Rand had ahold of the hem of the guy’s sweatshirt and the guy was trying to pull away. He punched at Rand’s arms and then the side of his head—hard. They unbalanced and started to fall. Rand let go and the guy scrambled away and ran. He took off across the parking lot as Rand hit the gravel.
I was out the door in a flash. Part of me wondered what had happened. Had the guy said something to Rand? Tried to rob him? Had it been an attempted mugging? Rand wouldn’t just attack someone for no reason.
Rand was pushing himself off the ground. “Get him!” he shouted to me, his voice desperate. “Don’t let him get away!”
I gave a tight nod and ran. I was a fast runner. My brothers had nicknamed me Rabbit. They knew that if I escaped them, I couldn’t be caught. Middle-child skill set, man.
I heard Rand behind me, but I was focused ahead. The guy in the hoodie was no Speedy Gonzalez. He was trying, but his arms waved wildly as he ran, and he was picking his way over an open field thick with weeds that was next to the parking lot. The ground was uneven.
I was about to plow into the guy.
“Grab him!” Rand yelled from behind me.
Maybe I should have thought twice about taking directions from my greatest ALA enemy, but I didn’t hesitate. Whatever was going on, I was #TeamRand, at least for the moment. This guy had to have done something.
I reached out and grabbed a fistful of his sweatshirt. He was yanked backward with enough force that we both fell, him twisting, trying to get away. We landed in the weeds, me on top of the guy. I looked down.
Stared.
Blinked to clear my eyes and stared some more as the guy stared back up at me in shock.
Holy shit. Brown beard. Brown eyes. Wool beanie under the hood.
The guy looked exactly like me!
Chapter Six
Rand
“Hold on to him!” I raced toward where Jax was writhing on the ground, trying to hold on to the thrashing body below him. It was tough to run when my blood had turned to ice. Shit, was it? Could it be? I’d only gotten one good look at his face, and it had been four years since the last time I’d seen him.
As I approached, Jax looked up at me with the weirdest, most stunned expression, like somehow he was the one who knew Jason, not me. But I only had eyes for the asshole on the ground.
I dropped to my knees and slammed a hand onto the guy’s chest, then stared at the beard, the shaggy hair curling out of the beanie, the full lips and lying soulful eyes. “Fuck. It is you.”
Those eyes had widened so far they consumed his face. “Rand Charles? What the hell are you doing here?”
It was a simple question, not even asked with a lot of attitude, but it flipped some switch in my chest, and all I wanted was to smash his face. “Me? What am I doing here?” My voice rose. “There’s only one question between us that needs answering, you lying, cheating asshole.” I gripped his sweatshirt and banged his head on the ground as he twisted and tried to get away. I screamed in his face. “Where the hell is Peyton? Where’s my sister?”
He stopped struggling and stared.
I was vaguely aware of Jax pulling on my jacket to back me off, but that stopped too.
Jason’s brows drew together quizzically, and then he frowned. “Your sister? How the hell should I know?”
My hands clutched into fists, tightening my hold on his clothing, and I shoved my face close to his. “How should you know? Because the last time I saw her was right after you fucked her, got her pregnant, and just before you left town with her, making sure she never saw us again.”
His mouth opened like a furry fish, closed, then opened again. He shook his head wildly. “N-no, no. I didn’t do any of that. I mean, yeah, I fucked her, but what the hell do you mean, pregnant? I never heard anything about pregnant, and I sure as hell never left town with her. Fuck, man, I never saw her again after you tossed me out that night. Your father’s goons came to my apartment and told me if I ever came near her—or you—again, they’d kill me. They showed me the guns they planned to do it with. So, no, I didn’t try to contact her. I’m not fucking suicidal, man.”
“That’s a lie.” I shook him again.
“It’s not! I swear I haven’t seen Peyton since the day you caught us together.”
“How can I believe you? You wouldn’t know the truth if it smacked you in the face.” Heat pushed behind my eyes, which made me so damned mad.
Jax pulled me back. “I think he’s being honest, Rand.”
I snarled at him, “How would you know? You’re just another one of these lying hipster assholes.”
He snapped back like I’d hit him. I frowned and a piece of me felt bad, but my head had to be crammed with sludge. Nothing much was getting through. “How can she not be with you?” My voice rose again. “Did you leave her alone to have her baby? Did you abandon her?”
Jason yelled in my face, “Will you listen to me? I don’t know about any baby!”
For the first time, I released his sweatshirt and sat back, shaking my head. “I don’t get it. I was told she went away with you and never wanted to see me again.”
“Well she didn’t! Get over it. I’m married—to somebody else.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. He stuck out his bearded chin pugnaciously. “You want to follow me home and meet her?”
“Yes!” The minute I said it, I regretted it. How long did I want to stretch out this trip to Indianapolis with the Poin King? Still, I had to know. Jason hadn’t just seduced my sister. No, he was an equal opportunity asshole.
Jax looked at me like I’d lost my senses, and he was probably right.
I said, “We’ll just do a quick visit.” I hefted myself off the ground, and Jason jumped up and brushed himself off like a sticky cat.
He snarled, “You’re serious about this?”
I yelled in his face. “Hell yes. Called your bluff, asshole.”
He sneered but didn’t say anything.
Jax asked, “Um. Is it far?” That was a pretty sensible question. I was out of luck if he lived in New York.
“No. Just a few blocks. My wife grew up around here.” He walked angrily toward his Volkswagen.
We hiked back to my car. The cashier lady ran up to Jax and he handed her some money. We got in, Jax still giving me One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest looks.
As I started the car, I said, “I’ve got to do this. If there’s even the slightest chance that my sister could be there, I need to see for myself.”
“Okay. Totally.” There was a long pause as I pulled out of the parking lot, following the yellow VW. “Uh, where did your sister go?”
My hands gripped the wheel so hard they should have made dents. “She disappeared after that asshole got her pregnant. My father said she left with Jason and didn’t want anything to do with our family anymore.”
The empathy on Jax’s face was too much for me to handle at the moment, so I didn’t look at him again.
In front of me, Jason made a right turn into a neighborhood of inexpensive homes, a bit run-down, but with flowers in the beds and kids playing in the street. He pulled into the driveway of one of the homes and I parked at the curb.
The front door opened and a pretty dark-haired woman walked out. She was super-curvy and wore skintight Levi’s and a plunging neckline jersey that clung to all the details. Pretty much the opposite of my clean-cut sister.