Wrapped Up in You (Heartbreaker Bay, #8)(67)

Ivy stood in her doorway, not knowing exactly what to say to Kel. Was she fine? No. Was she going to be fine? The jury was still out. But she couldn’t say either of those things, so she nodded. “Yes, I’m . . . fine.” Ish. “Is Arlo?”

“He will be.” Kel’s eyes tracked to behind her, where on her small coffee table sat her first aid kit, the contents scattered, along with the wrappings of gauze in a pile off to the side.

She knew very well it wasn’t hard to add two plus two to get four and she braced herself when he finally met her gaze again.

“Brandon was here,” he said tightly.

“Yes. That’s what I needed to talk to you about.”

“Did you know he broke into the condo building and attacked Arlo?” Kel asked.

She gasped, feeling like she’d just been hit by a train, which for the record would have hurt less. “No!”

He let out a slow exhale, like he was trying to be very careful what he said. “Are you sure, Ivy? Because the bat seems like a family signature. Are you sure you didn’t know what he was going to do?”

She stared at him in utter shock. “Are you kidding me? Of course I didn’t know!” She shook her head, stunned but also angry. And not a little hurt to boot. Never a good combination for her. “How could you ask me such a thing?”

“Because you’re siblings.” Again he looked past her to the first aid kit. “And because he was most definitely here.”

She felt sick. “Are you going to come in?”

“Are you going to implicate yourself in a felony?”

She closed her eyes for a beat, and he swore beneath his breath before nudging her aside so he could come in.

Turning from him, she locked the door and slid the chain into place.

“Isn’t that a little like locking the barn door after the horse has escaped?” he asked.

She turned to face him. Not all that long ago, he’d been buried deep inside her, making her feel things she’d never felt before. Ever.

Now he stood a mere foot from her and yet he might as well have been on the moon for the space and distance between them. “There are things you don’t know,” she said.

“Then you should have told me.”

“I tried. But my phone’s . . . missing. When I realized it, I went downstairs to use Martina’s phone, but I couldn’t remember your number. Or Caleb’s.”

“Okay.” He crossed his arms and studied her, impenetrable. “What exactly were you trying to tell me?”

“That Brandon came back,” she said. “After you got called away. He’d been shot. He told me that he needed money to pay some people off, but he didn’t have it. So he’d done something stupid.”

“Like break into a building for all the new, expensive equipment to fence,” Kel said. “When he pushed Arlo, Arlo fell and hit his head, requiring surgery for a brain swell.”

She looked away. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know he was going to do any of that.”

“But the only way he knew about that building and what was in it was if you’d told him.”

“The first time he showed up, that night you were here, after when we were talking, I told him about my condo and the great building it was in. He joked about me stepping up in the world.” She met his gaze. “I had no idea he’d use that info the way he did.”

“He needs to turn himself in, Ivy.”

She had to laugh. “And you think I can get him to do that?”

“You two are a whole lot closer than I thought,” he said. “So yeah, I do think you can get him to do that.”

She shook her head. “He’s . . . he’s paranoid about prison.”

“He nearly killed a man while looking for a quick buck. He’s going to have to get over his paranoia and face the consequences.”

“I know,” she said, more quietly now, hugging herself because he was keeping his distance on purpose, which possibly made her heart hurt more than it already did, and it hurt pretty damn bad. “Near as I can tell,” she said, “he either made some bad bets, or he conned someone he shouldn’t have out of a lot of money. He’s desperate to pay them off, nearly as desperate as the guys he owes are to get their money back.”

His eyes sharpened. “What do you mean?”

“They came here looking for him and then showed up again at my truck.”

There was a muscle jumping in his jaw now. “And?” he asked tightly.

“They didn’t do anything,” she said. “But they made it clear he needs to pay up or they’ll get it another way.”

“And I assume they think that other way is through you.”

She looked away. Yeah, that was what they assumed alright, and she was so on edge it was like her childhood all over again.

“Ivy, this is bad.”

“And you think I don’t know that?”

“How could you let him back in?”

“Well, one, I didn’t know what he’d done. And two, he’s my brother, Kel.”

“You housed a criminal.”

She tossed up her hands. “I didn’t know!”

“It doesn’t matter. You hid him. And when I texted asking if you’d seen him, you replied that you hadn’t.”