Trick - A Stepbrother Romance (16 page)

“Claire, I know you don’t really want to hurt anyone. You’re just feeling really hurt yourself, and you want to lash out. If you step away from the edge and bring Lucy over here, then I promise we can talk some more. We’re gonna get you the help you need, okay?”

She slowly moved towards me, dragging Lucy with her, and I caught them both in my arms and dragged them a fair distance away from the edge. Lucy squirmed free of Claire’s grip as she broke down into sobs, and she stood and watched me as I held onto her. Claire’s head was buried in my chest, which was already wet with her tears, and I nodded at Lucy, whose arms were still shaking like crazy.

She nodded back at me, and a silent communication passed between us in those small movements.
I love you.
We’d never said it before, but we both knew it beyond a shadow of doubt.

She turned her head a second later as two cops called out to us from the head of the trail.

“Hey! Everything all right up here?”

Lucy quietly filled them in on what had happened as I held onto Claire, and they pulled her away from me and handcuffed her before leading her away a moment later. She was still sobbing her heart out, and one of the cops turned his head and called out.

“You two need to follow us to the station and give us your statements. Okay?”

“Yeah, we’ll do that,” I replied. “Just give us a sec.”

Lucy’s face was still as pale as I’d ever seen it, and I smiled with relief as I realized the stalker situation was all over. For real this time. I wrapped my arms around her, and she buried her head in my shirt.

“Thank you,” she murmured.

“You’re welcome. You know I’d do anything for you.”

“This is the third time you’ve rescued me in the last couple of months,” she said, her voice still muffled by my chest.

“Yeah, you’re a real magnet for this kinda stuff, aren’t you?”

She nodded and pulled away a second later, staring up at me with wide eyes. “I know. It’s crazy. I don’t know where I’d be without you.”

“In a hospital somewhere?” I said, making a stupid face to try and cheer her up.

She swatted me in the ribs. “That’s not funny,” she said, although she did smile. “It’s too soon!”

“Yeah, I know. But it might be funny after five years and several hundred stiff drinks.”

“Maybe. I doubt it, though. I can’t believe Claire did this.”

“Yeah, I know. But it’s all right now. She’ll get the help she needs. She must have had some sort of breakdown over the last few months.”

We stayed in each other’s arms for a few more minutes, and then Lucy broke away and looked right into my eyes.

“Patrick…I want to say something, but it’s going to sound totally cheesy.”

“Fire away,” I said. “I was a main character on a teen werewolf show for two seasons. Cheesy is kinda my thing.”

She hesitated and then spoke again. “You used to be this guy I completely hated, but in the last couple of months you’ve become the most steadfast, trustworthy person I know. I love you. I really do. I’m sorry for all the times I’ve been mean or doubted you or didn’t trust you. I hope you can forgive me. I know I said that a while ago at my party, but I just wanted to say it again.”

I placed a hand under her chin and tilted her head up so that her eyes were trained right on mine. “Lucy, I wrecked your life two years ago. I’m not proud of that, but there it is. You managed to find it in your heart to forgive me. So believe me, I’d forgive you for anything at any time, and you don’t ever need to worry about that. Shit, you could stab me in the chest and I’d probably still forgive you, babe.”

“Don’t tempt me,” she said, flashing me a mischievous smile.

I held her closer to me with a smile. Her sense of humor had returned already. It was always the first part of her to bounce back during times like this, and I loved that about her. She was so strong and resilient, and she was always able to see the funny side of life. More people needed to be like her.

“Oh, and by the way,” I whispered in her ear. “I love you too.”

She tilted her head up and kissed me voraciously, and I returned the kiss with equal passion, my tongue swiping over hers as heat gathered between us.

Our tender moment was ruined a second later by the telltale clicking of a cell phone camera. What the hell? We sprang apart, and I looked up to see the middle-aged guy from the parking lot. He was holding up a phone in our direction, and he’d obviously just taken a picture.

“Hey, man, what are you doing?” I asked angrily.

He grinned and looked down as his fingers danced over the keyboard on the phone screen. “I figured there was something goin’ on up here by the way you were actin’ down there a few minutes ago. Pretty sure the tabloids will pay me a pretty penny for a shot of you makin’ out with your new girlfriend,” he said, finally glancing up at me again.

