The drive to the farm was silent—and awkward. Emmett had no idea what to say to Dare. The tension ran thick in the truck. Emmett didn’t want to hate the man, because he was Deja’s brother, but he didn’t appreciate the way he spoke to her at the precinct.
He appeared decent enough at Austin’s house. When they weren’t around was he still treating his sister like shit? That’s what he wanted to know. He wasn’t going to ask, though. A fistfight, in closed corners, while driving, didn’t seem like the greatest idea.
And Zane. Out of everyone in the family, he never expected Zane to see Deja as part of the family, let alone say it about Dare. He’d probably change his opinion soon. Just a little taste of how Dare really was would have him regretting his words.
That wasn’t fair. Emmett barely knew the guy to dislike him so much. He did spend the last ten years in prison. It’d take time to assimilate himself back into society. He had to give him a chance. For Deja. Especially for her.
“What are your intentions toward my sister?”
The wheel jerked as he stiffened. He looked at Dare. “Excuse me?”
Dare cleared his throat, his hands fisted, resting on his lap. “I said, what are your intentions toward my sister?”
Emmett forced himself to keep his eyes on the road. It wouldn’t do well for Dare to see the lie. “I don’t know what you mean. She’s my employee, a good friend of the family.”
“Bullshit.”
Clearly, Dare didn’t need to see his eyes to know a lie when he heard one. Emmett wasn’t having a conversation about his feelings for Deja. Especially with her brother.
“You suddenly care about your sister? Didn’t look that way at the precinct.”
“Wow. You got balls, I’ll give you that.” Dare laughed, or more like grunted. “Deja’s the only bright spot in my life. I’d do anything for her, including what I think is the best thing for her.”
“By treating her like shit and shoving her away? Yeah, that’s totally the best thing for her.”
“What the hell do you know? You don’t know anything.”
Emmett gripped the steering wheel tighter, then whipped the truck to the side of the road, tires squealing as the truck jerked to a stop. He faced Dare. “I know your sister hurts. I see it every single day. I know she’s the toughest woman I know, besides Sophie. Sophie has so much grit, only she doesn’t realize it, but Deja, she’s got just a little more grit. I know…”
Emmett relaxed his hands and drew a deep breath. “I don’t know much about her life because she keeps it locked tightly inside. I know the important things like what makes her smile, what makes her laugh with delight, what makes her tick, what makes her want to grab her tire iron. I know she wants you in her life. It’s easy to see. So I’d say I know a lot. I know what’s important. I wish I could say the same about you.”
“That just confirms what I thought. You like her, yet, you won’t tell me your intentions toward her. You can get in the face of a murderer, but you can’t tell one tiny little woman how you feel. Coward.” The smirk on his face grew as the words sunk in.
Emmett was no coward. “Takes one to know one.” Geez, he was reverting to grade school talk like they were having a beef on the playground. He couldn’t help himself.
“I’m no coward.” Dare’s hands fisted again.
“Sure you are. You keep pushing Deja away instead of embracing her. You keep calling yourself a murderer when I don’t think you are.”
“I killed my parents. What would you call that?”
Emmett leaned back, gauging him. His hands were still fisted, ready to pounce, but Emmett didn’t think he’d throw a punch. His body language suggested it, but he wouldn’t do it. “Did you shoot them? Stab them? Burn them alive? How did you kill them? Tell me, because I’d love to know.”
Dare looked away, his hands squeezing tighter. Emmett felt sorry for him. No—not sorry—empathetic. He could see the internal struggle, the anguish that rolled off him in waves. The silence engulfed the truck. Emmett pushed too far. So had Dare. He felt like a jackass for pushing his emotions like that. What did he know? Who was he to judge?
He started to lift his foot off the brake when Dare spoke softly. “My mom thought my dad was having a heart attack. They forgot to pay the phone bill, like usual. Or, more like, they used the money on booze instead.”
Emmett’s foot pressed the brake harder, waiting patiently for Dare to continue. He wanted to ask questions. A ton of them flooded his mind, but he said nothing. He just waited in silence.
