Tangled Hearts (18 page)

She smiled at his expression, it was so similar to Jake’s. While her brother had the same fair hair and light eyes that she had, his features were rugged and masculine. And he was just as quick to jump to her defense as Jake.

“They’re working on it. They think they’ll find the man soon.”

“You should move back home until they do,” he said firmly.

Susan looked at him. “No.”

“My home's in Texarkana these days,” Brianna said, trying to keep the sudden annoyance under control. She wasn't Josh’s baby sister anymore—she was all grown up.

“Someone should be watching out for you.”

“Get real. I'll look after myself.”

“Don't seem to have done such a great job,” he said, looking at her ankle.

Where had she gone wrong that she gave the men in her life the impression she couldn't take care of herself? Did all sisters go through this? she wondered.

“Someone's looking out for me,” she replied.

“Someone special.” Susan said with a grin.

Josh looked between them. “Someone new?” he asked, putting down his fork to study his sister.

“No. No one special. Actually, no one at all.”

“What do you mean?” He pushed away his empty plate and stared at her, puzzled.

“I mean, I haven’t been seeing anyone at all in more than two years.”

“Oops,” Susan said. She picked up her plate and Brianna's empty one, stacking them and heading for the kitchen. “I'll just see to these,” she muttered leaving the brother and sister staring at each other.

Josh leaned back in his chair, his eyes never leaving hers. “Two years?”

“Uh-huh. Two years. Shall I tell you about it?” she said, her voice deceptively calm. She leaned forward, anger staining her cheeks, her eyes flashing blue fire. “Two years, one month, and twenty-three days. But who’s counting?”

“Brianna—” He began frowning.

“Two years ago, I was dating a wonderful man. I was crazy about him. Absolutely head over heels in love. I’d never been in love before, but I knew it was the real thing. I love him. I loved him then, I love him now. Came here for Thanksgiving that year and then—nothing. He never called me again. When I called him, he didn't return my calls, or brushed me off.”

Josh looked uncomfortable.

Ruthlessly she continued, not giving him a chance to say a word. “I never knew why. So we stopped seeing each other. I could've dated other men, but I didn’t care to spend my time with anyone else. I didn’t want to date. I didn’t want to search for another man to fall in love with. It would never be the same. I love Jake Morgan. I loved him then, I love him now. I will love him until the day I die.”

“Oh, God,” Josh said, rubbing his hand over his face, meeting his sister’s eyes again, as if compelled to do so.

“Right. I’ve been desperately unhappy for a long time, Josh. And you know what? I just found out something that leads me to suspect you had something to do with that unhappiness.”

She wanted to throw something to relieve the escalating tension. She stared at her brother, willing him to refute her charge. Willing him to say he hadn’t a clue what she was talking about.

He stared at his sister for a long moment. “I meant it for the best,” he said at last.

“Whose best? Yours? Certainly not mine.” Tears shimmered in her eyes. She'd so hoped she was wrong, that neither of her brothers had done anything so horrible.

“Josh, I have been desperately unhappy for two years! I tried to hide it so you and Jase wouldn’t worry. There was nothing you could do, so I thought. Now I want to know exactly what happened. What did you do? And why?”

She took a deep breath, trying to calm the raging turmoil.
What had her brother done?

“Brianna, the man’s a cop. You know how dangerous that kind of life is?”

“You don’t like him because he’s a cop?”

“It’s a dangerous career. I want someone better for you. Someone who would show up each night after work, not someone to worry about every day.”

“Is being a cop more dangerous than being a cowboy? More dangerous than a rodeo rider? Give me a break. It’s not any more dangerous than a lot of professions. What am I supposed to do? Wait for a man who has a perfectly safe job, huh, Josh? And then make sure he never leaves the house in case a car careens out of control and kills him?” she asked sarcastically.

Their parents had been killed in just such a manner.

“What did you do, Josh? Besides ruin my chance for happiness. I want to know what you did.”

He shoved back his chair and paced over to the window, leaning his hands on the sill and gazing out into the dark yard.

