Somewhere in His Arms (40 page)

             
“I don't know if you're strong enough to hear it all. I've tried to forget and I can't.”

             
Alec steered him toward the foyer and made him wait while he checked on his wife. He came back and handed Rudy something. “He had this on him.”

             
Rudy turned it over in his hands. It was Lucy's compact. “I gave this to her for her eighteenth birthday.” He glanced up at Alec. “Why'd he want this?”

             
“You tell me,” Alec said, pushing him gently out the door and walking him to the elevators. “Any significance?”

             
“This?” Rudy turned it over in his hands.  The silver had long since tarnished, but Lucy's initials were still plain as day. “I bought this from Tiffany's.” He handed it back to Alec. “Why would it?”

             
“Because before it all happened, she was looking for it and couldn't find it.” He tucked it back into his pocket. “We were going on a
real
date.”

             
“Oh?”

             
“Yeah, I thought I'd take her out proper like.”

             
“And how
is
that going by the way?”

             
Alec's handsome brows lifted. “Are you asking me about my love life?”

             
“Nah, I just want her to be happy. She hasn't been for a long time. Not since her mom...” he trailed off.

             
“Um...actually,” Alec scratched his nose self-consciously, “we've been having a sort of belated honeymoon.”

             
“Is that right?” Rudy was grinning like a damn fool.

             
“Yes, that's right!” Alec snapped. “And
why
shouldn't we? We're married!”

             
Rudy laughed then.
Really
laughed. It felt good. “Yes,” he said, struggling to keep a straight face and patting Alec on the back, “I know.”

             
They left the elevator and went to have breakfast. Then Rudy told him all about Milford Reese. And any qualms or regrets that Alec might have had about wasting the bastard on the spot were permanently laid to rest with the knowledge that the monster couldn't hurt Lucy anymore and innocent children were free to sleep safely in their beds.

Chapter Twenty-five

Lucy and Alec returned to Los Angeles with heavy hearts. On the plane ride back, she bemoan
ed their short-lived honeymoon. “I'm going to miss our little cottage,” she said sadly.

             
“There'll be other cottages,” he'd promised and laced his fingers through hers. “I can hardly wait to show you off to mum.”

             
“Well,” she told him, mussing his hair, “better put me back together before you do!”

             
“Yes, ma'am!” he'd grinned and caressed her cast.

             
They arrived tired and drained despite being flown in a private jet. All they wanted to do was sleep. So Rudy had offered up his beach house in Malibu. After saying their farewells with Rudy promising to investigate the leak that had brought Reese to their door, he handed them the keys. “Take care of yourself, kiddo,” he said and kissed Lucy on the cheek.

             
“You act as if you're never going to see me again!” she exclaimed. “We'll visit in a few weeks. And say hello to Tia for me.”

             
“I will!” He smiled at her and took Alec's hand. “How long do you reckon on staying?”

             
“Oh, I don't know.” Alec shrugged, winking at his wife. “There are a lot of loose ends to tie up. Maybe a month or more.”

             
“Careful of those loose ends,” Rudy admonished and without further ado, drove off.

             
“What was all that about?” Lucy said to her husband. “He acts like he's never going to see me again!”

             
Alec opened the door and carried his wife inside. He set her down. “I think he's afraid after everything's said and done, I'll whisk you away to some castle in England.”

             
She slid her arm around his waist and peered up at him. “Do
you
have a castle in England that I don't know about?”

             
“Just a small one,” he grinned down at her, and kissed her lightly on the lips. 

             
She kissed him back and he released her. They stood in the middle of Rudy's house with something akin to awe. “Wow! When did he get this place?” Lucy said. “This is nicer than that place he had in Del Mar.”

             
“Maybe he wanted a place to bring the ladies.”

             
“I don't know,” she said, flouncing down onto a wicker chair. She settled her aching back into the cushion. “I don't know where'd he find the time. He's always working.”

             
“It's a shame. He's shouldn't be alone.” Alec fetched their luggage and set the bags down.

             
“After the last marriage, he swore he'd never marry again.”

             
“What happened?” He asked and knelt down before her.

             
Lucy rolled her eyes at the memory of that horrid woman. “She tore his heart out and stomped on it.”

             
“How'd she do that?” Alec bent down and kissed her knee.

             
Sighing at his touch, she said, “She slept with some actor. I can't recall the name.” She burst into a fit of giggles as Alec nuzzled her neck. “We can't!” she told him.

             
He grinned up at her. “And why not?”

             
“As a husband, these things should no longer come as a surprise.” She blushed furiously.

             
Alec's brows drew together in confusion before he got the implication. “Oh!” he laughed with some embarrassment. “Well, it doesn't exclude cuddles does it?”

