Page 201 of The Billion Heirs Boxed Set
“You can’t think that.”
Her gaze narrows and she says nothing as she leaves. Literally walks off. Again.
This time, I know she’s not going far. There’s a murder to solve and somehow, in some way, it is now hers to solve.
“Are you shitting me?” Miles rubs a hand over his face.
I didn’t go for that ride after all, but instead headed back into the house to get more coffee. Miles is in the kitchen in just a pair of jeans. I don’t know where Sadie is and I don’t ask.
I just told him about Avery. Our past.
“I didn’t even know you had a girl.”
“I don’t,” I reply. “I did. Then I didn’t.”
He tips his chin down and eyes me. For half-brothers, we don’t look much alike. He’s blond and smaller than I am, although not small at all.
“What the hell does that mean?” he asks.
I take a sip of coffee, lean against the counter. “We were hot and heavy. In love.”
He looks at me as if I told him I dated an alien. “Love? At seventeen?”
“Eighteen. And absolutely,” I say with complete certainty. “One day we’re together”—I don’t explain what together actually means—”and the next day, I find out from a neighbor in their trailer park that they up and moved to Phoenix.”
“You never heard from her again?”
I shake my head. “Not once.”
“Fuck. I didn’t have a girl I loved back then, but I remember that age. It sucked without being dumped.”
I glare. He shrugs.
“So she’s back. Start over,” he says, as if it’s simple.
“Start over?” I meet my brother’s gaze. “She left without a word, without a backward glance. Without a goodbye. Hell, without an explanation. I want that. I’ll get that out of her while she’s here. Maybe find closure.”
He reaches in the fridge for the carton of eggs. “You still have a thing for her.”
I look down at the counter. “Always have.”
“No wonder you’re such a cranky asshole all the time.”
I can’t help but smile at that. “Yeah. That’s the reason. Not that our father was a bastard or that he’s wrapped up, even in death, in illegal shit. Or that your girlfriend’s brother was murdered on our ranch. Or any of the other shit going on right now.”
“What you need is to get laid.”
As if it’s that simple. Hell, maybe for him it is. Sadie propositioned him in a bar, and now he’s wearing love goggles.
I’ve slept with other women since Avery, but just for release. That’s what he means now, but seeing Avery, knowing she’s here? On my ranch?
My heart wants her and her alone. So does my dick.
And that’s a real fucking problem because she doesn’t seem to want me in return.
“We’ll go to the Dusty Rose tonight.” Miles cracks six eggs into a cast iron skillet.
“Hungry much?” I ask.
