by H. M. Irwing
Lucy lapsed back into silence and her own churning thoughts, before she thought of another question.
“What will he gain?” She needed to know.
“Everything,” Richard stated matter-of-factly. Her head shot up at that to stare down at him appalled. They both stared unseeingly at each other but then he reached out to pull Lucy closer and she dropped her head down to rest on his bare chest. Lucy breathed him in and listened to his heartbeat until she was almost soothed into sleep.
“I am leaving tomorrow,” she said finally. This was just wrapping her up for more disappointment and they both knew it. Jace and Lucy made sense but Lucy and Richard? They were opposites in every way.
“I know, Lucy. I know.” His hand rose to bury his fingers in her hair. He lay there idly toying with her shorn locks.
“I am thinking of growing it out.” Her muffled words made him smile.
“You should,” he murmured back, agreeing.
Lucy pondered that a moment, before saying almost conversationally, “I will be going to the States soon, to find my brother and meet my father for the first time.” There was slight awe to her tone as she said this. It was finally starting to dawn on her; she would be seeing her father for the very first time.
She had spent years resenting him, resenting the fact that Patrick Little, whom she loved more than anyone, was not her real father. But in the hidden depths of her little diary, pictures of her star-studded father were secretly treasured. She felt an unexpected thrill at finally seeing him. Thrilled and fearful all at the same time.
“Knyte Starr?”
“Yes.”
“How long will you be gone?”
“I don’t know. The ticket is for three months.”
“When?”
“February 11th.”
“Valentine’s Day.”
“I will be there a couple of days before it.”
“And Jace is okay with that? That the two of you will not be together for your first Valentine’s Day?”
“Jace is not you, Richard,” said Lucy simply. His chuckle was sardonic, but it prickled at Lucy’s weary temper. “Jace is not like you,” she reiterated. She lifted her head to glare down at him before she continued. “He appreciates the real me not some phantom version of me that he has unhealthily nursed in his head in secret. He understands what my life is like. He understands me. He is not mindlessly possessive and does not feel that all I should wear is the colour gold!”
“Yet you’re lying here in my arms, Lucy.”
“Ugh!” Lucy pushed away from him to roll off the bed and land on her feet. Pointing to the door, she said simply, “Get out, Richard.”
The fatigue in her voice got to him. Richard got off the bed to rustle about the room, collecting his clothes before he turned to leave, stopping at the door on his way out. “Jace may be all that I am not, Lucy, but it is me you need in your life. It’s me you need as something more than a friend. You take your three months in the States to get used to it, Lucy. Because once you’re back, you’re mine.”
Chapter 17
The next day saw Lucy, Jace and Celine fast asleep in the limo ride back to the city. With Jace and Celine having stayed awake most of the night in travel, they were dead on their feet that morning and could manage no more than a few grunts in conversation. It was no surprise that they fell asleep as soon as the vehicle went into motion. Lucy, studiously avoiding Richard’s gaze all the while, promptly followed suit. And then three hours later and the limo took its dip down the Merryville Drive to fade out of view.
The next few weeks were exceedingly uneventful, with Jace back at work and the twins and Lucy occupied with summer jobs. Lucy had decided to go ahead with the plan to study law. It was really the only vow made in temper on the plains of the Reeves Ranch that she found made sense. The law in itself was power. It was that power that she needed on her side and always. Lucy set about completing her enrolment and requesting for a late start in view of her trip to the US. She also decided not to tell the twins about her encounter with Cat’s one-night-stand, Sadiq. Cat’s blood test had come back clear, but she was still distracted and almost secretive about something. Lucy didn’t want to keep the whole matter alive by giving it the ammunition it needed to remain in Cat’s thoughts—Sadiq’s name. So, she said nothing, hoping the prince himself would leave things be and leave Cat alone.
