Pure Bliss

  “Yeah, well, you’re a stubborn asshole.” Noah punched his brother straight in the gut.

  James groaned, his breath huffing out of his chest. “Just go. Just get the fuck off my land.”

  “You would like that, wouldn’t you, you coward?” Noah got to his knees just as his brother stood back up. They circled each other like two animals waiting to attack.

  “I don’t need you. That’s what you don’t seem to understand. I have a partner.”

  Noah was sick of being told how unnecessary he was. “No, you have Trev. Trev already has a partner. You have a friend who you own a business with. It’s not the same thing.”

  “Well, I don’t need anything else,” James argued.

  “Really? Then why have you spent the last several years sharing women with Logan and that Wolf guy? You’ve spent years trying to replace me. It’s not going to work. There’s only one me. I might be a little shit, but no one else is your brother.”

  “You are no blood of mine.” James stopped and stared at Noah, his eyes dark.

  Noah shook his head. The words hurt, but they weren’t a lie. “No. I’m not your blood. But I am the other fucking half of your soul, and no amount of blood would trump that.”

  James’s whole body sagged. He slumped to the ground, his ass hitting the dirt. He wiped his hand across his face, coming away with sweat and blood. “It doesn’t matter. Noah, stay or go. It doesn’t matter.”

  Noah understood the underlying words. It didn’t matter now because she was gone. How had the last several years affected his brother? James had had to scratch and claw to keep the ranch afloat only to watch a fire take a good portion of his acreage. He’d had to watch their dad fade away. He’d had to make the difficult decision to sell half his land. Noah looked at his brother. He didn’t not care about Hope. He simply believed that everything would go wrong in the end.

  Noah dragged a deep breath into his body. “I’m not going anywhere. I made a mistake by leaving in the first place. I knew it three days after I got married. I realized it wouldn’t work because she didn’t want me. She wanted someone she’d made up in her head.”

  “She wanted your ten million dollars,” James pointed out.

  “Yeah, well, she got it.”

  There was a long pause before James finally spoke again. “Why the fuck should I believe you?”

  Noah sank down to the dirt beside his brother. He might not be a Glen by birth, but now he realized this land was his birthright, too. He touched the grass beneath him. It was cool against his skin, but in the summer, sometimes the very ground radiated the heat of the sun. In the winter, it would be blanketed with snow and the world would look pristine and perfect for miles. The Circle G. His father had bled for this land. His father had found a home here and love. He’d found his other half, and then he’d been lucky enough to discover the woman who could complete him. He’d found it here. On this land.

  “I won’t leave again because this is my home.” He felt it deep down. He was connected to this piece of earth. He was connected to his brother. “Because every minute I was away, I ached.”

  “Then why the fuck did you leave? It seemed to me that you were always looking for a way out.”

  Noah stared at his brother. “That’s not true.”

  “You went to college fast enough.”

  Fuck. They were back to that? “And I got through five years of school in three. I worked my ass off. I didn’t do anything but study. You seem to think I had some wild time in college while you were stuck here. I worked. I became a vet because this ranch needed one. Do you have any idea how hard it was to be your brother? I had to make a place for myself or I would be incidental. I wanted to matter to this place, to our family.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” James ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “You were the smart one. I was the one who couldn’t do anything but work a herd of cows.”

  “Yes, that’s why there’s a shelf full of medals and trophies with your name on it. That’s why our parents kept a whole cabinet to show off the buckles you won.”

  James frowned. “Great. I can keep my ass on a bull for a whole eight seconds. You got through college.”

  He’d never dreamed his brother was jealous. “You would have, too.”

  James shook his head. “Nah. It was for the best. I don’t need a damn degree to haul cow shit.”

  Noah was at a loss. James did way more than shovel cow crap. “You run this whole ranch. That takes talent. Jamie, you can still go to college if you want to. You could get a business degree. Hell, you could do a bunch of it online. You don’t even have to stop working.”

