Page 9 of Home Free

He took another drink, his jaw tightening as he thought about the man in the garage. Even now, after three weeks of beatings, the defiant light hadn’t dimmed in the man’s eyes. Finn was beginning to despair they would get anything out of him, and that meant the trail of Fedir and Iryna’s murder would stay cold.

And what did Finn have to show for the past few months? The word blackridge, uttered by Isaac Fleming as he died on the lab floor in Scotland, and a shadow of a man named Achilles.

They knew next to nothing about him other than the fact that he was somehow affiliated with the Omni Group, a multinational conglomerate with countless divisions and even more employees and executives. They’d tried looking for connections between Omni’s employees and Ukraine, but so far the search had led nowhere.

Other than the Omni connection, the only thing they knew about Achilles was that he had some kind of interest in mining in Ukraine.

The paleontologist who’d had the amber sample before Finn stole it had been unable to tell them much of anything because of the NDA she’d signed when she’d agreed to work on the project, and Isaac Fleming, the only other scientist they knew for sure had worked on the project, was dead.

Finn could feel the clock ticking. If they didn’t get a break soon, he would be forced to abandon his search for answers, or let his brothers off the hook at least. They’d been devoting resources to Finn’s personal grudge for too long already. They’d been generous about it, but he couldn’t keep them from their real business much longer.

Besides, at what point was Finn crazy for continuing? At what point did the quest for justice turn into a futile obsession?

He thought of Elise, sleeping soundly in his bed. Leaving the States meant leaving her too. He’d been honest about that from the beginning, but dammit if he didn’t want to do it.

He didn’t know what the future held for him, had no real idea what he would do with the rest of his life. And he was in no hurry. He didn’t subscribe to the belief that life was about getting a job and a mortgage and settling down into a routine. He didn’t pass judgement on others for doing those things. If it made them happy, more power to them.

But the joy other people found in building a life of stability and security, Finn found in the unknown. He was most at peace when wandering a strange city with no schedule and no idea where he was going, when opening a map and picking his next destination on a whim, or accepting the offer of a fellow traveler to wander together for awhile — no timelines, no expectations.

He wanted to do those things with Elise, wanted to walk hand in hand with her like they had in Scotland, wanted to show her things she’d never seen and see new ones himself with her by his side.

But it would take most people a lifetime to heal from the kind of trauma she’d experienced, and it had only been two years for Elise. She’d made remarkable strides, had thrown herself into therapy and antianxiety practices, had forced herself to do uncomfortable things.

Could she leave Boston behind? Handle the stress of a constantly changing landscape, of new experiences almost daily?

He didn’t know.

Having Elise with him would mean slowing down. It would mean settling in one place for longer than he was used to while Elise acclimated.

It was a small price to pay for having her with him — and he did want her with him. For all the things he didn’t know, he knew that much with the certainty of his own heartbeat.

But he wasn’t sure she’d even want to leave Boston. She loved him — he believed that much — but her life was here: Julia, JT, her mom, however complicated that relationship was sometimes.

Leaving it all behind sounded romantic, but when faced with reality, he wasn’t sure she would want to abandon the comforts of home.

And there was another thing: she would hate slowing him down. No matter how much he reassured her, she would think of herself as a burden.

He thought of their trip to New York City the month before, how she’d gotten lost in the city on her own, how she’d kept it from him until they got home and it all came pouring out — her panic attack on the streets, her momentary paralysis as she forced herself to breathe, to orient herself again.

It had broken his heart to think of her alone and scared, but it had hurt him more to think that she hadn’t wanted to tell him, that she’d been scared he would think less of her.

Leaving the States together would mean a thousand experiences like that one. He didn’t know if she could survive it, didn’t know if he could put her in a position to try.

All of which left him with the two things he did know: he couldn’t stay, and leaving would be next to impossible for her.

He sighed and downed the rest of the whiskey in one gulp. Their relationship had become a tangled web of conflicting desire. He hadn’t expected it to be this way. He’d thought they would enjoy their time together and part ways as friends.

How could he have known he’d fall in love with her? How could he have known any of this would come to pass when he’d made the decision to come home, to follow the obscured trail left by Fedir and Iryna’s murderers?

His resolve hardened at the thought of the faceless people behind their deaths. It was their fault.

Eudorus’ fault.

It was Eudorus’ fault that Finn hadn’t discovered the identity of the man behind Fedir and Iryna’s murder, Eudorus’ fault Finn was still here in the States, becoming more and more entwined in the family he’d grown accustomed to living without, and yes, Eudorus’ fault Finn couldn’t focus on what to do about his future with Elise.

He tightened his grip on the glass until he was afraid it would shatter in his hands. Eudorus was the key. To get answers, to move on, Finn would have to crack him.

Finn would have to break him.

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