Luc took in the way Rose jumped, dropping the magazine, uncrossing her legs, and standing. She had gone from relaxed to totally and completely on edge.
The woman before them had short dark hair and a pretty round face, and she was wearing a dark jacket, a skirt, a pink ruffled shirt, and pumps. Luc stood up and took a step, sensing how rattled Rose was. The woman glanced his way. “And who’s this?” she said, the curiosity in her eyes unsettling.
“Ann,” Rose said. “Sorry, it’s been a long time.” She cleared her throat. “This is Luc.”
It wasn’t lost on him that she hadn’t added anything else.
“Pleased to meet you,” Ann said as she reached a hand out to him. “Wow, so is this a boyfriend?”
“No, no!” Luc wasn’t sure which one of them had said it first, and Rose laughed.
“Ann, this is Luc McCabe,” she said. “Luc, Ann Creighton.”
He wondered who she was and why Rose was still on edge.
“I was just saying to Travis the other day how much I miss you,” Ann said. “You left, and he wouldn’t tell me what happened between you. You were such a perfect couple.”
He took in how pale Rose’s face had gone. She had such light coloring as it was, and for a moment he thought she was going to pass out. At the same time, he was now feeling why Chase was so set on getting him glued to his girl’s side. Any thought he’d had before that Chase was just being overprotective fled in that moment—as did the floor beneath his feet when he saw a familiar tall, dark-haired, drop-dead gorgeous guy stride out of the elevator.
The man hadn’t glanced his way, and Luc took a step and turned just a bit so his back was to him. He hoped he wouldn’t see him. He was trying to stay in the game here, in the conversation, while fighting the urge to yank Rose and take her by the hand into the elevator, which was only ten, twelve feet, tops, from where he stood. But then, no one had pushed the button yet, and who knew how long the wait would be? They still had to meet with the fucking lawyer!
“Luc?” He heard Rose call his name, and he glanced her way, seeing the totally freaked-out look on her face. Ann was staring at him the same way, most likely wondering what the fuck was up with him.
“So you’re…” Luc said, trying to work out their connection. He could sense that the man behind them was still approaching.
“Ann is my sister-in-law,” Rose said just as a face he’d never planned to see again appeared at her other side.
Luc narrowed his eyes. “Julian,” he said at the same time Rose did.
An awkward silence followed. No one had a clue what to say.
Chapter 3
His hands were shoved into his back pockets, more because he didn’t know what to do with them than anything else. Rose was staring at him, and Julian was staring at Rose and then over to him as if trying to piece the situation together.
“So you two know each other,” Ann said to Julian, and Luc couldn’t help staring at the man who’d turned his world and heart upside down, wondering what he’d say.
“We’ve met. Luc, good to see you again.” Julian actually held out his hand, and of course he took it, held it, and then pulled away. Yeah, he got the message loud and clear: He was a dirty little secret. It made him feel like shit.
As he did his best not to drown, it took him another second to wrap his head around the fact that Rose somehow knew Julian and had gone absolutely silent beside him.
“I didn’t realize you knew Rose, my brother’s lady,” Luc said. He was past caring whether he was speaking out of turn, at the same time picking up on the asshole tone in his voice.
“Brother?” Julian said.
Ann was staring at Rose in a way that was questioning, no longer friendly. Julian had his hand on her shoulder and then was touching her back.
“Julian is my brother-in-law, or was,” Rose said. “He’s Travis and Ann’s brother.”
Luc noted the change in her and sensed her need to get the hell out of there. Or maybe it was his own need. Either way, time to go. “I see,” Luc said. “Or, rather, I don’t. Julian, I didn’t know you had a brother and sister. Seems to be a small world.” He stared over to the man he had fallen for. It wasn’t so much that Julian was hot but that he perfectly fit the mold of tall, dark, and handsome that all guys tried to fit but failed miserably.
