Chapter Five
Thirteen Years Ago
Jules Lowry clenched her teeth and dropped onto the leather sofa in her father’s home office.
His glower could be ignored, but the large man standing quietly in the corner like a sentry on duty pushed her to the edge.
Rhys, an FBI agent turned her father’s lackey, had a glare that could cut stone.
She’d been too vulnerable the day he’d found her, and that had screwed her so royally.
The closer the court day drew, the more she felt sick when she saw him in person. “Rhys doesn’t need to be here.”
“Actually, he does. You ditched him and your attorney. It was a simple meeting, Jules.”
God, she hated talking about this. “Sorry.”
Dad grunted. “Yeah, that sounds contrite.”
“ So sorry ,” she said, making sure they were aware of how completely unapologetic she was.
“Give the guy a break. He’s doing this to make sure Jordan Everett gets convicted. Can you at least try to appreciate that?”
“No. His testimony isn’t his to share.”
Rhys didn’t say a word. He waited, knowing he would win out in this conversation and that she didn’t have a choice.
Since the moment she’d stepped back onto her first red carpet since the abduction, Dad had assigned Rhys to be by her side.
Rhys, who’d betrayed her trust. Who’d made no secret that he was disgusted by Hollywood.
Who was too handsome for his own good. The same guy who scowled and grumbled his displeasure at everything.
She was almost convinced that he’d known she would ditch the meeting with the attorney and had let her walk into his trap so he could bring her back to her parents. Her emerald-green eyes narrowed on Rhys. “I don’t need a babysitter.”
Dad rubbed the back of his neck. “Let’s get one thing clear. You will be blacklisted if you don’t play by my rules with your security. Margot will drop you. Sloane will ignore you. There won’t be a reporter to breathe your name if you don’t do what I say.”
“You’re acting like a tyrant.”
“And you sound like a spoiled Hollywood nepo baby. Not my daughter, who I thank God will make it to her twenty-first birthday. Be mad at me all you want. Be mad at Rhys. He doesn’t care. He’s the guy I trust to keep you alive. You don’t have to be friends. You don’t even have to talk—”
“You want me to talk to him and the attorneys.” She arched an eyebrow. “Which is it? Trusting Rhys enough to lead my security detail? Or Rhys testifying to what I told him in confidence .”
The prosecutor’s office needed him to say what he’d seen when he first arrived. Too bad that opened the defense attorneys up to exactly what she’d told Rhys about Jordan.
I thought I loved him. I was so stupid. I thought he loved me.
The admission would be on every gossip site, every celebrity magazine, every social media outlet no matter the judge’s gag order. And even if the gag order held up, the moment she gaveled the trial to a close, it would be public record.
She’d been a fool. She had trusted him for the last year and only just learned that Rhys would testify. If he fell over dead, she wouldn’t be upset.
Dad dropped his shoulders as though this argument was aging him. “ I am your issue. You’re my daughter, skyrocketing into the public eye. Every day, you’re more visible. And because of that, this is how it has to be.”
“You raised Abigail and me in this life.” Her award-winning father had directed blockbuster after blockbuster. Her scriptwriting mother had more credits to her name than most had in a lifetime. “No one has sicced Rhys on Abigail.”
“You’re being obtuse.” Her dad rubbed his temples. “Abigail has taken a different route in life. If you want her path, fine. Take that path.”
Jules bit her lip. She didn’t. And she knew she sounded like a total spoiled diva. She just couldn’t get over how angry Rhys made her.
Dad continued, “Abigail deals with security when it’s necessary, and she does so without making a fuss.”
All of that, Jules knew. Abigail’s boring life as an accountant didn’t cause gossip-hunting tabloids to stir.
Social media frenzies and live streamers didn’t flock to places where she might meet her friends.
Never had Abigail dealt with fans who blurred the lines between fantasy and the real world.
But that didn’t mean Rhys had to lord over her life like a disgruntled god of responsibility.
“Anyone but Rhys.”
“No. He’s the deal-breaker,” Dad said.
She glared at him.
“Until you found out that he was testifying, everything worked smoothly.”
True. She’d been eternally grateful to him. He’d pulled her out of a frozen hell. Rhys had saved her life. “Don’t you see how embarrassing this is?”
The corners of Rhys’s lips tugged down. “Even if I didn’t want to, I don’t have a choice. I’ve been subpoenaed as a witness.”
“Lie, then.”
Rhys scowled. “Perjure myself? Not a chance.”
“Then omit what I said. Finesse it. Don’t tell the world my secrets.”
Both men stared at her like she was a brat. Neither of them knew what it was like to be a woman with the world watching everything that she said and did so they could point out how wrongly she’d done it.
She was furious with Rhys—and needed him to take her side. “Please? I’m begging you.”
He held her gaze for a moment longer than necessary. “Believe it or not, this is me protecting you.”