Page 106 of Karma

Pain and humiliation rushed through him with the force of a hurricane. “And I’ve been living with the guilt of that day ever since.”

“And you think I haven’t?” Brian rose and began to pace like a cornered animal, back and forth between the bed and the wall. “I’ve spent every day since running from what I did. What my parents covered up.”

“You let them,” Dare reminded him, unsure where all the anger he’d expected to feel had gone. Instead, he looked at this broken shell of a man and felt something closer to…pity.

Brian didn’t reply.

“That escape you’ve been looking for? Did you find it in the bottle?” Dare couldn’t help but ask.

Brian looked up, his eyes bleak, as he shook his head.

“How about the gambling? Or stealing from the firm your sister works so hard for?”

Stunned. That was the only word Dare could find for the expression on Brian’s face. “Lizaknows?” he asked, horrified.

Dare nodded. “And she loves you anyway. Go figure.”

Brian lowered himself onto the bed, his entire body shaking. “It’s bad enough she knows I owe Mikey Biggs that money, and he went to her for it—”

Something inside Dare snapped, and the anger he’d been searching for came rushing forward. He strode over and grabbed Brian by the front of his shirt—Dare’s shirt—and jerked him forward. “He didn’t just go to her for the money, you bastard. He put a hand on her. Grabbed her by the wrist and—”

The wailing sound interrupted Dare, catching him off guard. He stopped shaking Brian long enough to realize the man was crying. Not crying.

Bawling like a baby.

“Son of a bitch.” Dare released him, and Brian collapsed on the bed.

He hadn’t expected this. He’d anticipated a confrontation. A part of him had even been looking forward to it. But this sobbing, defeated man needed help, not a fight.

Watching him, Dare understood for the first time why Liza helped him. Enabled him. Cared about him. Because Brian McKnight was incapable of caring for himself.

“Hey.” Dare shook his shoulder. “Your sister’s emptying her savings to pay off your debt. She’s meeting with this Mikey character at her office today.” And with everything in him, Dare wanted to be there, but Cara threatened to castrate him if he went near the building.

Liza needed to do this for herself, she’d said. And he needed to find another way to prove he wasn’t the asshole he’d shown himself to be. So here he was, working on the one thing he knew would show Liza he accepted her, family and all. Brother and all. She needed to know he could put the past behind him once and for all.

Hell, he needed to know the same thing. And Dare finally did. He knew now he could let it go. Because all the anger he had been holding on to and directing at this man had been Dare’s way of not turning it on himself, but in the end anger was just as lousy a coping mechanism as Brian’s alcohol crutch. Nothing could change what had happened, and Dare had done the best he could with his life. He saw that clearly now.

“She’s always been there for me,” Brian said, bleary-eyed.

Though it galled him, Dare nodded and replied. “Well, she said you were there for her too. You took the rap for a broken vase after her boyfriend hit her.”

“It wasn’t all that hard to guzzle a bottle and say it was my fault. My folks were never as hard on me as they were on Liza.”

And look at the spectacular results of that brand of parenting, Dare thought, studying the other man.

“I’d do anything for her,” Brian said.

Bingo. “Really? Then let’s go.”

“Where?” Brian asked warily.

“To rehab. You’re going to call your parents and tell them they’re paying for your inpatient stay.” Dare had gotten a list of places from Alexa, who’d also made a few calls and secured a bed. “And after you check in, you’re going to call your sister.”

“But—”

“Unless you didn’t mean what you said? That you’d do anything for her?”

“The best thing I could do for her would be to disappear.”

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