Off the Grid Read online

  She opened John’s first—he could accuse her of being nosy later. There was a letter addressed to her brother, which she didn’t touch, but her heart squeezed, realizing that her brother had been his only family, too—that’s why he’d had his stuff sent here. Now they would have each other.

  The rest of the items were mostly clothes, including a stack of very ugly Hawaiian shirts that she was tempted to toss in the garbage. She wasn’t surprised that there wasn’t much that was personal except for a framed picture of him and his mom taken at one of his water polo games. He had a gold medal around his neck and his mom was beaming.

  The lack of the personal didn’t surprise her, but she vowed that would change. For both of them. She reached down to pet what she hoped would be the beginning of that: their new kitten, which John didn’t know about yet.

  Brittany was tempted to name her something ridiculous like Fluffums or Snuggly Bear—just to make him have to call her that—but she couldn’t do that to any female even in the name of fun. Besides, the orange tabby with shimmering light green eyes, rescued from the local pound, was much too dignified for that.

  Brittany had decided on Ariel.

  Suspecting she was going to need her wine for what came next, Brittany took a fortifying sip before opening Brandon’s box. Unlike when she’d gone through John’s, it was strange to go through her brother’s belongings. She barely knew him, whereas with John it hadn’t felt that way.

  It wasn’t until she’d gotten to the bottom of the box that she saw the envelope addressed to her.

  Tears filled her eyes even before she opened it. She curled up on the couch with her wine and Ariel in her lap and started to read.

  By the time she finished, tears were streaming down her cheeks. She was so overwhelmed by what she read that she didn’t even hear the door open.

  “Jesus, Brit, what’s wrong?”

  Brittany looked up to see John standing there. Despite how happy she was to see him, she didn’t move other than to hold the letter up to him. “Did you know about this?”

  He’d obviously seen the opened boxes when he walked in and realized what they were. He barely glanced at the letter before nodding.

  Brittany’s chest was so tight with emotion she could barely speak. “This is what you were talking about when you said I should have trusted him?”

  John nodded again and sat down next to her. He was momentarily surprised when the kitten hopped on his leg before jumping off the couch, but he didn’t stop to ask questions before taking Brittany into his arms.

  Feeling those big, strong arms around her opened the floodgates. Her crying got harder—a lot harder—as she wept for her lost brother.

  The brother she would never have the chance to apologize to.

  The brother she hadn’t really known.

  The brother she should have trusted.

  She had blamed Brandon for changing his story after their parents were killed, but he’d only done it to protect her. The Saudi diplomat had threatened to have her kidnapped and sold as some old man’s sex slave. In the letter, Brandon apologized for what he’d done, saying that he’d only been eighteen. He’d been scared and hadn’t known what to do.

  But he’d never forgotten. After he’d become a SEAL he’d investigated and learned the whole story behind the cover-up and why the government had wanted to protect this guy so badly. The diplomat was a CIA asset, and they were using him for information about terrorists. He’d been of negligible use, stringing them along for years before they cut ties with him.

  In the envelope, Brandon had given her all the information she needed, even suggesting that it would make a good story.

  He’d just given her the starring centerpiece in the article she was writing on abuses of diplomatic immunity.

  There was one more piece of information Brandon had given her. The diplomat’s son had been killed in a car accident a couple years ago, when his father was stationed in Pakistan.

  When her tears had finally dried, she looked up at John. “Was Brandon ever deployed to Pakistan?”

  John’s expression went stony—maybe a little too stony. “I can’t say.”

  She’d thought the secrecy thing would make her angry. After what they’d gone through, she was surprised that it didn’t. She understood why he couldn’t share things with her.

  But she knew the answer anyway. There was something in his eyes. And maybe she knew her brother a little better now, too. Brandon had gotten his justice. It might not have been the way she would have done it, but she wouldn’t pretend she was sorry.

  God, how wrong she’d been. She would give anything to be able to go back and change things. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

  “I think at first he was ashamed.”

  “That’s ridiculous!”

  “He thought he should have protected you better.”

  “He was only eighteen.”

  John shrugged as if he understood Brandon’s perspective. “After he found out the whole story about the cover-up behind your parents’ death, he changed his mind. He wanted you to know the truth. But every time I asked him, he said he was waiting for the right opportunity.” John looked at her. “He never stopped loving you, Brit. You were the most important person in the world to him.”

  Brittany felt her throat closing again. “Aren’t you supposed to be making me feel better?”

  He gave her that one-sided smile that she loved so much. “You will. But he wouldn’t want you to feel guilty because of what you read in there.”

  No, she supposed not—especially because her brother had something to feel guilty for, too. So did John. “You lied to me.”

  John frowned. “How?”

  She handed him the letter and pointed to the last section. “You told me Brandon didn’t interfere five years ago. But he did. He told you to stay away from me.”

  John scanned the letter, obviously surprised by what he was reading. Brandon wrote that he was wrong to have interfered. At the time he hadn’t known John as well, but there was no one he would have been happier to see her with. John finished and then shook his head. “Not exactly.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He didn’t tell me to stay away from you. He gave me a choice.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What kind of choice?”

  “The ‘state your intentions’ or ‘beat it’ kind of choice.”

  Her eyes widened. “He told you to marry me?”

  “Not in so many words, but that was the direction I needed to be heading.”

  Brittany made a “jeez” sound. “No wonder you went running for the Boobsie Twins.”

  He winced with a grimace—and not just at the bad joke. “Yeah, well, about that. That was kind of a lie, too.”

  Brittany was floored. “You didn’t sleep with them?”

  He shook his head.

  “You’re such an asshole!” She gave him a hard enough shove to make him grunt.

  “Ow. What was that for? I thought you’d be happy. Would you rather I’d slept with them?”

  “Of course not, but that was for letting me think you had. Couldn’t you have just come to me like a grown-up and explained? Didn’t you think I might understand? That I might not be any more eager to marry you than you were me?”

  Something crossed his face that she didn’t understand. He looked a little worried. “Yeah, it occurred to me. But I wanted something final.”

  “You wanted me to hate you?” He nodded. “Why?”

  “Because I wasn’t sure I’d be strong enough to stay away from you.”

  She eyed him, seeing that he was telling the truth. “You know, in a warped way that’s kind of sweet.”

  He grinned, but then he looked at the clock and got the worried look on his face again. It was almost seven p.m.

  “You expecting someone?”