Page 3 of Falling For The Enemy (The Gilbert Curse)

When she’d first awoken from her coma, she’d felt eighteen, scared and unsure. But over the last few months, she’d started to realize she wanted to be a twenty-eight-year-old woman. Not that frightened, protected girl.

“I hate this,” Dash bit out.

She hugged her older brother, knowing that as much as he might not want to let her do this on her own, he was going to.

“Thank you.”

He just sort of grunted and hugged her back, and when he walked away, past Kit, he said something to the other man that Rory couldn’t hear. Then he got into his car and drove away.

And she was left with this stranger whom she was counting on to help her find herself.

Kit smiled at Rory as her brother walked past him, pausing to warn Kit that if he hurt Rory he’d come after him, and then left.

Nowwhat? He had no idea what exactly the person that Rory had hired was meant to do, and as much as he had wanted to use her to ruin Dash, it felt wrong now. Rory’s smile sort of melted away as soon as her brother was gone and he heard her muttering what sounded like a Weezer song under her breath. And in that moment, he realized that using Rory wasn’t going to be something he could do.

For one thing, despite the bad history between their families, he still liked her. For a second, he wanted to help her rebuild her strength and transform back into that brave, fearless girl she’d once been...

Kit blew out a frustrated breath. It seemed like every time he was ready to wreak vengeance down on the Gilberts for what they’d done, there was some sort of universal intervention showing him that they had already wrecked themselves.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he said, walking over to her. She had one arm wrapped around her own waist, and the song sounded almost manic at the speed she was singing it at.

He put his arm around her, slowly recognizing that she was having an anxiety attack, having seen his own mother in a similar state more than once. Rory didn’t seem to feel his touch and he pulled her close into the curve of his body. She closed her eyes and he drew her even tighter against him, ignoring his own reaction to her nearness. He started talking in a low, calm tone.

“We are on a tropical island, the sand under our feet is powdery soft and so white it almost seems like no one else has ever habited this place before. The sun on our skin is warm and soothing, not too hot. Your hand is in mine and when you look up, you see the blue waves washing gently on the shore. The breeze wraps around us, and as you exhale in one long breath, the stress gradually seeps away.”

He stopped talking as her breathing started to slow and she stopped singing. He wasn’t sure if she still needed him to talk her through this or not.

But she lifted her head and opened her eyes. Her blue eyes were bright and clear, but in his mind he knew they still had clouds in them. He had thought she was the key to Dash’s undoing but she might be the key for him, the key to closure on the past and the anger and revenge he’d always wanted but had never been able to commit to.

He knew revenge was what his family needed and he’d always been the soft brother. The one who’d been more like their mom. Losing his brother and then watching his father’s slow descent into alcoholism had changed Kit. Or had forced him to stop being the son that had never measured up in his father’s eyes.

He just wasn’t the type of man his father and brother had been. He had legally changed his name after Dash had ruined them and he’d chosen Palmer. He couldn’t use someone else to get what he wanted; he knew that now.

“You okay?” he asked quietly.

“No, but I’mbetter. Thank you,” she whispered. “I don’t know if this is what you signed up for, but I have a feeling there are going to be a lot more moments like it.”

“That’s fine,” he assured her. “But I have to tell you, I’m not the person you hired.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re not?”

“No. But I think we can help each other, which is why I showed up here today,” he said. Throwing out revenge meant nothing if he continued to lie to her. He couldn’t let her think she’d hired him. That was deceit at its worst.

“Well...the person I hired was a stranger, which I thought would make it easier than someone who knows me and my entire family history.”

“I can see why you’d want that.” His conscience pricked at him, but he decided not to reveal that they’d known each other in the past, or that his brother had been involved in the car crash that had put her into a coma. If he did, he knew she’d shut him out. Rightly so? He had no idea.

“The movers are almost done here and I am supposed to be trying to leave the house more,” she said, then hesitated, suddenly looking very nervous.

“Why don’t we go to Java and get a coffee and talk?” she asked, the words running together in a rush. “But... Hang on a second. If you aren’t the guy I hired, whyareyou here?”

“I am moving into the cottage next to yours,” he said. Which was the partial truth. He had planned to move back into his childhood home. The home that had symbolized the last time he’d been happy. He might have had ulterior motives for returning to it, but now that he’d crossed paths with Rory Gilbert again, he knew that his plans were changing and he hoped that he’d be able to figure out what was next.

“You are? Well, then, we’re neighbors. That’s good,” she said, scrunching her forehead in thought. “So...coffee?”

“Yes, we can have coffee if you like. What did you mean by you’resupposedto go out?”

“I... I was in a coma for ten years—so tragic, right?” She tried to laugh it off, but her discomfort was obvious. “Anyway, I’ve been out of it for six months but have found myself unable to actually start living again. I mean at first I needed to recover my strength physically, but as you just saw... I’m not at my best,” she said.

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