Page 50 of Karma

The realization knocked the breath out of him and forced him to take a long look inward. When he’d gotten involved with Liza, he’d pushed her relationship with her brother to the back of his mind, to a place where he could pretend they weren’t related and the past didn’t exist. Even after McKnight had coldcocked his own sister, Dare had merely stepped in to help the woman he wanted, blocking out the reality that just hit him square in the face.

With Liza came this son of a bitch. And Dare didn’t know if he had it in him to accept it.

Now or ever.

They headed back inside the house in silence. Dare couldn’t bring himself to speak, and even if he could, he didn’t know what to say. Last night had been incredible—the best sex of his life with a woman he’d wanted to know better. Today, he couldn’t see past the chasm between them.

He headed upstairs to get his shirt, and when he returned, Liza had finished cleaning up the breakfast she hadn’t eaten. She remained silent, and he felt the hurt coming off her in waves. He knew he should say something to break the awful tension.

“All you did was enable him, you know.” Dare winced at the words that unwittingly spilled from his mouth. Not the best choice at the moment, but at least it was the truth.

She flinched. “It’s easy to judge something you can’t possibly understand.” She gathered her bag and her briefcase, and together, they walked out to their cars.

His Ford SUV was parked beside her white convertible. Nice but not something he could see her being too willing to repeat. Everything inside him rebelled at the thought of driving away and not seeing what else they could share, but the sight of her handing cash to her drunk alcoholic brother turned his stomach and brought up the past in vivid color.

The party. Brian throwing the punch at Stuart Rossman. His yell to either help clean up the mess before the cops came or to get the hell out, stepping around the injured kid as he went into panic mode. And Dare himself following his friends as they ran for the door.

“He’s going to hurt someone—worse than he already hurt you—if he doesn’t get the help he needs,” Dare said.

“Do you really think I don’t know that?” Liza turned to glare at him, her big brown eyes full of pain and betrayal.

He swallowed hard, knowing that, yes, it was easier to give advice than to take it. “Then stop making it so easy for him to keep doing it. He’s got to hit rock bottom, and if he has you to prop him back up, he never will.”

“He’s my brother,” she said, her voice cracking. “You might not have had a relationship with yours for over a decade, but I have. And Brian was there for me. He saved me when—” She caught herself and clammed up, gripping her briefcase harder in her hand. “He’s my brother,” she repeated.

As if that was enough of a reason.

But Dare stayed focused on her other words. “How did he save you?” he asked, wondering where, beyond blood ties, her loyalty came from.

Because as sure as he was standing here, Dare knew she didn’t condone her brother’s drinking or his behavior, no matter how much she enabled it by helping him.

“It’s nothing,” she said in an icy-cold tone that stung.

The same words and tone he’d used when she’d asked about his tattoo. He didn’t miss the irony any more than he liked how it felt turned back on him.

His hand came to rest on the dark ink. It wasn’t just a tribal band. Inside was the date of the party, the date Dare had done nothing, and someone had died. It had been a way to honor the kid’s memory and to remind Dare of his promise to change how he lived his life. The inking of karma was a symbol of new beginnings without forgetting the sins of his past.

It wasn’t “nothing,” any more than whatever Liza was hiding from him now was. Still, he doubted they’d get anywhere this morning. Not with tensions and hurt so high between them.

So when she turned to get into her car, he let her go.

He needed a breather, and no doubt so did she. But he couldn’t shake the memory of how he’d hurt her this morning. Twice.

He’d promised himself he wouldn’t be another person who let her down, and damned if he hadn’t gone and done just that.

***

Liza drove upto her office. Every time she approached the old building that she used to visit when her grandparents worked there, she smiled. Her grandfather had renovated the Victorian, turning it into office space. Liza usually got a kick of pride that she was now in charge. No such kick hit her this morning. Instead, she was numb. This morning with Dare had been nothing like the night before, and, as much as she hated to admit it, the fault had been hers. Well, her brother’s, technically, but it equaled the same thing in her mind. She couldn’t change who her family was any more than he could change his. As furious as she was with Dare for judging her, at the same time, she understood why he hated her brother.

The question was, would he grow to hate her too?

She shook off the heavy thoughts and headed straight for Peter’s office, wondering what was so urgent that he’d had to see her in person. It couldn’t be good.

“Peter?” she said as she knocked on his open office door.

“Come in!” He rose as she stepped inside. Liza ran a business-casual office, but Peter always presented himself in a three-piece suit, and today was no different. “Thank you for coming so quickly,” he said, fixing his tie as he spoke.

“What’s so important?” she asked, not wanting to give him any indication that she assumed the problem had to do with her brother.

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