Lexie (17 page)

Loved being the last thing he thought to mention, Lexie noticed. And why not? Landers had been conceived only four months after they’d taken her into their
loving
home. In all the excitement, she’d taken a backseat. They’d had someone else to love, someone of their very own.

“Why put her through the wringer about the billboard then?” Roxie demanded. “If you didn’t want her to know about me, why did you send her out looking for me?”

Lexie’s eyes narrowed. Yes, why?

Julian got very quiet. “It was a long time ago.”

The tension on the veranda grew. Even the birds in the surrounding trees stopped chirping.

“Jesus, Julian,” Cam said softly. Lexie felt his hand wrap around her wrist. Her own was clenched into a fist.

“Did you think we wouldn’t look alike anymore?” Roxie asked. “Did you think she wouldn’t find me?”

Lexie watched as her father’s mouth twisted. He was focused on the pond again. His blond hair suddenly seemed dull, and Anne Marie was crying outright. The tears weren’t pretty, leaving splotches on her foundation.

“Well?” Roxie pressed.

“The picture in the newspaper upset me.” Julian smoothed his tie and looked at the floor. “It didn’t occur to me… I’d forgotten…
I wasn’t thinking clearly
.”

Lexie stared at him blankly. He’d forgotten what?

The answer hit her like a two-by-four.

He’d forgotten she had a twin.

“Daddy!” Blaire exploded from her mouse-in-the-corner spot by the door. “How could you?”

The damage was already done. Roxie had gone white as a sheet. In that instant, she looked as if she’d gone from being ready to burn up to being ice cold.

Lexie, on the other hand, felt…nothing.

No anger, no hurt, no surprise. She just wanted out. She wanted away from these people. She wanted away from this place.

“Lexie.” Her father tried to stand, but Anne Marie clutched at him and he sat back down. “I’m sorry. Please know we’re so sorry.”

Lexie took a step away and bumped into Cam. When she glanced up at his face, she saw anger and concern, but she turned away and walked towards the door.

“Forgive us, Alexandra,” her father called. “We didn’t mean to hurt you. If it counts for anything, we kept your name. It was the one thing your parents did ask for.”

“Lexie,” Cam said. For once, his low voice didn’t seem calm and controlled. “Lexie, hold on.”

She kept on going, away from it all.

Away from everything.

Chapter Ten

“Lexie!”

Cam was already at the door, all his instincts focused on getting to Lexie. This was bad. Incomprehensibly heartless.

Damn that man!

Grabbing the doorjamb, he wheeled into the hallway. She was nowhere to be found. He cursed when he heard her heels beating against the tile in the foyer and hurried after her. A maid watched with interest, but she became immersed in straightening a picture frame when he caught her staring.

Cam nearly snarled at her. That better be what everyone was doing right now, working as if their jobs depended on it. He didn’t care if the household staff wasn’t under his purview.

The front door was closing as he turned the corner. He yanked it open before it could shut. “Lexie.”

She wasn’t that far ahead of him, but she acted as if she didn’t hear him. Trotting down the steps to catch up with her, he planted himself between her and her car. The moment he saw the expression on her face, his gut tightened. Her face was smooth, too smooth. And her eyes… He’d never seen her pretty eyes look so flat. It was as if she was staring right through him.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Did you know?” Her voice was flat too, emotionless. There was no anger, no heat. There wasn’t even any sadness.

“Know what?”

“What my par—the Underhills did? Is that why you insisted on being here this morning?”

Cam understood she was hurting, but he gritted his teeth all the same. He was sick and tired of being lumped in with that bastard Underhill. “How the hell would I know that?”

“You told me to let you worry—and this is something that could affect the company’s reputation.”

“I…”
Hell
.

He took a step towards her, getting in her space. He waited for the electricity that was always between them to jump. For the first time ever, he felt the pull but not the spark. “I suspected something was off with the adoption,” he admitted.

She nodded and pressed her lips together. The reaction was small, but a flicker of energy passed between them. It sputtered out almost as quickly as it had appeared, and she dipped her chin. Her hands hung at her sides as she tried to walk past him.

He caught her by the waist to stop her. This wasn’t right. She should be spitting mad or crying. She was doing neither.

He shook her to get her attention. “It wasn’t the company I was worried about.”

She didn’t respond. She just stood there, tired and defeated. Tired he could understand. Defeated he wouldn’t accept.

Bending his head, he peered straight into her eyes. “I was worried about you. What adoption agency separates identical twins? Even twenty-some years ago, they knew better than to do that. It didn’t make sense.
That’s
why I wanted to be here this morning.
That’s
why I tried to dig into the adoption details.”

“But you made me think you were concerned about Roxie. You didn’t tell me you suspected my…” a muscle near her mouth tensed, “…Julian.”

There it was, a tiny bit of the pain, a scrap of the anger she had to be feeling.

She looked blindly down the long driveway. “At least I got the truth.”

Brutal as it was.

She didn’t swallow hard or even blink. The hurt was there, but it was buried deep.

Cam’s jaw clenched. This was exactly what he’d been trying to prevent. “I didn’t want you to get hurt this way.”

He pulled her close, and she didn’t resist. She didn’t accept, either. She simply stood tense in his embrace. This close, he could finally feel it in her, the anger and the pain. Her body was practically vibrating with it. He let his cheek brush against her temple. There was the sound of footsteps, and he tensed.

“Would you two get a room already?” Roxie strode across the driveway, her stiletto heels ringing out like gunshots. She was walking hard and fast.