“It was my job to take care of Deja. My parents didn’t give two shits about us. They loved each other so much it’s like they forgot how to give us some of that love. I was reckless, hurting, selfish. I knew how much it affected Deja as well, but I guess I just didn’t care enough. She shouldn’t care about me. I don’t deserve it.”
“I’d say she would disagree with that.”
Dare turned toward him. “I liked to pop pills, smoke weed. I always told myself it was okay because I wasn’t doing hard shit like meth or coke or heroin. If I cared about her, I wouldn’t have touched shit. What do you have to say about that?”
Emmett shrugged, honestly unsure what to say. He just wanted to hear the rest of the story, what happened to his parents. Did he kill them in a fit of rage? Drugs made people do the craziest things sometimes.
“I told my parents I’d drive them to the hospital. The phone wasn’t working so we couldn’t call for an ambulance, and we lived in a shitty ass neighborhood. I didn’t trust any of our neighbors to help. I was high as a kite. I felt mellow, calm enough to deal with them, because I tried my hardest to stay clear of them as much as possible.”
Shit. Emmett didn’t like where this was headed. “You crashed the car, didn’t you?”
Dare nodded. “It started raining, just buckets of water pouring down. My mom was in the backseat and refused to buckle up even after I told her several times she should. My dad finally said something and she sat back. I assumed she immediately buckled up—she didn’t. A dog came out of nowhere and I swerved, slamming on the brakes. The rain…just everything…we hit a tree. My mom was thrown from the car and died instantly, so they say. My dad was having a heart attack and died before help arrived. I walked away with a gash to my head. That’s it.”
Emmett frowned, the confusion clear. “It was an accident.”
Dare gave a hollowed laugh. “So everyone keeps saying. The courts disagreed. It was criminal vehicular homicide. Want the full definition of what that means? The prosecution even claimed the dog was a figment of my imagination. The drugs created it. They never found a trace of evidence that a dog ran into my path.”
“The dog was real.” Emmett said it as a statement, not a question. He heard the conviction in Dare’s voice. He believed him the dog was real.
“Doesn’t matter anymore. I served my time and my parents are still dead. Sad part is I’m not really sad. I had planned to hightail it out of that hellhole as soon as Deja turned eighteen, taking her with me. I never wanted them to die. I just wanted to be rid of them. The only thing I hate, that I can’t stand, is I hurt Deja. I left her alone. I didn’t take care of her like I promised I would.” He rubbed his jaw. “I have no idea why I just shared all of that. Shouldn’t we be getting to your family’s house?”
“Yeah, we should. Although, we’ll probably need to wait, especially if the fire isn’t out yet.” Emmett rubbed his jaw as well, contemplating what to say, how to say it. “I like your sister.”
That is not what he intended to say. It just slipped out.
Dare chuckled, the sound lifting the depressing mood that had filled the truck. “No shit. You look at her like a lost little puppy.”
“I do not.”
Dare raised a brow as if he couldn’t believe Emmett tried to deny it. “And your intentions toward her?”
Shrugging, he glanced away as he smoothed his hand over the steering wheel. “Deja doesn’t like me like that. I don’t want to ruin the nice working relationship we have by asking her out.”
“So in other words, you’re a coward.”
Emmett snapped his head to Dare again. His eyes flashed a warning. “I’m not a damn coward.”
“Prove it.”
“I thought you didn’t like me. You’re practically shoving me towards your sister. Makes no sense.”
This time Dare looked away. “Someone needs to take care of her.”
“You’re going to leave her? That’ll break her heart. Is that what you really want to do?”
“I already broke her heart, and it’ll just get worse if I stay.”
Emmett started to ease his foot off the brake. “Yeah, she needs a brother who doesn’t go running away from his problems. Talk to her like you talked to me. It would help.” Emmett pressed the gas, the truck jerking slightly.
Dare chose not to respond. The rest of the drive was made in silence. Emmett parked on the side of the road near the driveway when he noticed all the fire trucks lining the driveway. No bright fire lit the night sky. They must’ve taken care of the fire. Good. Now they had to wait for clearance to tackle the fence that was mangled in pieces.
