Chapter 2
SO MYSTERY WOMAN ACTUALLY HAS A NAME
SEBASTIAN
As Lily goes to pack her things, I finally have a moment to talk to my brother alone.
“How bad was it?” I ask quietly, dreading the answer.
Daniel sighs, the smile that had been on his face moments ago slipping away.
“When I found her, she was unconscious in a pool of blood. I could barely recognise her face. Apparently, Joseph somehow found out she had come back into contact with me and beat the living shit out of her before storming off to some function. I’m just glad that we’d made plans that day, otherwise who knows what would have happened after that?
Seriously, who just leaves their wife unconscious to go socialise?
He’s even more psychotic than I realised. ”
From the ages of fifteen to twenty-three, the two of them had been inseparable, and Daniel had viewed her as the sister he’d never had. It must have killed him to see her like that.
I know it would have destroyed me.
“How did you manage to get back into contact with her?” I ask, pushing aside the images my mind has conjured up.
I can’t bring myself to ask more questions about the state she’d been in when Daniel found her.
I feel guilty enough as it is.
“Joseph brought her to a charity dinner that I was at. It was a complete fluke. I slipped her my number before Jospeh could whisk her out of there once he saw me.”
Each time I think I couldn’t feel angrier, he divulges a new piece of information about the situation, and I discover there is actually no limit to how much anger I can feel.
After years of keeping my emotions in check, few things get under my skin, but Lily has always been one of them.
Although seeing any woman treated so abhorrently disgusts me, to have it happen to someone as vivacious and full of life as Lily once was makes it all the more rage-inducing.
I should have fought harder to keep her safe. To keep her away from the bastard. But she made her choice when she pushed us away when they married.
When she pushed me away.
“She’s different, Seb. I’ve been trying to get her to come out of her shell since she’s been here, but she’s like a ghost most of the time.
There are still glimmers of her beneath the surface, though.
I think the Brisbane club will be good for her.
They’ll take care of her. I can just imagine Annika forcing her to have fun, whether she likes it or not. ”
The Brisbane employees of Dark Desires have formed a little family, different from the other locations, where most of the employees keep to themselves.
I don’t quite know why things happened differently in Brisbane, but I can’t imagine my life without them these days, even with the occasional dramatics that occur.
“Is that why you decided to finally tell me she was here? You thought she’d want to come to the Brisbane club, despite the fact she explicitly asked you not to tell me about all of this?
” The knowledge that he’s kept this whole situation from me for three months still stings, even after she admitted it was because she was embarrassed for me to know.
“That and… Joseph saw her with me last night. I figured we’d need to get the lawyers involved now.”
I raise an eyebrow. “I thought she hadn’t left the club since you brought her here?”
Daniel’s shoulders sag, and he runs a hand over his face, looking weary.
“I’d finally convinced her to come out for dinner with me.
And she did so well. She only flinched a few times when the waiter brought us our meals and drinks.
It wasn’t until we were leaving the restaurant and getting in the car that I saw him.
He was sitting in a car across from the restaurant.
I don’t know how long he was there, or how he knew we’d be at that restaurant.
But it wouldn’t have been hard for someone to get the news to him.
He’s got his finger in so many fucking pies, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out his family owned the bloody place. ”
I resist the urge to hit something, instead clenching my hand in a fist before shaking it out.
“Does Lily know you saw him?”
He shakes his head. “Fuck no. No way was I telling her. But yeah, I knew as soon as she saw you, she’d want to go with you.”
I don’t know how he came to that conclusion, given how things went down between Lily and myself all those years ago.
Ever since she’d come into our lives when I was eighteen, things have been complicated between us.
I kept her at arms length for seven and a half years, because nothing could ever happen between us.
We are vastly different creatures, and I refused to be responsible for her downfall.
Women like her don’t belong with men like me.
It was why I’d made it clear to my former friend that she was off limits.
Because if I wasn’t good enough for her, than Joseph Sinclair was even less so.
