Page 53 of Falling For The Enemy (The Gilbert Curse)

“Talk,” he said, but the word was bitten out from between his teeth.

“I guess you’d better come in, then,” Kit replied, turning and walking down the hall to the kitchen, where he’d been sitting at the table, trying to make some kind of plan to fix the mess he’d made.

He heard the heavy sound of the other man’s boots behind him. Conrad dragged out the chair across from Kit and sat down heavily. “So Dash said you’re Declan Orr’s brother.”

“I am,” Kit confirmed. “Did he tell you everything?”

“Yeah. That you guys didn’t know what your brother had done to Rory and that Dash destroyed your father and your family financially,” Conrad said. He rolled his head from side to side as if trying to relieve the tension. “Did he tell you I beat your brother pretty badly?”

“No. Just said you’d pulled him off Rory,” Kit said, his own hands flexing. He had so much anger toward his brother and his despicable actions. There was no way to defend what Dec had done.

“Yeah, well, I probably would have killed him if Dash hadn’t got us out of the mansion that night. I can’t tell you what happened once we were in the car. But I wanted you to know my part.”

“Thanks. If I’d been there, I would have done the same to my brother,” Kit said. “I can’t marry the image of his behavior with the brother I knew. He should never have done that.”

“I agree,” Conrad bit out. “Listen, I didn’t know your brother at all before I pulled him off Rory. But you—I thought I had a handle on you since we’d met recently.”

Kit didn’t know what to say. Of course he hadn’t been lying to them 24/7. “You do. The only thing I kept hidden was my family name.”

“Yeah, see, that seems like a big thing. I get it, because I hated my grandfather and didn’t want anything to do with him or my family name. He was a total dick. But you hurt Rory and I can’t figure out why. What were you going to do, use her to hurt the Gilbert businesses?”

“No. It wasn’t like that. I just needed to find a way to get closer to Dash, see if I could exploit something he’d reveal.”

Conrad almost cracked a smile. “You suck at the revenge business.”

“I know. It’s not really my thing. But I wanted Dash to be held accountable for what he’d done to my family.”

Conrad leaned back in his chair. “I think he was, in a way that you didn’t realize. Watching Rory in that coma was a constant source of pain for him. And it took years for me to regain my strength and then I ghosted him... So believe me, his life wasn’t all that great.”

Kit’s head hurt from thinking through all the other ways he could have handled meeting Rory again. “From the outside I didn’t see it that way.”

“We never do,” he said. “Fuck. I’m not sure what I was expecting when I came over here. It would be better if you were an asshole. Then I could punch you.”

“Sorry.”

“I’m not,” Con said. “I texted Dash I was coming to see you, so he might show up, too. We never had a chance to talk about the business development in GC.”

Kit had already talked to his board of directors and they were going to be doing some community outreach and using the property they owned toward that end. Aunt Mal planned to talk to the different charity boards she was on and get them involved, too. Dash did show up about thirty minutes later and Kit respected the fact that neither man said anything about Rory to him.

They talked about ways to make Gilbert Corners better, and after a few hours both men got up to leave. Dash lingered after Conrad had left.

“What are you going to do about Rory? I assume you’re not walking away from her,” Dash said.

“I’m not. I don’t know if she can ever forgive me for lying to her, but I’m going to stay here and apologize as many times as I have to until she can believe me.”

Sixteen

For the first few days after everything had happened with Kit, Rory sort of hid out at her house. She’d felt so exposed and raw. The fact that she’d allowed herself—as if her emotions had consulted with her!—to fall for him made her feel...dumb and sad and angry. She’d just sort of stopped going to physical therapy and sat on her couch.

Which worked until Indy and Elle showed up at her house. Rory hadn’t showered and as she opened the door to find them standing there, she felt something snap to life inside her.

These two sisters of her heart took one look at her and both hugged her at the same time. And in that instant, the tears that she’d been fighting off and on for days finally fell. She cried as they held her, none of them saying a word. She didn’t know how but suddenly the three of them were sitting on her large leather couch, which she had been contemplating donating since she couldn’t stop thinking about making love with Kit on it.

“I guess you guys know it all,” Rory said.

Despite Dash’s plans to come to her house the night that she’d learned everything about Kit, Rory had put him off. She just didn’t want to dissect everything. She needed time. But the more time she’d spent alone in her living room, the more she realized she had no idea how to move past this kind of betrayal.

“We do,” Indy said gently. “Do you need to talk about it?”

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