“Of course I came.” Conall bent to wrap the boy in his arms and hold him close. “Oh, damn, Bren. This is all my fault. I’m so sorry. God, I was so scared.”
Still shaking hard enough to rattle small bones loose, Brendan pulled back enough to look incredulously at Conall’s face. “You were scared?”
“I’ve never been so scared in my life,” he said truthfully. Hell, his hands were shaking. “When I realized that had to be you creeping across the pasture—” He had to stop.
“You saw me?”
“Yeah.” Conall let out a ragged breath. “Let me call Lia. She needs to know you’re okay.”
The boy swiped an arm across his wet face. “Is everyone awake?” His voice was incredibly small.
Conall actually laughed, although there wasn’t a lot of amusement in it. “You think anyone slept through discovering you or Walker weren’t in your beds? The damn dogs over here howling—” He held Brendan at arm’s length, inspecting him. “Did you get bitten?”
“Uh-uh. One of them knocked me down and I curled up and wrapped my arms over my head and then one of the men yelled at the dogs and they came out and…and they grabbed me and brought me in.” He finally petered out. “And then they wanted to know what I was doing here.” Fresh tears fell. “I couldn’t think of a good lie,” he wailed.
Conall’s eyes stung and he had to blink hard. He gathered the boy back into his arms and laid his head against the top of his head. “Yeah, I know,” he said in a low, rough voice. “I know, Bren. You should be proud that you’re not a good liar. Most decent men aren’t, you know.”
“But I bet you are!” Brendan sobbed.
Conall felt his face contort. He was aware of his brother watching them, but he didn’t look at Duncan.
“I learned because it’s my job,” he whispered. “You can be a hero without doing what I do.”
Brendan kept crying, and finally Conall straightened, lifting him in his arms where he clung like a monkey. Indeed, he didn’t weigh much more than Walker.
“Take him home,” Duncan said quietly.
Conall finally met his brother’s eyes. “Yeah.” He swallowed. “Thanks.”
His brother nodded. “We’ll clean up here. Why don’t you send Jeff over? Lia and the kids need you.”
He wasn’t used to being needed, but he nodded.
Conall carried Bren out, placed him gently in the passenger seat and fastened the seat belt around him, even though that was dumb as hell for a drive down one driveway and up another.
Brendan’s sniffles subsided by the time they reached Lia’s house. He swiped at his wet face as Conall got out and came around to him.
“Walker?” he mumbled. “He was hiding and watching me. Is he okay?”
Conall closed a warm hand around the boy’s thin shoulder as they walked toward the house. “He came running to get help when he saw them grab you. He’s a smart kid, Bren.”
“Smarter than me, I guess.”
“What you did wasn’t smart,” Conall said frankly. “But that isn’t because you aren’t smart. I don’t want you ever to think that. This is my fault as much as yours. I put ideas in your head. When I was your age, I might have done the same thing.” He let out a gruff laugh. “I know I would have. I was desperate to amount to something. For anyone at all to notice me.”
“You?” Face tipped up to Conall, Brendan looked disbelieving. “But you’re…you’re…”
Conall stopped, even though he was aware of everyone waiting on the porch. “I’m a highly trained federal agent. I’ve been on the job ten years. When I was your age, I was scrawny, shorter than you are and mad all the time because my family was such a mess. You’ve got a big step up on me, Brendan. You grew up knowing your mom loved you and believed in you. That’s what you need to hold on to. Okay?”
The kid gave a dazed nod. Conall hoped he got it.
After a moment they moved toward the house, but Lia, Walker and Sorrel spilled down the steps to meet them. Walker’s face, puffy from earlier sobbing, was incandescent, and tears still ran down Lia’s cheeks even as she smiled. Sorrel had been crying, too. He was the only one who hadn’t, Conall realized, but he felt as drained and shaken as if he had.