Page 45 of Cold Case Murder Mystery

It’s just food, Brooke. Get a grip.She didn’t have the time or space to figure out Zeke. Or why the things he’d said about North Star and family and her fears felt like keys unlocking everything she’d kept hidden away for so long.

Or why him holding her felt like home. Kissing him felt like she’d just been on ice for four years, waiting around for this. For him. When shehadn’tbeen.

She was relieved when Royal returned, no matter how angry he looked. He was here and she could stop thinking about Zeke and the past and focus on the important danger in their present.

“There was a tracker on my car,” he said grimly. “Hart’s sending it in to have it tested. See if they can get something out of it. He didn’t seem too optimistic though.”

Brooke didn’t have the words for this development. She expected Zeke to say something, but he didn’t. Not even to blame Royal for leading someone straight for her.

Nonetheless, that’s what he’d done.

“It’s late, guys,” Zeke said. “Let’s get some sleep. Reconvene in the morning with clear heads and maybe more information from Hart.”

Brooke glanced at Zeke, but she couldn’t quite read his expression. Except that it wassoft. And he was being nice to Royal. And that almost made her cry.

“You can take the room next to Brooke’s,” he continued. “It’s not in the best of shape, but there’s a mattress in there. I’ll rustle up some blankets and a pillow.”

“Grab your bag. I’ll show you where it is,” she said to Royal. She didn’t look at Zeke. Not even to thank him. She should have, but she was feeling too soft. And she had to find some way to be strong.

So, she led Royal upstairs, showed him the room next to hers. It indeed wasn’t much, and she resisted the urge to offer to swap rooms. She didn’t have to be a martyr to him just because of her guilt. Whenheshould be feeling guilty, if anyone did.

Besides, Royal didn’t complain. He dropped his bag. He turned to her and studied her face as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Something going on between you two?”

It made her want to laugh, which was a surprising development in this whole confusing night. Like Royal was trying to play overprotective brother when they hadn’t seen each other for so long, and never as adults. In her mind, he was still ten. Not this mountain of a tattooed man.

She supposed this was his way of caring, which made her response gentle. And the truth. Mostly.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but no. There... was, a long time ago. But not anymore.”

Royal made a considering noise, like he didn’t buy it, and maybe he shouldn’t since she and Zeke kept somehow falling into kissing each other. And she couldn’t blame Zeke for that, because she’d initiated the last kiss.

A really, really brain-melting kiss that had only ended because she’d been afraid of where it might lead if she let it. Because it would be so easy to be in love with him again, to lean into all that.

She couldn’t imagine surviving the heartbreak a second time. Maybe she was strong enough, but she was tired of the ways life seemed set up to break her. Her brother, case in point.

“Royal. Be upfront with me. What aren’t you telling me?”

He paused for a moment, but he didn’t look away. “Long story, Chick. And aren’t we supposed to get some sleep?” He moved for the door, but she gave him a big-sister glare and he sighed.

“Those foster homes sucked,” he said.

That was neither here nor there. But she’d let him start wherever he needed. “That they did.”

He looked puzzled. “But you’re like... some fancy scientist-type person.”

Did he think that was because she’d had agoodexperience? “Getting an education didn’t mean I was loved or taken care of, Royal. At a certain point, I was put in a position where failure was not an option.” In some ways, she’d been grateful for the strictness of the final foster family she’d had in high school before she’d aged out. Their uncompromising and authoritarian methods had given her the ability to do something with her life. If she hadn’t had that, who knows where she would have ended up.

But it had been a hard, cold, four years in that home. Where even the whiff of a B could have gotten her kicked back to a group home.

“I guess I never thought...” Royal trailed off, looking confused, but then he shook his head. “My point is, I hated them all. I never could fit in. I was always itching for a fight. So about the time I turned sixteen and I was back in one of those group homes, I figured I’d just run away and go back to the Sons. The system wasn’t too broken up by my absence.”

“Royal.”

“I didn’t go back to like belong or anything. I just thought about us. Growing up there. How bad it was, but how bad the foster shit was. So I figured... What if I went back? I could help kids like us. Be their inside protector. Without all the rules and school and constant interference by people who thought they were giving me charity. It was bad living with the Sons, sure, but not worse than being bounced around, knocked around. At least I had some... status there.”

He’d chosen to go back because a system had failed him. It was hard to blame him for that, but... “You could have also chosen to go into law enforcement or social work and helped, Royal.”

He snorted. “Yeah, right.Rulesand me, Chick? We don’t get along.”

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