Page 190 of Forever Never
“Oh, my God,” Kimber, pink-cheeked and hair tousled, appeared on the porch behind his father.
“Where were you?” Brick asked.
“Uh. Out for a run.”
She was a shit liar, but he had much bigger fish to fry.
“What’s going on?” Ian demanded.
“Nothing, sweetheart, go upstairs,” Kimber said, stepping past Brick and urging her son toward the staircase. “If you go back to bed for half an hour, I’ll make you chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.”
“With glutenandsyrup?” Hadley asked, peering over the railing from the second floor.
“Get inside,” Brick snapped at William. A rage so fierce bubbled in his blood he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to control it.
His own father baited the trap. Warren Vorhees would track his wife right to Brick’s door. Right to Remington.
“Come on,” Remi said softly, coaxing Camille across the threshold.
Brick watched, helpless, as she walked stiffly, carefully, like a woman decades older. There was a pained weariness in her gaze as it landed on his face.
“I’m so sorry to drop by unannounced like this,” she said. Even through a split lip and bruised jaw, she had polish and breeding written all over her.
“Kimber, can you take my friend Camille back to the kitchen and make her some tea while I get her room ready?” Remi asked.
“Tea with bourbon. And my sister and kids made cookies yesterday,” Kimber told Camille as she guided the woman away.
Brick’s throat was closing in on itself, fury choking him. He couldn’t even look his father in the eyes.
Before he could force out any of the words that clogged his throat, Remi had walked into his father’s arms and wrapped him in a hug. “Thank you, Mr. Callan,” she whispered. “Thank you for bringing my friend to me. You saved her life.”
It was the tears bright in Remi’s eyes that had Brick putting a stopper in his anger.
His father hugged her back awkwardly, a myriad of emotions flickering over his face. Awe. Embarrassment. Gratitude.
His Remi didn’t see a criminal, a con man. She saw a man who brought her friend home.
“I know it’s not ideal,” William said. “But he went after her, and I couldn’t walk away. Couldn’t leave her there.”
“You did exactly the right thing, and I’ll be grateful to you for the rest of my life. You knew she’d be safe here. You knew Brick would keep her safe.”
His father bobbed his head before looking to gauge Brick’s reaction.
Remi pressed a kiss on his whiskered cheek, then did the same to Brick. “Be kind,” she whispered to him before running up the stairs.
William Callan II looked much older than the last time Brick had seen him. His hair had gone gray, and it was shaggy and thinning on top. He’d put on some weight. A little paunch around the middle. He looked how a doting grandfather should. Not a felon.
“What the hell happened?” Brick demanded harshly.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on Vorhees like you asked. He comes and goes, flies to D.C. a lot. But this is the first time she’s been out of the house on her own. No husband, no security. She just went shopping. When she got back to the parking garage, he was waiting behind her car. He grabbed her. There wasn’t anyone else around, and he just lost his damn mind. He hit her in the face, and she went down.”
“What did you do, Dad?”
“I did what I had to do. I called 911 and then hit the son of a bitch over the head with the bat I keep in the car. I picked her up, helped her into my car, and we took off.”
“You drove straight here?” Brick ran the calculations.
“Straight through. Six hours. Police scanner picked up a mugging victim in the parking garage about forty minutes after we left.”
