breath as the memory hit him. That was what Colt had called the apartment in Houston where Jemma had lived with that abusive bastard.

His mind whirled as everything he thought he knew about the situation twisted. He’d thought Remy was helping Colt with something local, something to do with whatever business he shared with Lincoln. He hadn’t been thinking of himself or Jemma at all because why would he? They weren’t in trouble. They were fine.

But if that were true then Remy wouldn’t be making any sense, and he was. Horribly, he was. The comments about the ivory tower tipped him off but there was more. He’d been in Houston. Cash knew that. He’d said he needed a suit to slip inside so nobody would notice him. That had to be because Remy resembled that bastard enough not to draw attention.

But what had he said about threats?

“You beat the shit out of Hoyt Bates.”

Remy snorted, “There it is. I knew you were playing dumb though I don’t know why. Colt sent me to help you and your girl out so you could keep your hands clean. I wasn’t expecting a thank you or anything just for the record.”

Cash felt his fists clench at his sides as his assumption was proved true. Colt had sent Remy after that rich fucker without telling him. But why? What was he missing? The last time they’d even talked about it, they’d both agreed it was unlikely the guy would come after them. Had that changed?

“Did you do more than beat him up?”

“I didn’t kill him if that’s what you’re asking. He was alive and breathing though he was wishing he wasn’t by the time I left.” Remy stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out something small and rectangular, “This is the only copy of his supposed evidence against you two idiots. And really? What were you thinking walking out the front door covered in blood? It’s no wonder you weren’t picked up and thrown in jail on the spot.”

Cash caught the small item his brother tossed at him and frowned. It was a flash drive.
Evidence
. His brain whirled all over again. He could just imagine what was on it. In a building like that one, no doubt there was security equipment to capture every person coming and going. He didn’t know if there was also video evidence from inside that apartment, assumed there wasn’t because that would show the bastard hitting Jemma, but even circumstantially it would have been enough to put him away.

He hadn’t thought about it. Should have, but he hadn’t. He’d thought the guy was too weak to try any sort of revenge plan but clearly he’d been wrong.

“This has everything on it?”

“No, not everything. Colt said your girl wanted the images of her trashed so those are deleted and gone forever.”

That sick feeling twisted his insides again and his fists shook as his anger intensified, “The images of Jemma are deleted?”

“Look, I had to watch some of it just to make sure it was all deleted but don’t freak out, okay? That sick fuck ain’t ever goin’ to see that footage again because he may never see
anything
again but neither will anyone else. You have my word on that.”

Not just evidence against him and Colt then. There had been something with Jemma too. He seethed with hatred and anger but he tried to keep his brain working and not shut down. Remy had already hurt the bastard, badly from the sound of it, so there was nothing he could do on that front.

But he was just as angry that his brother had kept him in the dark when he was the one that had brought the threat into their life… him and Jemma.

“Jemma wanted the images deleted?” He ground out through clenched teeth.

“That’s what Colt said.” Remy shrugged, “Really man, I know I surprised you showing up here but I thought you’d want to hear firsthand that it was taken care of. I owe you guys more than I can ever repay, that’s what I told Colt on the phone and I meant it. It’s the least I could do. He won’t be threatening any of us ever again.”

“I…” He scratched his head, tried to breathe, “You shouldn’t have gotten involved.”

“You’re my family.”

His anger made the words too easy, “And that means something to you all of a sudden?”

Remy flinched as if he’d thrown a punch, “It always did. I had to leave, Cash. I… I couldn’t be here with all the fuckin’ lies anymore.”

“Yeah, so you took off to save yourself.”

“I had to and I couldn’t take you with me. You were kids.”

“Yeah, we were, but we’re not anymore.” He shook his head, “I don’t know why Colt called you for your help but this wasn’t your fight. It was mine. Jemma’s mine and if she’s threatened I’m the one that’s supposed to protect her.”

“You’re mad at me because I took you out of the fight?” Remy scoffed, rubbing his bruised jaw. “Of course you are, because you had no fuckin’ clue Colt called me did you? That little shit.”

“Look…”

“No, you look, I didn’t make that call. This was all Colt’s doing.” His brother paused, narrowed his eyes, “He and your girl decided to keep you in the dark. Not me.”

That brought him up short and he paused in his pacing. He hadn’t even realized he’d started to pace. Back and forth across the small living room. His heart was thumping like he’d run a marathon and his blood was rushing in his ears. His body was gearing up for a fight and he knew all the signs too well.

“You’ve spoken to Jemma?”

“Nah, course not. Colt wouldn’t let me near your girl.” Remy paused, “The only part she had in any of this was sending me those messages so I’d know what I was looking for. That’s it. I don’t think she even knew who she was sending them to, just someone Colt said could help.”

It was like all the air was sucked out of the room. All he could hear was the roaring of blood in his ears, the thump of his heart in his chest. He couldn’t think, could barely even breathe.

Jemma had known. She’d known about the threats. But of course she had, that terrible voice in the back of his head hissed.

She was the one with ties to that bastard. She was the one that had pulled him into their lives. She was the one that must have received the threats. And instead of confiding in him, instead of telling him about the trouble, instead of asking him for help, she’d kept it a secret.

Worse, she’d involved his brothers instead. She’d dragged them into the mess. Not just Colt but Remy too. The brothers that he would have done anything to protect, she had put in danger by including them in some plot to be rid of Bates once and for all. She’d kept secrets from him, had them keep secrets from him. She’d lied to him. They’d all lied to him.