How was this possible? Was it really him, or was it just my mind playing tricks on me?
It can't be him, dammit!
"Xax..." He spoke again, his eyes soft.
That eyes, that voice....I'll know it anywhere. Eyes like mine, I thought I'll never see again. The voice of a dead man.
"Tan...?" My voice shook. Not at all the voice of the deadly bounty hunter, but that of a man who saw his older brother.
A brother who's supposed to be a ghost. A brother that died two years ago.
1. TWO LOST SOULS AND ONE HUNTER.
TANNER
Xax's hand trembled in the air as he examined me closely. My eyes wandered over him, taking in his appearance. He was my younger brother, but he had grown significantly in the past two years.
As memories flooded my mind faster than liquor ever could, I closed my eyes and replied, "It's me, Xax. It's Tan." My emotions tightened my throat, making it hard to speak.
Xax dropped his gun to the ground, and we hugged each other tightly. My arms wrapped around my long-lost brother, who I missed so much. The brother and family I abandoned.
"Oh my God! It's really you! How...! Why...! God, it's really you...!" Xax's voice filled my heart as we hugged like brothers who had been apart for years.
Brothers who were once inseparable. Brothers who had been separated by a painful past.
What seemed like forever later, Xax pulled away, his eyes filled with anger and tears. "How could you do this to us!? How could you leave us like that!? We thought you were dead! How could you!"
He punched me hard in the face, but I barely felt the physical pain because the emotional pain was much worse.
"Xax, you don't understand..." I knew his anger was justified. I knew he was in pain.
He hugged me again, his arms tight around my back. "I understood, you moron! I knew you were hurting, and I know you were going through a lot! But you shouldn't have left us like that....! You don't know what it felt like! You don't!"
Xax was shouting, and I don't think he was even aware of it. Tears filled my eyes and streamed down my face. I had been so selfish in my pain that I never considered my family or what they were going through.
"I'm so sorry, Xax," I repeated.
"Mother had several heart attacks after you disappeared, and we heard the news about a man who drowned himself in your favorite river! How could you....!" he sobbed.
We held each other tightly and cried in the darkness that surrounded us. Two grown men reduced to tears because of a terrible past.
A past I had been running from. A past that was my fault. A past that Xax's presence resurrected.
"I'm so sorry," I repeated again.
Xax shook his head as he pulled away. "Don't care, doesn't matter. What matters is that you're here, now." Then, he hugged me again, "Thank you, Tan! Thanks for being alive."
More emotions clouded my throat, and I swallowed tightly. "When did you become a hugger, Xax? I thought that was Mom's thing," I teased him lightly.
"Fuck you, man," he groaned as he pulled away, a smile crossing his features.
"God, you've changed. I remember a stoic, tough man who never smiled at the world, except for his family. I sure as hell don't remember you as an emotionally-driven hugger."
"I don't remember you as a bearded man, either," he shot back. "You-"
Xax was cut off instantly when a sound caught our attention. I lifted my eyes behind him to see Jasamina just coming out of the house.
"I heard a male shout and-" She stopped suddenly when she realized that I wasn't alone.
I watched Xax's expression change instantly. His face went from being open and friendly to hard and unsmiling. The look of a hunter on the hunt.
JASAMINA
After breastfeeding Jaimie and changing his diapers, I tried to put him to sleep. He was more restless than usual and wanted to play. I sang him a lullaby, rubbed his stomach, and played with him until he drifted off to sleep. But as I made my way outside to look for Tanner, I heard loud shouts that made me hesitant to step outside.
Despite my fear, I managed to take a few steps forward, but when I saw the man standing with Tanner, I froze in terror. He was enormous, and had an intimidating look on his face that made me step back involuntarily. His eyes bore into me like a predator's gaze, and I could feel the weight of his threat even from a distance.
As he turned away from Tanner, he took a step closer to me, and I found myself taking several steps back, my heart pounding in my chest. My palms were sweaty, and my knees felt weak. I could hear my heart beating in my ears, drowning out the shouts that continued outside.