“But you can’t keep me in the dark all the time.” Her voice was lower, but not completely without frustration. “You just take off, under the cover of darkness, to go Batman a situation, and leave me to wake up alone. I can’t—I can’t do that the rest of my life.”
The rest of my life…it was more than a glimmer and he reached out and grabbed it. Taking a calculated risk, he hooked his finger under her chin and tipped it upward.
“Is that what this is about, Lucy? Are you afraid that I’ll leave again one day and I won’t be there when you need me?”
She shifted her face away from him, like she couldn’t face the truth, but the tears that spilled over her cheeks were loud enough. She wiped them away with the back of her hand. “I’m afraid you’ll only be there because you think I’m another person who needs you.”
His soul shattered at the hushed acquiescence in her voice. She truly believed she hadn’t been first in his heart this entire time. He nudged her chin back his way. When exactly had the trust between them been broken?
He couldn’t totally blame her line of thinking. Somewhere along the way he became the one everyone calledwhen they were in crisis. He’d left her before to go help someone else. What was stopping her from believing it could happen again?
“Is she okay? My sister,” she whispered, switching gears.
Joel sat back, his thoughts jumbled. So much he wanted to say and no idea where to begin. Might as well start by telling her the truth about her sister.
Vanessa was the opposite of Lucy in every way. And honestly, he had no clue if she was okay, but he knew that, temporarily at least, she was safe.
“The producer she worked for is a dick of massive proportions. I can’t believe he still has a job, though when I’m finished with him, he won’t.”
Lucy’s eyes widened at his vehement proclamation.
One of the things he despised most was men who used their positions of power to hurt women. “Anyway, let’s just say he didn’t want to let her go, and he was holding something over her head so she couldn’t.”
“What was it?” Her tears were gone, replaced with a concern that only came when you loved someone the way Lucy loved her sister.
The way he loved Lucy, protectively. Instinctively. Territorially.
“There was a video.” He left that sentence hanging until he saw the realization dawn in her eyes.
“No.”
“Yes.” Raking his hand through his hair, he contemplated his next words carefully. “It was from a few years back. She was just breaking into the modeling scene. I haven’t seen it, but I think it’s—not something Vanessa would want leaked.”
“Oh my God.”
“Don’t worry, I got rid of every copy we could find. I putmy best tech team on it. And with nothing left to hold over her head, she could go. I would have gotten her out regardless. Ball-less fucker.” It had been an ugly few days. When he’d left Lucy sleeping in the apartment, he hadn’t anticipated having to erase his sister-in-law’s sex tape off the face of the planet, or some sick asshole who thought he could use a young woman’s mistake to manipulate her entire career. “I could’ve stopped him from firing her, but Lucy, she’s better off away from him. I think her character is going to be mysteriously killed off mid-season.”
“Oh no.” Lucy shook her head. “I had no idea. She told me about the pictures of the two of you, but nothing about a video.”
His blood chilled. “Lucy, those pictures of her and I?—”
She lifted her hand, stopping him. “I know. They’re nothing. Just paparazzi doing what paparazzi do best. Ruining lives, and not giving a single fuck.” A small smile lifted on the corner of her lips. “Another reminder to stay off the internet.”
“I promise you,” he said zealously. “I will do everything in my power so you never have to see anything like that.”
Lucy eased his worry with a sigh. “Joel, you’re a great many things, but you’re not an asshole. I don’t worry about any of that. Not seriously, anyway.” Still, she frowned. “I’m worried about Vanessa though. She never told me any of this.”
“I think there are a lot of things about your sister’s life under the lights that we know nothing about.” He couldn’t resist reaching out to brush a loose strand of hair off her cheek where it had gotten stuck by earlier tears. “But at least we’ve solved one of her problems.”
Lucy’s eyes shot to his. “Yousolved one of her problems. And it sounds like it was a pretty damn big one.” Sherubbed her cheeks. “I’ll have to talk with Vanessa about this. Maybe a break is what she needs.”
“Is that what you want with us?” he asked, circling the conversation back to them, where he needed it to be. “A break?”
A long pause ensued as she studied the fingers of her left hand. Somewhere in the last few minutes, her right hand had become tightly locked in his, and he held on for fear of losing his mind if he let go. When she lifted her gaze and revealed to him all her turmoil, her indecision, he lost it anyway. He let go of her hand so he could cradle her face.
“Lucy,what do you want?” His whisper fanned across the fresh wave of tears falling down her cheeks. He used his thumbs to brush them away.
“I want you to be free.”
