Brighter Than the Sun

Joe found his grip tightening around Shea’s hand, whereas until then she’d been the one with the death grip. When she winced, he promptly let go, cursing under his breath.

“Sorry, Shea. I didn’t mean to hurt you. You’re broadcasting, sweetheart, and it’s pretty intense.”

She frowned and then suddenly he no longer felt her. It was always abrupt and not a pleasant sensation when she suddenly ended the communication, even if it hadn’t been conscious. Joe could well understand Nathan’s dependence on Shea as a constant shadow in his mind and why it would worry him that she’d closed off that intimate pathway at the moment she’d felt Zoe’s emotions. He only hoped he hadn’t given Shea the wrong idea with his gentle pointing out of her communicating down his mental pathway and not just Nathan’s. In truth he’d wanted her to pull away before she saw and felt the force of his own thoughts.

“I never meant to hurt you,” Shea said softly as she turned to Nathan, her arms wrapping around his neck.

Nathan crushed her to him, burying his face in her hair. “I know, baby. It just makes me crazy to think of you hurting or suffering and me not knowing or sharing that with you.”

“I didn’t want to make a scene,” she said, her voice still hushed. “And most of all I didn’t want Zoe to know or for anyone to have to explain it to her. I still don’t want her to know. She’s so frightened, Joe, and if she knows that I now have a pathway into her mind, it might frighten her even more and I think she’d run.”

“Did you pick up on anything other than her fear?” Joe asked carefully.

She withdrew from Nathan and shook her head as she turned her attention back to Joe. “I haven’t felt that kind of fear since what happened when I was taken from . . . here,” she said, her voice knotting as she invoked the memory of her abduction. “And when I was hooked to those horrible electrodes and unable to talk to Nathan or you. I have no idea what she’s so terrified of, but she was paralyzed with it. She was broadcasting so powerfully that I was helpless to do anything until I finally managed enough strength to break away from her. It was . . . crippling.”

Nathan swore and Joe added his own silent barrage of curses. Both that his sister-in-law had suffered for something she didn’t ask for and couldn’t control and also that his assessment of Zoe had been spot-on. She was fucking terrified. So scared that her fear had been the only thing Shea had picked up on when she’d been assaulted by the force of Zoe’s mental overload.

Joe’s cell rang, and he reached to silence it but saw it was Donovan calling. “Give me just a second, Shea. Try to relax for me. We’ll figure this out, honey. I don’t want you to worry. It’s Van on the phone.”

He stood and purposely put several feet of distance between himself and Nathan and Shea so as to give them privacy. Nathan would be shaken by what Shea had related and he’d need a few minutes to collect himself.

“Hey, Van,” he greeted as he answered the call.

“I did as you asked and did some digging on Zoe’s background,” Van said, his voice betraying nothing, which should have comforted him, but in light of what he’d known already and Shea had just confirmed, he was anything but at ease.

“And?”

“Not a damn thing out of the ordinary, though it would help to know what I’m supposed to be looking for other than her being screwed over by some jerk ex-boyfriend.”

“Tell me what you did find,” Joe said impatiently.

“Nothing. She’s the poster child for a quiet, not very colorful life. She’s twenty-six years old, no family, lives alone, graduated from DePaul University a year ago with a master’s degree in business management. She paid for school like a lot of students who have no family support or scholarships do. With student loans, which she’ll start repaying in a couple months’ time. She held a wide range of part-time and weekend jobs throughout school. Enough to pay her rent and get by but not much else. Not very active on social media. From what little I’ve managed to pull up, she doesn’t seem very active in much.”

Joe frowned. “I guess that answers the question of why we’d never seen or met her before. We assumed when Rusty said she was a friend she met while at university, that Zoe had gone to UT also. But if she went to school in Chicago, then apparently they had a long-distance friendship.”

“It would also explain why Rusty would have invited her home with her to stay an indefinite time. I don’t imagine they’ve seen a lot of each other, and if Zoe just got out of a bad relationship, it stands to reason she would need a friend like Rusty.”

Joe nodded, distracted as he glanced back at Shea. Making an instant decision, he closed his mouth. He’d been about to tell Van about Shea, but he didn’t want to worry the rest of the family unnecessarily. Not until he knew for certain they had something to worry about. It was enough that he had Nathan at his back.

“Okay, thanks, Van,” he murmured.

“You find anything out today?” Van asked.

Joe grimaced. He’d hoped to get out of the topic of his date with Zoe. As if that would happen. He’d been worried about all the wives being up his ass—and Zoe’s—along with his mother, but it was his brothers who would probably prove to be the annoying gnats.

“Just that she has zero self-confidence, doesn’t think much of herself as a woman and is scared.”