Stranded with My Stepbrother Chapter 110

McKenzie

I listened to Will give Hoot what little information he had. And it was definitely very little.

“I just know he and my grandfather conspired together to create a bounty on Caleb and Jocelyn Killeen,” Will explained. “This sheik guy… I didn’t get a lot of time to look into him, but I think they had something on him, too. Whoever he is, he is definitely not a good person. And his right hand man who was corresponding with my grandfather over the ransom was Ibrahim Abadi.”

“We know a few things, then. Probably all we need to know,” Hoot said. “He’s rich, he’s powerful, and he wants you two.”

“McKenzie for sure,” Will agreed.

“Don’t kid yourself. These power-grabbin’ types, they don’t mind havin’ just that little bit more to dangle over the competition’s head,” Hoot replied. “And that’s what I’m thinkin’. Figure they’re probably both doin’ that illegal shit that Jack said Caleb and Jacey got roped into.”

I raised my hand. “Question.”

Hoot looked in the rearview mirror. “Yeah?”

“How much did Jack tell you about my parents? Because, until a couple of days ago, I thought they were boring farm folk,” I said.

“Jack didn’t have time to tell me much, but he did say they testified against this Masterson guy and that’s why Will showed up out of the blue. Least that’s what he was assumin’,” he responded.

“I found a bunch of files on Ike’s—my grandfather’s right hand man—assistant’s computer. I just had to meet them. My grandfather was obsessed with making their lives miserable. And now that he’s getting out in two months, I have every reason to believe he’s going to try to do it again.” Will balled his hands into angry fists. “There were… he did… unspeakable things.”

“Yeah, like make Jacey have you,” Hoot said.

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Your mama carried him,” he continued before Will could get a word out.

Horror choked me. “Oh my God, are you my brother?!” We’d kissed! We’d gotten each other off, for the love of Christ!

“No. No!” Will shook his head vehemently. “My grandfather took a donor egg and my dad’s sperm and made me. I’m basically a test tube baby. He made your mom carry me to term. But no, we’re not related. Not at all.” He paused, then hunched his shoulders. “Would have been nice if they’d had a leg to stand on in court, though. The trial transcripts said they wanted me anyway.”

It was weird. It was super weird, and I didn’t even know what to begin to feel about it. “So, you put your tongue down my throat and decided not to tell me this?”

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“I don’t even know what to do with this information! What do they even call a situation like this? Are you like… my stepbrother or something?!” I burst out.

“Oh, that’d be par for the course,” Hoot chuckled.

“Why are you laughing?!” I snapped.

Hoot shrugged. “Your parents were stepsiblings. Your grandma, Caleb’s mom, married your pawpaw, Jacey’s father, when Jacey was fifteen. They got together when she was eighteen, which was also when this all started.”

“Thirty years ago.” I gave Will the side-eye, and he had the decency to flinch. “I really wasn’t thinking about that,” he apologized.

“It’s kind of a big thing to forget.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I feel like there should be a banjo playing in the background of all this. My parents were stepsiblings, and I almost jumped… still don’t know what to call you.”

“Will.” Will shrugged helplessly. “You just call me Will. Don’t overthink it too much. Please.”

I stabbed a finger into his chest. “I’m not talking to you.”

“But you just said—”

“Never mind what I said!” I interrupted Will. “I just… I need a minute to get my head around this.”

“We’re hittin’ the rest stop up yonder.” Hoot nodded his head in the direction of a blue sign. “You’ve got that long to work things out. We need to switch vehicles, and that’s gonna be the best place to do it.”

I harrumphed and looked out my window, pointedly not looking at Will.

When we stopped, I jumped out of the Mustang and stormed off to the bathrooms, pulling my baseball cap low over my forehead. To my consternation, Will followed me.

“The men’s room is on the other side,” I informed him, pointing.

“Please let me apologize. I don’t… I never thought of you that way. That’s why I didn’t say anything—because it doesn’t matter to me. It’s not even a big enough issue to—” He stopped when he saw the expression on my face. “But, obviously, you have different thoughts on the matter…”

“I don’t know what to think right now. I would have appreciated knowing, though. I mean, it’s… weird,” I said.

Will sighed. “We don’t have the same parents, and your mother was forced to carry me eleven years before you were even born. I think that was a violation of everyone’s rights. It’s part of what drove my father to suicide—my grandfather’s treatment of Jacey and Caleb. I was shocked about all the other things I was finding out about my grandfather, but it didn’t shock me at all that two good people who loved each other decided to have a child of their own. I suppose, if they’d won custody of me, and we’d grown up together, yeah, it’d be weird. I don’t think it’s weird. I think it’s just life.”

