She doesn’t ask where we’re going.
She doesn’t utter a single word for the entire drive down to the Baine Building. Just sits in the passenger seat beside me staring out the windshield with shell-shocked eyes and tears drying in chalky streaks on her face and chin. In her lap, her hands are stained red from the lipstick, fingers trembling.
Damn it. I glance at her, knowing I am to blame for this as much as anyone—including the sadistic asshole who put up those photos.
When we reach the building, I don’t bother with the garage. It will take too long and right now the most important thing is getting Evelyn inside and somewhere comfortable. Leaving my Lexus parked at the curb, I hold Eve under my arm and walk her into the lobby.
It’s early, but O’Connor has already reported towork. She’s at the desk with another member of the security team, but rushes toward me as soon as she sees me come in with Evelyn.
“What happened?”
“Long story, and I don’t have time to explain now. I need to see Beck right away. Will you find someplace quiet for Evelyn?”
“There’s no one in fitness room lounge. I was just up there working out before my shift started a few minutes ago.”
I nod. “Take her there and stay with her.”
Evelyn blinks slowly. “I’m all right,” she murmurs, not actually sounding like it, but at least she’s starting to come back around. She glances down at herself and winces. “God, look at me. I’m a mess.”
I stroke her cheek. “You’re going to be fine. Kelsey’s going to help you clean up.”
“Of course, I will,” O’Connor says. She puts her arm around Evelyn, slanting a concerned look at me. “What about you, Gabe? Are you okay?”
I don’t know how to answer that yet, so I don’t. “I need to let Beck know she’s here.”
Her brow knits, but she nods. “He’s in his office, last I knew.”
I take the elevator up to the executive floor and head straight past Beck’s assistant. His door is open. I must look like hell because when he glances up from his laptop, some of the color drains from his face. “Something’s happened.”
I struggle to collect myself enough to explain the situation. “First, you need to know that Evelyn is all right. She’s here in the building with O’Connor.”
Frowning, he vaults up, long strides carrying himaround to the front his big desk. “What’s going on?”
“Whoever’s been watching her just got too fucking close.”
“What are you talking about?”
I take out the crumpled photos that are in my pants pocket and slam them down on the desk—all but the explicit one, which I’ve sequestered in my jacket when I arrived at the Baine Building. “Someone stole these pictures off her phone and plastered them where they knew she would find them this morning.”
He stares at the images of his sister looking almost unrecognizably frail and unhealthy. His frown furrows deeper. There is confusion in his eyes. Along with horror . . . and anguish.
When he speaks, his tone is smoldering with the same kind of thinly held outrage that’s also burning in me. “Who did this?”
“I don’t know. But we need to tell her everything we do know so far.” I force myself to look away from the pictures. “We’ve kept her in the dark to avoid scaring her, Beck, but the sick fuck who got his hands on these photos just took that choice away from us. She’s terrified. I can only imagine how violated she must feel right now.”
“Jesus.” Beck’s hands shake a little as he picks up one of the torn and wrinkled photographs.
It’s an image of Evelyn in a flesh-baring couture outfit that shows the worst ravages of her eating disorder. Her long legs are little more than bones, her ribs and shoulders so pronounced she could pass for a prisoner of war.
But it’s her face that’s even more tragic to see in that image. Beneath the stage makeup, her cheeks are sunkenand sallow. Her gorgeous green eyes seem huge in her gaunt face, ringed with thick black lashes that don’t quite hide the dull resignation in her stare. Despite her sultry smile, she looks only moments from collapse in the photo. Yet she is beautiful. Stunning, even though someone would have to be blind not to recognize her disease.
“I remember this photo,” Beck murmurs. “It was taken when she was doing a show in Paris. Her last show, as it turned out. She went into heart failure that night. The doctors only narrowly saved her.”
I nod in acknowledgment of what Eve told me about that time in her life. “You flew there and brought her home.”
“I thought I was going to lose her. It was nothing short of hell seeing my sister go through all of that.” He swallows hard and seems to regroup a bit before he drops the photo and looks at me. “Where did you say you found these? At the boutique?”
“No.” I feel a tendon jump in my jaw. “Someone stuck them to a wall outside my apartment.”