“No. You can’t show that to anyone,” I said, taking a panicked step towards him. “I’ll pay you anything you want.”

“Yeah, and whatever you offer me, they’ll pay me triple for a picture like this. So forget about it.”

I narrowed my eyes and snatched his phone away, and he grinned, his beady little eyes flashing with gloating amusement.

“Too late, son. I just emailed it to myself. These phones with their internet coverage these days…amazing. So you can smash that thing up all you want. The picture is safe.”

With that, he turned and walked back down the trail, and I watched him go, fuming. He was right. There was nothing I could do. I could probably grab him and beat the hell out of him, but that would achieve nothing other than an assault charge against me, which was the last thing I needed right now considering how shot my career was already going to be once that picture got out to the media. And shit, once it got out, Lucy wouldn’t have a job either.

“Oh my god,” Lucy said. “What the hell do we do? Everyone’s going to find out about us!”

We’d both known that we’d have to come clean about our relationship soon, but not like this. In just a few hours, our passionate embrace was going to be plastered all over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, gossip sites, blogs…you name it, and it’d be there.

Well, fuck…

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

LUCY

My hands felt clammy as I scrolled through the latest online news articles detailing my newly-outed relationship with Patrick.

Family Important To Trick Archer Indeed – Inside Details Of His Sordid Affair!

The Scandal Rocking Hollywood: Trick Archer’s Family Affair

Brotherly Love Blows Up – Patrick Archer fired from Six Angels after details of his relationship with his stepsister go public!

That was just a small selection of the articles that had gone viral in the last two days. The internet worked crazily fast, and within just a few hours of that guy selling the photo of me and Patrick kissing up at Serpentine Falls, the image had been plastered on every single social media site, gossip site and news site in the country.

Patrick and I were currently hiding out under fake names in a hotel in Brentwood, waiting for everything to blow over. That’s if it ever did blow over. The last forty-eight hours had been a whirlwind of shock and horror. We hadn’t even spoken to our parents yet. My Dad had been trying to call, but I’d been too scared to answer just yet. He probably wanted to kill the both of us, and the thought of seeing or speaking to him practically made me go into cardiac arrest.

Patrick had been immediately fired from Six Angels after the scandal broke, and he was currently being written out of the show. Two of his recent movie offers had already been withdrawn, and he was also likely to be sued for breaching his Six Angels morality clause, which meant he would probably lose almost half the fortune he’d built up in his last two years of acting…if not more.

Right now he was standing on our hotel room balcony, lighting a cigarette. He was disguised in a hat, sunglasses and bulky sweater, but I padded over to him and called out anyway. It didn’t matter what he wore; people would still recognize him if they had an inkling that he was here.

“Patrick, you should get off the balcony,” I said. “And you shouldn’t smoke.”

He shrugged. “I’m already getting sued for breaching the morality clause. I could do lines of coke off a stripper on this balcony and they still couldn’t get any more out of me.”

“I meant that more along the lines of smoking being bad for you,” I said quietly. “You’ve been doing so well the last couple of months.”

“I know, it just makes me feel a little better,” he said, sighing before stubbing it out on a crystal ashtray. “But you’re right. There.”

He came back inside and sat down on the end of the bed before rubbing his eyes and putting his head in his hands.

“Heard anything about Claire?” he asked.

“No, other than that she’s in a hospital in the psychiatric wing. Her Mom tried calling me, but I can’t face speaking to her yet.”

“Fair enough. Did you speak to your Mom or Dad yet?” he asked, looking up at me a moment later.

“Not yet.”

“You should. I called my Mom earlier while you were in the shower. She said she wants us to come home. She didn’t sound angry, only worried.”

I joined him on the bed. “I know I should call Dad, but I’m scared.”

He slung an arm around my shoulder. “I know, babe. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tracks me down a rifle and blows my head off.”

I smiled a little at that. “I don’t think he’ll go that far.”