I scowled at him. “‘Just life’? Really?”

“I’ll… let you think about it some more. I’ll see you in a bit.” He went around the building to the men’s rooms.

I went into one of the women’s stalls and slammed the door. Ugh!

The stall had a box of those toilet seat liners at the back, so I pulled one out, placed it carefully on the seat, and sat down, my mind twirling. Not a big deal? Just life?!

A part of me wondered if wanting Will was disgusting now. Except I wasn’t disgusted. Like he’d said, we weren’t related at all.

We were strangers.

I shook my head. No, we weren’t that, either. We’d found out a lot more about each other in the last few days than some people did in a lifetime. For instance, I knew Will was protective, principled, educated, and had bad taste in chips. He was kind, thoughtful… attractive. But not because he was smoking hot, which he was. More because he was a good person.

Also, I knew Will hadn’t been born out of love, like I had. I thought it was admirable that my parents had still wanted him, but my eighteen-year-old mother being forced to be a surrogate? What kind of sick bastard did that?

Apparently, Will’s grandfather.

I wondered what kind of a burden that was, knowing the only person left in the world who was supposed to love you was actually a selfish asshole who just wanted a copy of himself to succeed him in his bad dealings. It was remarkable Will hadn’t considered going the same way his father had.

Or maybe he had considered it?

It was that thought that had me rushing out of the bathroom and over to the men’s room. I’d gone so fast that I’d splashed water on my shirt when I washed my hands. I got a lot of leering glances, and I could only imagine how see-through my shirt had become.

Will was at one of the sinks. He looked at me in the mirror, closed his eyes, opened them, then turned around. “I hope that’s not how you look when you’re about to turn me down cold.”

“You’re not going to kill yourself, are you?” I blurted.

“What?” He gaped at me. “No. I’m not going to kill myself. Whatever gave you that idea?”

“Because your dad and your grandfather and all this and everything.” I gestured vaguely in the air. “You know.”

Will smiled sadly. He took off his sweater, flashing the best set of abs I’d ever seen in person, and handed it over to me. “Here. You need this for now. I think these truckers want to eat you alive.”

I didn’t take the sweater. I was too busy looking at how well he filled out his T-shirt. It was straining to keep all his muscles from popping out. “You must spend a lot of time at the gym.”

“I didn’t have much else to keep me occupied, since Ike was doing everything that wasn’t public-facing. I should have questioned that more.” He shook the sweater at me. “Please put this on. I promise we can burn your bra or whatever you’d like to do in protest of the patriarchy when we aren’t… here.”

“I’m not going to walk around topless, if that’s what you’re worried ab—holy crap.” I saw myself in the mirror behind Will and quickly yanked his sweater on.

He relaxed. “Okay, so, did you decide what to call me yet?”

“Still working on that. You didn’t answer my question. What about all that’s happened to you? You’re really not considering ending it all, right?” I asked, rolling up the long sleeves of his sweater. It hung on me everywhere except my boobs and ass.

“After everything, sure. I thought about it. But what good did my father killing himself do anybody? He could have testified against my grandfather. Instead, he left that burden on your parents.” Will gestured for me to walk ahead of him. “And now we’re in this mess. I’m sure my father could have done a much better job of dismantling my grandfather’s enterprises, but he didn’t. And your parents couldn’t. And maybe I can’t, either, but I’ll be damned if I don’t at least try.”

“I think your father must have not seen any other way out. Don’t blame him,” I said quietly.

“I don’t. I blame my grandfather for making him feel so trapped.” We walked back to the parking lot.

There was no sign of Hoot. Or the Mustang.

“What in the…?” I gasped.

“This can’t be good,” Will said.

As though expecting it might magically appear, we walked over to where the Mustang had been. There was a set of skid marks, but otherwise nothing. No note. No clue.

“I’ll bet they found him,” I whispered. “I’ll bet he took off to make them think we were still in the car with him.”

“That would make sense. But we have a big problem now,” he replied.

“Hoot’s gone, and we have no idea where to go from here?” I said.

“Yes. That and Hoot has my money.” He locked eyes with me.

My jaw dropped. “Oh my God. We’re stranded.”

“I’ve still got my bank card, but I wouldn’t be surprised if my grandfather found a way to shut it down,” he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “And if I use it, it’ll flag our location.”

I glanced at the rest stop building. “Is there an ATM in there?”

“Did you miss the part where I said it’ll flag our location?” Will raised an eyebrow.

“Just take out as much money as it’ll let you. I’ll see if someone will let us use their phone to call a cab,” I said.

“A cab to where?” he asked.

“Anywhere but here,” I answered.