The Darkest Link (Second Circle Tattoos) (26 page)

Out of the corner of her eye, Lia noticed Grace reach for the emergency call button on the side of her bed, sliding her fingers over until they touched the gray plastic square.

“I can’t talk them into letting you go, even by guaranteeing twenty-four-hour round-the-clock supervision and nursing care.” He stalked around the room, pulling together the work he had coldly thought to bring with him. Lia had been the one to join her mother in the ambulance, while her father had mumbled about getting behind on deadlines.

Lia’s eyes never left her father, her heart racing. “I think it would be better if Mom stayed here anyway,” Lia said, still frightened by her mother’s whispered words. She thought back to the scene. Her father sitting on the chair, her mother neatly lying in the bed. But there were no bottles of medication on the side table, or on the bed or floor. Was her mother really telling her that someone else had used her pills to try and kill her?

“I have to leave,” her father said, pulling on a jacket. “I have a meeting that has been on the calendar for months, and as you are obviously feeling better, I will leave you with your daughter and be back to collect you tomorrow.”

Her mother eyed him suspiciously. “It would have been easier for you, wouldn’t it, if I hadn’t survived?”

“Nonsense,” he said, slipping his laptop and some papers into his briefcase.

For a moment, Lia waited for her father to say something reassuring to the woman he currently suspected of being so unstable that she would try to kill herself. But he didn’t. “Either way, it was going to be difficult to spin it.”

Lia’s jaw went slack. “What the fuck, Daddy? Are you really that cold?”

“Cold? I’ll tell you what’s cold . . . Trying to kill yourself without worrying about how it would affect the rest of the family. That’s cold and selfish. And it’s not as if anything I said wasn’t true.” He looked over toward his wife, his face a mask of indifference. “The last time I attempted to run, I was called out for not appearing family-oriented enough after Lia convinced everyone with her dramatics that I was a monster . . . If you’d succeeded, I would have to explain why I didn’t see it coming so that I didn’t look like a heartless bastard, again. And now that you failed, it’s only a matter of time before somebody does find out, because they always do. I’m going to have to find a way to explain why I still intend to build my campaign, while the wishy-washy softies will be saying I should stay home and look after you.”

Lia looked toward her father. “If anybody calls you a heartless bastard it’s because you categorically are. Not because of anything we have or haven’t done.”

Her father put down his briefcase and walked toward her. Terror had her backing away until the backs of her knees hit her mother’s bed. Franklin tracked her until he stopped about a foot away. “
I’m
a heartless bastard?
I’m
an asshole? You realize your mother is lying right there, likely because you weren’t there to help her and share the increased stress with her. You could have joined us in Coconut Grove. Supported her. So the fact that she is here is as much your fault as it is mine, and—”

“No,” her mother shouted. “This has nothing to do with Lia.”

“This has everything to do with Lia. I can’t help that the role I feel compelled to play in life requires a certain amount of public presence for my family. But Lia can help you cope with it and is choosing not to.”

He walked back to his briefcase, picked it up, and walked out of the hospital room door.

Lia’s breath came out on a whoosh. She’d never felt truly terrified of her father, but that was quickly changing. “Mom, I’m sorry. I can’t stay trapped just because you feel like you are. Daddy’s obsessed. Sick even. You need to move out.”

“Lia, please, trust me, go now while your father is out. Hurry. Get my pills. I’m sure that in many cases when somebody has attempted to commit suicide and survive, they try to pass it off as an accident. But I swear to you, when I walked upstairs yesterday to go lie down for my nap, I know I wasn’t suicidal. I was unhappy for sure, but not to the extent where I would leave you and Ben.”

Indecision pulled at her. The last thing she wanted to do was step foot inside her father’s home, but she needed to know what had happened. “Okay, Mom,” she said finally, grabbing her things. “I’ll go now.”

The taxi over to Star Island didn’t take too long and she hurried inside. Her arm ached, which was thankfully becoming an increasingly rare occurrence. It had been three weeks since she’d had the pins inserted, and in the last few days it hadn’t bothered her as much.

