Too Late to Love Me novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Two of Him

I opened the door on the chain.

Zachary stood in the hall holding a bouquet of white lilies the size of a small child.

His eyes were red-rimmed and his tie hung loose, and he looked so wounded that for a second I wanted to apologize.

"I was a jerk," he said.

"I was drunk and my friends were there and I was a jerk."

"You read my letter to two hundred people."

"I know."

"You said I was the help."

"I was joking, June."

"It was a joke, and I'm sorry it landed wrong."

"Let me in, and I'll make it right."

He pushed gently on the door, and the chain went tight.

"You've got a boy in there?" he said, smiling, as though that were funny.

"Let me see him."

"Go home, Zachary."

His smile slid off.

"Open the door."

"No."

He reached through the gap and caught my wrist.

It was not hard.

It didn't need to be.

I had never been afraid of Zachary before, and I froze.

"Don't be difficult," he said, very softly.

"Let go of her."

The voice came from behind me, flat as a plank.

Zachary's head came up.

I felt the chain slide, and the door swung wide, because Zane had reached over my shoulder and opened it with one hand.

The hall light fell across both of them.

For a long moment nobody breathed.

Zachary looked at the man in front of him, and the color left his face so slowly I could watch it go.

Same jaw and same dark hair.

One of them had a beard and tired eyes, and both had the pale scar across the left hand.

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