Wrapped Up in You - Jill Shalvis Page 0,75
would work, but you failed. You nearly got caught, got shot for your efforts, and now you’re not just on the run from the guys you owe money to, but probably from the cops as well. How am I doing?”
“Pretty good,” he said weakly.
“Oh my God, Brandon.”
“Please, Ivy. You can help me out of this.”
Kel had told her that people make choices. That she’d made good choices and her brother hadn’t. She’d never thought of things that way before, but he was right. She’d chosen to put down roots. She had a nice group of great friends, her own business, and she was buying her first home. She also had Kel—one of her very best choices to date.
Brandon hadn’t chosen any of those things. Or her. And in fact, he’d chosen her now only because he needed something. “The way I see it,” she said quietly. “You have two choices. One, you can stay here with me and face what you’ve done, meaning confess and face the consequences for whatever went down tonight, including jail time, if that’s the sentence. I’ll be at your side, rooting for you. It’ll be a fresh start, a clean start with a new slate, just like I’ve made for myself here.”
“You aren’t naive enough to think it’s that easy.”
“Oh, it won’t be easy,” she assured him. “But I want a long future. And it’d be nice to have you in it under those circumstances.”
“I’m not sure us Snows have any sort of future,” he said quietly.
“You’re wrong, Brandon. You can have a future. All you’ve got to do is live on the straight and narrow for the first time in your life.”
“Or?” he asked tightly. “Door number two?”
“You can walk out right now and run, but if that’s your choice, you can’t ever come back.” Her throat went tight. “Not ever, Brandon.”
He stared at her. “That’s harsh.”
“Is it? I’ve got something here, something good. And instead of being my brother, all you do is threaten it. If you run from this, we’re done.”
He took a long swig of the vodka and set it down. Again his head went back against the sofa. “Okay,” he said.
“Okay what?”
“Okay, I’ll stay, if you want. Which is far more than I deserve and we both know it.”
“You’ll turn yourself in?” she asked doubtfully. “You’ll deal with whatever happens next?”
“With you by my side,” he murmured. “You forgot that part.” He opened his eyes and looked at her.
She nodded and he gave her a very weak smile. “You’re a good sister,” he said quietly.
She let out a slow breath and felt herself relax for the first time since he’d shown up on her doorstep. For once, he was going to do the right thing, and the relief left her exhausted. Or maybe that was just the events of the evening. “And I want Aunt Cathy’s necklace back.”
He grimaced.
“Tell me you didn’t sell it.”
Now he closed his eyes, as if looking at her disappointment and hurt was too painful for him. “I’m sorry.”
Grounding her back teeth into powder, she got him onto her couch and beneath a blanket, where he promptly passed out cold. It was nearly dawn now. Not wanting the bloody towels to stain, she ran them downstairs to the basement where they had a communal washer and dryer. She needed to go to work soon, she thought, shoving the towels into the washing machine and adding soap.
And something else she had to do? Talk to Kel. She’d promised after Brandon had shown up the first time that she’d contact him if she heard from her brother again. She reached for her phone in her back pocket before realizing she’d left it upstairs in her apartment.
Damn.
She climbed the stairs and entered her apartment, immediately knowing something was off.
Her couch was empty.
Brandon was gone.
“Shit!” She ran through the place, which didn’t take but a second, trying to figure out if anything was missing. Her laptop was right there on the table.
In fact, just then it lit up with a notification that her PayPal transfer had gone through.
Except she hadn’t made a PayPal transfer.
Whirling around, she looked for her phone. She couldn’t find it, and she froze in place. Where had she left it? When had she had it last?
She couldn’t remember. Hell, she could barely function. Brandon had used her laptop to transfer himself her twenty thousand dollars.
She sank to a chair on wobbly knees and didn’t know who she was more furious with—her brother, or herself.
Both, she decided,