Bordering the road, a white wooden fence, recently painted last year, sat broken in pieces. Emmett guesstimated about twenty feet worth of fencing needed to be fixed. Austin liked to give Sophie wood all the time for her crafts. She created beautiful works of art that she sold on-line. She made good money. No surprise there because she had such talent. It made Emmett wonder if there was any wood on the property to repair the fence until they could properly fix it.
Emmett started walking down the long driveway, Dare next to him. Neither spoke. There wasn’t much left to say. Emmett could probably say more, but it wouldn’t be wise. He couldn’t believe the words they exchanged to begin with.
Stopping next to Austin near the porch steps to the house, he tried to ignore the question in his eyes. What had taken them so long?
“So what’s going on?”
Austin pointed to the barn and the corral. “They just got the fire out. Thankfully, it didn’t touch the barn, but it torched half of the corral. We’ll need to replace that. Zane’s talking to the fire chief with Ava. I didn’t want to…I’m so…”
Emmett put a hand on his shoulder. “This isn’t like the last fire that happened. This isn’t your fault, and neither was the last one.”
Austin grimaced. “It kinda was. I’m the one who dated a crazy ass woman, who then had her lunatic of a brother set fire to the farm.”
“Are you still bothered about the washer issue? Because I never see you get down like this.”
“The last few nights have been…rough, like I said. She’s worried about Deja and—” Austin looked at Dare and gingerly smiled. “Sorry.”
“Sophie doesn’t need to worry about my sister. She’s fine.” Dare became rigid, his face hard with emotions that Emmett figured was a lot of guilt.
“We just met, but I’m not gonna lie to your face. I would say she’s not fine. Deja hides her emotions well, but all it takes is one look into her eyes and you can see fear.” Austin squared his shoulders.
“Are you saying my sister is scared of me?”
Emmett took a step, standing between them. He didn’t think Dare would attack Austin or that Austin would throw a punch either, but just in case, he wanted to be prepared. “Deja loves you. She’s not scared of you harming her. I would say she’s just scared you’re going to leave, which sounds exactly like what you’re going to do.”
Austin scoffed. “Which is why Sophie’s worried about her.” He started to walk away.
“Where are you going?” Emmett hadn’t realized Austin was so stressed lately. Normally, Austin was the happy one, the fun one, the one who made everyone else forget why they weren’t feeling like themselves.
“To check out the barn. I need to see what we have for supplies to repair the fence near the road. We need to do something for the night. Tomorrow we can fix it properly.” Austin kept walking.
“I thought I was family.” Dare’s sarcasm wasn’t lost on him.
Emmett chuckled, not even wanting to touch that subject. But what the hell. “Welcome to the family. We get in each other’s face, but it doesn’t mean we don’t care about each other. If you can’t take the heat, then do everyone a favor, especially Deja, and leave.”
“You’re still an asshole.”
“So are you.”
They stood there, staring each other down, wondering who would make the first move. Emmett wasn’t going to back down. He saw three scenarios in his head. He’d either watch Dare walk away, have to shove him from throwing a punch, or wait for him to help repair the fence.
“Yo, Emmett, I’ve got good news.”
Emmett turned away from Dare to see his brother Ethan walking toward him.
“Amidst all this chaos, I can’t wait to hear it.”
Ethan’s smile widened as he winked deviously. “I found you the perfect woman so you can forget all about Deja. I know you’ll never make a move on her so I’m gonna help you move on. Already got you a date for Wednesday with a nice lovely school teacher.”
Emmett stiffened. Could the day get any worse? “I don’t want your help. I’m not going out with one of your women.”
“Oh, I’ve never dated her. Gabe and I had drinks the other night, and she was there with Beth. You remember Beth, right? I dated her a few years ago when…well, none of that matters. It didn’t occur to me then that she’d be perfect for you, but after you left last night, it did. So I called Beth this afternoon to get her number and I got you a date.”
