Page 135 of Stay for Me

My friend was silent for exactly ten seconds before he answered, “Mags, Jake isn’t close to finding him.”

I stiffened, anger surging through me. “Then why came all the way down here—”

“Jake found him, man.”

My gut twisted, my chest deflating as my hand shot into my hair. “What?”

“I’m sorry it took so damn long, Mags,” Gray murmured.

I sat down on the top step, my mind running in every different direction. “You’re certain?” I pressed. “And before you answer, know this: I don’t want you to sugar coat shit for me, Gray. You and your boys came close to finding my half-brother years ago, and we got nothing but a dead end.”

Hell, for a solid two years, I actually believed the son of a bitchwasdead. Then, Red Snake got a whiff of something else, leading us down yet another endless path. I’d all but given up on the idea of finding him.

“I wouldn’t have come all the way down here if it weren’t true,” he shot back. “You think I like finding out that it took over ten years to find him for you? I made that vow to you in the Marines, Mags. This case, this hunt, means more to me than you’ll ever fucking know. The second Jake told me, I knew I needed to get to Hallow Ranch. This couldn’t wait.”

My head fell, my hair falling around my face.

After saving Grayson’s life, he came back to the unit, healed and ready to repay the debt. As a joke, I told him when he started his bounty hunting business, if he could find out where my long lost half-brother was, the debt would be repaid. My best friend took it to heart.

“You fuckin’ found him,” I muttered in disbelief, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“Yes.”

A lump formed in my throat. “How old is he?”

I heard Gray sigh on the other end of the line. “Thirty-two.”

Four years younger than me.

Fuck, I’d been right.

“Told Diana last night she would never know any of my family,” I confessed. “Told her they don’t deserve to know about her, about us, about our happiness.”

“You’re right, they don’t.”

I sighed deeply through my nose. “But I don’t know him. Don’t know if he’s like my father.”

“You aren’t like that bastard,” Gray reminded me.

Before I could stop it, a rough chuckle left me. “I could be, if I allowed myself to.”

“But you won’t.”

I dropped my hand and looked back up to the sky. “No, I won’t.”

“Your father isn’t in his life, from what I can tell,” he assured me.

A chill swept down my neck. “You have eyes on him already?”

“Yeah, Hayes is on him, has been for the last twenty-four hours.”

“What’s his name?”

“That’s the fuck of it, man,” Grayson chuckled. “Everyone knows his damn name.”

Every inch of my body froze. “You tellin’ me he’s famous?” I quipped.

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”

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