Chapter 49 #2
“Positive. I’m very safe with this big lug.” I patted his shoulder. “He’s just anxious and wants to get me out of here before anyone recognises me.”
Lucian’s sigh was long-suffering. The man’s frown deepened, but then recognition lit his face.
“Oh my God, you’re Ru—”
But we’d made it to the SUV, and Lucian unceremoniously stuffed me inside, slamming the door and talking in muffled grunts to the man. He nodded solemnly, eyes darting to the tinted window, where he wouldn’t be able to make me out, and then he strode off.
“You are incapable of making my life easy, Irina!” Lucian sighed once he’d climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Oh, come on!” I cajoled, buckling my seatbelt as he roared off towards the ramp and the exit. “Admit it, your job was boring before me!”
“I don’t know,” he muttered, slowing to scan our parking ticket and exiting into Sydney traffic. “I still managed to have an eventful couple of weeks with you out of my hair.”
My stomach tightened. “Did you find Cockerels Cap?”
He shook his head, letting out a frustrated grunt. “He’s a slippery character, and I think he went to ground the second the media reported that you and Henry had left on the Girl on Fire.”
“So … what’s been eventful then?”
Lucian’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing.
I sighed, sinking back into my seat. The grump wasn’t going to give me anything.
I consoled myself with the knowledge that I was on my way back to Henry, and we could return to our little bubble and escape this for a little while longer—until my bridging visa was approved, I supposed.
Then we’d have to face the reality that we had no idea if Cockerels Cap was gone for good. We still had no real clue about what his motives were.
If he wasn’t working with Rumi, there was only one other person I could think of who would employ someone to tail me … and even considering that possibility was enough to make bile rise in my throat.
I flinched when the car speakers blasted Lucian’s ringtone at an ear-splitting roar.
“Shit,” he muttered, fumbling with the volume control before answering with a curt, “Lucian Armstrong.”
“Hey, Pookie!” Liv’s voice cooed through the speaker. I clapped my palm over my mouth to stifle a shocked giggle as a flush crept up Lucian’s neck. Liv continued, oblivious to my shocked mirth. “How’s it all going at the hospital? Are you missing me like I’m missing you?”
“We’re in the car, Olivia,” Lucian grumbled, scratching the back of his neck as he pulled up at a red light. “You’re on speaker, and Irina’s here with me.”
“Oh! Uh … whoops, I guess? But did it go okay at the hospital? No major incidents?” Liv’s tone was all business-like now, but I couldn’t contain my grin.
“Unless you count me wanting to throttle Irina every thirty seconds, and a man in the carpark recognising her from Tickle, it was incident free.”
Liv gasped. “She was recognised? That’s probably not an issue though, he didn’t try to get a selfie with her, did he?”
“No. He did not. And I had words to him about being discreet, or I might mention to his employer that he tried to accost a woman he recognised from a sex app in the carpark.”
“You did not!” I gasped. “Lucian, he was just a nice man who was concerned that you were dragging me through a dark carpark! He wasn’t going to report me!”
Lucian glowered at me in the mirror. “I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
There was no point in arguing with him, so I changed the subject. “So, Pookie, how about you tell me why Liv suddenly has a pet name for you.”
Liv giggled riotously down the phone. “Better yet, come and pick me up, and I’ll explain it all myself. I need to meet with Henry about this debacle Atlas has gotten himself into anyway.”
I frowned. “What debacle?”
Lucian’s scowl deepened. “I figured Henry hadn’t been keeping abreast of the news from California. Atlas has been behaving very badly, to put it mildly.”
Something about this news prickled at the base of my neck. I sat back in my seat, breathing deeply around my churning gut, the tightness in my chest, the wave of dizziness.
“I’ll detour past the apartment and collect you, Livvy,” Lucian murmured, the softness in his tone at odds with his dark expression. I couldn’t even find it in me to make a teasing remark about ‘Pookie’ and ‘Livvy’.
Liv’s hand slid into Lucian’s the moment she climbed into the car. His eyes flicked to the mirror then back to the road, but his thumb caressed her knuckles.
“You okay?” he asked.
Liv nodded. “Yeah. No new messages, no voicemails. I’m hoping he’s gotten the hint.” She turned in her seat, leaning towards me without letting go of Lucian’s hand.
“I did it, Ri. I left Josh.” She gave a small smile, and Lucian tightened his grip on her hand. Like someone who didn’t want to let her go now that he had her.
Tears pricked my eyes. “I’m proud of you, Liv.”
She laughed wetly, wiping at her own glistening eyes. “I couldn’t have done it without this guy.” She gave Lucian’s bicep a squeeze. “Josh has been … difficult.”
Lucian let out a furious grunt. “Josh has been a psychopath and should be locked up for the safety of all women,” he snarled under his breath.
“But you’re safe, Liv?” I pressed.
“Well, I haven’t been able to go into the office. Lucian kindly let me share the Airbnb he’s staying in, and I’ve been working remotely from there.”
“Josh has been loitering outside the office building, trying to catch Liv on her way into work,” Lucian added. “But after the … altercation I had with him, I doubt he’ll show his face near Tickle HQ again.”
“La naiba,” I muttered, rubbing my forehead. “You weren’t lying when you said you’d had an eventful couple of weeks. And then there’s whatever is going on with Atlas … is Henry going to have to go to America to deal with it?”
My stomach dropped at the thought, but Lucian shook his head.
“Henry needs to talk to his investor and look at distancing the business from Atlas … maybe even buying out his shares.”
My mouth fell open. “Is it really that bad?”
Lucian’s eyes were dead serious. “I’ve never trusted Atlas. He’s been riding on Henry’s coattails since they first met. Henry likes to focus on the best in people, but sometimes it blinds him to the worst.”
My throat tightened at those words. I’d seen it myself. His entire relationship with Cadence seemed to have been built on his putting his all into them, and her taking what she needed out of it, chewing him up and spitting him out when she’d had enough.
And what about us? He trusted me, he protected me … and the worst part was, he didn’t even know what he was protecting me from. Not the full truth of it, anyway.
Well, I had the power to change that. I had the power to put all my trust in him, to break down that last barrier between us. If we were going to give this marriage thing a real try, then it needed to be from a place of honesty.
When we got back to the Girl on Fire, I was going to tell Henry everything.