his brother. Maybe it was nothing more than he deserved.
Case pulled up, his big truck taking a large portion of the round drive. “Let’s go. I’m supposed to head over to Ian’s after I drop you two off. I swear to god I’m not getting any sleep tonight.”
“Maybe we should drop my brother off at Kori’s,” Jared said, swinging his body into the cab.
And wake up Erin? Not even he was that much of a sadist. “I’ll see her tomorrow.”
He hoped.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Kai stared at the computer. Every single news headline stated the same thing. Jared Johns arrested for murder. TV hero kills assistant. Hollywood actor slays women.
God, it was a bloodbath.
He flipped the computer closed and went back to staring at the screen that hadn’t pinged once all night or morning. His phone. Kori hadn’t called. She hadn’t texted. She hadn’t sent him an e-mail.
He loved her. He knew he’d fucked up royally, but what could he do about it if she wouldn’t talk to him? And didn’t that say something about the way she felt about him?
“You still waiting for her to call?” Jared asked, walking into the kitchen. Baby brother looked worse for the wear this morning, his hair all askew and his eyes tired. He moved toward the coffeepot. Usually Kori had already booted the thing up by now and was working on her second cup.
“Call back. I’ve left her many messages. I don’t think calling her again will help. Did you sleep at all? I thought you didn’t touch caffeine.” He watched as his brother navigated the coffee machine with the ease of an expert.
Jared popped the cup into the mechanism and pressed the screen. “That was when I had a career. The good news about no longer having a job is that I can eat and drink whatever I like. Can we get pizza at this time of the morning? Do you know how fucking long it’s been since I had pizza? And like five burgers with real, actual cheese on them. I’m going to need a bunch of sugar and cream for this coffee. Oh, and we need to have someone deliver a case of beer. I’m going through that tonight.”
“I thought you told Kori you loved cheesecake and pasta.”
“I love them,” Jared shot back. “And I totally lied about eating them. No one wants to know how hard it is to keep this body. I have to stay relatable and that means lying about eating pizza and cheesecake. The great news is I don’t have to do that anymore. I can be really relatable and gain fifty pounds of pure flab.”
When had his sunny brother turned into Mr. Pessimism? Probably right around the time he’d been falsely accused of murder. Kai didn’t like it. Jared was supposed to be the eternally optimistic one. “You don’t know that. Have you talked to the network? Hell, for that matter, have you talked to your agent?”
“Earlier this morning. He explained he couldn’t work with me anymore. At least he had the decency to actually talk to me on the phone. Tad texted me his resignation. Said it wouldn’t look right for him to stay. And then he sent me a teary emoticon. I want to punch him in the face.”
Kai could totally understand that, but it might have to wait. “Karma is your friend in this, brother. Just wait and he’ll end up getting his. Let Simon and Jesse do their jobs. You never know. Maybe Tad killed her. Or his brother.”
Someone in Jared’s entourage had offed Lena. There was no question in his mind. The only real question was why. He’d thought about it all night long and well into this morning.
“Karma stinks then.” Jared opened the fridge and rooted around until he came back with a carton of milk. “I try hard to do the right thing. I give money to charity. A lot of it. I visit sick kids. I try to help the people around me. You know what I get? Arrested for murder. Awesome. Yay, fucking universe. Where’s the sugar?”
“Cupboard above the coffeepot.” Where Kori had stashed it. “Sometimes the world works in mysterious ways. Just because you’re down doesn’t…”
“Mean you’re out.” They finished their mom’s favorite phrase together, a moment of harmony only siblings could understand.
No one else in the whole world knew what it meant to be loved by their mom. No one knew what their shared world had been like. He’d pushed his brother away for a lot