“So you’re with someone else now?” Ann asked, and Rose was looking even more uncomfortable, if that were possible.
“I’m divorcing Travis,” she said. Her lips were tight, her face now flushed.
Get the hell out of here! was all Luc was thinking.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Ann said. “No, actually, I don’t understand! You were so good together, and I know he hasn’t been the same since you were gone.”
Julian said nothing. He was staring over at Luc, and Luc didn’t know whether he was supposed to pretend that they hadn’t been together, that it wasn’t imprinted in his mind how much better he looked without clothes than with. Julian made no move to clarify exactly how he knew Luc. Then it all made sense. Luc already knew Julian had never come out to his family.
A hand touched his arm. Rose. “We should go,” she said. She was upset. Chase was going to kill him.
Of course, shit! He was supposed to have been putting all his focus on keeping Rose safe, not on worrying about the fact that the guy he’d fallen for, every one of whose texts Luc had ignored, was standing with a woman he didn’t know, and apparently both were related to Rose’s ex, the asshole who had used Rose as a punching bag. The illusion had broken.
“We should,” he replied and slid his hand to her back, then led her to the elevator. They hurried, and she pressed the button, but Ann fell in beside her, and Julian fell in beside him. He was staring at Luc but hadn’t said one word. What he was thinking, Luc didn’t have a clue.
The elevator dinged, and Rose stepped in first. Luc followed, and he noticed Ann and Julian step away. Whatever they were discussing, they were distracted enough that he could jab the button to close the doors without them and get the hell out of there. His main objective was to get Rose to safety and get himself far enough away that he could have a moment alone to figure out what the fuck this was.
The doors slid closed, but not before Julian looked up, his deep brown eyes connecting with Luc’s. He jabbed the button, the doors slid closed, and Rose let out a breath that sounded much like relief.
“That was awkward,” she said. “How exactly do you know Julian?”
Three, two, lobby. The elevator dinged. “Julian is someone I met,” he said. It had been on a flight to Dallas, three hours with interest. They’d had drinks after, dinner a week later, and Luc had called him when he was in town. It had been a long-distance relationship that had been doomed before it could start, all because Julian wouldn’t tell the world who he really was.
The doors slid open, and the way Rose was staring up at him, all he could see was shock. He touched the small of her back again to get her to move. “Let’s go,” he said, walking out of the building, the heat of the day and the bright sun nearly knocking him on his ass. “You’re quiet, shocked, don’t know what to say,” Luc said. He lifted his hand for a cab just as his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a text from Julian: We need to talk. He popped his phone back in his pocket when Rose pulled him to a stop. Her expression said everything.
“Shit, I still need to see the lawyer!” she said. She glanced back at the building. They needed to regroup, come back when Julian and Ann would be gone. “How exactly do you know him, though? He is Travis’s little brother,” she said.
He took in her blue eyes, which weren’t just curious now but confused, and he knew in that moment that she didn’t know about Julian, either.
A cab squealed to the curb. He pulled open the back door. Rose slipped inside, and he climbed in after her.
“Just drive around the block,” Luc said as he leaned back, his phone buzzing again. He didn’t need to look to know it was Julian again,
all because he hadn’t answered. He was never again going to be the other guy, to be with someone who couldn’t be everything he wanted, everything he needed.
“I’m getting that now,” Luc said. “I didn’t realize he was related to your ex. How could I have?” Holy fuck, was this ever a small world? Now Chase would know way more than he was comfortable with.
“So in which way did you know him? I guess that’s what I’m confused about. Friends…?” She didn’t finish the sentence, and he was aware that though the cabbie was looking straight ahead, appearing uninterested, the man was listening to every single thing they were saying.
“How many ways do you want me to describe it, Rose? I’m gay. It wasn’t a typical kind of friendship. Do I need to spell it out to you?”
Even the cabbie glanced back at him in the rear-view mirror. Rose’s jaw fell open in shock, and then she looked away, glancing forward as if thinking but not knowing what the hell to say. “So you’re telling me Julian is gay?” she whispered as if it were a state secret.
