She shook her head. “I’m going to jail.”
“No.” Not happening. “Sophie is in a meeting with the district attorney now. He knows that Clark Eastbridge screwed the evidence, and in light of all the facts emerging…she thinks he’ll want to get this case out of the public eye as soon as possible. You’re the victim, Julianna. Not the deadly femme fatale.”
“I’m not either one.” Her gaze fell. “I’m just…me.”
His fingers slid under her chin. “Things are going to get better now. Faith has Hugh Bounty in custody.”
A furrow appeared between her brows.
“Heather’s boyfriend,” he told her. “The guy with the explosive’s experience.” The guy at the top of his suspect list for the car bombing and the attack at her home. What Devlin wouldn’t give to get that guy alone…
Too bad the fellow was currently surrounded by a dozen cops.
“Why was he in my house?”
“He was looking for something. Faith told me the upstairs area of the estate had been trashed.” He rolled his shoulders. “Maybe he thought he could steal some jewelry or some cash. I’m sure Heather gave him the full layout of the place, and when the cops arrived, the bedroom safe was open.”
“He said I…wasn’t supposed to be there.”
Maybe the bastard knew I was guarding you.
“You’re safe,” he told her and those words were a vow. “I’m with you, Julianna, and I’m not going any place.”
Her hand squeezed his. “You should. You should run from me.”
Not happening. “Baby, I—”
A knock sounded at the door. Then, seconds later, the door squeaked open. A woman poked her head inside, a woman with pale skin, blue eyes, and long, red hair. She stared at Julianna with shock on her face and fear in her eyes.
“Carly?” Julianna tried to sit up. “You shouldn’t be here. You—”
Carly stepped into the room. Then she ran to the bed. She grabbed Julianna and held her tight. “Ethan called me,” she said. “He told me…I’m so sorry! This is my fault. It’s all my fault.”
Julianna curled her arm around Carly as Devlin watched the two women. So this was the step-sister. The one Julianna had sacrificed so much for.
“It should have been me,” Carly said, squeezing Julianna even tighter. “Me.”
The machines were even louder, beeping even faster.
Devlin put his hand on Carly’s arm and pulled her away from the bed. She frowned at him. “Who are you?”
“I’m—” Shit, how was he supposed to answer that? Julianna’s lover? Her bodyguard? Both?
“He’s a friend,” Julianna said.
His brows snapped together at that response. He was more. Dammit.
“Carly, you shouldn’t be here,” Julianna said. “You don’t want to get pulled into this mess. I told you when the DA first filed charges…stay away.”
Carly’s body was tense. “You didn’t tell me that you stayed with that bastard because of me! That he was blackmailing you! I’ll go to the cops! I’ll tell them—”
“Yeah, you’re sisters,” Devlin muttered.
Carly’s brows wrinkled.
“You’ll incriminate Ethan,” Julianna said. “You’ll destroy everything you’ve built.”
“How is that different from what’s happening to you?” Carly demanded. “It’s not and—”
Julianna’s cheeks were flushed. Her heart beat too fast.
“That’s it.” He caught Carly’s wrist and dragged her from the room.
“Dev!” Julianna called after him.
He didn’t stop. He pulled Carly into the hallway and shut the door behind them. “You don’t do that.”
She backed up a step.
Okay, shit, he should go easier. She was Julianna’s family but…Julianna was everything. “She’s got a concussion. The woman fucking hates the hospital as it is. She has to stay calm and you can’t upset her.”
Carly slid back another step. “Who are you again?”
“I’m the man with Julianna.” He thought that said it all. “And no one is going to upset her, got it? So that means you don’t talk about going to the cops right now.” Had he seriously just said that? He had. “We clear this situation up, one problem at a time.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a VJS card. “Go talk to them. Ask for Chance or Lex. They’ll get you taken care of until Julianna is out of the hospital.”
Her fingers curled around the card. “Julianna told you…everything, didn’t she?”
He stared back at her. “I’m not the cops. I’m—”
“The man with Julianna. Right.” She tucked the card in her pocket. “I’m sorry.” Her voice was quiet. Hushed. “If I’d known, I would have turned myself in. I never would have let her get hurt for me.”
He believed her. “She was protecting you.”
“Who protects her?”
I do. From now on, that would be his job.
He turned away and reached for the door.
***
Julianna has been hurt so much. Too much. Carly Shay hurried toward the elevator. The last thing she’d ever wanted was to hurt Julianna and now—
The elevator doors opened.
Carly rushed inside and she hit…someone. Warm, strong hands flew up and wrapped around her shoulders. “Excuse me,” she said, glancing up quickly. “I didn’t mean—”
Ethan. Ethan Freaking Barclay.
Carly tried to step back, but he pulled her closer. The elevator doors shut behind her, sealing her inside that too small space with him.
“Carly,” he said and his voice was that perfect, dark temptation that she remembered. A temptation that she’d given into, once.
He was different now, though. The years had made him—harder? His face was sharper and his eyes were still that incredible gold, but they were glinting with angry emotion. Fury and—
“I guess the scars show I’m as twisted on the outside as I am on the inside,” he told her.