Soon the day arrived for Lucy’s trip. Her bags packed, all that remained were the rounds of farewell, a night’s sleep, and then off to the airport. It was immensely daunting to think of at all. Her first flight overseas as an adult and she would be travelling alone halfway across the globe.
She spent that last night with Jace, and now the sun was up, bright, shiny and demanding that they get on with their day.
“Drop it!”
“You drop it!” Lucy said.
She stood there glaring at Jace, wrapped up in his towel just as Lucy was wrapped in hers. It was a stalemate. A Mexican stand-off. There was no way she was dropping her towel simply at his say so. It had seemed the fitting thing to do, to take their relationship to the next level and at least stare at each other naked as they were still unwilling to take things further.
It was almost childish, this need to not complete the act but tease each other instead with glimpses of what they would not be getting. Richard’s taunting smirk played on her mind, knowing he would have had a field day laughing his head off at their foolishness.
But this was exactly what attracted Lucy to Jace. He was willing to be silly. He was willing to be serious. But he was always willing to be her friend first.
Jace smirked at her.
Lucy was glad she was open and honest with Jace. He knew everything there was to know about her. Even about the kiss she’d shared with Richard and the fact that he had come to her bed that last night at the farm. Strangely, Jace did no more than break out into a rant of his displeasure. Any boyfriend would have freaked out and maybe even shot of a few rounds of M16 over it but not Jace.
Jace was remarkably restrained. Lucy just didn’t understand the dynamics of the relationship Jace had with Richard. She only knew they both couldn’t do without the other. Just as they seemed equally unable to do without her. Despite the final farewell that night at his farmhouse, Richard made it a point to call her every night.
They would talk on the phone. Nothing intimate, just conversing about their day. Jace resumed his sleepover at her place, promising to go no further than that in compromise. Lucy had woken up in his arms every morning and watched him amble down the stairs and out the front door without a care in the world.
Now his suitcase sat next to hers. With her gone, he wouldn’t be needing to stash his thing in her room anymore.
Lucy sighed. It would take her the better part of the next three months to figure everything out.
“Tell you what, luv, let’s do it on the count of three,” he said with a charming smile. But Lucy was not falling for it. She saw the evil glint that he couldn’t quite hide, twinkling in his baby blue eyes.
“Sure, baby, whatever you say.” Lucy grinned back, equally charmingly.
“One!” Jace’s grin widened.
“Two!” Lucy bared her teeth.
“Th…” They started to chorus together only to stop at the pounding to her room door.
“Hurry up; the pancakes are waiting for no one!” Hollered out Emily. “Oh, and tell Jace, there’s a place for him too.”
“There better be, no way I am driving you to the airport on an empty stomach!” Jace grunted before he dropped his towel. A swift snatch later, and Lucy’s lay in a puddle next to his. They breathed hard. Inexplicably out of breath as they stared at each other hungrily.
“Who was the freaking idiot who suggested abstinence?” Jace managed to whisper hoarsely.
“You,” said Lucy almost faintly, willing to deny all claims to that title. She couldn’t have been the one dumb enough to long for all that, only to deny herself when she got it on
the grounds of stupidity. But she really needed to start breathing, and soon, was that dark spots on her vision?
“We could do it right now.” Jace suggested unhelpfully.
“My first time a twenty-minute fuck?” Lucy lifted a weak brow at him, not at all finding that suggestion offensive.
But Jace was rapidly shaking his head. “Five! Five minutes. Doubt I can last longer.”
Lucy got weak knees just listening to him pant.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Hurry up you guys. Five minutes or the pancakes are gone.” Cat’s sing-song voice rang out from the other side of the door, jolting them into immediate action. With a frantic rush, they were in each other’s arms, lips meshed and starving for a lot more than mere pancakes. They must have been at it for all of two minutes before a new, heavier fist pounded at Lucy’s door.
“Lucy? Honey? Your mum and I would like a word with you in private before you leave honey.”