She hurried into her mother’s bedroom and grabbed the medication from the bathroom cabinet. There were three different types in all. Placing them in her purse, she made her way around to her mother’s bedside table. As she opened it, she heard the front door open and slam. Fear prickled her skin, and her heart pounded against her ribs. Panicked, she looked down and grabbed the pill container before shoving it into her purse, wishing she’d thought to text any one of her friends to tell them what was happening and where she was going.

Her first thought was to hide. If her father was going to an event, he wouldn’t be home long. But what if the meeting had been canceled and he was home to stay? Or worse, what if he suspected her and her mother of figuring out what had happened? Perhaps he was home to try and hide the evidence. She needed to get the pills out of the house before her father had the opportunity to tamper with them further.

Footsteps sounded on the wooden staircase heading in her direction, getting louder and louder. Quickly, Lia pulled her grandmother’s Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet off her wrist, relying on the broken link to pull open like it always did, and slid it under the bed.

The door opened. “Lia,” her father exclaimed. He looked at her, suspicion etched into his features. “Why aren’t you with your mother? And what are you doing here?”

Given the man in front of her no longer mattered to her, she answered boldly. “You know, Daddy, I could ask you the same thing. Weren’t you supposed to be going to some meeting?” Antagonizing him was a risk, but he would be suspicious of any sudden change in her behavior to the contrary.

He slid a finger through his tie, loosening the knot. “If you are trying to become my adversary, Lia, you are a very poor opponent.”

The bed and her father were between her and the door, something she desperately needed to rectify.
Use your brain, Lia! Get the bracelet and get out.

“I have no intention of becoming your anything. Let’s face it, we haven’t been father and daughter for as long as . . . well, ever. I have a life of my own, and I don’t need you in it. But for the record, Mom was sleeping, and somewhere between getting here last night and talking to Mom after you left, I realized I’d lost Granny Emmeline’s bracelet.”

“How convenient,” her father said, stepping into her space as she moved, banging hard against her arm, the action deliberate.

Lia winced and gripped her elbow, pulling her arm close to her body.

His lips had narrowed into a grim smile. “Better watch that you don’t hurt yourself again while looking.”

He’d never purposefully hurt her before, yet despite his previous behavior, it was a shock to find that he would.

No matter how badly she needed to get out, she couldn’t just reach for the bracelet, or her father would know for sure that she was up to something, so she made a show of looking around where her mother slept. She tossed back the covers, looked around the pillows, and even scoured the floor around her feet. Her father pulled his tie off, watching her suspiciously, and for just a fleeting moment, she felt icy-cold fear trickle down the back of her neck, setting her hairs on end.

Carefully, Lia knelt down on the floor and lifted the bed skirt, taking a few moments while she pretended to look for the bracelet that was immediately in view. She reached for it and then placed it onto the bed while she stood up.

“Thank goodness,” she said. “I would have been devastated if I’d lost this for good.”

“Well, next time,” her father said, gripping ahold of her shoulder, “you need to take better care of what is yours.”

She wrenched out of her father’s hold.

Her phone rang in her bag, and she’d never been more relieved to hear it. Quickly, she pulled it out and answered it, all the while keeping her eyes on her father.

“Hello,” she said.

“Hey, Lia. I just heard about your mom. I’m on my way. Is everything okay?” Reid said.

Something told her she needed to get out of the house. “What? You can’t hear me right? One second, I’m just at my parents’ house with my dad.” There, at least somebody knew where she was right now. “Let me head outside and see if I can get a better signal.”

Her father stepped out of the way and let her leave, and she hurried as best as she could, careful to not let the bottles of medication rattle.

Getting them to her mother had just become crucial.

Reid fastened and unfastened the tray table. Then he tried to change the music on his phone for the thirty-eighth time. Kings of Leon hadn’t done it. U2 definitely didn’t do it. Coldplay was a bust. As was Bob Dylan. And his most recent attempt to take his mind off the strange phone call he’d had with Lia, Ed Sheeran, hadn’t worked either. He selected Eddie Vedder, leaned back in his airplane seat, and closed his eyes. Which lasted all of five minutes before he sat up again and leaned across Harper to raise the window blind.

