He wanted to speak with his older brother. Marcus was smart enough to catch on.
87
There was a deli that the medical staff frequented during their lunch breaks, two blocks north of the hospital. Rafe would admit there was a world of difference between what the deli offered and what the cafeteria did. He’d eventually find a better company to contract the cafeteria out to, but it was lower priority—for him.
The rest of the staff complained almost daily.
"What's on your mind?" Marcus asked.
"Ariella. My sister."
It surprised him when his brother jerked his head in his direction, suspicion in his green eyes.
"What about her?" Marcus asked. "Why are you asking about her now?"
"Because we just left her. And I admit I haven't taken much time to get to know her. I probably should have. I want to know what you know about her, them, from before. How much emotional damage did that bastard do?"
“I didn’t know them before. I hadn’t met Ariella before that night, I don’t think, or Lacy. I had only vague memories of Jillian. Yet the information Elliot was giving me, I shared with Albright. I haven’t forgotten that. I wasn’t there at the Barratt with their group; I had an event of my own going on. I brought him in that night, in my own damned limo. I saw Albright dragging Jillian through the hotel, Rafe. By the hair. I saw the terror on her face and I followed. By that point he had already shot Ariella point-blank. If I had been a few seconds faster, it might not have happened that way. Your sister might not have been hurt at all. I can’t forget that. He was going to shoot Lacy, but shifted the gun toward Ariella instead. Lacy knocked her down and saved her life. The ambulance took Ariella away. By that point Jillian's sister Mel had joined us. He forced Mel to her knees. And then Jillian fought him, setting off a sequence of events that ended up with Albright and his brother both taking bullets. Albright didn't survive the trip to the hospital. But his brother did. He sitting in jail now awaiting trial. Jillian will eventually have to testify. Will have to look at him again."
"Why did he shoot Ari?"
"Because he was annoyed that she had interrupted his plans for Jillian. It was a simple as that. She irritated him, and that was all it took for him to nearly kill her. Hell, Rafe, there were so many times he almost killed the three of them or the rest of the Beck family that it sickens me to even think about it."
"What did he actually want?"
"Simple. He hated me because I was the governor. He thought if I was dead, he would step into the position. And that would be the end of it. But first, he had to clean up some history from the night he'd killed Aunt Anne and Uncle Elliott. Greed, anger, avarice, ambition. That's all it was. He just wanted something that wasn't his. And he was going to take them from this world because of it. As beautiful, wonderful as they are, he saw them as just being in his way. Nuisances. Except for Jillian. He kept a journal, Rafe. And I’ve read it. What he wanted to do to her sickens me.”
"Are they healing? In your honest opinion. I know you don't know them well, but… You know them better than I do." Rafe looked at his brother, seeing the pensive look in Marcus's green eyes. "Ariella’s very shy and very sweet. I didn't realize that before."
"Just don't hurt her, Rafe. She's more naïve than the other two, I think. More innocent, in a way. Unworldly. Sheltered and protected. I'd hate to see her crushed. Especially since I know you wouldn't mean to do that."
88
Allen heard the singing just as he had finished checking his messages; he locked his office door and headed out into the hall. He liked the change that being across the road from FCGH brought. In the weeks since Logan’s death, he’d closed the office they’d shared in a medical office behind the hospital and switched his location to the complex owned by Lacy’s fiancé.
Ironic, of course, but Travis Worthington-Deane had offered him a damned fine price for the location.
He’d pulled Allen aside one day after he’d brought Lacy by for a checkup with Virat to let him know that even though Allen and Logan had been close friends, Worthington-Deane knew Allen was a good friend of Lacy’s, too.
He’d been worried about Lacy, of course. Everything that rancher did was for her.
Allen liked the man for that very reason alone. Lacy deserved a man to love her like that.
He didn't often work private hours. Only two days a week. Having his office so close to the hospital was almost as convenient as being within the hospital itself. But it wasn't often that a man heard singing coming from an office building. Singing and giggling—female singing and giggling at that. He headed out the door toward the stairs.
He strongly suspected he knew who it was. Allen would stop by, see if they needed anything, and then head out. He had a few minutes to spare.
That's when he saw them.
Jillian and Lacy and their dark-haired friend Ariella. Some of the tension filling him lessened. They were such beautiful women, and not just physically. It was in the compassion and kindness he’d witnessed them show others that would make them beautiful to him always.
And though he wouldn't admit it out loud after the fiasco of what had happened with Logan, he found them just as fascinating as the other man had.
Lacy stopped singing the instant she saw him. "Well. Look here. Yet another volunteer. Should we just scoop him up with the Deane boys?"
Lacy was snark and sass and sexy all rolled up into one little package. He'd always found her attractive.
Nothing would ever come from it, of course; not only because she was now engaged to Holden-Deane's younger brother, but because he was her mentor. That had always been an angle to their relationship he did not want to violate. "What are you three doing here?"
"Travis donated this floor to W4HAV," Lacy said. "We're remodeling it to suit the charity. W4HAV has already had four clients, and we’ve had to make do with the current location at Barratt-Handley. So can you spare a few hours to man a paint roller, Dr. Magic Hands?”
