Dax (The Theriot Family 4)

“Here. Sit down.” Beau guided me to the couch. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you.”

Those unexpected words were enough to anchor me, to keep the memories from pulling me back into the past. I tried to speak, but Beau laid his hand on mine. “Take a few minutes. We have plenty of time.”

“But you need to know so we can—”

“Dax will find out what we need to know, and we have Corbin and the rest of their family to help us.”

That really did bring me back to the present moment because my brother had never been willing to rely on anyone else, not even me. He taken on running our household when I was just a toddler. He always believed that if something was going to be done right, he was going to be the one to do it. “Corbin really has changed you.”

Beau grinned. “He has, but the rest of my crew here has made an impact too. Sam especially. It took me a while to learn to trust them and accept that I can’t run this place by myself, but I’m finally there.”

“I’d like to help you too.”

Beau squeezed my hand. “What did Rob do to you, Travis?”

“I can’t tell it all at once. I don’t even know how much of it I can say out loud, but please just believe me when I say that once I was with him, I couldn’t leave, not without consequences I wasn’t going to accept. If I hadn’t followed his plan to set you up, he would have had you killed. I didn’t want you to go to prison, but at least it gave you a chance.”

Tears shimmered in Beau’s eyes. I’d never seen my brother cry, not even when our grandma died. “I should have—”

“No.” I pulled Beau into a hug. “I chose to go with him.”

“He manipulated you.”

“Yeah, and I was stupid enough to fall for it.”

“So was I.”

“No. You thought I chose him over you.”

Beau shook his head. “I thought he was my friend. I trusted him. I knew he was spending a lot of time with you, but I… I saw what I wanted to.”

“It’s easier to be angry at your brother than at your best friend.”

Beau scrubbed a hand over his face.

“If he were still alive, I’d fucking kill him right now or hold him down so you could have the pleasure.”

I gave him a weak smile. “Thanks. Can we just talk about Jean-Charles now? It’s going to take some time before I can tell you more about Rob.”

“Yes, and you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.”

“You believe me?”

“Of course I fucking believe you.”

“And you…” I squeezed my eyes shut willing the tears to stay put. “You forgive me?”

“Yes.” He folded me in his arms. “Do you forgive me?”

“You didn’t—”

“I could have come after you. I could have taken you away from him. I could have known better than to think you would betray me that way. You’d yell at me, tell me off, defy me, yes, but… I knew something was wrong.”

“You are completely forgiven. I just want… I just want you to love me again.”

“Travis, I always loved you. Why the hell do you think I tracked you down and forced you to stay in the family shack… or at least tried to?”

“You’re lucky I didn’t listen.”

“That time, maybe.”

“I thought you just wanted information from me.”

“That’s what I said, but I also wanted to keep you safe, even if I didn’t want to admit it. I had guys from the old crew watching over you the whole time.”

“What?”

“Yeah. They were already there when you called me for backup. I wasn’t going to leave you in the middle of the bayou unprotected.”

We hugged each other for a long time, and I allowed myself a few moments to enjoy the idea that Beau and I could truly put our relationship back together. That this was more than him just having me here out of duty.

Corbin came in just as Beau released me. “Wow, I didn’t think things would move this fast, but thank God you two got right with each other. We’ve got some assholes to catch, and that’s what we need to focus on.”

“If we’re going to make plans, I need some coffee,” Beau said.

I nodded. “Same.”

Corbin grinned. “Make some for me too. A lot of shit has come out tonight. I assume you two talked about Rob and what a completely fucking useless excuse of a human being he was.”

Corbin glanced at me, and I was sure then he knew about me and Dax. Why had I left my fucking underwear on the floor?

While Beau made coffee, I took a shower to clean off the grease and dirt and dried cum. I couldn’t believe we’d really fucked right there in the garage. A few moments later, Beau, Corbin, and I sat down with mugs in our hands.