“Okay, there is every chance I’m going to push you out of the emergency exit if you keep fidgeting like this,” Harper said.

Reid sighed and rubbed his hand across his forehead. “There’s some weird shit going on.”

“So you said, but she didn’t respond to texts from you or me after she hung up.”

Reid had gone through this a thousand times since getting on the plane. He’d tried to call her to say he was coming to Miami and that he wanted to see her, that he finally wanted to explain everything to her and stop pushing her away. It had only been five weeks since he’d met her, but he knew she was something special, and more importantly that what they had together was incredibly rare.

He hadn’t really considered how that call was going to go, but he hadn’t imagined it starting with her going on and on about a bad connection when they could hear each other just fine. And then, as he’d tried to explain the depth of his feelings to her, she’d basically blown him off with a
Yes, yes, come see me later
and hung up the phone. And now he was worried sick and thousands of feet up in the air.

“Did Trent have any more news when you spoke to him?” Reid asked.

“For the tenth time, no, he didn’t.” Harper reached for Reid’s hand. “We’ll be there soon enough,” she reassured him.

They landed and hurried through the airport to the baggage claim where he had no fucking signal on his phone at all. When they exited, Trent was there waiting for them, a bouquet of long-stemmed roses in his hands. As much as Reid was in a hurry to get to Lia, he wasn’t prepared to rob Harper of the minute it would take to allow her to appreciate the gesture properly. “Thank you,” she cried when she saw the flowers. She flung her arms around Trent’s waist. He heard Trent gruffly whisper how much he’d missed her. A part of him wanted to make fun of Trent, brotherly banter and all that, but for the first time in his life, Reid understood exactly how Trent felt.

Finally, his phone had a signal and a solitary message from Lia.
I’m home.

Thank fuck for that. As much as he wanted to speak to her, he wanted to do it face-to-face, where he could hold her. It was going to be a long conversation, but it could wait another thirty minutes so he could do it properly.

He’d left his car in the parking garage of Trent and Harper’s condo, but he didn’t want to waste a single second getting to Lia so he needed a ride. “Can I get you to drop me at Lia’s?” he asked Trent. “I can swing by tomorrow to pick up my car.”

“Of course. Let’s go and you guys can fill me in on your trip while we drive.”

It took about fifteen minutes to get the full story of their reunion out. “So how did you leave things with your parents in the end?” Trent asked.

Reid sat back and let Harper answer. “Mom and Dad have always been pretty solid,” she said. “It’s not going to happen quickly, but I think they’ll find a way to make it work, and I told them they needed to do it before the wedding at Thanksgiving.”

“You know, darlin’, we could always postpone. Give your parents a little more time to sort things out.” Trent kissed the back of Harper’s hand. “We can wait a little longer if we need to.”

Reid did his best to tune them out. When he had finally agreed to go with Harper to see their parents, he hadn’t fully thought out the implications beyond his own. He should have realized that the fallout would have some effect on their wedding plans.

“No, we leave it where it is. I feel like we’ve waited long enough for this, and I don’t want to start another year without being Harper Andrews. And this gives my folks about two months to figure things out. I’m hopeful that knowing they both have to be there will help guide them in the right direction.”

They pulled up outside of Lia’s condo, and Reid jumped out, thanking Trent for the ride. Harper got out, too, and hugged him.

“We might all be in a bit of a mess for now,” Harper said. “But we’re finally all reunited, and there are no more secrets. I feel like we’ve come full circle, finally.”

Reid hugged her tight. “Thanks for coming with me, Harper. It made a huge difference to have you there.”

He saw her back to the truck and waved as they pulled away. Now he had to make it right with Lia.

Reid buzzed her condo, and she answered. “Hello?”

“Hey, Red. It’s me,” he said. “I got here as fast as I could.”

