Page 2 of Coming Home

I laugh and slap my little brother on the back. “You still fucking with him all the time?”

He pulls his keys from his pocket. “He wouldn’t know how to react if I didn’t.”

I follow behind him and jump into the passenger side of his truck. I pull the lever to move the seat back a few inches and then grab the other lever to lean the seat back. “All right, so what about you? What have you been up to?”

He backs out of my driveway. “Uh, honestly? I work… a lot. But I do my best to stay out of the Blaze offices. I go in once a week, and that’s one time too many. All my time is spent at the distillery.”

“Why? Something I need to know about?”

He smirks and looks at my jeans and T-shirt before looking at the exposed tattoos on my arms. “No, but there’s a dress code at the office. Khakis and button-ups at the minimal. Of course, they all wear suits and ties.”

My head turns to look at him, and he’s pointing at the back seat where he has a pair of khakis and a button-up shirt hanging. “Uh, you think you should have mentioned that before we left the house?”

He shrugs as he presses on the gas. “Really? You have dress clothes back there or something?” Before I can answer, he continues, “Yeah, I figured not. And you’re sure as shit not going to fit into my clothes.”

I cross my arms over my chest. I try to relax as I’m being driven around by my brother, but I can’t seem to let myself go. I’m used to being the one in control. Even on missions and even though I was higher rank, I still drove. “I know you, Austin, and you don’t work all the time. You’re always getting into some shit. How’s your girl? How’s Ally?”

Austin tenses at the mention of his best friend's name. Interesting.

He clears his throat. “She’s good,” he answers before changing the subject. “So have you thought about what you’re going to do now that you’re back?”

I look out the window. That seems to be the main topic of conversation since I got back. The truth is I retired because I was feeling my age when I was out on missions. I knew it was time for me to either take on a desk job in the military or retire. I thought about it for a while and knew that I wanted to come home, but now I’m not so sure what I want to do with my life. I’m not one that can just sit around idle either. “Nope. But I’ll figure something out.”

He opens his mouth to say something but must change his mind. He points up ahead. “Check it out. Still pretty cool, right?”

I look at the offices of Blaze Whiskey ahead of us. Behind that, higher up, is the distillery. The smile comes naturally to my face. Even though I haven’t had a lot to do with it in the last twenty years, a sense of pride comes over me. “Yep, still pretty cool.”

Austin parks, and we get a few feet away from the truck when I stop. “You going to change?”

He keeps going but gestures to his own jeans and T-shirt. “Nope. I’m going to tell Ford I didn’t want you to feel out of place.”

I laugh. “You fucker.”

As we walk into the building, he’s busting my balls about any and everything. A few people wave and say hello to Austin and look at me curiously. I give them each a nod of my head. We don’t stop until we’re standing at a desk with Ford’s fiancée Lilian sitting behind it.

As soon as she sees us, she comes around the desk and hugs me. It’s awkward, but I hug her back. I only met her a week ago, but it’s obvious that she makes both Ford and my nephew Ollie happy.

Austin opens his arms for a hug, and Lilian smacks him on the chest. “Stop. I see you every day, and Ford is just so happy to have Hudson home.”

Austin laughs. “What the hell? I’m home too.”

I’m ignoring their banter because my eyes are on the woman standing frozen not five feet from me. She has long brown hair that curls over her shoulders. She has her arms crossed over her middle, and she’s looking at me as if I may pounce on her at any minute. Her clothes are big on her, hiding her figure. She looks as if she may be in her early thirties. Something sparks inside of me. There’s real fear on her face, and I want to pull her to the side and have her tell me why. I soften my stance and try to appear smaller, but at six foot four inches, that’s a hard feat.

Lilian moves, putting herself between me and Austin and the woman. “Oh, Hudson, this is Elle. She’s Lucas’ assistant. Elle, this is Hudson. I’m sure you’ve heard about him coming home. He’s the second oldest Blaze brother.”

Elle’s face is white, and the fear doesn’t fade, but she does force a tight smile onto her lips.

Every protective instinct I have kicks in, and I want to make sure she’s okay. I take a step toward her, and she shrinks back with a flinch.

I put my hands up to show her I’m not a threat, but she moves behind her chair, holding it out between us.

Lilian goes to stand beside her and puts an arm around her shoulder. She points down the hall and waves for us to go. “The guys are probably already in the conference room. Go on, Austin, you know where it is.”

I don’t want to leave, but Austin forces me out of the room and down the hall. It’s not until I’m a safe distance away that I turn to look at Elle. She’s still standing there listening to Lilian talk, but her eyes are on me. There’s a reason she reacted to me the way she did. I should ignore it. Lord knows I’ve got enough shit to deal with, but even as I pass through the door of the conference room, I can’t get the image of her blue eyes filled with fear out of my head.

Chapter2

Elle

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