“People drift apart. I’m sure if they’d needed you—”
“She probably needed me the day Dale was sent home from Iraq in a box. But I didn’t even know the boys had enlisted.”
“Oh, hell, Ken. That’s…” He honestly didn’t know what to say. Jesus.
“Exactly.” Ken slid off his lap and grabbed the throw from the back of the couch to wrap around his waist. Brady surreptitiously slid a pillow onto his lap. “Finn Club is looking pretty damn good right now, isn’t it? No matter what happens or what you’ve been through, none of you would ever think about abandoning your family. Even the family yours basically adopted, like Tasha and Jeremy.”
“Not true. I think a few of us have had moments where we wished we didn’t have to deal with the Finn clan. Didn’t have so many people to answer to. I know I’ve thought about leaving,” Brady admitted softly, feeling the need to ease Ken’s guilt. “I came home and every familiar face reminded me of what I’d lost. That the guy they knew was gone and I was a fraud. If Stephen hadn’t hired me, if Owen and Jeremy hadn’t let me basically move in without asking… I might have started over somewhere else and never looked back.”
Ken sat down on the coffee table across from him and put his hand on Brady’s thigh. “Remind me that I owe them one.”
Squeezing Brady’s knee, Ken picked up the thread of his story. “A few years ago I realized my mistake and got in touch with Patricia. Terry was still enlisted, so I made sure to call her every week and get together for dinner a few times a month so she wouldn’t be alone. She was wary at first. I guess that’s why she didn’t tell me Terry was home right away. She was protecting him until he got on his feet. The doctors at the VA said he was suffering from PTSD.”
He sent Brady a look that said just like you before continuing.
“He had nightmares every night. He stopped sleeping completely for a while and she said he’d look right through her, as if he were seeing something else. Then he seemed to balance out. He’d gotten back on his meds and met a man, he told her. A wealthy man who spoiled him and promised he’d take care of him. He thought it was love.”
Brady could feel the anger rising inside him. “Vargas?”
“No. Richards was the first man’s name. But I think…I think from the files that these men like to pass their toys around. Those phrases I couldn’t figure out? I finally cracked it a few days ago. Burke kept track of that with his own cypher since he procured more than one companion for them over the years, all of them young and strong. All of them lost and malleable. It was his way of keeping them in his pocket.”
“Motherfucker.”
“We’re close,” Ken murmured. “If I’m right, and I think I am, Vargas was the last to trade with Richards. That has to mean he has Terry or knows where he is.”
He hesitated. “I’ve hated putting you in this position, Brady. I hate that you’ve had to deal with a man like Grimes, and that your second experience with BDSM might be worse than the first. If there was any other way…”
“I know there isn’t,” Brady assured him.
“If we can get Terry back, I have the money and Trick knows people who can help him and Patricia disappear. Protect them until I can send those bastards where they belong.”
“We. Until we can send those bastards where they belong.” Brady covered Ken’s hand with his own. “Thank you for telling me. I’m in this now and I promise you, we’ll get Terry back to his mother.”
“Thank you. No more talking about this.” Ken undid the blanket and stood, tangling his fingers with Brady’s. “Come with me.”
Brady had no desire to resist. He felt protective of Ken for the first time since he’d known him. He’d seemed so independent. Almost too perfect. But he was as messed up as everybody else. It made him more beautiful.
When they reached the bathroom, Ken squeezed his hand and let it go. “Don’t move.”
Brady watched him open a drawer in his dresser and take out a folded piece of paper. He walked over and handed it to him. “Read it.”
He looked down at the test results, understanding making his heart race. “This was done over four months ago.”
“Right after we met,” Ken agreed. “I can take it again tomorrow, but I haven’t been with anyone but you since then.”
He hadn’t? Something powerful and possessive swept through Brady. “Same here. And I got tested as soon as I came home.”
Brady tried to read his expression and Ken just smiled his fallen-angel smile. “I know.”