“We’re still waiting on a couple of other people to confirm. I have no idea who V invited. She said she was going to talk to Zoey.”

Well, as long as V was going to be there, Zane really didn’t care who else they invited. He figured the guys that were going were likely going to bring some women along, and ever since the twins informed him that they were doing a combined bachelor/bachelorette party, Zane was almost anxious to see how it would play out.

Seriously, how does that work? Are there going to be strippers? Did he have to watch some dude strip before he watched some chick? Or after? Hell, with the twins in charge, there’s no telling what they were in for when they got to Vegas.

“Have you seen Ethan?” Zane asked when the twins settled down after whooping and hollering one more time about Vegas. Zane had no idea what all the fuss was about. He’d never been to Vegas, nor did he really have a desire to go. Since this was for Kaleb, he was all for it, but as far as he was concerned, they could have the bachelor party at Moonshiners.

“He’s at the shop,” Brendon offered.

With that, Zane made a beeline out the door. He needed to talk to Ethan, and he needed to do it soon. For some reason, Zane was under the impression his brother was avoiding him.


Five minutes later, he pulled his Jeep up next to the mechanic shop located not far from the Walker Demolition construction office right on his parents’ property. Ethan’s truck was parked out front which was a good sign. Grabbing his black Stetson, Zane took a deep breath and ventured inside.

It didn’t take long to find Ethan, who was up underneath one of the large tractors behind the shop. They only worked on vehicles inside which meant most of the large equipment was stored behind the shop and was also where Ethan spent most of his time.

Zane cleared his throat, hoping to get Ethan’s attention. It worked. His brother slowly rolled out from under the tractor, peered up at him before rolling right back under. Ok, so apparently this wasn’t going to go as well as he hoped.

“Hey,” Zane called out. “Get your ass out here and talk to me.”

“Fuck you,” Ethan remarked without much heat, but he didn’t move either. “I’ve got work to do in case you haven’t noticed. Oh, wait. You haven’t noticed.”

“Get your ass out here, or I’ll join you underneath there, and you know how that’ll turn out,” Zane barked.

Because Zane and Ethan worked so closely together, they had a tolerably strained relationship. Before the attack, the two of them had spent most of their days together, and they managed to get on each other’s nerves more times than not.

Ethan rolled back out, grabbed one of the grease rags from beside him and proceeded to stare up at Zane while wiping his hands. “Five minutes, bro. That’s all you get.”

“Five minutes won’t work. Get your fucking ass out from under there,” Zane demanded before turning to go back inside the shop.

This was Texas, and the weather was generally mild, but sometime overnight they’d had a cold front blow in, which dropped the temps into the thirties. Call him a pussy or whatever, but Zane wasn’t looking to freeze his ass off. He’d had to run back in his house and grab his Carhartt jacket this morning as it was. It didn’t offer much protection from the wind whipping around him.

Once inside, Zane headed right to the small area that they’d commandeered as their office. It wasn’t a large room, but they managed to make good use of the space. More importantly, it had heat. Or it would as soon as the damn heater kicked on. Zane screwed with the thermostat on the wall until finally the heater rumbled to life.

The smell was horrendous. Being spoiled to Texas weather, they didn’t have to use the heater that much, and every time they did, Zane hated the smell that was emitted while the dust burned off.

While he waited for Ethan, Zane flipped on the coffee pot, knowing damn well his brother was always in a foul mood without his coffee. He was as bad as the others when it came to his caffeine fix. Zane seemed to be the only one who avoided the stuff.

“What the hell do you want?” Ethan growled when he came into the office a few minutes later. “I’ve got work to do, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“Where’s Blake?” Zane asked, remembering what Kaleb said about the man who was supposedly helping Ethan in Zane’s absence.

“Fuck if I know.”

The words out of Ethan’s mouth did not match the confusion on his brother’s face. It was true, Ethan didn’t smile a lot, but for the most part, he didn’t say much either. Especially not a litany of curse words in so few sentences. Zane understood Ethan’s anger, knew he wasn’t happy about the fact that he didn’t plan to come back and work at the shop, but he also felt they needed to discuss it.

“Is he hired on permanently?” Zane dropped into the chair that he previously claimed as his own. Propping his boots up on the edge of the desk, he stared back at Ethan.

“No.”