He sighed again. “Let’s hope not. Anyway, I got another call from the producers of that movie - the one they’ve booked DiCaprio for. They want to see me in an hour. I guess they’re withdrawing their offer too.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“It’s not your fault,” he said, rubbing my back. “I’d rather lose everything and be with you instead of having it the other way around. Maybe this was a good thing. If this doesn’t blow over anytime soon, we can move somewhere else and start over. We could even study those courses we’ve been looking at. We’ve been talking about it for so long, so why not?”

Tears filled my eyes as I considered his words. He was right. We could start over somewhere else, only I didn’t want to. Our lives were here. Our friends and family were here. We’d both known our relationship would cause problems, but we’d never intended for it to blow up in our faces as badly as this. Still, we should have seen it coming a mile away. We’d just been so wrapped up in each other to even care all that much.

Hindsight was a real bitch.

I guess this was the price you pay for being a celebrity, or at least being with a celebrity. Every move you make is documented and discussed in the tabloids, and you can’t do a damn thing about it. It reminded me of high school, only this time I wasn’t being called a slut in the school cafeteria or bathrooms…I was being called a skank and a whore in the news instead. Well, they were implying that, anyway. I don’t think they were legally allowed to print a headline calling me a dirty slut, as much as they clearly wanted to.

It was such bullshit. Even though Patrick was getting a lot of negative attention, most of it seemed to be focused on me. It was the age-old cliché – men who have sex are ‘studs’ and women who have sex are ‘sluts’. There were a select few gossip sites already hailing Patrick as some sort of manly hero for ‘nailing such forbidden pussy’, and meanwhile I was being painted as some sort of evil seductress intent on tearing our family apart.

“I don’t know what we should do,” I finally replied, looking down at my lap. “I just wish we’d come clean earlier, in private. At least then our parents could have found out from us rather than seeing it on the front of their morning newspaper.”

“Bit late for that now.”

He put both arms around me and held me for a while, and then he kissed the top of my head and ruffled my hair.

“I have to head off to the meeting with those producers,” he said softly. “I really think you should go and see your Dad, or at least call him back. Hiding out here isn’t gonna solve anything in the end.”

I nodded. “Okay,” I said in a small voice. “Can you come with me?”

“I think you should probably see him alone at first, but if things get too hectic with him, call or text me. I’ll try to make my meeting as short as possible, and I’ll come and rescue you. Okay?”

“Okay.”

He kissed me goodbye and slipped out the door. My heart hammered as I got dressed, and I looked in the mirror, trying to figure out a way to quickly change my appearance enough to stop myself from being recognized on my way to the CBC studio. I found an old crimson red lipstick which I’d never worn, and I swiped that on along with more eyeliner than I’d normally wear. Then I put my hair in a loose bun, which I usually wore down. I finished the look with a giant pair of sunglasses which almost took up half my face, and then I stepped out of the hotel and onto the street.

So much for my disguise. People still seemed to know who I was, because I got funny looks from almost everyone I passed as I headed for my car.

“Hey Lucy! Where’s your brother?”

I turned my head to see an unfamiliar man calling out to me from across the street, and when he realized I’d heard him, he grinned and made kissing sounds at me. Deeply ashamed, I abruptly turned away from him and ran the rest of the way to my car, my skin coated in a thin sheen of sweat.

Things were no different when I arrived at the studio. As I made my way from the parking lot into the main building, I was greeted by stares and whispers, and once again I had a mental flashback of the tortures of high school. What really sucked was that I’d finally started to let all of that go in the last few months, but here it was again, rushing back at me in a torrent of horrible memories.

I ran into my Dad’s secretary on my way down the hall.

“Lucy!” she said, rushing up to me. “Your Dad’s been trying to call you for a while now.”

“I know,” I said. “I’m sorry, I just needed to bury my head in the sand for a while. Is he in his office now?”

“Yes, he’s just on a call, but I’ll let him know you’re here right away,” she replied. “Oh, and Lucy?”

“Yeah?”

She leaned in closer and touched a hand to my shoulder. “Don’t worry about all those idiots on the gossip sites. They’ve got nothing better to do. This’ll all be over once they move onto the next scandal. And there’s probably a new one coming really soon – I hear Lexie Greyson is pregnant to a married man. So keep your chin up, girl!”

I gave her a weak smile. “Thanks. It means a lot to hear that right now.”