“Not that much. If he'd cared for you, he'd have told me to go to hell and gone on seeing you. I called him and he backed off.”

“I want to know what you told him.”

She was feeling sick. Her brother had warned Jake off. She still couldn’t believe it.

“I told him to stay away from my baby sister. That’s what.”

Josh slammed his hand down on the sill and turned.

“Someone has to watch out for you. You're too easy to take advantage of. You have a lot of money behind you. This ranch does very well. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t some fortune hunting opportunist looking for a free ride. Cops don’t make a lot of money.”

“I don’t believe it.”

She stood and limped over until she faced Josh. Angrily she poked his chest with her index finger, afraid she would lose all self-control.

“Just because Jeannie tried to take you for all you had doesn’t mean everyone else in the world is cut from the same cloth. Just because your fiancée was a gold digger doesn’t mean any man who was interested in me would be. Damn you, how dare you interfere with my life?”

“I dared because I was worried about you.”

“I’m a grown woman, perfectly capable of choosing my own path in life. I don’t need or want any interference from my brother. Just because you were born a couple of years before me doesn’t give you any rights over me, now or in the future. It’s none of your business whom I see, whom I date or whom I marry. You got that clear, cowboy?” She poked his chest again.

He captured her finger and moved it away. “I did it for you, to protect you.”

She snatched her hand away. “I don’t know why you ever thought you had the right to interfere in my life, but you were
not
doing it for me. I don’t need your protection! Was it a power trip or just jealousy that your sister found someone special and you were alone? Or were you just lashing out wherever you could because of Jeannie?”

He stared at her. “Leave Jeannie out of it. She had nothing to do with it. I thought you and Tom Bolton might make a go of it,” he retorted. “He’s got his own spread now. You and he were always close. At least I know he’s not some fortune hunter.”

“Tom and I were friends when we were in
high school.
I haven’t seen him in years. In case it escapes your attention, my life is now in Texarkana at the college. Maybe one day in Austin at the university there, but I would no more want to marry a rancher than I would want to be one.”

The enormity of what her brother had done was almost too much to grasp.

“Did you tell Jake I was seeing someone else?”

Josh gritted his teeth, his jaw muscles jumped. “I told him you were practically engaged to a man you’d known all your life. I told him you might be having a fling with him, but when the time came to marry, he wasn’t even in the running.”

She took a deep breath, the hurt almost too deep to bear. She'd expected support from her brothers, not betrayal. “You stay out of my life from now on, is that clear? I don’t want to see you again. I don’t want to talk to you for a long time.
Stay out of my life
!”

She snatched her hand away and stomped over to the coat rack. Yanking her jacket down, she donned it and turned.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know your feelings went so deep,” he said, his expression contrite and sincere.

“Sorry isn’t good enough, Josh. You never asked, did you? You just took charge and tried to run my life. I have spent the past two years alone. Maybe I’ll spend the rest of my life alone because of your blasted interference. Stay away from me from now on!”

She ran in to the kitchen.

“We're leaving,” she told Susan.

“Right now?” Her friend was startled. Though she had to hear the yelling voices.

“Exactly right now!” Brianna said.

Josh came into the kitchen. “No, don't go. Not like this. Talk to me Brianna. Let me see what I can do to make it right.”

“You stay out of my life!'

“I'll get my coat.” Susan said quietly.

Susan drove toward Texarkana, glancing once or twice at her friend. “Want to talk about it?”

“Not yet, I'm so angry I could spit nails!” Brianna replied. “Sorry to put you through this. You're a good friend.”

“Yep, so remember that when you need someone to vent to.”

Brianna nodded. Then despite her earlier words, she began to tell Susan all she'd discovered.

Ending with, “I can't believe my own brother would do such a thing to me.”

Susan glanced at her again. “You're kidding, right? Your brothers have tried to run your life since your folks died. Just because you're all grown up doesn't mean they recognize that. Be glad it wasn't worse.”

“I don't' see how it could be worse.”

