His Lover to Protect - Katee Robert Page 0,59
covers and cry until she didn’t feel anything anymore. She pushed back to her feet, but there wasn’t enough phone line to pace. “Sure. Whatever.”
“Thanks.” The sound was muffled, but she still heard a thump and a curse. Avery sounded so damn vicious, even Alexis winced. “Drew Flannery, I’m going to kill your brother, and I’m not even going to bother to make it look like an accident. What made Ryan think it was a good goddamn idea for Jacks to seduce my sister?”
Drew’s voice was a little farther away, but still clear. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“They’ve been knocking boots, bumping uglies… Do we really have to go through this again?”
“I’m going to kill that slimy little fuck.”
A rustling, and then Avery was back. “I think it’s pretty safe to say that no one asked Jacks to bang you, and you might want to tell him that next time he’s in Wellingford, the Flannery brothers are going to knock his teeth in.”
The back of her legs hit the bed and she let herself fall onto it. Again. They hadn’t set him out to seduce her? Not that she really believed that either Drew or Ryan would give the green light on something like that—it was too cold for them—but that didn’t mean a damn thing. The thing between her and Luke wasn’t real. Nothing had been real since their encounter in the alley. “But… What about all the stuff he said?”
“Honey, I don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about. We sent him out there to make sure you didn’t jump to your death or get murdered or taken into the slave trade. That was it. He wasn’t even supposed to be in contact with you if there was a choice in the matter.”
His words rolled through her. It was real, darlin’. All of it. “I… He lied to me.” He said what he needed to in order to keep her moving, keep her thinking she was doing things on her own when all along there’d been a safety net in place. A safety net she hadn’t asked for or wanted.
“Yeah, that was kind of in the job description.” The connection dissolved into static, and when it came back, Avery sounded calmer. “I have no idea what happened between you two, but if you want to share, I’m listening.”
“So you can send someone else out here to clean up the mess?”
“Good God, Alexis, cut it out. I want you happy, and if you’re going to promise me you’ll be safe, then I’ll do my damnedest to sit on my hands until you come home.” She paused. “You…are coming back, right?”
There was no question. As stifling as Wellingford had become over the last few months, it was still home. She couldn’t imagine herself anywhere else. And beyond that, she had a little niece or nephew coming into the world in a very short amount of time. She’d have to be a lot worse off to actually walk away from her family. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Thank God.”
Though part of her wanted to keep on the path of her righteous anger, she couldn’t do it. The truth was, she missed her sister. This was the longest they’d ever gone without talking, and it was downright unnatural. So she took a shuddering breath and let go of the rage that had taken the driver’s seat for most of the day. “I went to Austria and saw the gazebo.”
“The one—”
“Yeah. It was just like in the picture. I…I actually felt close to her there for the first time in a long time.” She took a shaky breath. “I miss her, Avery. It’s like losing her all over again, but it feels cleaner this time. I’m glad I went.” Glad that she’d finally faced all the fears she’d kept hidden in her heart of hearts. That had felt real, no matter that it was a lie that had taken her to Austria with Luke by her side.
“Did you find what you were looking for?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? She thought back over the last week, over the things she’d seen and the places she’d gone. Over her fights with Luke and the nights that lit her entire body on fire. Over the way he’d bared himself to her so completely, and hadn’t flinched when she’d returned the favor. Why would he flinch? He knew everything before getting on a plane to come after me. That wasn’t acceptance. That was him playing