The door clicked open and he headed for the elevators. When he walked down her hallway, he could see Lia standing in the doorway. She was wearing the most singularly unflattering pajamas: black-and-white polka-dots in some shapeless flannel. Her hair was wet and curled up on top of her head in a bun, and there wasn’t a scrap of makeup on her face. Those beautiful gray eyes of hers were red-rimmed. Without saying a word, he dropped his bag and drew her into his arms. His heart tilted as she fell against him and started to sob. Somehow, he managed to pick her up and grab his bag at the same time. Carefully, he carried her into the apartment.

He walked to her favorite chair. It was close to the balcony doors. She’d told him she loved the view and the sound of the ocean from it. Reid sat down and held her in his lap while she cried. He pulled her close against his chest, her head resting on his shoulder.

Eventually, her sobs began to subside, but she still breathed shallowly as she tried to gain control of herself again.

“Want to tell me what is going on?” he asked. “I’ve been worried about you, babe, the whole time I was on that flight. So worried that my own sister threatened to throw me out of the emergency exit while we were still in the air because I was bugging her so much.”

Her eyes were cooler than an Illinois ice storm in the middle of February. “If you care so much, why have you been so distant?”

He’d been expecting that question from her but had hoped to learn what had happened to her mom first. Now, as he sat here with her in his arms, he understood that that was going to be impossible. She wasn’t going to tell him if she didn’t know where she stood.

“Part of my having stayed away is exactly what you think. Dealing with the garage, the investigators, the insurance company, and my employees, and beginning to clean out the shell of what is left has been exhausting, frustrating, and sickening work. But the reason I’ve encouraged
you
to stay away from
me
is because of Winston. I honestly don’t believe for one second that he isn’t involved, but I can’t prove it. Not yet. Circumstantial evidence is meaningless, so the fact that he and I argued at your father’s house and then we got targeted by a car jumping the pavement and my garage burned down appears coincidental. But I just don’t buy it, and if he is going to make another move on me, I don’t want you to get caught in the crossfire.”

“And it didn’t occur to you to say, ‘Hey, Lia, I’m really worried about this thing happening, so what can we do to look after each other’? You took it upon yourself to become decision-maker for both of us?”

Shit.
She could see straight through him. And while ninety percent of him loved that about her, he was sure ten percent of him would hate it in the years to come. “I guess I did, babe. And I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sure this is the point where I’m supposed to say it’s okay and hug you, but it’s not okay if you plan on pulling that kind of shit again.”

He ran his thumb along her pouty bottom lip. “I won’t, but I have a plan to help us figure out what is going on. I haven’t told Harper yet because I know she’ll worry, but I’ve filled out some forms to get permission to go see Nathan.”

“Oh my God, you can’t do that,” Lia said, sitting upright abruptly. “The guy nearly killed Harper. What if his father tries to do the same thing to you?”

Reid gently encouraged her back into his arms. “We were friends once, and I’m hoping I can appeal to that side of him and ask him to call his father off. Plus, he’s in prison. I’m sure there will be wardens in the room.”

“But how can you even stand to see him after everything he’s done?” Lia asked.

It was a good question, and one he had thought about a lot. Because his initial response was to snuff the life out of the douchebag who’d almost killed his sister twice. And to be clear, it would be a slow and painful extinguishing. But the cycle had to stop, and if Nathan could help make that happen, then Reid had to rely on his own self-discipline to be able to say what he had to say and then leave.

“I don’t want to see him, but I
need
to if there is a chance to make all this stop.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “I was an asshole to try and keep you out of it, and I’m really sorry, babe.”

* * *

Lia had so much to tell him, about her father, about what had happened after he’d called when she’d taken the drugs to the hospital, and about what they had found when they counted the pills. But right now she needed this. She needed the smell and feel of him. And the blanket of security that came with being wrapped up in his arms. Everything else could wait.

