You Are Here (21 page)

I finally connected the two and my mouth dropped open. “Why yes, ma’am,” I said, teasing. “It all makes perfect sense now. And damn if you weren’t right.”

She bared her teeth in a full grin before biting my bottom lip. “I’m just glad I didn’t have to wait too long.” She wiggled her bottom.

“Careful, or we’ll have round two in cold water.”

With a snort, she agreed. I held her hand as she stood and stepped from the tub onto the mat. Following her out, I grabbed two huge towels off the bar next to the tub and wrapped one around her. She cuddled up to me, nuzzling my chin and kissing it.

“I’m gonna put some pj’s on. Feel free to take them off,” she told me with a wink. Lucie picked up the hat and disappeared out the door.

I went in search of my clothes before heading back to the bedroom. I spied the desk in the corner of the living room and recalled her mentioning copies of the police reports from her attack. She’d said she put them in the desk because she didn’t want to look at them, but she was afraid to throw them away.

She didn’t say anything about
not
wanting me to see them. I just wanted to see if there were some details she didn’t mention that could tell me more.

Walking softly through the room, I instinctually avoided the thin streams of moonlight falling through the parted curtains. When I got to the desk, I moved to the side and stilled. I waited at least a minute to let my eyes adjust properly to the dark before slowly peeking around the curtain to the street below.

I looked for signs of watchers. A smattering of couples and a few small groups that passed by were nothing to worry about, but I still felt uneasy. I couldn’t discern whether that was from impending danger or the unusual situation in which I currently found myself.

For several minutes, I waited. Just when I was about to look for the file in the desk, I detected a small movement in a dark window across the street—a tiny swing to the blinds. It wasn’t enough to close a case on.

After another visual sweep of everything I could see from this vantage, I went in search of the police report. The drawer wasn’t locked, and Lucie didn’t have much in the way of paperwork, so it was a quick find.

Still a bit paranoid, I took them to the bathroom where there were no windows and flipped on the light.

Everything she told me was in here, some of it near verbatim. The police had consulted with the local FBI, but supposedly there was “no evidence of organized crime activity,” and there was “no need for further involvement.”

Something was missing here. The details were clear that it was a professional hit, but there was no indication why Lucie’s guardians should have been targeted. The hairs on my arms stood on end. Whoever killed the Gideons left only Lucie as evidence to their motive and identity. No wonder she didn’t want her memory back.

Carefully returning the file in the desk, I picked up my clothes and quietly went to the bedroom. I found Lucie still naked, curled up on top of the covers. Asleep.

I dropped the clothes on the floor by her dresser and padded over to the bed. With a genuine smile on my face, I gently moved the covers, got in behind her, and covered us. Her body shifted, and she hummed. I molded myself to her and closed my eyes, feeling the peace only she gave me.

Grey

Outside In

I was disoriented when I woke, so when I felt a soft hand wrap around my dick, I wasn’t eager as most guys would be. Instead, I snatched the wrist tightly and held it away from me.

“I’m sorry!” Lucie cried with a tremor attached to the end of the word. Could have been a giggle—she covered a grin with the sheet in her fist. “I didn’t mean to scare you! I’m sorry.”

A deep breath cleared most of the fight or flight—maybe just fight—from my veins, but it only ushered in guilt.

“No, I’m sorry,” I said, hoarsely. “I’ve never really woken up with anyone before you, so—”

“It’s okay,” she promised, pressing toward me and kissing me. “I shouldn’t have. I just saw you sleeping so soundly and you looked so content and handsome and delicious … I thought I might, um, wake you with a
favor
.”

I smiled involuntarily. “You did, huh?”

“Yeah, I watched these tutorials on YouTube … or maybe it was something else. I don’t know.”

“Hold up. What? You were watching videos on how to—”

“Give an incredible blow job. Yeah, Vivi showed me the site a while ago. I mean, I don’t remember any of the sex I may have had pre-amnesia, so I wanted to … I don’t know, prep.” Her face was so matter-of-fact and unashamed, it made her ten times more beautiful.

“So you wanted to practice on me, eh?”

Jesus Christ, the grinning hurts my face.

“Why? Ya up for it?” She waggled her eyebrows, ran her hands over my ass, and squeezed.