Ethan didn’t elaborate, but he did pull out the other chair and slid down into it. Zane stared at his brother across Ethan’s immaculately kept desk. Glancing back at his own, he wanted to laugh. Yeah, they were worlds apart in so many ways and looking at it now, Zane found it a little amusing that Ethan would be so mad about him not coming back. At home, Zane kept everything in its place. At work... Not so much. Although, that was going to change with the new club because he wasn’t going to have much of a choice.

“Kaleb told me he’s been helping out.”

“He has.” Ethan glanced over at the coffee pot, just realizing it was finished brewing. Between the smell of the heater and the stench of the coffee, Zane wasn’t sure which was more unappealing. Obviously Ethan didn’t think it was the coffee because he bolted up out of his chair and reached for the pot and a Styrofoam cup.

“Does he want to work full time?” Zane questioned his brother, watching him as he added sugar to the black liquid.

Ethan turned to face him then, his face void of any and all emotion. “Are you not coming back? Is that what you’re finally telling me?”

Zane stared into the same smoke blue eyes that he saw when he looked into the mirror. All of his brothers had the same color eyes, the same color hair, and almost the same build. Ethan looked more like their father than any of them with his chiseled features.

“I want to do something else,” Zane finally said, looking down at his hands resting on his propped up legs. “It’s time for me to do something else.” Zane wasn’t sure Ethan was going to understand his reasoning, but he wasn’t sure he understood his own reasoning. He just knew that he was ready to move forward and not go back.

“Why?”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Zane began, looking up at Ethan again. “It’s not that I didn’t love what I did. I just think it’s time for me to move on.”

“Is this because of the attack?” Ethan questioned, and his tone simmered somewhat.

Was it? Did the attack change him? Maybe. But Zane wasn’t sure that was all it was.

“I don’t know.” That was the honest answer. “I spent some time looking into the resort while I was in the hospital and I got excited.” For the first time in a long time, in fact. “Hell, you met the McCoy’s. Aren’t you just a little curious as to what AI is going to be about?”

Ethan glanced down at his coffee cup. “A little.”

His brother sounded torn. Like maybe he wasn’t happy doing what he was doing either. “Have you considered moving on?”

“No.” The adamant answer pretty much told Zane exactly what Ethan meant. Butt out.

Figuring it was a moot point to try and push, at least right now, Zane went back to the safer topic. “So, why don’t you hire Blake to come on full time? As my replacement.”

Zane’s gaze was drawn to a tall man walking in through one of the bay doors. He didn’t recognize him, but he had a feeling that was Blake. Glancing back over at Ethan, he realized his brother had noticed him too. Only, Ethan wasn’t looking at Blake like they were merely working together. There was something else in his expression. Just as quickly as it was there, it disappeared, and Ethan was looking at Zane once again.

“I need to get back to work. If you’re sure you aren’t coming back, I’ll talk to Blake.”

Zane thought that was a good start, except Ethan might want to consider talking to Blake about other things too. Not that Zane would interfere, but he’d always expected that his brother was different from the rest of them. Not in a bad way, just in a different way. The way Ethan was looking at Blake, he saw the same thing he’d seen before. Interest, maybe? Longing? Hell, he didn’t know and maybe he was making shit up in his brain just to make himself feel better about not coming back to work at the demo company.

“Hey,” Blake’s head appeared in the door, and he smiled down at Ethan.

Ok, definitely not making shit up. Whatever he saw in Ethan’s expression earlier was the same thing he saw on this guy’s face.

“Hey. Blake, this is Zane, my youngest brother. Zane, this is Blake.”

Was it him or did Ethan sound just a little frustrated?

“Nice to meet you,” Blake said as he moved closer, holding out his hand.

Zane dropped his feet back to the floor, tipped his hat back slightly and reached out and shook Blake’s hand. “You, too. Thanks for filling in here while I’ve been gone.”

“Sure.” Blake glanced back and forth between him and Ethan. “Are you coming back to work today?”

Zane looked over at his brother, expecting him to answer the question, but he didn’t. “No. I’m not coming back.” He left it at that. Whether Blake thought that meant today or ever, he didn’t really care. At this point, Ethan needed to figure it out, or hell, Zane was going to see if Beau wanted to join the Walker Demo ranks as one of their mechanics. The guy would be a huge asset to the company.