Rubbing his hand over his face to hide the embarrassment, he sighed. “Ethan, I’m—”
“You gonna ask out Deja?”
“Don’t we have a fire to deal with?” Emmett pointed behind his brother. The commotion near the barn and corral was still hopping.
Ethan shoved his thumbs under his suspenders and smiled with delight. He had already taken off his turnout jacket and tossed it somewhere. “Fire’s extinguished. We took care of that beast without breaking a sweat. This issue with Deja…move on, bro. I’m helping you.”
“My sister isn’t good enough for your brother?” Emmett almost forgot Dare was standing there until he spoke.
Ethan’s brow rose in surprise as he glanced at Dare. “Sister?”
Emmett cleared his throat, almost giddy inside that his brother just made an ass of himself. Serves him right for trying to meddle in his life. “This is Dare, Deja’s brother.”
“Nice to meet you, Dare. Your sister is good enough, but I’m not so sure my brother is.” Ethan grinned at Emmett, it slightly mimicking one of his smirks that said he was up to no good. Which he clearly was. “If he doesn’t have the balls to ask her out, then he doesn’t deserve her. Now, about this date I set up for you. Her name’s Debbie. Cute as a button. She’s a teacher, very soft spoken. You’ll love her.”
“I’m not going out with her. I’m not a damn coward.” Emmett started to walk away, ignoring the laughter ringing around the farm. He refused to be baited by his brother like that. He liked Deja. End of discussion. He whipped around. “Watch me ask her out. Tomorrow. Tell your teacher, thanks, but no thanks. I like Deja. And if you got a problem with that, Dare, come throw a punch.”
♡
Dare watched as Emmett stalked away, wondering what the hell just happened. So much shit happened within the space of twenty minutes. He basically spilled his guts to a stranger. He almost got into a fistfight from words he didn’t want to hear. He was accepted into a family, then tossed out like he was a piece of shit. Now he wanted to punch someone again. Maybe himself.
“Well, that worked better than I thought.”
Dare averted his eyes from Emmett to his brother still standing by him. “What?”
“My plan. It worked better than I thought it would. Debbie’s not my type, but I don’t want her to feel bad Emmett won’t be showing up, so I’ll have to take his place. Unless you wanna go out with her.”
Dare puckered his brows as he tried to assess what the hell he was talking about. “You do realize I just got out of prison.”
Ethan nodded. “What’s your point? You haven’t had a woman in a long time. Although, Debbie’s not the type to sleep with you on the first date. Just saying.”
“Are you messing with me right now?”
“No. Do you want me to?”
“What the hell is going on?” Dare didn’t like how confused this entire conversation was going. He was two seconds away from saying screw it all and walking away. Because if he didn’t, he’d be sorely tempted to knock a fist into this guy’s face. He needed to punch something.
Ethan laughed and clapped him on the shoulder, making him flinch. “Lighten up, Dare. Let me work my magic and I’ll find you a woman who’ll be willing to release some of that tension for you a lot sooner.”
“I don’t want a woman.”
Ethan dropped his hand and winced. “Oh, you’re gay. My bad.”
Dare rubbed his hand over his face and groaned. “I’m not gay.” He pointed toward the direction Emmett walked off. “What did you mean your plan worked? I’m not about to let any of you assholes hurt my sister.”
“I’m not gonna take offense to you calling me an asshole, but be warned, it’s the only time I’ll allow it. Emmett needed a little nudge to get his head out of his ass concerning Deja. If I bug him about other women, it’ll motivate him a lot faster. I didn’t realize it would work right away. You got a problem with my brother dating your sister?”
Dare noticed how Ethan’s good-humored nature slowly disappeared and was replaced with an underlying wrath. “Maybe.”
Ethan’s face suddenly brightened into a smile. “Honesty. I like it.” He swung his arm around Dare and forced him to walk with him. “Now, let’s talk about what sort of woman you want. I know lots of people.”
Dare was too shocked to do anything but follow him and listen. Then he realized it would be kind of nice to hook up with a woman. Release some of the tension swirling in his veins. But what woman would want to sleep with a criminal?