Page 17 of Charmed by You

“Then you need to just shut—”

“But I know the other side of it,” he said, then hurried onwhen he saw the fury on her face. “I know the other side too damn well, and I’msorry, okay? But there’s nothing grand or heroic about what I’ve seen. No livessaved, just lives and households destroyed chasing this fucking dream ofHollywood.”

Her expression was tight. Her eyes cold and appraising. Shelooked ready to bite his head off. But all she said was, “Tell me.”

He closed his eyes, wishing he could take the last hourback. Hell, wishing he’d told Damien and Ryan to let Leah take this case andrun with it. But he didn’t. And somehow, that one simple choice had led himhere. To this moment he wanted to avoid but knew he had to face.

“I was born in New York,” he said, looking at his hands andnot at her face. “When I was six, my mom left my dad for an actor. My dad wasex-military, and he’d moved into private security. He wanted custody, and mymom didn’t argue. She was too happy fucking her fake daytime TV doctor to carewhat happened to me.”

He glanced up, saw that she was listening, then looked awayagain before the confusion—and the sympathy—in her eyes cut straight into hisgut. “My dad died on a job. Trying to rescue a little girl from a kidnapper,and it all went down wrong. Three men lost, and the kidnapper, too. But thelittle girl was safe. My dad died in the hospital. He told me he was sorry, buthe didn’t regret it. That he’d rescued that girl. That his life had value.”

“And your mother’s didn’t.”

Simon shrugged. “She cheated and then left. I don’t supposehe’d think anything else.”

“But that’s what you think, too. That’s why you starteddoing this. Security. Protection.”

His chest tightened. He’d almost forgotten she was there,he’d been so wrapped up in those horrible memories. He drew a breath, then mether eyes and nodded.

“My mom got custody of me, of course, and she followedloverboy to LA. They got married. She quit her job—she was a fund manager. Ididn’t understand what that meant back then, but I knew she was good at herjob. She ended up being his manager. Not that it went anywhere. He got one ortwo tiny roles. We lived in a hovel, and both of them ignored me. I wassomething to be dealt with. I wasn’t her child. I was an inconvenience that hadto be managed in order to get to the job. But there was never any job.”

He closed his eyes as if he could ward off the rest of thememories, but they just kept coming.

“He started to blame my mother. Started to beat her. I wasthirteen then and tried to fight back. He bloodied me up good. Then he…”

“Simon?”

His closed his eyes, wanting to say that she was the lastperson he wanted to tell this to, because how the hell could she understand?But when he opened his eyes, he saw the compassion on her face and felt himselfmelting. “He killed her.”

“I’m so sorry.” She pushed the pillow aside, then leanedforward to take his hand.

“He came after me. I ran. And when I came back with thecops—he was dead, too. That selfish bastard was so lost in the goddamnHollywood game that he killed himself and my mother when he couldn’t make it.And she was too much of a fool to see what he really was.”

Her fingers tightened around his. “It wasn’t your fault.”

The words felt hard. Wrong. He knew they were true, and yetit didn’t change the fact that this town—that goddamn business—had destroyedhis entire world. And not just the one time, because there was Kristen, too,and—

He shook himself. “I have issues with your industry. I knowit. I’m sorry. I took it out on you, and that was a shitty thing to do.”

For a moment, he was certain she was going to lash outagain. After all, Frannie’s temper was famous. But all she said was, “I get it.A lot of folks have been burned by the industry. Me included.”

“But you came out the other side unscathed and famous withyour perfect life, living large in LaLa Land.”

Her eyes darted to the side, but he caught the glimmer of atear and once again regretted his words.

“I wouldn’t go so far as that,” she said. “I have fame andmoney, but I don’t have—” She started to tug her hand away, but he tightenedhis grip.

“What?”

“Nothing. I have everything, just like you said. Believe me,I’m not complaining.”

No, she wasn’t. But she wasn’t telling him the truth,either. His chest constricted, and he heard himself asking, “Do you want totalk about it?”

“About what? My climb up the ranks to my perfect Hollywoodlife? Why bother? Or do you think my past is coming back to threaten me?”

“I think that’s pretty damn likely, yeah. But I thought youmight want to unload. Sometimes it helps. I just learned that the hard way.”

She looked up at him, her eyes warm and intense on his, andin that moment, he wanted nothing more than to pull her close and kiss her.