Forever Scarred (5 page)

Chapter Four

Lucy lay back in the huge be
d and breathed deeply as she stared through the arched doorway to her own private lounge.

She couldn’t make out what on earth was wrong with her. Her
heart kept thumping erratically and she couldn’t keep her mind on any subject. She had unpacked her clothes and had showered in the fabulous wet room that adjoined her bedroom in an effort to calm her jumping stomach.

She had been embarrassed to discover that Ellen had given her their most luxurious suite of rooms, but they were absolutely lovely and
while normally she would have preferred something a little simpler there was no way she was going to give them up. She had never stayed anywhere so beautiful in the whole of her life.

And what with the debts she
now owed she doubted that she would ever again.

Her previous boyfriend had been
a bitter disappointment. Apparently so wonderful and caring for three long years after moving in together, and then she had discovered that almost everything about him was a complete sham.

The knock on the door by the debt collector had been t
he first she had known about Stewart’s out of control gambling habit. It seemed that he had lived a lie for far too long. His fabulous job in banking was the fabric of his overactive imagination and his credit card debts had been moved on to collectors.

It wouldn’t even have mattered to Lucy that he worked as a hotel porter if he had told her the truth from the beginning, but he had lied to her, making up tales of fantastic banking deals when the only dealing he was really doing was with a deck of cards.

The worst of his betrayal came when she discovered that almost everything he had ever bought while with her, all the dinners, the clothes, the cars and had been purchased with a credit card that bore their joint names. And the mortgage on their beautiful little house was now her sole responsibility.

Lucy was just as liable for the debt
s as Stewart and there was no way she could get out of it.

Stewart
had just shrugged uncomfortably when she confronted him with the evidence of his uncontrollable finances. He packed a couple of bags and upped and left immediately, leaving her devastated on two levels. The churning loss of the man who she had thought was the love of her life and the undeserved loss of her financial security.

She had spent months n
egotiating with the people they owed money to and at last she had come to arrangements that they were apparently all happy with. It meant she would be up to her eyeballs in debt for the next five years, and she would have to take any job she could get, but after that she would be free. She crossed her fingers as she sent up a silent prayer that her boss would never find out who she was actually indebted to.

She doubted she would ever trust another man again and this confused her even more as she remembered the way Joe’s strong, safe hands had felt about her waist.

She could trust him.

It came through loud and clear and she sighed as thought of the way his sensuous lips had moved as he had eaten the pie, followed by a delicious cream dessert.

She frowned slightly as she wondered how Carter was going to react to the sight of the three war torn men. He was a handsome man and he knew it. He wore designer clothes on all occasions and had his hair trimmed into the latest style at least once a fortnight.

Lucy considered the haircuts Pat
rick, David and Joe wore. Over their ears and down to their collars, almost shaggy where the army style had long grown out, though she suspected that this was partly to cover some of the scarring that each man bore. Patrick and David were obviously limbless too, but their facial injuries paled into insignificance when compared to Joe.

She winced as she thought of the bruising on Joe’s face.
The pain he had suffered must have been excruciating. The agony he must have suffered on an emotional level since being injured, she couldn’t even begin to imagine. But his demeanor was carefree and just as filled with fun as either of the other two men.

Patrick and David were obviously besotted with their wives and David’s son was a little charmer, apparently born just ten months afte
r he and Geraldine had fallen in love. The pride and joy in David’s tone when he told her that Geraldine was expecting again, as they ate their dessert had left her almost choking with emotion.

Patrick had sounded just as proud when he told her that Ellen was expecting their first child a
fter nearly five years of marriage. She had only a few weeks to go and they could barely wait to have their baby in their arms.

The love the two couples had for each other was self-evident. And the love they all had for Joe was more than apparent too.

She rolled over on the bed and was about to go to the fabulous wet room to brush her teeth and to apply a light moisturizer to her face, when she heard the buzzing of her mobile phone in her handbag.

She rummaged around inside and was a little disconcerted to discover that she had five missed calls
, all from Carter Freeman. She sighed and sat up on the side of the bed, pushing back the heavy drapes that caught at her hair as she put the phone to her ear and returned his calls.

She sat in shock a few moments later as the phone line went dead while she was in the middle of protesting at his hair-brained idea. Sh
e looked over at the beautiful French ormolu clock that sat ticking gently on the mantelpiece above the fireplace. Nine-thirty in the evening. Way too late for her to be asking favours of this magnitude, but she didn’t see what other choice she had.

She rolled her eyes and slipped from the bed. She dragged her linen trousers back on, pulled her shirt over her still damp hair and shoved her feet into her comfy pumps,
then she opened the door into the wide hallway and made her way beneath sparkling chandeliers, downstairs towards Ellen and Patrick’s office.

She could hear soft voices coming from within the office and she knocked briefly, waiting for a response before entering.

Patrick looked up from the big leather chair as she opened the door. Someone who she assumed was Joe sat on the desk, one long leg swinging, his face completely hidden by a surgical mask that only left small holes for his eyes, nostrils and mouth. He turned away from Lucy sharply, but she came forwards quickly and laid a hand on his arm.

“You don’t need to hide thi
s from me.” She looked him right in the eye as she spoke quietly and Joe swiveled back towards her. “I needed to speak to Patrick or Ellen urgently. I didn’t mean to interrupt your conversation.”

Joe looked down at her hand on his arm, then gave a huge sigh and looked into her eyes.

“Sorry, force of habit. A lot of people don’t like it.” His voice was gritty and strained.

Lucy narrowed her eyes slightly
and spoke determinedly as she looked right back at him.