“Uh—”

“Oh, never mind,” she interrupted, lifting the sheet to look under it. “I’m pretty sure you
are.”

~

I lay on my back, staring at the ceiling in awe. Lucie crawled up to my shoulder, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“Good?”

I grunted, rolling toward her to kiss and suck along her neck. She cackled. I punctuated my nonverbal reply with a kiss to my favorite spot just behind her ear. She hummed and held me against her as she began to ramble about her plans for the day.

“So I thought we could go to Central Park and wander today. I haven’t really explored it yet and since I …”

I moved back to watch her face as she continued. I didn’t want to let her out of my sight. I’d had a bad feeling she was under surveillance and that needled me. How did I explain that to her without lying? I had to ensure she was safe.

I soon realized she was staring back at me, expecting a response. My mouth hung open as I looked into her eyes. What I saw there paralyzed my tongue. She
trusted
me, and though there was definitely more, I couldn’t exactly name it yet. I owed it to her to tell her everything, from my job title to why I would ask her to stay in today and everything in between. I intended to. At the moment, I could only find the balls to start with the latter.

“I think we’d better—” A loud pounding on the door cut me off.

At first, Lucie seemed unaffected as she slid out of bed. She grabbed my shirt off the floor and slipped it on over her head.

“I’ll get it,” she assured me as she sped out the bedroom door.

When she turned to look at me over her shoulder, I could read the dread in her eyes. Though my mind was racing through as many possible scenarios as I could think up, I pulled on my jeans and followed her. I automatically fell into a quick, silent pace, each step taut with the functional tension that kept me at the top of my game. Part of me was relieved. The past few days, however, it had systematically begun to unravel.

When the pounding repeated itself, my heart hammered against my ribs. I could hear voices all but shouting for Lucie to open the door. At least one of them was easy to identify—Nash. The other, I was certain, was Vivi.

I ducked to the opposite side of the front hall as Lucie pulled the door open, though not wide enough to invite them in. I was maybe five paces behind her and not easily visible.

“Do you answer your fucking phone anymore? I know you said you had plans, but you don’t send a text? I was about to send a carrier pigeon, for Chrissakes. Is everything okay?” Vivi sounded simultaneously relieved and pissed as she pulled Lucie across the threshold to hug her.

“I’m sorry,” Lucie said with a whine.

“Shit, Red,” Nash groaned. I could partially see him rub his forehead with his palm. “Viv got freaked out and then she got me all paranoid. She only said that you didn’t answer—”

Nash spotted me. “What the fuck is going on in here?” He shoved past Lucie, who lost balance and fell to the side. The door bounced off the opposite wall. I stepped forward to help her up, but Nash got in my face with his hands clamped around my throat, pinning me to the wall. I didn’t fight him, but I met his sharp glower dead-on.

“I didn’t want to believe it,” he said, his voice low. Never a good sign for him. “Vivi told me you were here. That Lucie thought you were her
dream man
. ‘Nah,’ I said. ‘Couldn’t be, too coincidental,’ right? But here you are, you son of a bitch.”

I blinked slowly and remained silent. I had nothing to counter with. Regardless of what Lucie said, I would never be anyone’s “dream.”

She appeared behind him, clawing his shoulders. “Stop it! Nash, let him go,” she cried. Her eyes found mine and her tears were ready to fall.

“Red—”

Vivi pushed Nash to the side and took his place, her hand on my chest, pressing me against the wall.

“Vivi, please!” Lucie shouted.

Vivi stared me down, ignoring Lucie’s pleas. Nash paced like a caged tiger, chewing on his words at a volume too low to understand.

“I should kick the ever-loving shit out of you,” Vivi growled at me, ignoring both of them. “Do you have any idea what you did when you abandoned her? She was an absolute wreck! She was convinced that she’d lost her mind.”

“What? You didn’t tell me about that!” Nash bellowed, breaking his circuit of pacing.

“I told you she flipped the fuck out!” Vivi shouted over her shoulder.

“You didn’t say it was Grey!”

“I … I didn’t? My bad, babe.” She bit her lip and shrugged.

Lucie stepped between Vivi and me, slapping Vivi’s arm down. “Stop it! Can we all just calm down?”

