The next time Zach looked at Lora, he managed a small smile meant solely for her. "Yeah, it's me." He spread his arms out in front of him. "In the flesh, big sister."

"Oh, Zach," she breathed, obviously still stunned to see him. After a moment, she rushed across the room to give her brother a hug.

Zach returned the embrace, though he still glared at Joel over Lora's shoulder. Joel crossed his arms over his chest and remained where he was, deciding to let brother and sister handle this reunion on their own and without any interference from him.

"It's been forever, and I've been so worried about you, and…" Lora pulled back and glanced from his drenched hair and coat to her own damp T-shirt, and frowned. "You're all wet."

"Yeah, well, there just happens to be a rainstorm out there," he drawled, the beginnings of sarcasm lacing his tone.

"And your face…" She swallowed hard and reached up to touch his discolored cheek.

Zach flinched away before she could make contact. "I'm fine, Lora. Stop fussing over me."

"You're far from fine," she argued, a hint of anger creeping into her voice. "You've got a black eye, a split lip, and your arm is in a cast. And you've been drinking. I can smell the alcohol on your breath."

Zach's lips thinned, and his own temper flared. "If I'd known you were going to reprimand me like a little kid, I never would have shown up."

Now that her initial surprise had ebbed, Joel could see her mind working and trying to make sense of her brother's spontaneous arrival at a cabin miles away from civilization.

She shook her head in confusion and ran her fingers through her sleep-tousled hair, which only added to the appearance that she'd spent the night in Joel's bed having hot sex. "What are you doing here, Zach?"

"What, Joel didn't tell you?" he replied mockingly.

She turned around and tipped her head, looking to Joel for answers, just as Zach had no doubt intended. "Tell me what, Joel?"

Refusing to let Zach make him into the enemy, Joel moved forward into the living room, his gaze on Lora. "Tell you that I set up a meeting for you to see Zach," he said, and went on to explain his reasons for withholding that information before Zach could twist things around to suit his own purposes. "But I didn't say anything to you because I had no idea if Zach would show up, and considering he was supposed to be here, oh, a good sixteen hours ago, I'd given up hope of that happening."

Zach clearly didn't like taking responsibility for his actions and didn't hesitate to deflect the attention off of himself. "Well, it looks like it was more than enough time to nail my sister, now wasn't it, Wilde Man?"

Joel saw that confrontation coming from the moment Lora had walked out of the bedroom behind him, but she obviously hadn't anticipated such a derogatory remark. She gasped in shock and whirled around to face her brother again.

"Zach!" The one word rang with a firm warning for him to back off. "What the hell kind of comment was that?"

"Well, it's the truth, isn't it?" Zach said, and shifted his challenging gaze back to Joel. "I asked you to protect my sister, Joel, not fuck her."

The crude remark spurred Lora into action, and before Zach realized what she intended, she'd hauled off and slapped him across the face, hard enough to make his head snap to the side. "That's enough, Zach!"

Joel couldn't help but silently applaud her bold and gutsy move. She'd just made it more than clear that she wasn't about to take any crap from her brother, and if Zach had any smarts left, he'd watch what he had to say.

Zach worked his jaw and narrowed his gaze at Lora. "Wow, nice greeting, sis."

His obnoxious attitude pissed her off even more, and it seemed like all the pent-up fear and anger toward her brother that she'd been suppressing the past few weeks finally came bubbling to the surface.

"How dare you come here and make Joel the bad guy, or make any kind of assumption about our relationship!" She punctuated her statement with a forceful finger jab to Zach's chest that made him wince. "It's none of your business what's going on between Joel and me. For that matter, I wouldn't be in this situation with Joel if it wasn't for you and your stupid, idiotic idea of using my insurance policy as collateral on a gambling loan. What were you thinking, Zach?"

The first faint signs of remorse flickered in his gaze. "I had no choice."

"That's a pile of bullshit!" she said, not letting sympathy for her brother get the best of her. Instead, she took a tough love approach that Joel admired. "Every time you put money down on a table in hopes of winning you make the wrong choice, Zach. The right choice is to walk away."

Zach's shoulders slumped in defeat, an oddity in a man who'd been trained to be strong and tenacious in any given situation. "You have no idea what it's like," he said quietly.

She exhaled a deep breath and dragged her fingers through her disheveled hair. "Look, you're here, and that's what matters," she said, her voice softening with concern. "Why don't you take a hot shower, and I'll make you something to eat, then we can talk."

Zach nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that."

Joel had been watching their exchange from the sidelines, and now addressed Zach. "Come on, I'll show you where the bathroom is and get you some dry clothes to change into."

He wasn't sure what to expect from Zach, but the other man suddenly appeared exhausted and weary, as if he just didn't have any more fight left in him. Most likely, he didn't. Zach was probably at the end of his rope and barely hanging on for his life, and his sister's.

Zach followed him down the hall to the second bedroom, where Joel first pulled on a pair of black jeans, then retrieved a shirt and a pair of pants for Zach, along with his toiletry bag, which contained shampoo, a razor, and shaving cream if Zach wanted to use any of it. After showing Zach where the bathroom was located, Joel joined Lora in the kitchen.

She was standing at the stove heating up one of the canned soups and buttering slices of bread to make Zach a few grilled cheese sandwiches. A fresh pot of coffee was percolating, and Joel knew they all could use a boost of caffeine considering how early in the morning it was.