Scars?
Her gaze slid over his face. Now she realized that he did have scars. Two slashes, one across each cheek. She’d been staring into his eyes—she’d never seen anyone else with golden eyes like his—and she hadn’t even noticed those scars at first. “You aren’t twisted,” she said, the words coming before she even realized it.
But then, she’d always had a problem with Ethan. He made her want to do things, feel things, that she shouldn’t.
And I shouldn’t be here with him now. His touch was singeing her. She was reminded of the girl she’d been before. So wild and reckless.
Not the woman she was now. Control. Control is key. Always. Because if she lost her control, she’d lose everything.
“I knew you’d come for Julianna.” He shook his head. His fingers slid down her arm in a caress, and then he let her go. “You two, you’d really do anything for each other, wouldn’t you?” His hand shot out and he hit a button on the control panel. The elevator stopped.
“Do you know how many years it has been since I last saw you?” Ethan asked her.
She did. She knew the years. She knew the days. She knew the sleepless nights. Did he know that, once upon a time, she’d been in the psych ward, calling for him?
Control is key. “I haven’t been hiding, Ethan. I’ve been working and living in New York. It was easy enough for you to find my number and call me—”
“When you were seventeen, I was ready to kill for you.”
He had killed for her. He’d driven that knife in the last inch to end the life of the bastard who’d hurt them both so much.
“You saved us back then” Ethan said. A muscle flexed in his jaw. “I owed you for that. So I stood back and let you walk away.”
She hadn’t walked. She’d run. Full speed ahead.
“Am I supposed to let you do that again?” His hand lifted and slid under the curtain of her hair. “I missed you…”
His voice was so low. Maybe he hadn’t actually said those words. Ma
ybe—
He kissed her.
***
“Julianna!”
Her head snapped up at Devlin’s cry. She was standing on the side of the bed, yanking at the cords that connected her to all of the machines and trying to fight her way to the door.
He ran toward her. “Baby, what part of taking-it-easy are you having trouble with?”
“I have to see Carly!”
“No. You have to get better. You have to worry about you.” His hands curled around her. He lifted her up easily and sat her right back in bed. “You’re staying here until the docs say you’re clear. Carly is fine. She’s going to VJS, and the team there will take care of her.”
“She shouldn’t be here. She needs to go back home!”
“No.” He shook his head. “This is exactly where she needs to be. You aren’t going to suffer for her ever again and her secrets—they’re going to come out, sooner or later.”
But he didn’t know all of Carly’s secrets. Even Julianna didn’t know them all.
“Right now, my focus is on you. Your safety. Your life. That’s what matters to me.” He sat on the edge of the bed, caging her with his hands. He leaned in close. “What the hell do you think I felt like when they rushed you out of that interrogation room and you were unconscious?”
“I-I don’t know.”
His jaw hardened. “We need to get a few things straight.”
She needed to get out of that hospital room.
“You matter to me.”
Her brows shot up. He’d almost said those words like they were some kind of accusation.
“It happened too fast and I’m in way too deep with you, but you matter.” His breath heaved out. “So, for me, will you please stay in bed until the doctor releases you?”
Her hands were against his chest. Her right hand—and the cast—rested over his heart. “What else do we need to get straight?”
He frowned at her.
“You said a few things,” she whispered. “What else was there?” You matter. Did he realize just how much he was coming to mean to her? He kept learning her secrets and not flinching away. He was learning all about her—good and bad, mostly bad—but still standing steadfast at her side.
She hadn’t planned to get involved with him. But sometimes, life wasn’t about plans. It was about desires. Needs.
“No more running from me in the middle of the night. If demons chase you, come to me.”
She stared into his bright blue gaze, unable to look away.
“Come to me,” he said again, “because I’ll be there for you, I fucking swear it.”
***
The kiss was everything that it shouldn’t have been. Hot. Wild. Consuming. The years fell away and Carly felt the same intense desire stir within her. A desire that had scared her years before…and still scared her then.
Carly jerked away from Ethan. Her fist hit the button on the control panel and the elevator started moving again.
“That’s good to know,” Ethan said. Confident, sexy Ethan.
She’d known him well years before. But now…now he was a stranger to her. A stranger I shouldn’t want.
“Some things have happened in my life recently,” Ethan said. “They’ve made me reevaluate a few things. You’re one of those things.”
Her laughter was bitter. Right. Like Ethan cared about her. Never had, never would. She knew he’d had a fiancée, had far too many lovers. So maybe she did keep track of him a bit. And that stalker-shit wasn’t healthy.
Ethan Barclay wasn’t healthy. “I’m not here for you,” Carly told him. The elevator doors opened. Thank goodness. “I’m here for Julianna. You need to stay away from me, and I’ll do you the same courtesy.” Because they were too dangerous together. Far, far too dangerous.
“I like your hair that color. Red looks good on you.” He paused. “But then, almost anything does.”
She whirled and headed out of that elevator. She was in the lobby and there were plenty of people around. All the better to run and hide. All the better to—
“Excuse me, miss?”