  James shook his head. “I can’t. I’m too old for that now. Just go away, Noah. I don’t need you hanging out around here.”

  His brother was stubborn to the end. In the distance, he could hear a loud huff as one of the hands let Red out. The horse bucked, and the hand took a step back. He’d had a couple of carrots in his hand, but he tossed them away probably because he didn’t want to get his fingers bitten off.

  “You’re like that horse, Jamie. You’re so scared that you won’t let anyone touch you anymore and I did that. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”

  James stared off in the distance, watching as Red snorted and kicked. “Why didn’t you call? You sit here and tell me how sorry you are and how sad you were at the time, but you never called me. Not once. I had to call you to tell you our dad died.”

  Noah’s heart hurt because this was the part he didn’t want to admit. “I was ashamed. I didn’t love Ally. I loved the fact that she picked me. I was out of college, but I was still a jealous little boy. I was still trying to prove to someone, anyone, that I was as good as you.”

  James looked at him, his mouth twisted in a frown. “No one ever did a damn thing to make you feel that way. I loved you. You were my brother.”

  “And you were the mountain I never could climb.” Noah sighed. “It wasn’t you. You didn’t make me feel that way. You were the best damn brother I could have had. I did it. I was a jealous little shit, and when I woke up and realized what I had done, I couldn’t come home because I was too ashamed to face you.”

  “Why now?”

  “Because somewhere along the way I grew up,” Noah said, his words quiet. His muscles ached from the beating he’d taken, but there was a certain contentment that came with finally getting to explain himself. “I can’t let the mistake I made in the past keep me from what I want. I can’t let it keep me away from my home. And I won’t let it keep me away from Hope.”

  “How could she lie like that?”

  “How could you let her walk away?”

  James took a long breath. “Because I guess I expected it.”

  “Yes. Because it’s what I did. It’s what our parents did. Damn it, Jamie, the world can’t stay the same. We can wish for it, but it still burns down all around us. It still goes to shit, but isn’t it better to have someone to hold on to? You talk about how bad the last years of our parents’ lives were, but I don’t think they would have changed a minute of it. I don’t know what happens when we die, but I believe somehow, someway, they found their way back together. He wasn’t fading, Jamie. He was waiting. He was waiting to see them again.”

  James’s head hit his hands and a strangled sound came out of his throat. “I love her. I tried not to, but I love her. I don’t think I can be enough.”

  Noah put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “You aren’t. Don’t even try to be. Jamie, we started down this path a long time ago. I derailed us. I’m trying to get us back on track. I’m not enough for her. She deserves us both. We deserve the family we always wanted, but we’re going to have to fight to get it.”

  “You don’t deserve shit, brother.” But it was said with a little laugh. James’s face came up. His eyes were red rimmed. “She didn’t tell me because she was afraid. If she’s married and she ran from him, then he’s bad. He’s going to try to hurt her. She’s scared of h
im.”

  Finally, Noah could breathe again. “Yeah. I think we know why she’s been anxious. And I think he’s been stalking her. If Serena didn’t leave the flower, then it was him. Hope freaked out when she saw it. He’s been terrifying her.”

  “Why go through the sheriff?”

  Noah thought about what Cam Briggs had said. “He said this guy was making some serious accusations about her. We have to go after her. We can’t let this man take our woman.”

  James got to his feet, offering Noah a hand. “You still know how to shoot?”

  “Yeah, but I hope it doesn’t come to that. We need to talk to her, find out what’s going on.”

  His brother’s jaw hardened, forming that stubborn line he knew so well. When James’s face went cold and his eyes settled into a predatory gaze, he was locked in. Nothing would stand in his way, Noah knew.

  “You talk, brother. I’ll do what I do best. I’ll plow my way through.”

  Noah had to run to keep up with him.

  * * * *

  Hope forced herself not to look back. She was driving away from the Circle G. She was driving away from Noah and James and back into a nightmare.