He shrugged. “Evidently, you didn’t know,” he said, knowing all too well the secrets and lies that still existed in the community, among families.
He saw the building again, and the cabbie pulled up. Good, enough of a distraction to shut down this discussion. He paid the fare, climbed out, waited for Rose, and then followed her back into the same building they’d just left, hoping they had been gone long enough. Rose was still thinking and walking, and she pressed the button for the elevator.
“So is this the guy you met? You mentioned it,” she said and then cleared her throat. He wondered what her views were on gays. So many would never admit how uncomfortable they were. Some pretended, some didn’t, and then there were those who truly didn’t see him as an outsider but as somebody just like them. Maybe this was the part he hated with people, trying to place them in one of two categories, with him or against him. Which one was Rose?
“The one and only,” he said but didn’t elaborate as the elevator dinged.
Rose stepped inside and lingered at the back of the elevator. As the door closed, she turned to him. “You do know that Julian is married—to a woman?”
Here we go. Once again, Luc felt the world as he knew it come crashing down around him.
Chapter 4
Rose was sitting with coffee that had long since gone cold in the pre-boarding area for the flight to Salem. She’d tried to make small talk with Luc since dropping that bomb about Julian, but he’d drowned her out. Of course, Rose had picked up on his horror and how emotionally gutted he was, and he knew she couldn’t help feeling responsible in part. She had also picked up on his need to stop talking and had shut down too, although he was aware she’d talked to Chase, because he too had texted Luc, Are you okay? Because he wasn’t interested in talking anymore about what a failure his life was, he’d simply powered his phone off.
The seat rustled beside him. He had leaned over, his arms resting on his knees.
“I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?” Rose had a soft voice, and he appreciated the gesture. She rested her hand on his back and rubbed.
“No, I don’t want to talk about it,” he said, leaning back and looking over to her. “What about you? Let’s talk about your ex, or soon to be, and how weird that was. Do you think they have any idea what kind of monster they’re related to?” Why was he talking about this? Maybe he couldn’t get his head around the fact that he’d never picked up on anything weird about Julian—that the man came from a dysfunctional family of abusers, that he was married and leading a double life, denying who he was.
“I never knew that Travis was a monster,” Rose said. “I told Chase that, too. When you’ve fallen in love and are married, the first time it happens, you’re shocked, stunned. You hear the apologies and pleas after, but when it’s happening, all you’re doing is trying to make sense of the monster before you who’s lost in some rage that has transformed him into someone you don’t know. Just surviving that moment is all you care about. That someone who promised to love you is hell bent on hurting you, but you forgive him because you can’t be honest with yourself that this is even real. You block it out—or try.”
She leaned back, her hands resting over the flat of her stomach, and he just watched her as she continued. “When it happens again, you freeze and get pulled into this vortex, feeling the punches, the beating, but not really. You watch it like it’s happening to someone else, and you hear the scream, the cry, and realize it’s you. Then it’s over, and he’s gone, and you’re left there on the floor, bleeding, and you realize you’re hurt this time, but not too bad, just a lot of blood from a busted lip, a face that aches from a blackened eye. I couldn’t see out of it for days. My rib was bruised, but I swear still from the pain that it could have been broken. Then you lie. I was on my honeymoon with him then. He’d been drinking and swore it was the alcohol. He joined AA or said he got help. When he didn’t drink, he was fine, but then the stress of his job, politics, his career could have him turning on a dime, with me only, never in public and never with anyone else. He had a different image for them. He showed a generous, caring side, helping friends and such so they’d never believe it was possible. I knew I’d never be believed.