As he came up beside her and leaned against the counter, he noticed that she, too, had put on a pair of jeans and traded in his black T-shirt for a sweatshirt. Mostly, he didn't care for how quiet she was and how she wouldn't look at him, and wondered if his decision to keep Zach's possible visit to himself was the reason.

If so, he owed her an apology, and he wasn't above giving it. "I'm sorry, Lora. I should have told you that I set up a meeting here with Zach."

She slanted him a quick glance before placing two slices of buttered bread on the hot skillet. "Yes, you should have, but I do understand why you didn't." She added cheese to the sandwiches and two more slices of bread, and this time when she looked at him, the pain in her gaze was unmistakable. "God, Joel, I've never seen Zach look like this. So dejected and hopelessly lost, and it scares me. What am I going to do?"

"Do you realize that to you it's always about what you can do for Zach, and not what Zach can do for himself? You can't take care of this, Lora. Zach has to do it on his own."

She shook her head, a tinge of desperation etching her features as she stirred the steaming soup. "I have money in my savings that would go a long way toward helping him out of this mess."

"And bail him out like you have every other time in his life?" he asked incredulously. "I'm sure a part of Zach is hoping that you'll offer him the money he needs to help pay off his debt, but I can guarantee that he'll take your money, go and pay off what he owes, and then he'll start gambling all over again." Frustration raised his tone a few decibels. "If you give him the money, he'll continue to think there're no consequences for his behavior. There will be no one forcing him to be accountable for his debt. It would be nothing more than free money for him."

"You're right, but it doesn't make it any easier not to do it," she said quietly, and flipped both of the sandwiches over to grill the other sides.

Her anxiety and despair grabbed at something deep inside him and tugged hard. Realizing he had the power to offer her some kind of comfort from that worry, he decided to let her know what he had planned for Zach. "There's something else I need to tell you."

"What, more secrets?" She turned off the burner beneath the soup and cast him a skeptical glance. "Should I be worried?"

Her comment made him realize just how much he'd withheld from her during the course of their relationship. Keeping things to himself was a part of his personality, a function of how he'd grown up and dealt with more emotional issues that had spilled into his life as a marine, then a security agent. But now it made him more aware that she was the one person who managed to drag these things out of him, that he trusted her with so much of himself, and that was a scary prospect for him.

He mentally filed that away to think about later. Right now, they had her brother's problem to deal with.

"No, there's nothing for you to worry about," he reassured her. "Not only did I ask Zach to meet us here for the two of you to see one another, but I also have a proposition for him that would enable him to pay off this debt and give him a chance at a solid future."

Her eyes grew wide, and though she didn't ask for specific details, the gratitude passing across her features spoke volumes. "You would do that for Zach?"

Without thinking, he reached out and caressed his thumb along her soft cheek, that simple touch affecting him more deeply than it should have. "And for you."

Moisture welled up in her eyes, and she swallowed hard. "Thank you," she whispered.

The urge to take her into his arms and comfort her was strong, but with Zach in the cabin and already tossing around derogatory remarks about the two of them, the last thing Joel wanted was to have her brother walk in on them in an embrace, no matter how innocent.

So, instead, he turned around and opened one of the overhead cupboards. "Would you like some coffee?"

She nodded and returned her attention to preparing Zach's meal. "Yes, please."

He retrieved three mugs and poured coffee into each one while Lora put the grilled cheese sandwiches on a plate and poured the soup into a bowl. By the time everything was on the table, Zach was done with his shower and joined them in the kitchen, looking much more human than he had when he'd arrived.

Zach had shaved the grisly stubble on his face, and he'd combed his now-clean hair away from his face. His eyes were still a bit bloodshot-from lack of sleep or too much alcohol, Joel wasn't certain-but overall his tidied-up appearance and change of clothes was a huge improvement.

They all took a seat at the table, and Zach immediately started in on his soup and sandwiches like a starved man, which he most likely was. Joel decided to wait and give the man some time to eat his meal before talking to Zach about his proposal.

Lora took a sip of her coffee, sweetened with cream and sugar, and was the first to speak. "Zach, what happened to your face? Those look like fresh cuts and bruises."

"They are," he admitted, already finished with one of the sandwiches. "This is what you get when you make a payment on an outstanding debt, so you can imagine what happens when you don't." He gave his sister a lopsided grin, obviously meant to make light of the situation.

Lora wasn't at all charmed by the smile. "You made a payment? How did you manage that?" She frowned at him in confusion, then realization struck before Zach could reply. "Don't tell me you're still gambling!"

Zach's demeanor immediately changed, his entire body stiffening defensively, which was an answer in itself.

Lora stared at her brother in shock, unable to believe the depths he'd sunk to, yet he was digging himself deeper and deeper into debt. "You have no money to gamble, Zach," she said, stating the obvious. "Or should I ask, whose life are you playing with now?" It was a low blow, she knew, but she wasn't about to sugarcoat the situation.

Animosity tightened the clench of Zach's jaw. "Look, I borrowed some money from a friend, okay?"

"A friend?" Her doubt rang clear in her voice. "How much interest does this friend charge?" she went on persistently. "No matter who it is, you're borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, not to mention that my life has been at a standstill since you handed over my insurance policy as collateral. What happens when you don't win a poker hand, Zach? When you lose all the money you just borrowed from someone else?"