“Will you do it?” Ryan asked. “Will you stay with her for a while? If she wakes let her know…”

“I’ll handle it,” Devon said. “You just go so you can get your head on straight again. And rip his nuts off for me. The bastard deserves it.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Jarrod’s expression was one of resignation when he opened the door to Ryan’s insistent knock. Ryan didn’t give him time to do or say anything. He grabbed his brother by the shirt and propelled him backward into the small studio apartment Jarrod lived in.

“What the—?”

Ryan silenced him with a fist. Jarrod went sprawling and Ryan and Cam both stood a few feet back waiting for him to pick himself up off the floor.

Jarrod wiped at the blood on his mouth as he stumbled to his feet. “What the hell, Ryan?”

“Why did you do it?” Ryan asked in a deadly quiet voice. “Why?”

An uneasy expression crawled across Jarrod’s face. His lips drooped and his eyes went dull. At least he wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t know what Ryan was talking about.

Jarrod dragged a hand across his mouth again, his hand coming away smeared with blood. “I know it won’t mean much, but I’m sorry.”

Ryan exploded at him. Jarrod didn’t even try to defend himself. He went down on the floor and this time he didn’t get up. “Sorry? You’re sorry? You tried to rape her. You lied to me about her. What the hell is wrong with you? She was the woman I was going to marry. Why would you do something like that?”

“Mom,” Jarrod said in a weary voice.

Ryan took a step back, stunned. “Mom? Mom put you up to this?”

Jarrod dragged himself only up enough to lean against the living room wall and he put a hand through his hair, his expression weary and defeated.

“Yeah. She went ballistic when she found out you proposed to Kelly. She was determined you weren’t going to marry some penniless upstart. Her words not mine. I thought she was crazy at first. I mean I figured she’d throw a fit and then get over it, but then she wanted me to go buy her off. She said that if Kelly refused the offer, I should frame her with the fake rape story. I swear to you I wouldn’t have raped her, Ryan. I just wanted to set it up so you’d think we slept together.”

“Jesus,” Cam muttered. “This is crazy.”

Ryan was numb from head to toe. His own mother had done something that sick? It didn’t seem possible. How could anyone hate someone else so much that they’d go to such lengths to get rid of them?

“She invited me to dinner last night. But I swear, Ryan, she told me that you wanted me there, that you and Kelly wanted to let the past go and start over. I wasn’t going to go, because I didn’t want to upset Kelly or make you angry, but Mom told me you specifically asked for me to come. And I hoped… I hoped that maybe you and Kelly could forgive the past and that we could be a family again. Like old times.”