Free Traitorous Attraction by C. J. Miller Page A

I’m into it, as you’ve phrased it, but I prefer it. I’ve been up front about that and it works for me.” Why did it matter? He had agreed she could come along to look for his brother. She should see that as a major win.
    “Aiden told me you and he used to spend a lot of time together.”
    When they were younger and before they had time-consuming, soul-sucking jobs, they had spent a great deal of time together. They had even shared the rent on a two-bedroom town house for a few years. “When we were kids.”
    “What changed?” Kate asked.
    They’d grown up. They’d escaped being under their father’s thumb and they’d gotten jobs to support themselves. They’d each wanted their own space. “Life changed us.”
    “Or you changed,” Kate said.
    Why was she digging around about this? If she and Aiden were so close, he would have told her all the ugly details of their lives. “Of course I changed. I grew up. I had more responsibilities.” Although from a young age, he’d had a number of grown-up tasks. Taking care of Aiden. Finding food when the cupboards were bare because his father hadn’t bothered to go shopping. Making sure they had clean clothes and shoes that fit. Getting them to school on time.
    “That doesn’t mean you needed to cut Aiden out.”
    Was that her interpretation or Aiden’s? “What makes you say I cut him out?”
    Kate must have sensed she was walking on sensitive ground. “Nothing. Aiden just mentioned he missed you.”
    Connor had missed Aiden, too. He’d regretted the distance between them. Toward the end, their conversations had been about their father and how they were footing the bill and the responsibility for his care. They were conversations that had made them both uncomfortable. Aiden believed their father had changed. Connor saw him for the coldhearted, abusive jerk he’d always been.
    Connor hadn’t wanted their disagreements about Sphere to escalate into the fight that had caused discord between them. It was difficult to live with the idea that they’d never close that distance.
    “I’ve missed him, too,” Connor said.
    “I hope you’ll have the opportunity to see him soon,” Kate said.
    Hope. There was that word again. It was a fickle word that could end in happiness or devastation. Despite Connor’s tortured thoughts, sleep claimed him.

Part III: The Jungle

Chapter 5
    T he bus would take them to Mangrove. Though Kate had no illusions the intel she’d intercepted was completely accurate, she hoped for Aiden’s sake they’d pick up on his trail at the bar where he’d last given a verbal check-in. It had been seven months. Perhaps someone would remember him. In a small town, someone looking like Aiden would make an impression. He didn’t look like a local and neither did she or Connor. Maybe someone in Mangrove would know where the Armed Revolutionaries had set up their camps.
    Connor was wearing a blue, nondescript ball cap over his hair and Kate had tied a bandanna around hers. It didn’t hide her blond hair completely, but it made it less noticeable.
    The bus was a remnant of the eighties, rust around the wheel wells and bumper, paint chipped and scratched from the sides, and the cloth seats worn to threads, silver tape around the seams. The air-conditioning didn’t work and the small rectangular windows were opened. It was a hot, humid day and the wind wasn’t cooperating to cool the inside of the vehicle.
    Connor and Kate took their seats in the middle of the bus, keeping their heads bent together and ignoring other passengers. The bus was three-quarters full and ten minutes late when leaving the bus terminal.
    “If you want to sleep, now is a good time,” Connor said. He shifted in the narrow confines between the bench seats.
    During the brief time they had spent together, Connor had shown two sides: cold, detached and mechanical and the side she preferred, warm, protective and considerate. “I am tired.” It hadn’t been easy to sleep on