             
“No,” she smiled and kissed the tip of his perfect nose. “It doesn't exclude cuddles.”

             
“Good!” he said and helped her up. “Let's go for a tour, shall we?” He offered his arm.

             
Lucy took it and they did a quick walk-through of the house which included three bedrooms, a gourmet kitchen, private beach, and huge walk-in shower. He leered at her.

             
“As soon as that cast comes off, want to christen the shower?”

             
She blushed and giggled. “I think we should save
that
for special occasions.”

             
“Such as…?”

             
“Birthdays and anniversaries!”

             
“Come here!” he growled and scooped her up gently. Alec carried her to the first bedroom he came to and set her tenderly on the bed. He stretched out beside her and held her close. “I love you, Mrs. Barrington,” he whispered.

             
She reached up and caressed his dear face, loving him even more in this moment. “The feeling is mutual, Mr. Barrington.”

             
He lowered his head and kissed her.

* * *

             
Alec decided it was high time he told Lucy about Gavin, but was a little uncertain as to how to go about it. One just didn't come out and lay it all on the table and hope for the best. No, if he was going to tell her, he'd better do it in a way where he wouldn't have to look into her lovely face and see the disgust and maybe, even horror. It was all so distressing. But since they were married and determined to go through life as one, there should be no secrets between them. So he'd finally gotten up the nerve to go into one of those places and rent a few DVD's.

             
He sat her down one Saturday night and popped it in, hoping Rudy had insurance.

             
“Better sit down for this, love,” he said, feeling sick to his stomach. “It's pretty bad.”

             
“For goodness sakes!” Lucy said in exasperation. “What
are
you carrying on about?”

             
“I have a...”

             
“A what?”

             
“Um,” he looked toward the ceiling for divine intervention and finding none, pushed play. “I have...a brother.”

             
“Is
that
all?” she said, relieved. “For a moment I thought you had another wife stashed away in an attic somewhere.”

             
As soon as the movie began, he watched the myriad emotions playing about Lucy's face. First there was bemusement, then curiosity, and then...horror.

             
He hung his head in abject defeat as Gavin appeared on screen and began taking his kit off. Soon his brother and a buxom redhead were going at it in every position known in the annals of the Kama Sutra and then some.

             
Lucy's hand flew to her eyes. “Turn it off, Alec!” When she'd recovered from the shock, she found Alec hanging his head in shame. “Alec?” She went to him and knelt down.

             
“Alec, look at me.”

             
He shook his head and then raised his head with reddened eyes. “Gavin ran away from home when he was fourteen. I've been trying to find him since.”

             
“Oh, my love,” she soothed and reached for him. His arms tightened around her and he clutched her to him, weeping into her shoulder. “Why didn't you tell me?”

             
“It's not something you bandy about to a girl you just met,” he choked.  “‘You want to get married and have a baby?  Oh, and by the way, my little brother takes his kit off for a living!’”

             
“You didn't have to carry all this by yourself! I would have helped you.”

             
“I didn't know how to tell you,” he sighed in agony, “It'll kill mum, with her just out of hospital.”

             
“What's wrong with her?” she asked, stroking his hair as she would a child.

             
He pulled back a little, still unable to meet her eyes. “She had breast cancer six months ago and she's just done with chemo. She lost all her hair.”

             
Lucy smoothed the tears away as he did when he wanted to comfort her. “Was it bad?”

             
“They caught it in time, but the doctors wanted to make sure, you know?”

             
“But she's all better now?”

             
“No, not really, “ he sniffed and allowed his wife to wipe his nose. “She worries about Gavin constantly. More so now than ever.”

             
She reached out for the DVD case on the coffee table and examined it. “Jimmy de Wilde,” she read. “That's some moniker.”

             
“Yeah, but that's one of his earliest films. I think he's trying to go mainstream now.”

             
“You're not sure?”

             
He leaned forward. “Well, I finally found him at a studio in Burbank trying out for a bit part on some TV show. But his manager has got this tree of a man as a bodyguard and threw me down the stairs. That's how I broke---”

             
“---your leg?” she finished for him gently.

             
Alec nodded and leaned his head back, rubbing his eyes. “That was after we got married. I was feeling so sorry for myself after you up and left me that I got reckless.”

             
“I
left you?” she plopped down onto his lap and smiled when he grunted at her weight. “Well, I didn't know what happened. It was all so sudden.”

             
He caressed her thigh. “It was.”

             
“Well, I'm not sorry about it. Are you?”

             
He grinned up at her, catching his breath at her simple beauty. “What do you think?”

             
“What are you going to do about him?” Lucy leaned down and kissed his brow and stroked his cheek. She rested her head on his shoulder, feeling the tension leaving his body.

             
“I don't know,” he sighed finally. “He won't see me.”