Page 93 of Running to You

MC had led her to the Lord. And…

There was more to it, and it wasn’t related to the bullion business. At least, she didn’t think it was.

“Why don’t you ask Michael to meet us at Mom’s?”

That earned another groan.

“He said he wanted to help, and he can’t be that far in front of us. Unlike your other brothers, nobody knows where he is. Nobody’s following him. You two can watch the doors, and I’ll grab the passport. In and out in five minutes, maybe less. Assuming… Do you still have the key?”

“I mailed it to Mrs. Jensen Saturday afternoon. Figured she’d need it to check the house.”

“Well, we’ll have to figure out a way to get in, break a window if we have to.” When Sam said nothing, she asked, “What’s the deal with you and Michael? You’ve always been standoffish with him.”

“We’re just like that.”

“But he wasn’t standoffish. Only you.”

“We’re brothers.” The undercurrent of his words—don’t push it.

“Fine.” She was sick of Sam’s anger. “I have stuff too. Stuff you want to know, and I’m willing to tell you.”

“Good. Let’s hear it.”

“You can answer this one question for me. Michael’s the nearest to your age, isn’t he? Seems you two should be close.”

“Seriously?”

She said nothing, and after a few seconds, he blew out a breath. “It’s stupid. I need to get over it.”

“Over what?”

“Why do you care?”

She couldn’t tell him the truth—that she needed to see Michael again, needed to find out how he was involved. Also, what they were about to do was dangerous. They could use his help. And Sam was so…cold to him. “He seems like a nice guy. He went way out of his way to help you—help us. I think you could have been nicer.”

“Asking him to go to your house with me, that would be nice? ‘Hey, bro, I know we’re not close, but you wanna risk your neck for me?’ That’ll go over like a lead balloon.”

“I bet he’d do it.”

“He’d feel obligated.”

“There’s that word again. Love, obligation. They seem interchangeable to you.”

“Who said anything about love?” He shot her a look, then barked a laugh. “You’re a pain in the rear, you know that?”

She couldn’t exactly argue that point.

“If I was rude to Michael, I’ll apologize.”

“Great.”

Traffic slowed to a stop at the toll, and Sam gave her a long look. She held his gaze, not backing down. “Fine.” He focused forward again. “When we were little, we were best friends. He never seemed to care that he was older or that he could do so much more than I could. We played ball. We rode bikes. We did everything together. When he turned thirteen, he started hanging out with a bunch of…cool kids, I guess.

“He brought his friends over one day. When I saw them shooting hoops, I put on my sneakers and ran out to play. Never occurred to me Michael wouldn’t want me there.” A few moments passed, and then, “His friends teased me. Called me names. Loser. Geek. Nothing awful but… Michael didn’t…do anything. He just…”

“He didn’t stick up for you.” Eliza ached for the boy Sam had been—and the man still bearing those wounds. “Did he pick on you too? Or just stay silent?”

“Doesn’t matter.” That muscle ticked in his jaw. “I told you it was stupid. It was a million years ago.”