Page 19 of Romeo

Right hook.

Left.

Spinning, I land a kick then drop down and knock out thirty pushups before bouncing back onto the balls of my feet and starting the routine all over again.It’s a great way to clear my head since it’s all muscle memory at this point.

Even as my mind keeps trying to run over the case, I shove the thoughts aside and focus only on the feel of my heart beating against my chest.The sweat slicking on my skin.I need this break.This step away from the chaos so I can get my mind right.

The door opens, so I pause my routine at round five and turn to face Dylan as he comes in.My youngest brother, also the youngest twin by fifteen minutes, always looks one second away from snapping.

The anger he carries rivals even my own, though it’s not quite matched.See, I was with Tucker when we pulled him out of that hell he’d been trapped in for three months.And the look of his gaunt, tortured expression will haunt me until the day I die.

“Hey, here for a workout?”I ask him.

“Yeah.”He doesn’t elaborate, but the look on his face says it all.

“You saw Emma today, didn’t you?”

He glares at me.“She and Mom are helping to plan the Independence Day barbeque.She was just at the house.”

My brother has only ever loved one woman: Emma Franklin.She was homeschooled just like we were, so our moms started a co-op that got together once a week, and we donated our time to various charities here and in Dallas.

They got close and started dating when they turned sixteen.Honestly, I thought they’d get married.We all did.But then Dylan surprised us by deciding to follow Tucker into the army and not following through with his original plan of college before applying to join the Dallas Police Department.

Once he came back from deployment, he wasn’t the same.And even though Emma has tried to reach him again, the walls he put in place are too strong.Too sturdy for anyone to break down.

It’s a small town, though, and whenever he sees her, it’s as though he’s being reminded of the parts of him he lost all those years ago.The happy boy he was.The hopeful man he’d been.

“Sorry, man.”

He doesn’t answer as he heads toward the rack of free weights.

We work out in silence for a while, and when I head over to the squat rack, he sits up.“You doing okay?”

“Fine, why?”

“You had quite a bit of action in Phoenix.”

“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“Is Jules Landers what her brother described?”he asks curiously.

“You mean a weak, addicted, murdering thief?Hardly.”

He snorts.

“She’s not at all what I expected.Honestly, I think she’d give you a run for your money in the grumpy department.I can tell she’s never really felt like she has anyone to rely on.And frankly, the more I learn about her brother, the more I don’t like him.”

“I didn’t care for him from the second he walked through the door,” Dylan replies as he sets his weights down.

“Something’s off.I’ll be giving him a call after I leave here to see what else I can pump out of him.He doesn’t know I found her, and I intend to keep it that way until further notice.”

“I’d say that’s a solid plan,” Dylan replies.He picks up his weights again and lies back on the bench before pushing them up into a press.

“Is Tucker in his office today?Or is he working the ranch?”

“Ranch,” he replies.“He’s helping Leon check fencing before we rotate the cattle.”

“Gotcha.”Leon is a ranch hand who’s been with us for quite some time, but he got bucked off a new rescue horse last week and fractured his knee.Fixing fencing alone is not something he can do at the moment.

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