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I didn’t bother to hide my surprise, while in my head I heard my father’s voice.I’ve just missed you so damn much… “That would be news to me.”
“So no one’s approached you about returning to HEG, even part-time, in the hope of saving a ship that appears to have been sinking for at least three years?”
Come back on-property and set up shop here. Take a guest room. Hell, take a whole fucking wing of the house… “Not at all.”
“If we don’t have any other questions regarding the current health condition of Mr. Steadfast, we really do need to let Dr. Abrams and Ms. Steadfast go about their business,” Fritzi said, taking the microphone over. I could have kissed her for her perfect timing, and I wasted no time in bounding to my feet while reporters yelled more questions. After thanking the doctor for his time, I glanced past the hospital’s backdrop that had been placed behind the dais and found what I was looking for.
“Luke.” All the broken pieces inside me fell into place when I slipped into his arms, and I settled against him with a sigh. “I need air. Now.”
“Understood.” With a murmured word to Echo, who nodded and backed off, Luke threaded our fingers together and walked out the nearest door. He glanced around a parking lot, clearly looking for danger, before walking me past the cars to a little alcove that smelled vaguely of cigarette smoke. Clearly we’d found the hospital’s smoking section. “Not the best air in the world, but at least you’re out of the line of sight from the open area of the courtyard and parking lot. That’s all I care about.” Settling me on a concrete bench, he sat beside me, his hand coming to brush over my hair. “You were amazing out there, genius. You hammered all the right buttons with just the right tone of scorn. Every word you said is going to burn our guy’s ass so bad he’ll be compelled to come out from the shadows. We’ll be there to catch him.”
“That takes care of one asshole, but it sure as hell doesn’t take care of the main one in my life.” The words came out jarringly, because I was fighting like hell not to scream. “I thought it was bad enough that my father was responsible for starting this whole stupid stalking business, but that bastardstillmanaged to sucker me. I can’t believe I fell for hisI missed you so muchbullshit. I’m such a moron, I should have known HEG was why he wanted me back so bad he had Cobee-fucking-Bruno play Mr. Friendly Neighborhood Stalker.”
“Stop. Just stop.” He caught me by the chin and forced my gaze to his. “You know about Cobee Bruno? How?”
So he knew that name. Figured. “Timothy.”
“Your car?”
“The cat. The dead lookalike cat named Timothy, left on the hood of my car named Timothy. Please tell me I don’t have to explain that unconscious connection to you.”
“Fuck me, I can’t believe I missed that.” His tone was full of self-disgust, as was the shake of his head. “I need to be put out to pasture if I’m missing shit that big.”
Aw. “Maybe you didn’t know that long-ago cat’s name.”
“No, you’ve mentioned it before. I just missed it, when I can’t afford to miss a goddamn thing. I won’t from here on in, you have my word on that,” he added, his face grim as his eyes bored into mine. “But I need to have your word on something, too. I need you to promise me that you’ll never keep important shit like that from me again, do you understand?”
“I didn’t—”
“You did, so as a result PSI wasted valuable time chasing down Cobee Bruno when you’d already put that piece of the puzzle together.”
“I didn’t put it together until just before I spoke with my dad, who told me he’d only put Cobee Bruno into play because hemissedme. Can you believe it? Worse than that, I fuckingbelievedhim! I actually believed the only reason he went to such insane lengths to get me back to HEG was because he missed me, rather than needing me to resume my place in all his stupid broadcasts. The man is lying there in a hospital bed, more dead than alive, and he’sstillworking me like a simple-minded mark! You have no idea how much I wish I’d never reached out to him again. I should have just stayed gone.”
“Why did you leave?”
I stared at him, trying to find the right words. To my shame, there were none. “I didn’t leave. I should have. Heaven knows I should have, but… I didn’t. My father kicked me out.”
Again his hand brushed my hair. “Why?”
“He had a problem with…” Oh God, this was so hard. If I could have avoided this conversation, I would have done anything to do it. “There was some man from the IRS—a man who’d been sniffing around some political donations my father had made, claiming the donations had been made with HEG charity money, which is a definite no-no. My father insisted it was his own money and had the receipts—literally. The tax guy didn’t even bother to look at them. That was when it was clear he was there to shake Dad down. Suing this man or bringing in authorities to take care of him had the potential of bringing more unwanted scrutiny from the government, so my father asked the guy to name whatever he wanted in order for him to go away. The guy named half a million dollars in an offshore account… and me.”
The unvarnished rage that flooded Luke’s expression was lowkey terrifying to watch. “Motherfucker.”
“My sentiments exactly,” I nodded, swallowing hard. “This guy was obviously a shakedown artist in a position of power, and that made him a bad, bad guy. Thing is, my father is just as bad, at least when it comes to protecting the center of his universe, which is HEG.”
“It should be you.”
I lifted a shoulder. “I am, for the most part. But this event proved to me that evenIcome in second to HEG, because Dad asked me to… you know… to do it.”
“Fuck.” Though he whispered the word, there was a world of screaming violence in it.
I nodded. “I know. I doubt there are many people whose father asks them to prostitute themselves, but I can tell you, it’s not a pleasant experience.”
“I can’t even fucking imagine what that must have felt like.”
“At first I couldn’t even believe he’d asked.” I was so thankful he seemed to understand how devastating that had been, all I could do was lean against him in gratitude. “I told him no, horrified, and I thought that’d be the end of it. A couple days later my father straight-up ordered me to do it. Again I said no. Then he threatened to kick me out with nothing more than the clothes on my back. Can you believe it? He was my hero who’d saved me at the worst moment of my life, so I didn’t think for a moment that he’d really do it. So again, I said no. And then… he did it.”
He cursed under his breath. “He kicked you out?”
