Blane’s face was unreadable as he approached, then to Kade’s utter disbelief, his brother threw his arms around him, jerking him close and hugging him so tight it constricted the air in his lungs.
“Thank God,” Blane murmured. “Thank God you’re all right.”
Shock left Kade speechless and he just stood there. Blane and he didn’t hug. Ever. They just . . . didn’t. Blane had learned early on that Kade was averse to close physical contact and he’d never forgotten it. But now, at this moment when Kade had expected the exact opposite response from Blane, he lifted his arms to hug Blane in return. His hand awkwardly gave a rough pat to Blane’s back before he could no longer stop the compulsion to pull away. Blane released him, but seemed reluctant to do so.
Blane took a step back and Kade finally spoke. “I must say, that wasn’t quite the welcome I expected.” His voice was rougher than usual.
“I haven’t been able to reach you since you left nearly a month ago,” Blane said. “I’ve been going out of my mind with worry. Your phone’s disconnected, you don’t answer your e-mail. What the hell, Kade?”
“Had to go off the grid for a while,” Kade said evasively.
“I’m hoping you’ve come to your senses and are done acting like a fucking prick,” Blane said. “But for now, I’ll just settle for the fact that you’re alive and you’re here.”
“I thought I wasn’t your brother anymore,” Kade retorted, remembering just how deeply those words had cut.
“I was really pissed,” Blane admitted. “Then I had some time to think about it and realized how freaked out you must’ve been. I know we don’t spill our guts to each other, but I’d like to think the Kade I know wouldn’t walk out on the woman he loves, especially not when she’s carrying his child.”
Shame crept through Kade, along with a burning desire to tell Blane the truth. But he couldn’t, so he kept his mouth shut.
“Am I right? Please tell me that’s why you’re here.”
Kade swallowed, then gave a minute shake of his head. “I came to say goodbye. Hoped you’d let me tell her goodbye.”
Blane frowned. “What?”
“I didn’t get to, and I’d like to. I’m . . . going away, and this time I won’t be back.”
“Going away? Where the hell are you going?”
Kade shrugged. Unable to meet Blane’s eyes, he gazed instead over his brother’s shoulder. “Just . . . away.”
Blane’s face paled as realization appeared to seep in. His jaw locked. “Oh no, you’re not,” he said. “I don’t care if I have to lock you up in the goddamn basement, you’re not leaving here. Not until you tell me what the fuck is going on.”
“Where’s Kathleen?” Kade asked instead. “Is she upstairs?” He glanced over his shoulder, already inching out the door. The burning need to see her had increased a hundredfold since he’d set foot in Indy.
“She’s not here,” Blane said, his voice stiff.
“Oh,” Kade said, disappointed yet again. “Will she come here after work or will she go to her apartment?”
“She’s not at work, either, Kade,” Blane replied, tiredly shoving a hand through his hair. “I don’t know where she is.”
Now it was Kade’s turn to be confused. “What are you talking about?”
“We’re not together,” Blane said baldly. “She loves you, not me, and nothing I said or did was enough to change her mind.”
It was the second time that night that Kade had been struck speechless, which had to be a record.
“But . . . I saw you,” he said at last. “That night. I saw you go to her apartment. Then she left, heading here.”
Blane’s eyes narrowed. “If I’d known you were hiding in the bushes like a fucking Peeping Tom, I’d have dragged your ass in there and made you break her heart yourself. She didn’t come here, Kade. She went to your place that night.”
“My place?”
“Yes, your place,” Blane repeated, pushing a finger hard into Kade’s chest. “Which is where I found her almost twenty-four hours later, practically catatonic.”
The accusation in Blane’s voice was hard to miss.
Now guilt warred with shame inside Kade, and underneath that, a hint of relief. Kathleen hadn’t forgotten about him. She hadn’t just wanted to be with him because of the baby. She really did love him.
“Where is she now?” he managed to ask. He had to see her, touch her. Then he had to be an utter dick to her and make her hate him, convince her to go back to Blane. The thought was a shard of ice in his gut.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Blane said with exaggerated patience. “I don’t know. She left, over three weeks ago now, and didn’t tell anyone where she was going. She just vanished one night. I’ve tried her phone—it’s always turned off. I’ve left dozens of messages. I know she needed some space, but hell”—Blane shoved his hands in his pockets—“I hate not knowing where she is.”
Kade had stopped listening after “just vanished one night.” Panic struck, and struck hard.
“You let her go?” he asked, his voice loud.
Blane frowned. “I didn’t let her do anything,” he said. “She left, Kade. Short of keeping her a prisoner, what the hell was I supposed to do? I didn’t even know she was thinking of leaving. One day she was just . . . gone.”
Adrenaline poured through Kade in a cold rush. Where could she have gone? And that was assuming she’d gone of her own free will. What if Keaston had found out that she’d left Blane? He could have had her killed, her body dumped somewhere no one would find it.
He grabbed the neck of Blane’s shirt with both hands, the fabric crumpling in his fists as he hauled him close until they were nose to nose. “Did you tell Keaston?” he bit out, fury riding close on the heels of panic. “Did you?”
“I spoke to him yesterday,” Blane said, jerking out of Kade’s grip. “What’s going on? Kade, tell me.”
But Kade was already striding toward the front door, thinking. Keaston knew, but Kathleen had disappeared three weeks ago. The most important question was to make sure Kathleen had left of her own free will and hadn’t been kidnapped. If she’d been taken—
Kade couldn’t stand to finish that thought and he hit his car at a near run, vaulting behind the wheel and peeling out of the driveway in a squeal of tires and the smell of burning rubber. Glancing in the rearview mirror, he saw Blane standing in the driveway, watching.
It took thirty minutes to get from Blane’s house to Kathleen’s apartment. Kade made it in fifteen. He took the stairs two at a time. A frigid calm had settled over him in the wake of his earlier panic. He could find her. He would find her. It was what he did best, finding people who didn’t want to be found. And he knew just where to start.
Light suddenly poured through Alisha’s closed eyes, yanking her from a dead sleep, and she woke with a confused start. Her hand reached out to where Lewis was stretched beside her, also fast asleep, but he was no longer there.
“Looking for him?”
Alisha jerked around with a startled cry, automatically clutching the blankets to her chest. She was naked under the covers, but that was the furthest thought from her mind as she realized a man was standing in her bedroom.
His arm was around Lewis’s neck, imprisoning him in a choke hold. Terror clawed at Alisha, making her hands shake as she stared openmouthed. Blood oozed from a cut on Lewis’s cheek and his lower lip was split.
“What do you want?” Alisha asked. “I have money. I can get it for you. Just please, don’t hurt him!” Lewis’s eyes looked scared, and though he wasn’t much smaller than the intruder, he couldn’t escape his grip no matter how hard he struggled.