“Me either, but I bet it could be”

Brianna laughed at that. It didn't diminish her anger, but it did give her a second's respite from the churning adrenaline.

She wasn’t sure how she was going to handle Jake, but she would set him straight on a few things the next time she saw him.

She also knew it would be a long time before she got over her anger or the sense of betrayal she felt from her brother. Far from having her back, he'd caused a major rift in her life.

Or had he? Had Jake used that excuse as a means of getting out of a relationship that was turning more serious than he wanted?

She loved him. He'd never said the words to her.

When she reached home, some of the tension had abated. She thanked Susan for being there for her, but told her she would be fine on her own that night.

Entering the house, Brianna saw there was a message on her answering machine. Listening she heard Jake's voice asking her to call him.

She didn’t want to call him. She wanted to see him. Tomorrow.

In the meantime, she had a lot to think about.

One thing Josh had said echoed over and over in her mind. If Jake had really cared about her, he'd have told her brother to go to hell and continued seeing her. But he hadn't.

She didn’t like the thought, but maybe Josh was right. Maybe Jake really didn’t care for her the way she wanted him to. Maybe he didn’t love her the way she loved him.

Jake called just as she was dropping off to sleep.

“Where were you today?” he asked abruptly.

“I had errands to run,” she replied vaguely. She was not going to tell him about Josh over the phone. She wanted to talk to him face-to-face. Maybe then she’d find out how he really felt.

“Driving all right?”

“Susan drove.” She clutched the phone tightly, wishing she knew what to do, what to say.

Would Jake have stopped seeing her just on Josh’s say-so?

“What’s your schedule tomorrow?”

“My first class isn’t until ten, but I'm going into the office around nine.”

She wanted to see him but now wanted to stall. Once she confronted him with what Josh had done—then what?

If her brother’s comment was right on, it'd make no difference to Jake.

“We think we have a lead. You have someone there tonight? It'll probably all be over tomorrow.”

“Who?”

“Tomorrow.” With that, he hung up.

Blast the man, how did he expect her to sleep tonight worrying about whom they suspected? One of her students? Most likely, since it followed so soon after discovering the grades had been changed in her calculus class. But who?

Brianna dressed with care the next morning, trying to cover the dark circles beneath her eyes. She usually wore woolen slacks to work since it was so cold in winter. But today she chose a dusty pink woolen sweater paired with a dark brown skirt. She brushed her hair until it gleamed with highlights, applying enough makeup to hide the evidence of her sleeplessness. Dressing up had nothing to do with seeing Jake today.

The morning dragged by. He did not come, or call, before her first class. She watched the back of the classroom during the hour, thinking he might drop in as he had before.

He did not.

Working through lunch so she wouldn’t miss him, she was beginning to worry when he finally showed up at her door.

“Hi.” She looked up. Her heart raced and her hand grew damp. She'd practiced what she would say when she saw him, but suddenly her mind went blank. All she could do was stare at him and feel the electricity sparking through her. Would she ever get tired of looking at him? Ever stop wanting him?

“Hi. Can I close the door?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

At her nod, he shut the door behind him and walked over to the chair across the desk from her.

“You found him,” she said, noticing the seriousness of his expression.

“We found him. Alan Dalton. Know him?”

Slowly she shook her head. “The name doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Not surprising. He wasn’t one of your students, though he does attend the university. He’s Peggy Albert’s boyfriend.”

Instant understanding. “He changed her grade so she could keep her scholarship.”

“Bingo. Apparently, without the scholarship she was out of school. Alan didn’t want that for her or himself.”

Brianna frowned. “So he risked jail to keep her in school?”

Jake nodded. “That’s it. We’ve got a complete confession—breaking and entering, vandalism, malicious mischief, assault and battery, tampering with the computer, theft.”

He shook his head. “He’s twenty-one studying computer science. That’s how he knew how to hack the college computer and alter the grades. He switched more than one to confuse the issue if anyone suspected anything. Then he had to get your grade sheets to make verification that much more difficult.”