For the first time since he’d arrived, he put his lips to hers and kissed her gently. She allowed herself to tumble into it. To take comfort from the way their mouths moved seamlessly together. To savor the way his hand wrapped around her back and slid inside the waistband of the ugly pajamas Pixie had bought her for when she was feeling down.

“Babe, as much as I’m desperate to do this, we need to—”

“No, we don’t,” she mumbled against his lips. “I need you. I need this more than anything else. Help me forget, Reid.”

She sat up carefully and moved to straddle his thighs without breaking the kiss. His hands made short work of the four buttons on her pajama top. He pushed it off her shoulders and down her arms until it fell in a pool on the floor.

“Reid,” she moaned against his mouth as he ran both his hands up her stomach and cupped both of her breasts. They ached for him and his attention. Gently, he pushed her back away from him and then leaned over her to suck her nipple into his mouth. Desperate, Lia arched her back, but it only pushed her core tight against his erection. Her hips started to roll against him, desperately seeking release. She reached for his T-shirt, wanting to feel his skin against hers. Even though everything wasn’t really resolved between them, she knew deep down in her heart that they could figure things out. Reid sat them both up again and allowed her to drag his T-shirt up along his ribs, over his head. He wrapped his strong arms around her, crossing them behind her back and holding onto her shoulders. Wrapped up this tightly against him, she could barely breathe, but it felt so unbelievably safe and secure that the panic she had been feeling before he arrived dissipated.

“Babe, look at me. Whatever happens from now on, we’ll always have this. You and me. I promise.”

He stood, and Lia wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried them to her bedroom and out through the balcony doors onto the private patio. He placed her down on the large daybed. Nobody could see them, but if they were too loud, any of her neighbors seated outside would be able to hear them. Lia placed a finger over his lips, but grinned. She’d occasionally sunbathed nude out here, wondering what it would be like to make love in this very spot.

Within seconds, or so it felt, he’d removed her pajamas and panties, stripped his clothes off into a messy pile, and was sheathing himself with a condom that he’d pulled from his wallet. Just as he was about to crawl between her legs, she shook her head. He’d told her once what he wanted, and her arm was feeling up to the challenge.

Facing toward him, she moved to her knees and spread them wide. His eyes were drawn straight to the space between her legs. He licked his lips greedily, but didn’t move. First, Lia removed the pins from her hair and let it fall so he could grab it when she was in position. Then she rolled over onto all fours, placed her arms on the back of the sun lounger, and arched her back.

“Fuck.” Reid groaned quietly. This time, he did step toward her. He ran his hand down the gentle dip of her spine and across the sweet curve of her ass. She was already wet for him, and he ran his finger back and forth until it was slick enough to slide deep inside.

Lia looked over her shoulder at him and bit her lip. His abs were tensed in anticipation, his cock standing at attention as he slipped two fingers into her.

Reid grinned as he wrapped her hair around his hand and tugged gently. “Tell me if this all gets too much. I swear to God I’ll stop, but forgive me if it takes a minute.”

He removed his fingers, placed his knees between hers, and ran the hand that wasn’t holding her hair down her back. “You have the softest skin, babe. I can’t stop touching it.”

“So don’t,” Lia replied. “I want you, Reid, don’t make me wait,” she encouraged. She needed him to fill her, to take her, and physically show her just how much she meant to him.

Reid rubbed the end of his cock against her, brushing up and down, teasing her mercilessly. He leaned over her back, his chest hair tickling her shoulder. “I’ll decide when I slide deep inside that perfect pussy of yours,” he whispered against her ear before giving it a nip. “Right, babe?”

Lia shivered at his statement, realizing how much she wanted it, craved it, as part of their sex lives.

He played with her for a few moments more before reaching down to ease himself through her lips. Slowly, he stretched her wide as he pushed his way in. Then he withdrew before making real progress.

A groan slipped out of her mouth, a loud one, but she found it hard to care as Reid’s warmth filled her.

He repeated the action again, this time going a little deeper before withdrawing. It wasn’t going to take long for her to come. She could feel the telltale tightening of her muscles.