She smiled and nodded before returning to her desk. After speaking into her phone in a low voice, she looked up at me and waved me into Dad’s office. I tentatively opened his door to see him sitting at his desk, placing his phone in its receiver. As soon as he saw me, he sprang to his feet and dashed over to me, enveloping me in a hug.

“Oh, Princess, I’ve been so worried,” he said, ruffling up my hair as he hugged me.

Well, that wasn’t the reaction I’d been expecting…

“Dad,” I said, barely able to look him in the eyes as he broke away a second later. “I’m so sorry. About me and Patrick…we got together once in high school, and then it all started again a while ago. We should’ve told you. I know it’s caused all kinds of trouble for you.”

He looked down at me, his brown eyes sparking with unfamiliar emotion.

“Ah. So that explains why you two were always at each other’s throats when I first married Julia.”

I nodded, and he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

“I didn’t actually want to speak to you about Patrick. Take a seat, Princess.”

He gestured to a chair across from his desk, and I sat down, my curiosity piqued. Why the hell wasn’t he angrier? I’d honestly been preparing for him to disown me and threaten to kill Patrick and leave his body in a landfill somewhere.

“In another time and another place, I might be upset at this recent revelation of your relationship with Patrick, but now is not the time. There’s something I need to talk with you about, darling. Something very serious. You’re not the only one who’s been keeping secrets. I’ve been keeping one as well. A very big one, in fact, and I regret not telling you sooner. I just didn’t know how to say…”

His voice trailed off for a second, and my heart skipped a beat. Oh no. If he was completely glossing over the media shitstorm Patrick and I had given rise to, then that meant something awful was going on.

“Dad…what is it?” I asked, trying and failing to keep the anxiousness out of my voice.

He let out another deep sigh. “Princess…I’m sick. Very sick.”

My heart plummeted into my stomach.

“Sick? How?” I asked, my voice quavering even more.

“It’s been going on for a while now, and I’ve kept it to myself, because the prognosis was originally good. But my kidneys are failing, and they’re slowly getting worse. I’ve been going in for dialysis three times a week for the last few months.”

Something occurred to me all of a sudden. “Is that why you were in the hospital that day when Patrick and I got into the car accident? I wondered how you got there so fast.”

He nodded. “Yes. I was just leaving my treatment session when I got the call.”

I nodded slowly, trying to process everything. “But…you’ll be fine as long as you keep getting dialysis, right?”

He looked at me for a long time before replying. “It’s progressed to the stage where I really need a transplant. I’ve been on the waiting list for some time, but there are several people ahead of me. Without a new transplant kidney, I have maybe three months left.”

My eyes filled with hot tears as he spoke, and all the air seemed to go out of my lungs. No. This couldn’t be happening. Dad and I had only just started to get close, and now he was going to die?

No.

No, no, no.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I choked out. “I could be a match for a transplant. You know I’d do it.”

He shook his head. “I remember your blood type from when you were born. You’re an O-positive, just like your mother. I’m an AB-negative. The only other person who knows about this is my Aunt Linda. She’s been quietly looking into other family members, but no one has the same blood type as me. So I have to stay on the donor list and hope something comes along before my time is up.”

“There has to be something else we can do. What about Julia? She knows about this, right?”

He looked ashamed. “No. I’m going to tell her later today. I didn’t want to put her under any undue stress before it was necessary, because she’s had such a difficult life already, and I know she isn’t a match. Before we got married, we both went and got a bunch of blood tests to make sure we were healthy. I remember the doctor told her she’s an O-negative and that she should donate blood, seeing as O-negative is the universal donor for blood.”

He sighed and continued. “I just wanted to spend some quality time with my family before it came to this. That’s why I was so pleased when you needed a job at the studio. It gave me the best excuse to have you come live with me.”

Tears were streaming down my face in earnest now. “So…so what happens now? We just wait and hope for a donor match?”

“Yes. That’s all we can do at this point. I’m so sorry, Princess. I wanted to keep this from you as long as possible so as to not hurt you, but I needed to tell you now. I was afraid that after this media debacle, you’d take off and move overseas to get away from all the drama. I couldn’t lose you, especially when I don’t have much time left.”