At that, they sprang instantly apart and immediately fumbled about for their clothing. “Coming!” Lucy hollered. “Just a minute.”
Fluent blue streaks rang rabid across the room as their tussle to get into their clothing had them dashing around each other with mad urgency. Lucy caught Jace’s laughing smirk and couldn’t help silently laughing along with him. They were being ridiculous and that was wonderful. Hearts pounding, and hair dishevelled, they finally opened the door to beam at her parents.
“I’ll just take these downstairs,” exclaimed Jace suddenly, into the awkward silence that ensued. He reached down to grab Lucy’s luggage, surreptitiously sweeping his own up in the process. Lucy didn’t doubt her dad missed nothing. Still, she wasn’t about to say anything.
“Save me some pancakes!” Lucy called out after him. Jace’s taunting laughter was her only answer.
She looked back awkwardly at her parents, then suggested, “Let’s sit.”
Lucy scrambled up onto her thankfully-made-up bed and watched with some amusement as her mum and dad reprised the perch usually occupied by Emily and Cat in their secret meetings.
“Your mum has some letters for your father,” said Dad, nodding to Mary to hand them over. Lucy took them and immediately slotted them into her handbag.
“You’re to call us every day. I don’t care about the charges,” began her dad. “Keep us abreast of everything. How you’re doing. What you’re feeling.”
“If you’re eating properly,” added Mary.
“If you don’t like it there,” added her dad pointedly. “If you don’t want to stay on for the three months, then don’t. You come straight back home.”
“You have enough money for a hotel?”
Lucy nodded, eyes wide open.
“America is not at all like Australia, Lucy,” began her mum. “The people there aren’t as friendly. I don’t want you mixing with the wrong crowd, Lucy…”
The list was unexpected and went on long past the last of the pancakes. But Lucy felt warm and fuzzy regardless. She felt their pain, she felt their fears, and she felt their love. And then she felt her own. A tear rolled down her cheek.
“I am going to miss you guys,” Lucy sobbed out brokenly. Her mum’s arms came up about her and her dad’s enwrapped them both. They sat there on her bed hugging for the longest time before Mary Little wrenched back to mop up her face on the back of her sleeves and continue with her list.
“Let us know if you need more money. Keep all the emergency numbers with you always. Make sure you carry your pepper spray in your handbag everywhere you go….”
Jace hollered up the stairs three times before her parents allowed her to leave. They exchanged another round of tearful hugs before Lucy picked up her handbag to check for her tickets, her visa, and her passport. Satisfied, she lifted blurry eyes back to take in her parents.
“Lucy,” said her mum seriously. “I don’t want you to feel that you have to find your brother and bring him home. If the experts haven’t located him yet, there’s every chance you won’t. Take this time to get to know your father instead. We’ve lived our whole lives not knowing if Blaze was still alive, even.” She broke off there to give a muted sob before resolutely sniffing away her tears to carry on.
“It’s enough to know that he is. That he’s out there somewhere, but alive. It’s almost even a relief to know that he had been with family all this time and not with complete strangers. I know what it’s like to hold out hope and have it dashed time and again. I know what it’s like to relentlessly pursue every avenue to the detriment of everything else.” Mary paused again to mop up more tears.
“You’re starting a new life, Lucy. You’re going to study law. You have a boyfriend. You will be getting to know your father’s family. Don’t let the hunt for your brother steal all that from you, because it will, Lucy. It will suck you in and never let you go.”
“I won’t let that happen, Mama,” cried Lucy, reverting to her childhood term for her mother. “I promise. I won’t.”
They mopped up tears that wouldn’t relent and then moved down the stairs and through the house slowly. Their crowd of three expanding to five as the twins joined in, offering their hugs and mostly unwanted advice.
“Be sure to send me photos of every hot guy you meet!” was Emily’s demand.
“If you ever get the chance to visit the Californian Academy of Science…,” started Cat, to seriously issue her own demands, and was duly shushed by all laughingly.
