Page 30 of Cold Case Murder Mystery

“Yes. After he looked through the case, he came to believe it.” Maybe she’d always wondered if he’d said that just to make her feel better, but she wasn’t about to admit that to Zeke.

“Then I believe it.”

She let out a long breath, not quite sure how that just took all the wind out of her sails. Never in a million years had she expected it to be that easy, but she should have known. For all of them, Granger MacMillan had been and maybe even still was a kind of hero figure. No one wanted to think about him being wrong.

“I don’t know how Royal feels about the charge, the trial, his jail time. I don’t know what he’d say if I asked about it. I only know that all the evidence pointed to Royal protecting one of those girls. But the Sons was stronger back then, had more hands in legal pockets. And the legal system was eager to have any of them behind bars—rightfully so. I’ve always just been grateful the Sons got him arrested rather than kill him.”

Brooke shuddered to think about how easily that psychotic cult leader could have just ended Royal’s life and that’s all she would have ever known. A life cut short.

She’d never know if Royal alive was their father’s sad attempt to protect him, or if there was more to it. It didn’t matter.

Royal was alive, and now he was here. Talking about the danger she might be in from their father. Talking to Zeke apparently. “Why did you ask me that?”

“He told me to look up why he was in jail.”

Brooke didn’t understand why her brother would do that, but that was nothing new. The men in her life continued to be obnoxious, ridiculous mysteries.

“Brooke, how am I going to protect you if you run off and never tell me the truth?” he asked, soundingpained.Hurt. Not mad at all. Just exasperated, like she was making things hard on him.

That made her feel small, and a bit like running away for good. “I’m not your burden, Zeke.” She wouldn’t be anyone’s burden ever again. “If Royal has been the one following me, I don’t need protecting the way I thought I did.”

Zeke was going about this all wrong. He knew that. He knew how touchy she was aboutburdens, even if she didn’t. “You’ll never be a burden to me, Brooke.” And it was scary just how true that was. “Wanting to protect you is no burden.”

“You don’t need to,” she said, refusing to believe him. Clearly. “Royal is not a threat to me, and it appears there are no other threats at the moment,” she returned. As if choosing each word carefully. As if placating a small child who didn’t understand complex thoughts.

Zeke didn’t groan out loud, though he considered it. But he’d gotten his blazing anger under control. Or close, anyway.

Royalhad been the one to say she wasn’t safe this morning. Maybe she believed she was safe now, and maybe he should let her believe that, but... something didn’t add up. Because she had beensomewhere.

“Where did you go this morning, Brooke?”

She didn’t look away from him. She didn’t try to lie—he would have seen through that easily enough. She just shook her head. “It’s none of your business.”

He nodded, that tenuous grasp on control barely holding on by a thread. She was right. It was none of his business. She didn’t want him to keep her safe. She didn’t want to besafe. Fine.

“It’s not some personal insult, Zeke. It’s just not about you.” She didn’t say that with any bite. No imperious looks. She was trying to be reasonable.

“Must be nice,” he muttered, because he didn’t know how to divorceherfrom anything he was feeling, doing. He didn’t know how to look at her and say anything wasnot about her.

She reached out, touched his arm. “Zeke.”

He knew she was going to try to soothe or comfort him. And, no. He wasn’t letting her do that thing she did. Where she smoothed everything over because she hated people to be upset. Where she tried to make everything okay because she’d been failed by so many adults growing up she thought it was her sworn duty to make sure everyone around her wasokay. Down to the bones she excavated everywhere she went.

But when she looked up at him with those sympathetic blue eyes, when she touched his arm like she could brush away this conflicting, painful fight inside him, he found he didn’t want to be happy. He didn’t want to be soothed, and he didn’t want her to feel like that was her responsibility.

But he did want something.

Her. And he kept stepping away from that. For her own good and for his. But maybe... There was no good. Only messy pain she couldn’t fix with a soothing touch or his name said in soft, compassionate tones.

Maybe there was only breaking down that wall. That’s how he’d dealt with thisconflictinside him last time. Burned it all down. So...

“To hell with it,” he muttered. None of his business. Wrong person, wrong time, wrongeverything, and still he’d spent the past four years haunted by the memory of a womanhe’dset aside.

Because ofthis. The way she broke down his walls, defenses. Crumbled his control without even trying. He curled his hand around her head and pulled her in, crashing his mouth to hers.

She didn’t even have the good sense to stiffen or to push him away. Shemeltedto him on some sigh that seemed to sayfinally. Or maybe that was just him.

Finally. Finally. Finally. Four years had been too long without the taste of her, the feel of her, justher. And wasn’t that what made everything these past few days so difficult? He knew she was in trouble, but all he wanted washer.

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