"Duh? Because you're a guy!"

"Smart mouth," he muttered. "It shouldn't last long."

"I hope not," Tess said over a yawn.

Obviously she was getting sleepy, which was good. She needed her rest. "Why? Do you like Liza?"

Tess studied him through perceptive blue eyes just like Nash's. And their late father's. "You like Liza, so yeah. I do too."

Smart kid, he thought, with relief. If she relied on that common sense and steered clear of trouble, she'd be okay. Good thing she had three older brothers and a sister and two sisters-in-law to make sure of it. Dare wanted to add one more female to the mix.

But he still had a long way to go.

"Get some sleep," he told Tess. "I'll come back to visit later."

"Okay." She snuggled back under the covers and he let himself out of her room.

He walked downstairs to find Ethan waiting. "Got a minute?" his brother asked.

Dare nodded and followed Ethan into his office.

"You okay?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah." The word came out automatically, but the truth was more complicated. "Not really."

"I didn't think so." Ethan lowered himself into a chair and motioned for Dare to sit too.

"A year ago we wouldn't be sitting, about to have a serious talk," Dare said.

Ethan shook his head. "A year ago Nash would have blamed me for what happened to Tess. He'd probably have hit me again too." He rubbed his jaw, obviously remembering the brothers' long-overdue confrontation. "But you always held back. You gave me a chance first."

Dare nodded. He had.

"Maybe that was because you understood what it was like to make mistakes."

Despite himself, Dare grinned. "When did you get so smart?"

"I had many years of beating myself up," Ethan admitted, taking Dare by surprise.

He studied the brother he'd barely known and now felt a special kinship with. "How'd you get past it?" he asked.

Because like Dare, Ethan lived with regrets. He'd gotten arrested when he was almost eighteen and their parents were killed in a car accident on their way to bail him out of jail. Then, instead of sticking around for his brothers, he'd taken off for ten long years. So if anyone knew regret and mistakes, it was Ethan.

He leaned back in his seat, folded his arms over his chest, and met Dare's gaze. "Not easily. The army helped. I did a little therapy with the shrinks there. I'm not sure if that helped or not. I do know the discipline and the regulation taught me what it meant to be a man and take responsibility."

Dare got that. "Being a cop did the same for me." He paused in thought. "But I realize now that was more of an external shift."

"Because you still haven't forgiven yourself. All the good deeds in the world won't make up for what happened to Stuart Rossman. But the blame doesn't lie solely on your shoulders either."

Dare looked down, studying his hands, thinking about his brother's words. No, he hadn't forgiven himself. Instead, he'd indulged in enough self-hatred and flagellation for ten lifetimes, but nothing had changed. He was here. A young kid had died. Dare had done what he could with his life to atone while Brian McKnight wasted air and hurt everyone in spitting distance. Meanwhile, Dare nursed his anger and hatred toward the man, and when it exploded he'd hurt the one person in his life who truly mattered.

The hard truth remained. Nothing about the way he lived his life had or would change the past. It never would. But one thing was certain. If he held on to that anger and hatred, the only thing it would accomplish was to ruin his future.

"I need to let the shit go somehow." Dare ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"Seems to me admitting it is taking the first step."

Dare let out a laugh. "Yeah? What's the second?"

Ethan shrugged. "You'll figure it out."

Yeah, he probably would. And Liza might forgive him. Whether she'd believe in him again, though? That remained to be seen.

Liza passed the weekend by keeping busy drafting sketches and doing work. She'd checked on Tess by calling Faith, and thank goodness, the teenager had come through her ordeal and was getting better. Faith hadn't mentioned Dare or the scene Friday night and neither had Liza. And though it was now Monday morning, she hadn't heard a word from Dare.

Pushing aside the hurt that thought caused, she called her brother yet again. This time his voice mail was full. Of course he hadn't been in touch either. No big shock there, but a part of her had been hoping Brian would somehow come through. Man up. Bring her the money. Worry about her safety. Something.

Instead, nothing.

As usual, she was on her own.

Though the men who expected her to pay up hadn't called, she headed to the bank anyway, Cara by her side. The teller explained they needed a full business day to get that kind of cash together, and Liza's nerves were jangling as she waited to tell the man who'd be calling.

When she finally heard from him, a phone call at 3:00 P.M., her hands shook as she explained she needed twenty-four hours for the small bank branch in Serendipity to get that amount of money in. To Liza's shock, the guy on the phone understood and didn't threaten her at all.

On Cara's advice, Liza firmly told him she wanted to meet in a public place. As civilized as possible, she thought wryly.

Again to her surprise, he readily agreed. On Wednesday at 5:00 P.M. someone would meet her in her office to take the package off her hands.

"No cop boyfriend," the man on the phone warned her.

Liza wanted to laugh out loud and inform him he had nothing to worry about on that score.

Instead, she merely said, "No problem."

"And no cop friends either." He obviously referred to Cara. Which meant Liza was definitely being watched.

She shivered. "Fine. There'll be people around the office, though," she warned him.

"Office staff and employees won't be a problem," he said in a gruff voice before disconnecting the call.

Liza glanced at Cara who'd been sitting by her side. "Well, that was too easy."

Cara shook her dark ponytail. "These guys just want their money. That's all that matters, so honestly this should be a simple handoff." Cara smiled. "You're doing great."

Liza glanced down at her shaking hands and wondered how Cara performed her duties on a daily basis. "I don't feel great." She was worn out from lack of sleep and frazzled from fear.

"It'll be over soon," Cara assured her.

"I know."

Cara's compassionate tone and the fact that she was here helping without complaint reminded her of Dare.