“I’m not a lot of people. You do what you need to do and don’t worry about what the hell anyone else thinks.” She looked up at him as he stood. He was a lot taller and wider than her and for a moment she felt overpowered by his massive frame, but he smiled inside the mask, the outer edge of his hooded eyes crinkling slightly as he spoke.

“Thanks Lucy, I know it looks awful. I’m meant to wear it until we’re sure the skin graft has taken but I can’t stand the thing. It itches like crazy most of the time and I only put it on when nobody unused to it is about...” He turned back to Patrick. “Well, if that’s all sorted, I’ll be going home so that you can talk to Lucy privately.” He made his way towards the door but Lucy stopped him again.

“No, don’t go Joe. You need to hear this too.
” She took a deep breath and ploughed on. “Carter Freeman has changed the schedule to suit himself as usual. He and the rest of the group are going to be here tomorrow evening. They are all taking the early ferry to Calais tomorrow and then driving straight here. Carter says that as you have been able to accommodate me than he can’t see why the weekend can’t start now.” She turned towards Patrick and shook her head in despair. “I told him that you all needed the break but he didn’t even acknowledge that I’d spoken. He put his phone down immediately and now he’s turned it off.”

Patrick frowned deeply
and placed his hands firmly on the desk.

“What on earth type of boss is this bloody Cart
er Freeman? My wife is having a baby in a month and needs a few days break. Joe needs to rest too. He’s not fully healed and mustn’t overdo it. And he isn’t fully set up after our previous guest’s event. We need those three days.” He glared up at Lucy who tried not to flinch from his angry glance.

Joe suddenly leaned forwards and placed a calming hand on Patrick’s shoulder.

“Hey, come on Patrick, we can’t take this out on Freeman’s personal assistant. It’s not her fault that the guy is an arrogant prick. Look, I’m well enough to take this guy on any day and what with the new equipment and Michael on board at the restaurant, I don’t have to use the mud slide or the tunneling gear so I can stay out of the dirt. Freeman sounds a right berk and won’t know what we do with other groups so why don’t you play it to gain the best advantage. The inconvenience alone should be worth double the original quote and if they are all more or less on their way then I don’t see how he can refuse. We can tell him that it’s our mid-week pricing package. We could have the next weekend off then and the extra money would mean some of our more deserving cases could have a break.”

Patrick stared hard at Joe and then looked back to Lucy.

“I’ll have to clear it with Ellen first, but I have to say that the chance of having more of our own guys getting a luxury break is very tempting. Do you think he’d go for it?” He quickly moved the mouse on the computer and punched in some numbers. “What do reckon? Forty grand instead of twenty. If he doesn’t like it, he can just go back home again. He’s already paid us a substantial deposit so we won’t lose out financially even if he does tell you all to leave immediately. The only thing I would worry about would be his recommendations or lack of them.”

Lucy sucked in her
cheeks and considered for a few seconds.

“I think he’ll go for it. I don’t think his ego would bear the humiliation if you told him to get lost
. His marketing budget was well over a million last year so I don’t see how an extra twenty thousand is going to affect him, especially if he gets better production out of the company.”

Joe let out a laugh

“Over a million? Jees, if only we had anything like that kind of money to burn. We wouldn’t have to do these weekends nearly as often. Maybe you should tell him that it’s going to cost sixty grand. We could throw in an extra day, maybe an extra hog roast and we can open the tree walk and set up the climbing tower. Why not make it really worth the extra money so that Freeman doesn’t feel he’s being hard done by.”

Lucy felt as though she was going to faint.
She grabbed hold of the edge of the table to steady herself and her voice shook as she spoke.

“What on earth are
a tree walk and a climbing tower? I’m not sure the group is going to be up for that kind of thing. I was worried was when you were talking about the zip wire.”

Patrick began to explai
n about how the team had to construct a thirty foot tower from wooden boxes and help the others get to the top before abseiling back down again, but Joe suddenly leapt forwards and grabbed Lucy’s shoulders as her eyes flickered shut and she began to sway.

“Patrick
stop! Don’t talk about it anymore. I think she suffers from vertigo, look she’s terrified!” Joe gathered an almost senseless Lucy into his arms and turned her towards him, enfolding her within his embrace.

Her breathing was coming in shallow gasps and she buried her face in Joe’s chest. His by now familiar scent surrounded her, calling her quickly back to safety and she lifted her chin as she realized that she was making a fool of herself in front of these two brave men.
She hadn’t heard Joe’s words but she gave herself a small shake and spoke again.

“I’m s…sorry.” Her voice trembled as she began to pull away from her haven. “I don’t know what came over me. I think I must be tired from the travelling.” She covered her moment’s weakness, far too embarrassed to tell them she was petrifi
ed of heights to the point of near paralysis. She didn’t know why she had such a violent reaction to even talking about the subject, she just knew that if she was anywhere high, she had the almost overpowering desire to throw herself into the air, wanting, needing the feeling of sudden release. If she didn’t lock herself down she would have killed herself years ago.

Joe’s arms were still holding her, his muscles bunching beneath his shirt, heat pulsing through the material, enfolding her in warmth. She fought the urge to nuzzle against him and pulled back more firmly.

Joe eyed her carefully as his hands slipped from her waist.

“You sure you’re okay?
Seems like you are more than tired.” He quizzed her gently.

Lucy shook her head and took another step back. She couldn’t possi
bly tell these men of her irrational fear after what they had obviously suffered. It paled into insignificance in comparison and she was more embarrassed than she cared to admit.