Allen studied her quickly; he wasn’t entirely certain she should be doing any painting right now. She’d lost weight, and there were hollows beneath those beautiful green eyes. And she didn’t move like Lacy was supposed to move. There had been energy and verve that ran through her. Now she was obviously healing. But nowhere near healed. "While I'd love to stay and help out, I'm supposed to head over to FCU and get Shelby. The fan belt went out of her car, and it's starting to get late. I don't want her taking public transit home."
"You’re a good big brother. Still, next time?”
“You’d better believe it.” He looked at the woman currently straddling the top of the six-foot ladder. Jillian looked ridiculously adorable, in overalls, a pink t-shirt and two pig-tails. She grinned down at him from her perch.
Allen grinned back. “Be careful. Don’t fall. And keep Lacy from overdoing it.”
Jillian nodded. “Don’t worry. Travis is on his way back. He’s out at his truck, getting some tools. And his brothers are fetching lunch. Apparently, Travis can actually keep her in line.”
“Miracles do exist. I’ll see you ladies later.” He looked at the third woman, who hadn’t said much more than hi to him. No surprise. She was generally a quiet woman. Quiet and beautiful, with big dark eyes that went straight to a man’s gut. Allen was far from immune, himself. “Ms. Avery, I look forward to being your neighbor. Anything you need, I am just two floors up.”
89
Rafe was quiet when he and Marcus returned, but it wasn’t his usual silence. That Jillian would have just ignored. Rafe wasn’t as big a talker as either of his brothers.
Now there was a pensive undertone in his action that concerned her. He said very little as the two of them painted the back room that was going to be a small dormitory for clients of W4HAV. She handled the bottom halves of the walls, leaving the tops for him.
Finally, after about fifteen minutes of total silence, she looked at him. “Well, I’m not used to a quiet Rafe Holden-Deane. Did you find Fin?�
��
“No. I got a message saying she’d be out for a few days.” He bent to adjust the paint can and the shirt shifted over his shoulders. “Sorry I’ve not been entertaining you.”
“Don’t be a doofus. You’re worried about something.” And like it or not, that concerned her. The man just seemed too alone sometimes. She twisted on her bottom as she approached the corner of the room. Jillian stared up at him. “What about?”
“Not worried. Just trying to figure some things out.”
“About?” She was prying and she knew it. But she persisted. “The hospital?”
He sighed, then dropped his roller back into the pan. He knelt down beside her, crowding her into that corner. “You. And them. And Albright. Marcus told me a few more things about him. He’s been digging through Albright’s files.”
“Oh.” Nothing like the mention of that man to make her day go dark. “I’m not certain that I want to know more.”
He rubbed a hand over her cheek before Jillian even realized he’d moved. When he pulled back, there was light gray paint on his fingers. “Tell me something, sweetheart. Is Ari...is she ok? What happened, what he did, is she ok?”
Jillian’s heart turned over right there at the concern in his eyes.
Ok; maybe he wasn’t quite the butt she’d first thought him.
She leaned a little closer almost unconsciously. “She’s got us. After it first happened, her dad went crazy. He hated the idea of her staying anywhere near my family. It has a lot to do with what happened to her at the same time Mel was shot. But that’s a totally different story. Ari has a backbone of steel when she needs it. She told him she was staying here. That this was where she was meant to be. After Albright shot her, Lacy stayed with her until she was back on her feet. I...after I got taken care of at the hospital...well, we all stuck together. We’re healing now, I think.”
“Good.”
His hand slipped around her back and wrapped in the strap of her overalls. He stood, taking her with him gently. Jillian had no choice but to comply.
He laughed. “These overalls are ridiculous.”
“Hey, they work.” She wiggled but that just brought him closer. “I’m not a puppet, though. Let go.”
“You remind me of Pippi Longstocking today. With the braids.” He tugged one. “Cute. Far cry from Nurse Jillian, the princess of FCGH.”
“Princess?” Jillian was a weak, weak woman, and she knew it. She could have gotten away from him; he wasn’t holding her that tightly. She just didn’t want to. What she wanted to do was touch that red cotton and the broad shoulders and chest beneath. Just to feel if he was real. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“No? No less than thirteen people asked me how you were doing in the half hour I was over there. They love you there. And they worry. I think half of them think I took you out of there and devoured you. Something about the ogre that is Dr. Rage Old-&-Mean. Seems you came up with that name?”
How had their serious conversation of just moments before turned to this? Jillian swallowed. His hand dropped from the strap of her overalls to cover her pink t-shirt. To spread wide over her back. He leaned closer, trapping her between him and the wall.
Thankfully it was the still unpainted wall. Because that would have just been messy. “I...may have. One day when you were particularly ogre-y.”
“I’m not that much older than you, baby. In fact, I think there is the same age difference between you and me as there is between Chance and your sister. And it seems to work for them.”
“Uh-huh.” She winced at the lame response. Damn it, this was not what she had expected to happen today. But her traitorous hands were slipping up over that red cotton without her telling them to. “What are we doing here? I thought we decided that this wasn’t too great of an idea? Thought we were smarter than this...”
