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I mustered a smile, even though my jaw muscles didn’t want to support the gesture. “How’s it going?” I asked.
She stared back at me curiously. She’d been working at the firm for a while now, but she and I had never particularly been chit-chat buddies. “Fine,” she said. “You?”
I nodded, wanting to say that I was fine as well, but unable to force out the word. I stuffed my hands into my pockets to keep myself from fidgeting. “Um…I was just wondering, by any chance have you heard from Joanna lately?”
The second the question left my mouth though, I realized that I’d made a mistake. Everyone knew that Tobias and I were best friends, just like everyone knew Joanna was Tobias’s sister. It was unusual in itself for me to ask anyone else about Joanna’s whereabouts; if I had a question about Joanna, it would have only been logical for me to approach Tobias.
Libby’s eyes widened, and I was left wondering if she knew what was going on among the three of us. If not, I wondered if at the very least, she had noticed that Tobias and I hadn’t been on speaking terms.
I glanced around, paranoid and wondering if the whole office knew something was up. After all, our drama at the gala hadn’t exactly been subtle.
“Um… No, not really,” Libby answered, averting her gaze. “Why do you ask?”
I shook my head. “Never mind, Libby. Have a nice day,” I said, briefly patting her shoulder and hurrying off to my office.
*
It was just before my lunch break, but I had no appetite. So instead of heading to the break area or out for a bite to eat, I left my office and headed straight for Tobias’s.
That man was going to hear me out if it was the last thing I did, especially since I couldn’t even get in contact with Joanna. Plus, my encounter with Libby had left me thoroughly shaken. I needed answers, and was determined to get them before the end of the day.
I knocked on Tobias’s office door. From inside, I could hear him shuffling about. “One second,” his voice rang from the other side of the door.
I heard the doorknob jiggle, and shortly thereafter, I was staring into Tobias’s face—into those gray eyes that were so much like his sister’s. He swore and was about to slam the door right back in my face, but I held my arm out, stopping him.
“Anderson, I’m not in the mood,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Well that’s just too goddamned bad,” I said, forcing myself into the office. He and I got into a little tussle right there on the spot as he tried to keep me from entering, but I managed to push past him. I slammed the door behind me and locked it.
Tobias snarled back at me. “Anderson, I’m warning you…”
“You’re warning me? Warning me of what, Tobias?” I challenged. “Warning me that after all these years of practically being brothers, you’re just going to turn your back on me entirely?”
“Yes, because if you were my brother, then how the hell would you go and…and…do what you did—”
“Dammit, Tobias! Enough already,” I yelled. “Why are you being such an asshole about this? Grow up! I like your sister! I’ll yell it from a rooftop. Now why on earth is that such a horrible thing to you? Don’t you think you’re taking the whole protective big brother act too far? Because if you don’t, then let me be the first to tell you—you are!”
“How dare you tell me how to take care of my own family!” Tobias shouted, his nostrils flaring.
But I refused to back down. “Joanna is a grown woman, Tobias! She doesn’t need you taking care of her anymore! Get that through your thick skull!”
The office fell so deadly quiet after my outburst, I feared people a mile away had heard me. Tobias stood before me, stunned. His eyes shot daggers at me, and for a second, I was fairly certain he was about to punch me.
I braced myself…
But Tobias took a step back and blinked. He appeared to deflate right before my eyes. “She doesn’t have anyone else to look out for her the way I do…” he said, his voice almost a whisper. “She’s… She’s the only family I have, apart from you. And you don’t know how close I’ve come to losing her…”
I stared back at him, confused. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the pieces of shit she keeps allowing into her life. The last one damn-near killed her. Zander. Her ex. He was crazy. Dangerous. He’s beaten her to a bloody pulp I don’t know how many times. What she told me was bad enough, and I know for a fact that she hasn’t told me everything. She’s afraid to.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I said, my throat tightening. Even though I’d heard about Zander before, by no means had I known it was that bad. I staggered backwards until my back hit the wall, the thought of someone beating Joanna making me want to smash everything around me to pieces.
“She never told you, huh?” Tobias said.
I looked up at him, finding that the fury in his eyes had subsided. I shook my head. “No. She didn’t tell me.”
Tobias nodded. “Yeah, because that’s how Joanna is. She’s secretive. She could be dying on the inside, but she’ll insist that she’s fine and doesn’t need any help. That’s why I’m so protective of her. I have to be, because she doesn’t always do the best job of looking out for herself. She only came to me this time because she finally got tired of Zander hitting her. It keeps me up at night sometimes, wondering what would have happened if she hadn’t got the strength to leave him after that last time. I hardly recognized her when she showed up to the house. Her face black and blue…”
