Chapter 50
CHAPTER FIFTY
Lies Left Lurking
IRINA
“How was she?” Henry asked the moment I stepped onto the plane. His green eyes were intent on me, and a surge of longing had me rushing to him, eyes prickling. I buried my face in his shirt.
He rubbed firm, comforting circles on my back. “I’m sorry, Catnip,” he murmured against my hair. “I’m sorry this happened to your friend.”
“I swear I’ve cried more in the last few weeks than I have in my entire life!” I snivelled into his chest. His lips brushed my hairline, and like a bolt of lightning, I realised the truth of it. I looked up at him, swiping at my wet eyes.
“It’s you,” I breathed.
Henry’s brow furrowed. “Me?”
A watery smile split my face. “Yes, Hubby. You. You’re my safe space to let go. You’re my person.”
His expression morphed from confused to joyful; a goofy, adorable grin lighting him up. I giggled wetly.
“Bax, we have to do something about Atlas,” Lucian rumbled, and Henry looked past me to Liv and Lucian. He sighed, and all that light and warmth I’d just seen in his face leeched away.
“I know we do.” His palms slid up my back to my neck, thumbs caressing my cheeks, and then he stepped away, turning to the pair of them. His eyes fell to their joined hands.
“Uh … yeah,” Lucian mumbled, noticing where Henry’s attention was. His expression turned sheepish, but he didn’t release Liv’s hand. “About this—”
“Lucian and I need to fill in an employee fraternisation disclosure,” Liv explained in a rush as I bit back a laugh.
“Well.” Henry cleared his throat, moving to the table where his laptop was set up. “It’s about damn time.”
Lucian’s jaw dropped. Liv blinked at her boss. Henry opened his laptop and pulled up an online form. “No time like the present to make it official, you two.”
“Wait. How did you …” Lucian’s shock turned to suspicion, and his eyes landed on me. “Did you—”
“I said nothing!” I protested, throwing my hands up in mock surrender. “I am a vault when it comes to secrets.”
Wasn’t that the truth. But I was going to throw that vault wide open, for Henry.
“I know you think I’m useless at noticing anything that isn’t spelled out for me,” Henry explained mildly. “But come on, Lucian. You’re my cousin. My best friend. Give me some credit for spotting the way you look at Liv like she hung the moon.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Lucian asked, as Liv tugged him towards the table and the waiting disclosure form blinking on Henry’s laptop screen.
Henry shrugged. “I didn’t feel like it was my place. I figured you two would work it out eventually.”
Liv plonked herself down on the chair opposite Henry, turning the laptop and typing away into the form. “Have your important conversation about Atlas while I fill this in.”
Lucian pinched the bridge of his nose, inhaling deeply. “This day feels like it’s lasted about a week,” he mumbled. “You can’t let this slide with Atlas. He’s dragging Tickle through the mud.”
“I know,” Henry huffed. “I need to have a hard conversation with him. But he’s not answering my calls, he’s not responding to text messages—not even reading them.”
Lucian grunted. “He’s probably coming down off whatever cocktail of shit he was taking the other night.”
Henry’s eyebrows pinched together. “Or he may be dead in his hotel room from an overdose. We have no idea what he’s been taking, or how much … or how long this has been going on.”
My stomach dropped. What on earth had happened while we’d been cruising the South Pacific?
Lucian’s expression turned grave. “Right. I’ll contact the hotel, get them to check his room. You get in touch with the two blokes from SynAPPsee, see if they can shine any light on the events of the night … and maybe smooth things over with them?”
Henry’s frown deepened. “My favourite thing to do … clean up Atlas’s messes.”
“You’ve been doing it since uni,” Lucian reminded him. “There’s just more at stake this time around. A multi-billion-dollar business to be exact. And … are you going to involve your silent partner?”
Henry massaged his temples, and I felt a rush of protectiveness over him. Whatever had happened to Atlas, he’d only just found out about it, and he was having to come to terms with it while working out a plan to protect his business.
I moved behind his chair and found his shoulders, squeezing. His hand covered mine, winding our fingers together.
“I need to deal with the urgent priorities first,” Henry muttered. “I need to know he’s okay. I need to release a statement. What we do moving forward … that can wait.”
“That’s a smart plan, Henry,” Liv added gently. “I’ll brief you on the crisis-management plan. But first, we’ll get this document signed. I’d like our clandestine workplace liaison to be legitimised, Pookie.”
Even with all the tension of the Atlas conversation, I couldn’t help the chortle that bubbled out of my throat.
“Pookie?” Henry asked, a smirk playing on his lips as he eyed Lucian.