“The last time, I swear I don’t know how it happened. I came home late. He was there and said not a word, but his fists did all the talking. I woke up in the hospital. His story was that he’d found me robbed, beaten. It was bad. That was what I heard, and then the cops were there in the hospital, and I was terrified. I couldn’t say anything…” She lifted her hand, and it was shaking as she fisted her shirt just over her breast. He could tell she was reliving the horror, and he was sorry he’d pushed her to do so. He’d heard the details from Chase, how badly Travis had hurt her, broken so much of her, but he was sure there was more, and for her it had been worse.
“He said he’d kill me if I left him, and I believed him.” She was staring straight at him.
He didn’t know what to say, because he couldn’t see how Julian could be related to a monster and condone that kind of behavior. But then, did he really know him, considering he’d just found out the man was married?
“I can see none of this is helping,” Rose said. “No, I don’t think they know the demons their brother has. He hides it well. I can see that now. Or maybe they do, and they just choose to ignore it. The family he comes from, they’re important. They have power, and emotionally they’re so closed,” she added as she really looked at him, her head angled to the side.
“Well, that explains a lot. You told Chase?” He gestured to her purse, which was resting on the floor at her feet.
“I’m sorry. I was worried. When I told you about Julian being married, I saw that you didn’t take it well, that you didn’t know. Shit, I never knew. I mean, Julian and Sylvie, his wife, were like the perfect couple. They were friends, always holding hands, and they looked so happy. And he’s gay, you’re sure?”
He gave her a look as if she should know better. That wasn’t something a man could fake. “We’re born that way, Rose. It’s not a lifestyle choice. Like, geez, today I’ll be straight, tomorrow I’ll be gay. I should have suspected, even though I didn’t. I thought it was just… No, I knew he was hiding who he was. He mentioned that his family wouldn’t understand, that he had to lie. I had been there before, but I wasn’t going down that road again.”
The boarding announcement came on, and he filed into line with Rose. That was when he heard his name, a voice he’d never wanted to hear again, even though his heart hoped everything he’d learned was one gigantic mistake.
“Julian?” was all he said as he watched a man he realized he didn’t know, a man who had taken another piece of him, jog the rest of the way over in dress shoes, a white dress shirt, and dark pants, with a black bag slung over his shoulder.
He looked to Rose first and then Luc. “I really need to talk to you,” he said. “You’re not answering your messages, and your voicemail is full.”<
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“So you tracked me down to the airport?” Luc said, knowing this was way too weird to be possible.
“I talked to your super, who told me where you were flying to. There’s only one flight to Salem this time of day, so I kind of pieced it together.”
The line was moving, and Rose touched his arm. He started walking with Julian, falling in beside him.
“Well, I’m getting on a plane now, so no, we’re not talking,” Luc said.
Rose handed the ticket to the airline rep, who scanned it and checked her ID. Luc handed his over, as well. Rose was waiting, and he could see her hesitation when Julian handed a ticket to the agent.
Luc just stared at him when he realized Julian was now on the same plane he was, to Salem, where he likely planned to drag this drama into the faces of his brothers—even though Luc’s cardinal rule was that he never tossed his crap on the steps of his family.
Chapter 5
Julian had followed him onto the plane and had even been so bold as to ask the lady seated across the aisle from Luc whether she’d change seats. Because Julian had an executive-class ticket, she’d jumped at the chance. Rose was seated at the window, and there was an empty seat between them. He turned to her and was about to ask her to switch seats when he thought better of it.
“So you’re following me to Salem because…?”
“Look, I just want to have a minute with you, to talk with you, explain a few things. Hi, Rose.”
Luc glanced over to her. She appeared as awkward as he was feeling.
“Julian, this is rather odd and unsettling,” she said, taking the words right from his mouth.
“Yeah, I know,” he said, “and I wish I didn’t have to resort to this.”
The stewardess leaned down to him, reminding him to fasten his seat belt, and Luc took the opportunity to slip into the seat beside Rose, his knees pressed to the seat back, hoping the empty aisle seat would act as a buffer. He reached for his belt just as Julian slipped in beside him.
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