“No!” Vivi and Nash roared at the same time.

Lucie jumped back into me, surprised. I held on to her arms, rubbing lightly. I saw Nash’s eyes zero in.

“Why didn’t you say you had plans with Grey?” Vivi asked, venomous.

Lucie fidgeted, avoiding her eye. “You were so mad at him after the freak-out, you know, and …” She turned and threw a guilty look over her shoulder at me before whispering, “I wanted this to myself.”

“
Dios mio,
” Vivi continued, her pacing punctuated by the sharp knocks of her high heels. “When you don’t tell me this stuff, I automatically fast-forward to him strangling you to death and hiding the body!”

My stomach dropped at the joke.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Lucie said, grabbing her hair in her fists. “I’m sorry! I turned my ringer off.”

That seemed to take some of the wind out of Vivi’s sails. Not Nash, though. If anything, his pacing grew faster.

“Honey,” she said, calmer. “I tried to be patient and all, knowing …,” she gestured reluctantly to me, “you know. But after the breakdown, I was really worried.”

I glanced at Nash who was texting furiously. He backspaced more than he typed.

“Sausage fingers,” I mumbled, accidentally smirking.

His gaze snapped up and his eyes narrowed when he found me. “Don’t be my best friend right now,” he hissed. “I can’t take it.”

My attention fell to the floor. Now that I wasn’t trying to escape him as I had in Chicago, his resentment didn’t sit so well. Referring to me as his best friend was uncomfortable, but for a completely different reason.

“I love you guys,” Lucie snapped, “but give him a chance, okay?”

“Baby, it’s okay,” I told Lucie, garnering me an extra death glare from Nash. “I wouldn’t ask for that.”

Lucie’s shoulders slumped as she turned around to challenge me just as Drew appeared in the doorway.

“Son. Of. A. Bitch,” he declared, out of breath. His face told me little. He looked lost.

“Jesus, junior, did you run the whole way?”

He didn’t even hear Nash. He walked in and stood in front of me. Lucie stayed, wrapping her arms around me, protecting
me
.

“You’re seriously here.”

Guilt pumped itself through my veins like acid and my chest hurt. I glanced at everyone and settled back on my brother’s face.

“No one is more shocked by that than me,” I said.

“And no one is
less
shocked than me,” Lucie grumbled, and I bit back a smile.

“Grey.” Drew’s voice broke a little.

I willed him to tell me what the hell he was thinking and froze when he gently pushed Lucie away. He hugged me so tightly it forced all the air out of my lungs. It took what felt like the better part of an hour to get my arms to reciprocate. I felt him shudder and wondered if he was crying.

“I hate you so much.”

I believed him, but I knew he hated more that he still loved me.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I’m really so fucking sorry.”

At the words, he hauled back to clock me in the jaw. I wanted him to do it, because I deserved it. But the soldier reacted first—not his brother.

I blocked the shot, grabbing his fist and twisting his arm back. Next thing he knew I had my knee in his spine and his arm bent back painfully. He yelped, but it didn’t register with me. Nash pulled me off before I could break his arm.

I heard Lucie yell, but when I turned to find her, Nash threw me toward the living room. He rushed me, swinging blindly. I could have blocked the first few easily, but I had already lost my balance. I heard Drew scramble to his feet. Moments later, we were a pile of scrapping teenagers.

I defended myself initially, but then it occurred to me that beating the shit out of me might be the best apology I could give.

So I let them.

Lucie

Salt and Wounds

For all the previews my “gift” had provided me so far, I would have appreciated a heads-up on an accidental ambush. It had only been a couple of days since Vivi dropped me off after our spa weekend, but I should have realized how closely she was watching me since I’d nearly lost my shit. Regardless, I wouldn’t let them all steamroll Grey like this.

Once I recognized that Grey had essentially stopped fighting, I stopped yelling and lunged forward to break it up. Vivi grabbed me by the shoulders before I could reach the pile of testosterone.

“Just let them fight, babe,” she said. “Dudes just need to go
Fight Club
sometimes—especially siblings.”

I shrugged off her hold. “Grey’s not even defending himself,” I snapped, frustrated that I was the only one who trusted him.