“Don’t even ask,” Lucian grumbled, as Liv, her shiny brown bob bouncing, joined in my giggling.
Liv and Lucian left as soon as Liv had gone through the details of the crisis-management plan with Henry so we could get in the air.
The flight back to Airlie Beach had been filled with Henry making multiple calls, muttering down the phone, his expression grave.
Occasionally he’d reached out and taken my hand in his, like he needed my touch to ground him. Touch I was only too happy to provide.
I would do anything for this man. Including giving him the piece of me that I was most ashamed of.
But not until morning. It was well after dark when the helicopter deposited us back on Staghorn Island, and all either of us could think about was a shower and bed.
Wrapped up in Henry’s arms, I fell into a deep sleep.
I woke the next morning to the low murmur of Henry’s sleepy voice beside me. When I stirred, he slid an arm around my shoulders and tugged me into him.
“Hold on, Lucian, I’m just going to put you on speaker so Ri can hear too.” He turned to me as he tapped at his phone, explaining, “There’s no news from the hotel. They checked his room when Lucian called. He wasn’t there, but all his things were in a state of chaos.”
“He hasn’t checked out, so they’re assuming he’s coming back at some point,” Lucian added. “I’ve asked them to give him an urgent message to get in touch the second he shows up in the lobby.”
“The SynAPPsee guys had nothing much to say, except that it was obvious to them he was trying to get them as rip-roaring drunk as he was,” Henry muttered. “If he was taking anything else, they didn’t know about it.”
Henry set the phone on the bed covers, massaging his temples and reaching for his glasses on the nightstand. “I’m very concerned about his mental state.”
Lucian snorted. “This is peak Atlas behaviour, Bax. He’s probably picked up some socialite and living it up in a Pacific Heights penthouse with her.”
“He wasn’t himself the last few times we spoke,” Henry insisted. “I think he’s out of his depth, business-wise, and he’s made some promises he couldn’t keep.”
“And that made him snort drugs off a toilet seat and throw punches?” Lucian muttered.
“I think we could talk ourselves in circles for days and still be no closer to working out what’s been going on in Atlas’s head.” Henry sighed. “I just need to know he’s okay. All the rest we can handle, but I need to know that he’s not dead in a ditch somewhere.”
His body shook, and I realised he was hanging onto his calm by a thread. I climbed between him and the pillows and tugged him against me, massaging his shoulders. He let out a shaky breath.
“If he hasn’t made contact within twenty-four hours, we’ll file a missing person report with the San Francisco Police,” Lucian said.
“That’s a solid plan,” I agreed. “You’ve done everything you can for now. He’s a grown man, and I know you care about him, but you’re not responsible for his behaviour, or his decisions.”
Henry sighed. “I know. I just … I don’t like being presented with a problem that I can’t solve.”
“I know you don’t, Hubby,” I teased, pressing a kiss to his cheekbone, maintaining the pressure on his shoulders. “I’m walking, talking evidence of how much you love solving other people’s problems.”
Henry tilted his head to look up at me, green eyes bright and intent on my face. “You are the furthest thing from a problem, Catnip. But you did get one thing right: I—”
“Okay, I’m going to go before I end up intruding on something I really don’t need to be witnessing,” Lucian interrupted dryly. “You know I’m just a phone call away, Bax, if you need anything at all … although I have a feeling that all your needs are being more than met by your wife.”
“Okay, Pervy Pookie!” I snarked. “Stop making dirty comments about Henry’s needs! We’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Pervy Pookie!” Liv crowed delightedly in the background. “Damn right he is!”
I snorted, Henry blushed, and Lucian, after letting out a bemused grunt, added in a low voice, “Try not to dwell today, Bax. Ri’s right—you’ve done everything you can, and you aren’t responsible for Atlas’s dickwad behaviour.”
Henry mumbled a goodbye, his head lolling back against my chest as soon as he hung up the phone.
“You really are meeting all my needs, Catnip,” he murmured, lifting my hand from his shoulder and pressing a kiss to my palm. “I wonder if on some level I knew that would be the case when I came up with the crazy plan to marry you.”
Tears sprung to my eyes. Why was I so emotional lately?
Oh, could it be that you’re in love, perhaps?
I wanted so badly to confess that to him. But it felt like the wrong time. I wanted there to be no lies left lurking between us when I told him this most important truth.
So I kissed him instead, pouring all the unsaid things into him that way. He met all the needs I’d never known I had—the ones where I was an equal, where I could expect support, and comfort, and understanding, and where I wanted to give those things in return.