  Had she ever really left the nightmare? Weren’t James and Noah simply a dream?

  She could still see the look on James’s handsome face when Cam had said the word “husband.”

  She was a liar, a coward, an addict. She didn’t deserve either one of them.

  “You want to tell me what’s going on?” Cam asked.

  “What did he say his name was?” He probably wasn’t using Christian Grady anymore.

  “He said his name is Christopher Greene. He has a marriage certificate.”

  Hope laughed a bit. “It’s a fake. I married a man named Christian Grady, though who knows what his real name is.”

  “I bet I can find out.” Cam’s steely gaze remained on the road ahead of him.

  “You should stay out of it, Cam.” It would be safer for him.

  Cam’s eyes narrowed as he turned his head slightly. “Not on your life, sister. You might have known Logan longer, but I care about you, too. And Nate would damn straight have my hide if I kept my nose out of it. Now, this man is obviously dangerous.”

  “Really? He’s usually quite charming.” Cam wasn’t responding the way she’d thought. Everyone who met Christian liked him. It was one of the ways he’d managed to do what he did. He charmed people out of their life savings and stole their identities while they were far too busy listening to his lines of bullshit to realize he was robbing them blind.

  And when someone found out, he simply slit a throat and no one talked.

  Not even Hope.

  “I was BAU for a long time,” Cam reminded her. “Rafe and Laura were better profilers than me, but I know a dangerous asshole when I see one. Did he hit you?”

  “Never.” Christian had been the perfect husband. Gentle. Kind. Never uttering a foul word in her presence. Unfortunately, he was also completely insane and a master criminal. “He never hurt me.”

  “Who then? Because I don’t believe a word he’s saying. He says you escaped from a private mental institution.”

  She wondered how Christian intended to get her out of here without causing too much of a fuss. It was a nice play. If the local authorities thought she was insane, they wouldn’t listen to a word she said about Christian. And she was sure he could produce the paperwork to prove it. If he’d survived the fire, then he would have built his network back up. He would have had some cash at his disposal. “No. I was insane when I married him. I was perfectly sane when I tried to kill him. I just wasn’t very good at it.”

  How was he alive? How had he survived? She’d been so sure when she’d walked away from the house they had shared that he was gone. She’d felt the heat, heard the sirens, and she’d walked away with a suitcase full of clothes and some cash. She’d gotten into the small car her husband had bought her and driven away. Years had passed, and she’d waited for the police to catch up to her. No one had ever come after her. She’d waited, and when she’d realized no one was going to storm in to take her to jail, she’d begun punishing herself. After she’d found Bliss, Nate had run a check and discovered no one was looking for her at all.

  Cam turned brilliant blue eyes on her. “The report from the Atlanta police department shows no sign of foul play. The police explained it as a fire started by a faulty heater.”

  She turned in the seat. She’d made damn sure the heater got kicked over on to a pile of rags. “How do you know about that?”

  Cam sighed. “See, all anyone ever sees is this body. Really, I have a brain, too. The minute that man walked in, I rifled through Nate’s files. The boss wouldn’t leave anything to chance. He has a file on you. You married Christian Grady at the age of seventeen. You lied on your marriage license. It’s not a valid marriage. You lived with him for two years and helped him build his conservancy business.”

  She felt herself flush, but she wasn’t going to sugarcoat this. “Call it what it is, Cam. No pussyfooting around.”

  Cam shrugged, but gave her what she wanted. “You helped him build his cult. Did you know he was a con artist?”

  She snorted a little. “No, Cam. I didn’t. I was very stupid, and I bought into everything he said. He brought people in with his talk about god or the universe dwelling in nature. He went after anyone with a love for the environment and a slightly liberal bent. He knew where to hit. He knew what to say.”

  “He’s a con artist, Hope. That’s what they do. But I think he’s something more.”

  “Are you going to go? The light turned green a while back.” Hope stared at the light. It was a luminous green, but the Bronco sat there.

