Oh, holy fuck.
What had happened in the ten minutes he was waiting on the cops.
“Guys,” Gene began.
Only, he felt the chill, and it wasn’t from the falling snow. It was from Ethan.
Moving closer to his brother, Ethan didn’t miss how Callen flinched like he was going to hit him. Instead, he kissed him on the cheek and put his lips by his ear.
“Don’t read the note I left you at your cabin. Throw it away. I’m sorry for existing and coming to your part of the world. I will never come back again. We are no longer brothers. It ends here, but this time, Callen James, it was what you wanted, not me.”
He stepped back, and Callen saw the hurt in his eyes. He saw the pain.
“Why couldn’t you have just punched me in the face so we could be brothers again?” Callen asked.
Ethan stared in his eyes.
“Because for the first time in my life, I was secure enough to just offer love. Because for the first time in my life, I didn’t hate myself as much as I hated it here. I’ll miss you, Callen. Call me when they die,” he stated. “I’ll pay for half of the funerals because it’s my obligation.”
Then, he turned around and headed toward Gene.
“Let’s work,” he said. “I need to get the fuck off of this shit reservation before it eats me alive.”
Then, he walked past Gene to head up to the road and away from the man who was his brother.
“What the fuck?” Gene asked.
Callen headed his way.
“He can’t come back here. I had to make him hate me again. Now, he’s safe. I love him more than anyone on this planet. More than Timothy. More than myself. For him, I’mwilling to make the sacrifice. Take care of him. Here are my keys. I’ll get a ride back with my deputy. Leave my truck at Timothy’s and take him back to the other side of the country where he’ll flourish.”
Gene hated this.
“Callen. Follow him. Go after him. Fix it before…”
He shook his head.
And say what?
How seeing him with his boyfriend opened a Pandora’s box in him?
How the fuck did he broach that sickness?
“Trust me. The time isn’t right. Ethan needs to hate someone. It can’t be Timothy. It needs to be me. If anything happens to him, call me,” he said, handing him a card. “Other than that, protect him, and in time, he’ll forget I exist. It’s for the best. There’s no room for both of us in his world, and there’s no way we can walk it together.”
Gene didn’t understand that.
He watched him walk away, heading to the road in the opposite direction.
Oh, boy.
This was going to end badly.
Gene could feel it to his bones.
Following Ethan, he found him in the road talking to two cops. They’d gotten there, and they were wearing gold detective badges.
“This is my partner,” Ethan said, his voice cold and icy. “Special Agent Gene Cantrell, these are the local law. This is Detective Dannie Pezzimente and Detective Leah Balo.”
