My little brother, who used to pass out at the sight of blood.
Jesus.
“You sure you can do this?” I asked.
Zach shook his head and chuckled. “A lot’s changed, Jake.”
“Clearly,” I murmured.
His eyes held mine for a moment, then focused on the task at hand. The wound wasn’t bad, but like Oz’s, the stitches would keep it from bleeding too much. And, of course, it hurt like hell. But I didn’t care.
We were alive.
I found my gaze searching out Oz again.
My brother chuckled but didn’t say anything. After a few minutes, Zach covered the wound with a large bandage, then his hand came up to cup my neck for a minute. “Thank fucking god,” was all he said. Then he stood and began cleaning up the supplies. He returned a moment later and put his hand around my upper arm and pulled me to my feet. I winced at the pull on the wound on my side. “Sit there,” he said firmly and pointed to his chair… the one that had a perfect view of Oz.
“So, you and a supermodel, huh?” Zach said with a grin. “Mom’s going to freak that you finally met someone.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “That’s what you want to talk about?” I asked.
He sobered and said, “Still trying to take it all in, I guess.” He shook his head. “Three fucking years, Jake.”
I dropped my eyes. “I’m so sorry, Zach.”
“I’ll rip you a new one later. Let’s deal with the here and now.”
I nodded and said, “You saw the picture?”
“My girlfriend did,” Zach said. “She’s big on that clothes shit. She couldn’t believe how much he” –Zach motioned over his shoulder at Oz– “had changed with the hair and stuff. Then she saw your picture and mentioned how much it looked like the pictures I’d shown her of you.”
“Do Mom and Dad know?” I asked.
“No. I wanted to come out here and make sure it was really you before I got their hopes up.”
“Fuck,” I muttered as I scrubbed my hand over my face. “I don’t know what to do,” I admitted as I met Zach’s eyes.
“Well, that’s okay, because we’re going to figure it out together.”
“So says GI Joe,” I murmured as I took him in again. “I guess the army’s working out for you, huh?”
“It did,” Zach confirmed.
“Did? Not is? Did you leave it? Why? You love the army—” I stopped mid-sentence because I knew the answer. “You left for me.”
“You make it sound like a choice,” Zach said softly. “Stay in the army or try to find my missing brother?” Zach held my gaze for a moment, then shook his head. “It was never a choice, Jake.”
I shifted my gaze back to Oz because it hurt too much to look at my brother. Knowing he’d put his life on hold for me like that… which meant my parents and sister had probably done the same…
Xander chose that moment to enter the apartment. We were staying at the nudist colony where Xander’s aunt Lolly lived. Since going back to Haven hadn’t been safe, Xander had figured that the community of naked people would be the last place Barton would think to look for me.
“Okay, we’re good here for a while. Lolly says the guy who owns this apartment is in California visiting his granddaughter for a couple more weeks, and he said it was fine for us to use it.”
Xander dropped down into one of the chairs. “How you doing?” he asked me.
“Better now,” I admitted.
The adrenaline rush was just now starting to wear off, and I wanted nothing more than to drag Oz to bed with me and hold him while I tried to accept that everything was about to change. That no matter what happened from here on out, I wouldn’t be alone in it anymore. Whatever it took, I knew I had to end this once and for all.
“How did you guys find us?” I asked, trying really hard not to think about what would have happened if they hadn’t. There was no way I would have been able to stop Cass. Pain radiated out through my limbs as I remembered the way Oz had looked at me when he’d realized he was going to die.
I sucked in a couple of deep breaths to try and quell the nausea that threatened to send me to my knees.
“Zach showed up in town looking for you. I was just heading out to your cabin to check on you and Oz when I ran into him. The resemblance…” Xander’s gaze shifted between me and Zach. “Anyway, when he told me who he was, I knew it was true, so I had him come along.”
“We saw the bullet holes and the trashed cabin. Xander saw all the footprints leaving the back of the cabin and figured out where you’d most likely be headed,” Zach said.