of my way to hurt Gabe.”
Rick shook his head. “It wasn’t like that.”
“It looks exactly like that, or are you trying to say you were a twenty-something in love with a seventeen-year-old?” Andy picked up the file on the fake crash aftermath and started blindly paging through. He’d had enough of this conversation. Enough personal stuff for seven o’clock in the morning.
“I have an appointment with my clients.” Rick leaned against the side of Andy’s desk, trapping a short stack of files under his thigh. “About this situation.”
This he could handle. Andy lowered the file to glance at Rick and gauge his sincerity. “You mean with the CIA assholes tracking Natalie.”
“I never actually admitted that was happening.” He shrugged. “Deniability.”
Right. There were limits to what he could share. Andy got it. He worked in this area as well, but he didn’t pretend to be stupid about reality. “Didn’t have to.”
“I’m trying to clear this up so she can get on with her life.” Rick’s voice dipped low and what little emotion remained in it vanished. “If that includes Gabe, fine.”
That was the least sounding “fine” Andy had ever heard. “You don’t sound too excited about that.”
“Do you think she’s his type?” Rick winced as if the words tasted bad in his mouth. “Linda was quiet and sweet.”
Talk about revisionist history. Andy had to bite back the smartass comment on his tongue. “And cheated on him.”
“Natalie is kind of . . .”
“No.” He shut this down. Had to, because if Gabe came back and heard Rick bad-mouthing Natalie, that battle they’d been promising each other would happen. Life would break out into a holy war with no survivors. “You might want to choose your words carefully.”
“Now you’re her defender, too?”
“I like her.” Andy thought about the words as he said them. They were true. Natalie had been dealt a shitty hand all around. She could have hid and played the victim but never did. He could see where Gabe might find that interesting.
“Why?”
“She’s tough and smart. She won’t take Gabe’s shit and can handle his moods and work demands.” Simple words but they worked here. “She’s not my type, of course, but I can appreciate a hot woman when I see one.”
“He needs someone who isn’t so damn difficult.”
That sounded exactly wrong to Andy. “See, it’s that type of comment that makes me think you don’t know Gabe all that well anymore.”
“Oh, really?” Rick stood up, full battle stance and sharp tone back in place.
Whatever had weighed him down when he walked into the office seemed to be gone. Andy hoped Rick hadn’t released the guilt, because he deserved to wallow in it a bit longer. He also owed Gabe an apology and Brandon a life that didn’t include doubts and huge changes.
But Andy went with the most obvious point, the one he thought he could sell. “What our brother needs is a challenge, someone who equals him. Pushes him.”
“Sounds exhausting to me.”
“And I bet he likes that, too.” Not that Andy wanted to spend one second thinking about what Gabe and Natalie did together in that department.
“What happened to the whole loner act?”
“Maybe he was just waiting for the right woman to wander along.” Worked as good as any explanation, but the truth probably had more to do with the work and the energy needed to raise Brandon alone and in safety.
Rick actually sneered. “Oh, come on.”
The men in this family needed some work on the romance front. Gabe was wounded and pretending not to be. Rick was . . . who the hell knew. And Andy had to admit that he still had a thing for a guy who had moved on. Fucking Eli.
“I guess we’ll know soon enough,” Andy said, because that was easier than launching into a statement about how they all sucked at this.
“Which brings me back to my point.” With each short sentence Rick banged his fist against the corner of the desk. “The men I work for do not like being threatened. Your fake plane crash worked to the extent that it convinced some she wasn’t looking to be out in the open, causing trouble. Others remain skeptical. Those two factions are fighting it out right now.”
“I’m pretty proud of that operation.” He’d never staged something so elaborate in so little time. The number of moving pieces was staggering, but the photographs and press coverage impressed him.
“Just knowing Natalie is out there and has damaging information on them is making those last few doubting