Still, even when he’d moved to Georgia, he never got rid of his Virginia cell phone number. He had no idea where in the hell Marilee was. They’d kept in contact some in the beginning. She’d gotten pregnant, had a baby boy Holden had only met a few times, the last when Sean was almost five. But when he kept pushing for her and Sean to come and see him, for him to go visit them, when he’d noticed Adam isolating her and didn’t keep his mouth shut about it, she called less and less, until the phone calls disappeared altogether.
He had no idea why he was thinking about that shit today.
As soon as he stepped into his apartment, his cell rang. Vince’s name was on the screen. They’d started out as a hookup, a random app trick, but had then become friends. They’d begun dating a little over a year before, and it worked with Vince. They got along well, the sex was great, and he didn’t push Holden for more than he wanted to give. They didn’t say I love you and had no plans to move in together. There were no huge talks about the future and no obligations. Holden didn’t have a key to Vince’s place, and Vince didn’t have one to his. They just were. He was lucky he’d found someone who wanted the same things he did.
“Hey, you,” Holden said.
“Hey, sexy. You home?”
“Yeah, I’m off tomorrow and then out again.”
“Want some company?”
Holden tossed his keys to the counter. “That’d be good.”
“Wanna go out, or you just want me to come over?”
“How about we meet for dinner at seven and then come here.” The second he said it, Holden almost wished he hadn’t. He used to love going out. Sometimes he still did, but others he just…fuck, he didn’t know. It was just getting old. Vince was into it more, so it was probably a good thing Holden had offered. Vince deserved that.
Vince suggested a restaurant, Holden agreed, and they got off the phone. He lounged around the apartment for a while, enjoying the peace and quiet. He wasn’t the kind of guy who liked a lot of fuss. He kept to himself.
Eventually, he jumped into the shower, then got ready to meet Vince.
When he arrived at the restaurant, Vince was already there and looked up at him with a huge grin. Fuck, he really was a gorgeous man—long, lean muscles, buzzed black hair, and just a little bit of gray in his beard when he had one. The first time Holden saw him, his immediate thought was that he looked like Idris Elba. Holden wasn’t the first nor the last person to think that about Vince.
“I’m fucking starving,” Vince said. “You look good. Tired but good.” It had been almost two weeks since they’d seen each other.
“Thanks. You look good too and not tired—which always feels like a way to tell someone they look like shit.”
Vince laughed. “Baby, you know I don’t mince words. If I thought you looked like shit, I’d tell you.”
Yeah, yeah he would. He liked that about Vince. When they eventually stopped dating, when Vince started looking for more, Holden hoped they would stay friends.
They talked and ate, then headed back to Holden’s place. They fucked twice during the night, the first time Vince giving Holden his ass, and the second Vince taking his.
Holden didn’t always sleep well, so while Vince was snoring beside him, he lay there awake. It was just after dawn when his cell vibrated. Holden frowned. If someone was calling him this early, it must be work needing him to take a flight.
He almost ignored it, but he wasn’t really built that way. He took care of his responsibilities because his parents never had, which had made everything a mess. In his forties, you’d figure he’d be over that shit by now, and mostly he was. He’d just learned a lot of lessons because of them, about how he did and didn’t want to live his life.
He plucked the phone off the nightstand and climbed out of bed naked, so as not to wake Vince. The number on the screen wasn’t familiar. He frowned. “Hello?” He closed the bedroom door behind him.
Nothing.
“Hello?” he said again. He heard breathing…a slight intake of breath…a soft sigh that made his chest clinch. “Marilee?” It might have been eight years since he’d seen his sister, but he knew to the marrow of his bones that it was her. “Mari? Is that you? Are you okay?” His heart was pounding so hard, it hurt, and he rubbed a hand over his chest to ease the ache.
He walked out on his balcony and sat in a chair, not giving a shit that he was naked. The walls were high enough that no one out on theirs could see.
“Mari…it’s okay. Whatever it is, it’s okay.” Because it was. She was his sister, and he loved her. If she wanted back in his life, Holden would take her.
She started to cry, loud, weeping sounds that ripped at his insides and tore up his heart. He shushed her, told her whatever it was, he would help, that she just had to talk to him. It was a few minutes before she calmed down enough to speak.
“After all this time, your first instinct is still to try and take care of me…to help. Jesus, Holdy. You’re the best big brother in the world. It makes me hate myself even more.”
He hadn’t been called Holdy since the last time they’d spoken. “It’s just…I love him, Holdy. I have to try and make this work. We have Sean, and the two of you don’t get along… I’m sorry.”
He shook away that memory. “Don’t hate yourself. You don’t deserve that. But I’m not going to argue on me being the best. Why deny it when we both know it’s true?”
She chuckled softy like he’d hoped she would.
“God, I missed you,” she said.
“I missed you too. What’s going on? Did he hurt you?” Holden would kill the motherfucker if he’d laid a hand on his sister.
“I don’t want to talk about it all right now. I can’t. I just… How in the hell did I let him take over my life the way I did? Why did I give him power over me? Why did I stay? I always swore I’d never be like Mom, and I let him talk me into walking away from my favorite person in the world. I’ll never forgive him or myself for that. How could I walk away from you?”
Holden had asked himself the same questions over the years. And it had…fuck, it had wrecked him to lose Marilee, and to not really know Sean, but he kept that to himself. “You’re calling now, and whatever happened isn’t your fault. Predators have a way of getting what they want, getting in people’s heads, breaking them down, knowing the right things to say.”
The silence stretched between them, so long, it almost felt loud in Holden’s head. Finally, she said, “He’s gone. He’s finally gone. It’s what’s best for Sean. I can’t let him suffer the way we did.”
Pain sliced through Holden’s jaw, he’d tensed so tight. Motherfucker, he really was going to kill Adam. He didn’t know all the details, but he didn’t need to. “Where are you?”
“Harmony. A town in North Carolina, not too far from Asheville. I’m staying in a cabin on this guy’s property. Adam stole all the money from the bank—hadn’t been paying the bills and racked up debt they’re coming after me for. We got evicted.”
“Fuck,” he cursed softly. “Why don’t you and Sean come stay with me in Atlanta?”