  Cam’s fingers drummed on the steering wheel. “We have some time. I would rather go back knowing what I’m getting into. Don’t worry. Laura and Rafe have everything under control.”

  “Did they see what you saw?” She felt a certain peace and vindication that Cam hadn’t fallen under Christian’s spell. She’d been dumb, but that didn’t mean everyone was. When she’d fled Georgia, she’d believed the law was after her. Having someone on her side meant the world.

  A vision of James and Noah assailed her. She’d had both of them on her side—until they knew the truth. She couldn’t get the look on James’s face out of her head. He’d gone hot, like a fever had taken him, and then so, so cold. She would never be able to look him in the face again. Never. But she would feel his hands on her body for the rest of her life.

  She loved Noah and James, and she’d lost them over mistakes she’d made at seventeen. The past never went away. It merely hid until the time was right to pounce.

  “What does he look like?” Hope asked, ignoring the fact that the light had changed and Cam still hadn’t moved.

  Maybe it was one of his followers. She’d left with money. Oh, she’d run through it. There wasn’t a dime left of the fifty thousand she’d taken. Seven years had handily taken care of that. She’d spent the last several years dirt poor, but they might think she knew where more was.

  “Blond. He had really light blond hair. It’s past his shoulders.”

  Her vision narrowed. Christian. Her heart raced. How had he survived? She felt her whole body start to tremble.

  “Thank god. They took long enough.” Cam breathed a huge sigh of relief as he looked in the rearview mirror. A big Chevy was barreling up the road. James’s truck.

  Oh, god, what was he doing?

  “You should move, Cam.” The last thing she needed was a scene with her ex-lovers. Could she even call them that? She’d had one moment with each, but she feared she would never forget them. “We should get to the station.”

  Cam still wasn’t moving. “Not on your life, sweetheart. See, I’ve been in this position before. If someone had been smart enough and kind enough to delay Laura, then I wouldn’t have lost five goddamn years of my life. I knew they would come around. I just needed to give them time.”

&nb
sp; Them. The Chevy stopped behind the Bronco. She could hear the brakes slam into place. Two doors opened as James and Noah jumped out. James had a shotgun in his hand. He looked like the hero of an old Western, charging in to save his woman. Noah had a shotgun, too, but he also had a dog. It did soften him a bit.

  “Cam, I’m going to have to ask that you let Hope go.” James held the shotgun at his side, but there was no question he was willing to use it. Caveman.

  Cam rolled his eyes. “Well, I gave you the damn out before, but you were too dumb to use it.”

  “I’m slow,” James admitted. “Damn, man, how did we catch up to you?”

  “I drove really fucking slow.” Cam put the Bronco in park. “I’m not stupid, but she needs to see this guy. We need to know what we’re up against.”

  “Maybe she just needs to run,” Noah said.

  She couldn’t. Not now. If Christian was alive, then she needed to figure out what he was really after.

  “No,” James said, his voice firm. “We handle it, no matter what it is. This is Bliss. This is the last stop. You find your way here, and you stay here. I’m not letting some asshole take our wife.”

  Our? Tears blurred her eyes. He didn’t know the truth. He wouldn’t want her when he knew, but the idea that he’d come after her made her heart pound. She loved James. She loved Noah. She would give anything to change the past so she could be worthy of them.

  She realized in that moment that she was so much more heartbroken than afraid. Losing them would be worse than losing her life.

  “Hope, you should get out of the car.” Cam pointed to the door.

  “Why?”

  “Uhm, because this is what we call a jailbreak, and I would prefer to not make it look good. I can just say I didn’t find you rather than James shooting me.” Cam held out his hands as though to ask what she was waiting for.

  It was a sweet gesture, but she couldn’t take it. “I’d rather face him.”

  It was past time to deal with Christian. If he really was alive, she needed to take the situation in hand. She thought she’d avenged Elaine, but if she hadn’t, she would bring the law in—no matter what.