Lucy was packed into Jace’s Evoque, and her breakfast of toast, with butter and jam, was thrust at her through the window. Lucy grimaced at the offering but gladly accepted it anyway for the hour ride to the airport.
A last round of kisses and they were off.
The drive to the airport was quiet. Lucy with the aching stone in her chest felt too weighed down by emotions to talk. She felt too weighed down to do anything more than sing. After a fifteen-minute struggle to draw in a calming breath, Lucy gave in to the urge. Her voice broke out hauntingly.
At first shaking with heavy emotions and then channelling out that emotion into a piercingly sweet sound. Her heart shook to every change in octave as she sung out the words to the latest from Adele. It was only when the last strains fell away that she found she could finally breathe easy again.
Heart still thumping, she dug into her purse to pull out a tissue and offer one to Jace. He didn’t say a word as he silently took what she offered and mopped up his face. It was only a moment later that he spoke. “Thanks, luv. I needed that,” Jace whispered hoarsely.
Lucy nodded her understanding. The release was what kept her going.
The airport check-in was a headache, but that served its own purpose in delaying all thoughts of the inevitable parting. But then they were walking to the departure lounge, beyond whose gates Jace would be barred admittance.
They kissed then. Long and intense. Soft and piercingly sweet. Tearing apart, Jace caught her hand and drew her away in search of a more secluded corner but they were in a very busy airport. Spotting an unoccupied photo booth, he tugged her in after him.
“You still have time, Lucy,” he stated urgently, denying her protests. Tugging her back into his arms, he began a gentle assault of her senses. But the clock was ticking, and time was not on their side. The urgency of the moment penetrated the kiss to take it over and on to new depths. A short, sharp pain followed as his assault on her mouth turned brutal. A dark urgency sped through their veins.
Lucy trembled in his hands and felt his own answering tremble ripple beneath her hands. She went wild, raking her nails over his broad shoulders and down his back. They kissed, broke apart to pant hard then dived for each other again, the panic of the ticking clock driving their actions until there was no more finesse to their actions, just raw, heart-wrenching need.
“You… have… to go,” said Jace finally, between lingering kisses as he slowly tried to bring them both back to the real world.
“No.” Lucy sobbed out, feeling a sudden wrenching pain in her hear
t at his words.
“You… must, luv.”
They drew slowly apart. Lucy blinked at the blur that was his image. Wanting that last glimpse of him to be a clear memory she would carry with her. But her watering eyes refused to comply. Her eyes filled up and rolled down one tear at a time and Jace leant down to kiss away the tears, one at a time.
He shifted her into a tight hug and followed it with a couple of successive squeezes, and then her handbag was draped back over her shoulder and Lucy was being thrust back out into the busy airport. She didn’t look back. She didn’t allow herself to stop but marched on steadily for the gates that would take her completely out of Jace’s view. She pushed on past all the counters and onto the plane before allowing herself to finally feel.
Only to find she could feel nothing at all. Lucy stared out with deadened eyes as Melbourne fell away and the plane took to the skies. She stared on with bloodshot eyes from a sleepless flight as San Francisco swept in beneath its wings. The plane hit the tarmac with the effortless ease of a well-oiled machine and then Lucy was joining the throng of passengers in embarking.
An hour later and she stood by the pick-up zone, patiently waiting for Knyte Starr to finally walk into her life. Only the van that pulled up and the hooded thugs that leaped out had absolutely nothing to do with her father and everything to do with her brother’s abductors. Lucy’s cry of distress was swiftly muffled. Lucy watched the familiar black spots pop across her vision and then a door slammed shut and tires squealed, and Lucy knew with heart-stopping certainty that she had just been abducted too.
The Underground, Atlanta, Georgia
Two Days Later
Alls my life I should fight, nigga
Alls my life I…
Hard times like, “God!”
Bad trips like, “Yeah!”