“Maybe. But...it’s the overalls. First girl I ever kissed was wearing overalls just like these. What can I say? I’m weak…”
Rafe’s lips covered her own. Jillian closed her eyes and went with it.
90
Ari’s brother was kissing her best friend. Ari stood in the door and watched for just a second. Then she got her wits about her and turned around to give the two of them privacy.
Rafe was kissing Jillian. For real. And Jillian seemed to be enjoying it. Why else would her legs be wrapped around his waist and her fingers buried in his hair?
Ari turned quickly. And smacked into the governor’s hard chest. “Oh!”
He looked over her shoulder, then pulled her out into the hallway. He grabbed the door handle and closed the door quietly. “We’ll give them their privacy.”
“Oh.” She felt like an idiot. What else was she supposed to say? “I didn’t think she liked him.”
“I think part of their problem is that they like each other too much. And neither one of them is in a place where they want to deal with that.”
Ari looked around. She and the governor were alone, weren’t they? “Where’s Lacy?”
“Travis took her across the street to see her friend Wanda for a few moments.”
“Oh.” She didn’t know what to say to him right now. Not that she ever did. “Does that worry you? In there. Them. I—”
“My brother—our brother—has been hurting for years, baby. He’s built a shell around himself that’s been there for a long, long time. I think she gets beneath that shield somehow. I can’t ever say that’s a bad thing.” He kept his words quiet, like he almost always did with her. Ari wasn’t certain why he did that.
She certainly didn’t need him to. He didn’t scare her. At least not that badly. “I don’t want him to hurt her. She’s been...broken...since February. So quiet and afraid. Since what Albright did to us. Except with Rafe. She really fights him some times.”
He winced. “I’m sorry for what he did. I wish I had seen...”
“He was good at hiding, wasn’t he? I don’t think anyone could see anything. The monster was hidden too deeply.” Ari walked at his side down the hall, conscious of her shoulder bumping his. He was a tall man, at least seven inches taller than she was, and broad and strong. Safe.
She felt safe with the governor. He didn’t want anything from her. Didn’t have to pressure her to get something from her brother Luc. If he wanted something from Luc, he’d just go to her older brother and ask. Not like the last man she’d tried to date. Those two nights out had not gone well.
“I think, Ariella, that there are monsters hidden deep within all of us. The only difference is how much we let those monsters control us. Rafe’s has caused some wounds. I think Jillian may be helping heal them.”
Ari wished she had the same confidence. “I just hope they don’t hurt each other.”
“I know. What do you say we give them a few minutes alone? I’ll spring for a coffee and a donut up the street. How does that sound?” He smiled that killer smile that had to win him tons of votes right at her. He held out a hand to her almost coaxingly.
Ari surprised herself when she let him take her hand in his.
91
Kissing her again had been foolish, but Rafe couldn’t find it in himself to regret it. He wanted to do a whole lot more. He wanted to taste the life on her lips again, as corny as that sounded. Jillian had such fire running through her.
It was no wonder she had such vibrant red hair. The red had to be God’s way of warning a man that flame lived in that woman.
After what had to be a good five minutes of kissing her, he pulled back. And looked down at her. “You’re dangerous, Nurse Jillian. Dangerous.”
“Yeah, all the men I kiss say that.”
Rafe believed it.
They left the small room they’d been painting; Rafe thought that had been a really good idea. If they stayed in there together alone for too long, he’d do something completely stupid. Like try to get her out of those ridiculous overalls somehow.
When they came out, everyone else had been gone.
Damn it.
/> It took another ten minutes for Travis and Lacy to return, and another ten after that for Marcus and Ariella. Ari and Marcus at least brought snacks back with them.
The rest of the afternoon went quickly, but they got a lot accomplished. Lacy overdid it, but with one word to Travis by Rafe, she was scooped off her feet.
That effectively ended the day.
Rafe somehow got roped into driving his little neighbor home—he hadn’t protested Lacy’s assignment too much—and before he could protest, Ari.
Ari took the backseat, Jillian climbed in the front. Nothing Rafe hadn't expected.
Rafe was going to just have to accept the fact that this younger sister was going to be on the peripheral of his life from here on out. It could be worse, he supposed.
The only real problem he had with her now was that he didn’t want to feel so damned concerned and protective of her. She hadn’t asked him to, but he was already starting to feel just that way.
He’d have to think about that.
He got the address from her quickly, and he maneuvered his SUV toward the downtown area. To the multi-story green and white Lucas Tech building. He looked at it skeptically. "You live here?"
"Top floor. The third. I have an apartment there; thanks again. Jillian, I'll see you tomorrow.”
They watched as she walked inside. Then he turned to Jillian. “She lives here?”
“Luc insists. He's a bit overprotective where she's concerned, even though they’ve not known each other all that long. He can be that way. Almost obsessive over his family. His biggest fear is that something will happen to the people he loves. But isn’t that the way it is for all of us?"
"It just seems an odd place for a young woman to live."
"There's another apartment at the back. Her bodyguards use it. She has three that rotate."
"Bodyguards?" He hadn’t noticed any guards following them anywhere—except for the security detail that followed Marcus everywhere.
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