Instead of heeding my words of warning though, he’d gone right for her, and she’d fallen under his spell. And he got exactly what he wanted. I haven’t spoken to him since the day he proposed to her, and my life has been better for his absence.
But not hers. Never hers.
Since the day I received a message telling me she wanted nothing to do with me, every day has been less bright without her light in it.
Shaking off the memories, I grimace, choosing not to voice my doubts about Lily wanting to go with me. I suspect it’s more because it’s out of Sydney, and at least she’ll know someone.
“Make sure they ramp up security at both locations. There’s no telling what he’ll do to get her back, and I don’t like the idea of leaving you here to deal with the fallout alone.”
Daniel smirks, crossing his arms. “You know I have no issues in taking care of myself, brother.”
I sigh, suddenly feeling very, very tired. “I know you don’t. But I’d rather not have to arrange for our lawyers to help defend you in a murder trial. I’ll get Connell to arrange a few more security staff. Never hurts to be cautious, after all.”
“Spoil my fun,” he murmurs, and I shake my head.
My brother was always the more hotheaded of the two of us.
I guess he had the luxury, being the youngest. I’d had to step into the guardian role as soon as I’d aged out of foster care, applying for kinship care as soon as I could.
It was only after Lily came along that he’d tempered his more impulsive side, and I will be forever grateful to her for that.
“I’m ready,” Lily murmurs, reappearing at the door with a small, designer suitcase in her hand.
Daniel and I say nothing further on the matter as he walks us to the door, but I know he’s hoping things will be different for her the next time they see one another.
If only it was that simple.
“Here,” Daniel says, handing Lily a phone. “I got you this earlier. I’ve programmed mine and Sebastian’s numbers into it. You better pick up when I call you.” His tone is light, but the smile on his face seems forced.
She stares down at the phone for a moment, before looking back up at him. “You’ll call me?”
“So much you’ll be sick of me,” he replies, slipping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his side before guiding her towards the car.
I draw a deep breath before following behind them, not sure what these feelings are that are swirling inside me. All I know is that I have no idea how this is all going to to turn out. And that scares the shit out of me.
The woman at my side is a shadow of her former self. The light in her eyes has been snuffed out, and the girl who was always laughing is long gone. In her place is this haunted waif who shrinks from people, seemingly determined to keep herself as small as possible, lest anyone take notice of her.
And people have always taken notice of Lily.
With long blonde hair that hangs down to the small of her back in waves, her porcelain skin and blue eyes stand out just as much as ever. She has long reminded me of a living doll, with perfect Scandinavian features that wouldn’t be out of place on the runway of a fashion show.
Since we climbed into the back of the black Audi waiting for us out the front of Dark Desires, she’s not uttered a word. There is no sign of the woman who used to talk a mile a minute and was so full of life.
The day she’d fallen into Joseph’s clutches, I’d known that he would be responsible for her downfall. I just hadn’t expected it to be like this.
I don’t do jealousy. I find no point in it. But something inside me had broken the day she accepted his proposal.
Joseph had always had a jealous streak, and often resented the wealth that my brother and I had come into, once our father passed. From the minute he met Lily, he had set out to pull her into our world, wanting her for himself.
He’d always coveted beautiful things. And Lily was breathtakingly beautiful. Still is, despite the hell he has put her through. She’s maintained her youthful appearance, and could easily be mistaken for a woman a decade younger than her thirty-two years.
I’ve seen them on TV, though. A man a decade older than me, with the youthful, trophy wife. I’ve had to turn the television off whenever that has happened, nausea churning in my gut every time.
I have long wondered how I ended up allowing myself to become friends with a man like that, but when you come from a family like mine, it’s not surprising to end up in the same circles as men who use their power for evil.
The day I walked away and moved to a different city, I knew I’d done the right thing.
I just should have taken Lily with me.
But she’d made her feelings clear in that final text message.
“Have you been to Brisbane before?” I ask, trying to draw her out of her timid shell.
She shakes her head, still not quite meeting my gaze. “No. I’ve never left Sydney.”
Stunned, I raise an eyebrow. “You never travelled?”
She shakes her head again, before returning to look out the window once again.