And trying not to cry.

Cam felt the bottom of his stomach drop out. Shit. He’d left her behind.

Moisture was in her eyes as she hurried past them, but he reached out and snagged her. She didn’t take kindly to the contact. Her hips rolled and she pushed at his forearm, but he clamped down tight.

Unable to fight him, she lashed out at her sister instead. “Nice family.”

Lexie flinched.

“Don’t you take it out on her,” Cam growled.

Yet guilt draped heavily across his shoulders. He should have pulled her out of there with him, but he hadn’t even thought of it. His main concern had been to get to Lexie. “What did they say to you?”

Roxie wiggled in his grip. “Just let me go.”

“No.”

She blinked too fast and worked her jaw in a circle. As tough as she was, the tears were starting to leak from her eyes. Cam couldn’t help it, he gathered her in. The two of them might not have gotten off to a good start, but none of this was her fault.

For a moment, her hand bit into his shoulder, but then it seemed to latch on. Crumpling against him, she gave in. He cupped the back of her head and looked at the other woman he still held. Lexie’s eyes were wide as she watched, and she was breathing too fast. She felt almost brittle in his arms.

The incongruity struck him. Roxie was crying, while Lexie had gone almost steely. It seemed backwards somehow. Roxie was tough on the outside, but things obviously affected her deeply. Lexie, on the other hand, was gentle and open—until she shut everything out.

She’d taken all that she could.

He rubbed his thumb in small circles at her waist. “Where are your keys?”

She didn’t respond.

He noticed that they were already in her hand. He took them from her grip and held them out to Roxie. “Are you okay to drive?”

Roxie’s gaze sharpened when she heard the jingle. Nodding, she reached for the set.

Lexie reached for them too. “I can drive.”

Roxie was faster. She swiped the keys and stepped away. She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. “Sorry, sis, but I’ve had all the family I can stand. I need some downtime.”

Lexie looked dismayed. “From me?”

She flinched when the remote bleeped, signaling it was unlocking the doors, and Cam watched her with concern.

“And I thought I’d been dealt the bad hand with the foster care system.” Shaking her head, Roxie got behind the wheel.

Cam pulled Lexie aside as the silver Acura whipped into reverse. It came to an abrupt halt before bucking back into gear. With a squeal, the car shot down the private road.

Lexie watched it go, her shoulders slumped. Not even the pain was there anymore. She looked numb, and that was the worst thing for her.

Cam just wanted to hit something, mainly Julian Underhill. At least with her anger, she’d had something to hold on to.

Determinedly, he started leading her to his vehicle only a few feet away. He didn’t care where Roxie went or what she did. He was taking Lexie home. He knew something she could hold on to.

Him.

One way or another, he was going to get her to feel something.

Lexie’s hangover was back, it had to be. Her head hurt, her body ached, and her stomach felt raw. There wasn’t anything she could do about it, though. So why try?

She stared blindly through the windshield as Cam drove along Cobalt City’s streets. They were back downtown, but she didn’t know where they were going and didn’t really care.

“Have you eaten anything today?”

“No.” Food was the last thing on her radar screen.

He braked at a red light. “Are you hungry?”

She sighed. “No.”

He raked a hand through his dark hair. “Is there anything you want? Anything you need?”

Her twin. The truth. A time machine so she could go back and undo all that had been done. “No.”

“Damn it, Lexie. Don’t do this.”

“Do what?”

“Shut down.” Taking a right, he swung into an underground garage.

She looked around half-heartedly. Was this where he went when he wasn’t at work? Did he ever stop working?

He parked and grabbed his keys. “Come on.”

She got out of the passenger side and closed the door with a click. He was waiting for her near the tailgate with a hard expression on his face. She paused momentarily. What did
he
have to be angry about?

It didn’t matter, she supposed. She fell in beside him when he started for the elevator. He caught her hand, but she didn’t hold him back. Why should she? People always let her go eventually.

“Don’t let them do this to you,” he said as he jabbed the call button.

Hadn’t it already been done?

Pulling her inside the elevator, he hit the button for the penthouse.

Lexie looked at the glowing light. Stared at it, really. “What is it with you people and the need for the top floor?”

“I know you don’t like heights.”

Of course he did. Not much got by his attention. He was watching her like he’d watched her in the elevator the other day. Had that only been days ago? When a billboard had seemed scandalous? When a presentation had been the most important thing in the world to her?

She sighed.

“Lexie,” he growled.

“What do you want out of me?”

“Some kind of emotion.” Turning, he planted himself in front of her and braced his hand by her head. “I’m not going to let you roll over and play dead.”

He surrounded her in the tiny space, his anger and will filling the small compartment to the corners. Out of everybody, he was the one person who’d watched out for her today. The one person who seemed to care.

Why?

The elevator opened on the top floor, and skylights in the hallway made the tiny space glow. For a moment, he didn’t budge. He hovered over her, a muscle working in his jaw, but then he was tugging her hand and moving to the one door in sight. It was the only apartment on the floor.

He let them in, and she stutter-stepped over the threshold. The place was opulence personified. She’d grown up wealthy, but nothing like this. The penthouse overlooked Cobalt City, with the river snaking across the landscape. The summer sky was calm with birds catching thermals and an airplane leaving contrails as it headed to destinations unknown.

Pulling her all the way inside, Cam closed the door behind her.

And locked it.

“You live here?” She toyed with the strap of her purse.