“That wasn’t my call.”
“But it was your examination.”
Her mouth closed. She blinked, heat in her eyes, and for a second she was back in court, feeling his eyes burn her as she declared Ramon, his friend and manager, a hostile witness. As she slowly pried out the incriminating conversation from him that sealed Gage’s fate.
“I . . . I wish I had recused myself. I should have—”
He held up his hand as Ty came up the stairs.
“He’s not here,” Ty said. “But I did find this in his room.”
He handed Gage a folded map. She came over and took a look at it as he unfolded it.
“Oh no. It’s a map of Heaven’s Peak, with my route traced down it.” Gage folded it back up, shoved the map into his pocket. “I have to find him before he does something stupid.”
“Thank you, Gage.” She touched his arm almost without thinking. “But I can find him.”
He jerked his arm away as if her touch might contain an electric spark. It rattled her, but she found the politician in her and schooled her voice. “You’ve done enough. I’ll stop him.”
She wasn’t sure why so much surety came out of her mouth.
People simply did what they wanted, regardless of common sense.
But Gage just looked so . . . well, wrung out. As if, with Ollie’s words, he saw the past flashing before his eyes, same song, second verse. She couldn’t let him feel responsible. Or take the blame.
Not when it wasn’t his fault.
Had never really been his fault.
And maybe only she and two other people in the world truly knew that, but if she could, she’d let him walk away from this one unscathed. So, she kept her voice low and even. “He’s my brother. I’ll find him, and I’ll talk him out of it. Coerce him if I have to. I won’t let him go up Heaven’s Peak.”
Gage’s mouth was a tight bud of doubt.
“Thanks for coming over, but you’ve done enough. Thank you for helping my brother. It was nice of you. You’re a good guy, Gage. I’ve always known that.”
It wasn’t much, especially when she wanted to say so much more.
He blinked then, as if perplexed, his brow dipping into a frown.
Swallowed.
She offered a smile.
He didn’t return it. But he did give her a quick nod, as if willing to hear her words.
Her tiny, pitiful peace offering to the gigantic wound she’d inflicted on his life.
“You let me know if you have trouble with him,” he said, proving her words about him being a good guy. He walked over then, shoved his feet into his boots. His friend pulled on his cowboy boots.
“Nice to meet you, Ty,” Brette said and held out her hand.
“You too.” He shook it, glanced at Ella. “I also work for PEAK Rescue with Gage.”
PEAK Rescue. Well, of course Gage would have joined a rescue team. That thought wrapped around her heart, offered her some healing as he opened the door.
So he had put his life back together.
He walked out, and just when she thought he wouldn’t turn, he did. Looking back at her, and for a long moment holding her gaze.
I’m sorry.
He swallowed. Opened his mouth as if to say something. Then abruptly turned away and walked down the steps to his car.
Brette’s hand tugged on her arm, pulling her away from the door. “Let him go.”
She took a breath at Brette’s words.
If only she could.
Then Brette shut the door and turned to her. “Let’s go find your idiot brother.”
Ella Blair could still dismantle him. First, simply from the shock of seeing her as she opened the door. Gage thought his heart had stopped, right there, banging to a halt in his chest. She looked—well, almost like the first version of Ella Blair, the one who’d wooed him with her smile, her laughter on the ski slope. Her amazing hair might be shorter but was just as tangled, just as pretty. A sunburn on her nose, those cherry lips, and she wore pajamas.
He nearly didn’t recognize the woman who’d later dismantled his life. Buttoned up. Lethal.
Seeing her in those penguin-printed bottoms, the tank top and sweater, reminded him that he’d known a different side to Ella Blair.
A kinder, sweeter side.
Yeah, seeing her unsettled him, but it was her words that nearly took him apart. Because sometime after his heart started beating again, after he’d grabbed ahold of his emotions, she’d become the woman that, once upon a time, he’d fallen in love with.
“You’re a good guy, Gage. I’ve always known that.”
And that nearly had him unraveling the tight fist of control he had over his words, his hurt, to hurtle at her the one question he still hadn’t found the answer to.