Liza wanted to ask her if she'd spoken to him and whether she'd told him about the threat and the money, but she refrained. He couldn't have made himself any clearer about how he felt, and though she understood his past better thanks to Cara, that didn't change his inability to accept her.

Besides, it wasn't as if he'd tried to get in touch with Liza over the weekend either. Her instinct on Friday had been correct. She needed to cut him out of her life, and going cold turkey was the simplest way. No matter how painful the withdrawal might be.

Finding Brian McKnight had been simpler than Dare thought. So simple it boggled the mind. On a hunch, Dare called on Annabelle at her antiques shop. He wanted to look the storekeeper in the eye when he asked her if she'd heard from Brian McKnight. The man had to reach out to someone and Annabelle had seemed to care about him. One glance into her eyes and he hit pay dirt.

The woman wasn't trained in the fine art of lying. Her eyes darted everywhere but at Dare when she answered his question, hemming and hawing while attempting to reply.

He'd finally laid it on the line, telling her that Liza was in danger because of her brother's actions and that if she knew where Brian was, she'd be helping them both by admitting it.

Now Dare stood at a seedy hotel in a neighboring town to Serendipity. From the looks of the place, guests probably paid by the night and most checked out sooner rather than later.

Dare strode up to the room number Annabelle had given him and knocked once.

"Who is it?" a muffled male voice asked.

"Management," he muttered back.

The door yanked open. "I told you I'd get you your money soon."

Dare slammed his foot in the entry before Brian could react and pushed the door open with his hand. "How are you going to do that when you can't even pay your gambling debts?" Dare shoved his way inside, ignoring McKnight's grumbling and cursing under his breath.

Dare didn't know what smelled worse, the man or the room. Empty liquor bottles, food wrappers, and an empty pizza box littered the floor and night tables.

"What do you want?" Brian asked.

To get the hell out of here, Dare thought. "We need to talk."

Dare took in McKnight's bloodshot eyes, his overgrown beard, messy hair, and wrinkled clothes. With a shake of his head, he made a decision. "First we're going to sober you up."

Brian scowled. "I'm not drunk. I haven't been in days. I've just got a low-level buzz going."

Dare raised an eyebrow.

"Because I'm nearly out of alcohol," Brian said before Dare could even ask why. "I have no money to buy more and I need to ration what I have left. If I keep a buzz on, I won't go out looking to gamble with what little I might still own."

Dare blinked, surprised at the other man's honesty. He glanced around the disgusting room once more. "Go shower. We'll talk after." He pointed to the bathroom and waited for the argument.

Instead, Brian passively walked into the bathroom and shut the door. A few seconds later, he heard the water turn on.

Dare took advantage of the time alone, grabbing the plastic garbage pail and going around the room, tossing the trash and wrappers. When he found a half-eaten fish sandwich, he figured it was the source of the worst of the odor and deposited the pail outside the room. Back inside, he opened a window, then pulled out a chair and settled in to wait.

Brian emerged fifteen minutes later, a towel wrapped around his waist.

Dare cocked an eyebrow.

"I don't have a change of clothes," he muttered.

Dare shook his head and groaned. "I have a pair of sweatpants and a shirt in my truck for after softball. Hang on."

When he returned, Brian dressed and sat down on the bed, looking marginally better but at least smelling clean. "Why are you here?" he asked.

"I've been asking that myself. The easy answer is because I love your sister."

But that wouldn't be the whole truth and damned if Dare wasn't all about honesty at the moment. He wanted peace from his past and that meant dealing with this bastard.

"The harder answer is I'm here for me. We have unfinished business." Dare stared at Brian from his seat across the small room.

Brian hadn't looked him in the eye since he'd arrived. Hadn't reacted to his pronouncement about being in love with Liza. Obviously he was wrapped up in his own misery.

"You here to give me more shit like you do at the station?" Brian asked.

"Oddly, no. I want to talk about the party."

Brian wrinkled his forehead. "What party? I know I have blackouts but-"

Dare stared at the man in shock. For over a decade, the word party had only meant one thing in Dare's mind. The night he couldn't forget. "The one you threw when you were in high school? When Stuart Rossman died?"

Brian winced. "I don't like to remember that night," he muttered. "What's it to you?"

He didn't know, Dare thought. Brian had no idea Dare had been there that day. "I was there." The admission almost stuck in his throat. "I saw everything...and I did nothing."

Pain and humiliation rushed through him with the force of a hurricane. "And I've been living with the guilt of that day ever since."

"And you think I haven't?" Brian rose and began to pace like a cornered animal, back and forth between the bed and the wall. "I've spent every day since running from what I did. What my parents covered up."

"You let them," Dare reminded him, unsure where all the anger he'd expected to feel had gone. Instead, he looked at this broken shell of a man and felt something closer to...pity.

Brian didn't reply.

"That escape you've been looking for? Did you find it in the bottle?" Dare couldn't help but ask.

Brian looked up, his eyes bleak, as he shook his head.

"How about the gambling? Or stealing from the firm your sister works so hard for?"

Stunned. That was the only word Dare could find for the expression on Brian's face. "Liza knows?" he asked, horrified.

Dare nodded. "And she loves you anyway. Go figure."

Brian lowered himself onto the bed, his entire body shaking. "It's bad enough she knows I owe Mikey Biggs that money and he went to her for it-"

Something inside Dare snapped and the anger he'd been searching for came rushing forward. He strode over and grabbed Brian by the front of his shirt-Dare's shirt-and jerked him forward. "He didn't just go to her for the money, you bastard. He put a hand on her. Grabbed her by the wrist and-"

The wailing sound interrupted Dare, catching him off guard. He stopped shaking Brian long enough to realize the man was crying. Not crying.