She glanced to the right. A tall, blond man was staring at her. He gave her a broad smile. “You…are Carly Shay, aren’t you?”
“Who are you?” How the hell had he known her name? Worried now, she tensed.
“It’s my business to know things,” he told her. “My name is John Reynolds, and I’m a reporter for the DC Journal.”
Nightmare. “I don’t have anything to say to you.”
“Really? Because I thought you were Julianna Smith’s sister? I mean, step-sister.”
She needed to get away from him. “I don’t have time to talk. I have to go.” She marched right past him.
He followed her. “I think she’s in danger.”
“What tipped you off to that?” Carly demanded. They were near the glass exit doors. “Her recent trips to the hospital? The car bomb?” Ethan had told her about that, too. He’d terrified her.
Julianna, you can’t risk your life for me!
“Give me five minutes,” John said. “And together, we can help your sister.”
She stopped. The glass doors had automatically opened for her.
“The world thinks she’s a devil right now. Let’s change their minds. Let’s make her safe again.”
Oh, but the guy was a born manipulator. He probably made for one kick-ass reporter.
“Five minutes,” John pushed. “That’s all I’m asking for.” He pointed to the right. “There’s a cafeteria down there. We can talk there, with plenty of people around.”
Her hesitation stretched a bit more. She owed Julianna.
“Give me her side of the story,” he said. “Let’s help Julianna.”
***
What in the hell was Carly doing? Ethan watched her as she talked with that ass-bite reporter, John Reynolds. Why was she standing so close to the guy? Why was she talking to the leech?
Carly shook her head and turned, striding out of the glass doors.
Good. Ditch him.
But John Reynolds rushed right after her.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed. That reporter prick was going to be a problem. It was a good thing that he was so skilled at eliminating problems.
Chapter Forteen
“What the hell do you mean…the cops let Hugh Bounty walk?” Devlin paced in front of his fireplace, his body filling with fury. “When did he get out?”
Devlin and Julianna had only been at his place for a few hours when he’d gotten the phone call from Lex—a call that was not putting him in the best of moods. After twenty-four hours, Julianna had been given the all-clear to leave the hospital. He’d thought she’d keep relaxing at his place, then he’d learned this shit.
“He had an alibi? Some drunks at a bar? Hell, no, I don’t buy it. You know your friends will always cover for you. His drinking buddies could be spouting BS.” He raked his hand through his hair. “You’ve got eyes on him, though? You’ll let me know where he goes?”
He heard the floor creak behind him and Devlin glanced over his shoulder. Julianna was there, staring at him with wide eyes.
“Good,” Devlin told Lex. “Don’t let him out of your sight. I want to have a one-on-one chat with the bastard. I’ll be there soon.” He shoved the phone into his pocket.
Julianna walked toward him. “Let me guess. Heather’s boyfriend is out?”
“Heard that, huh?”
She nodded.
“He had some friends alibi him. Faith held the guy as long as she could, probably hoping her uniforms would turn up more evidence to tie him to your attack, but there was nothing.” Nothing they had found. But VJS wasn’t done. Now it’s our turn. “Lex followed the guy to a bar called Fast Shots.”
She glanced toward the window and the bright sunlight. “Little early for a drink, isn’t it?”
“Not if you’ve spent too many hours in interrogation. The guy will be looking for a release. Maybe he’ll get drunk and talk too much.” He
lifted a brow. “I’ve seen that shit happen plenty of times.”
“You mean you want him to talk too much, to you.” Her head tilted. “You’re going to meet with him, aren’t you?”
“Your car exploded into a million pieces. A fellow who happens to be an explosives expert has been sleeping with the woman who took a shot at you.” Faith, you’d better keep Heather locked up. “Hell, yeah, I’m planning to talk with him.”
“Right.” Her shoulders straightened. “Then so am I.”
“Um, the hell, no.”
Her eyes turned to slits. Seriously angry slits. “The last time I checked,” Julianna said, “you were working for me.”
She hadn’t just said that. He took a step toward her. That cute chin of hers notched up. “Baby, I’m not accepting a damn dime from you.”
“Your business is not going to last long at that rate.”
His lips twitched. Dammit. She needed to stop being both hot and cute. “I can take care of my business.”
“And I can make my own decisions. No one else is ever going to control me again.”
Oh, hell, he hadn’t meant… “I just want you safe.”
Her expression softened. “And I don’t want you running into trouble for me. If this guy is the one who attacked me, then I think I deserve to be there to question him.”
She had a point. It wasn’t a safe point though, so he hated to admit it. Is it so fucking wrong that I want to wrap her up and protect her from everyone and everything?
Maybe. But that was just how he felt.
“When we talk to him,” Julianna continued, “maybe he’ll give something away. Maybe his voice will click and I’ll know he’s the one who was in my—in Jeremy’s house.”
Another point. Damn. “Fine,” he gritted out. “But we stay together, the whole time, got it?”
She smiled at him. Such an innocent, angelic smile. One that made him nervous. “I never had any other plan.”
He didn’t buy it. The woman was planning something right then. “You need to start trusting me.”
Her gaze darted to the floor, then back up to his. “I do.”