Rush (10 page)

CHAPTER SIX

“I can practically hear my bank balance ticking up and up.” Cal’s words penetrated Lucas’s covetous rage.

As the red haze cleared his vision, Lucas really looked at his friend. Cal had been talking about Mi as though she were a valuable asset, not a lover. A thing to buy, sell or trade. He realized she meant nothing more to Cal than the cameras, the studio or even his precious Mercedes. She was an investment Cal had employed him to protect, nothing more.

He shook his head. What had he been thinking? He’d been thinking with his dick, that’s what. Thinking with his dick always gotten him into trouble. Thinking with his dick had allowed Vanessa to fuck him over. And there sat trouble. All one hundred odd pounds of her, holding up a set of fuzzy, pink handcuffs and matching blindfold, looking like every man’s fantasy.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

He ran a hand through his hair, knowing he was in deep. Every time he’d get her within reach she’d slip away. He wondered if it was the chase that enthralled him. He’d never had to chase Vanessa and yet she had never really been his, had she?

Cal mumbled something to him, but his attention remained riveted on Mi. She held up a strange looking rubber ring with a big nub and silver bullet thing attached to it. She switched it on.

“One of our most popular couples toy, the Colossal Cock Ring from Tease and Scream keeps him up and at ‘em
all night long
. This powerful couples cock ring delivers a perfect O with a vibrating tongue that hits her spot every time. Only twenty-nine ninety-nine, the variable speed bullet lets you control the intensity wirelessly, so no twisted wires, only tangled limbs and pleasured sighs.”

Now that one was on a whole other level. A level he wasn’t sure he’d ever be ready for.

“Lucas.”

He turned to find Cal regarding him as though he were sizing up a competitor he wanted to take advantage of. Always the worst position to find yourself in with Cal.

“What?”

“I was asking if you and Mi would like to have dinner with me tonight, but I think I already know the answer.”

Lucas returned his attention back to Mi, ignoring Cal’s bait.

They watched the rest of the show in silence. When it was over, Lucas peeled off the wall with a half-assed muttered goodbye to Cal and followed Mi to the makeup room. Cal’s low chuckle followed him.

He stood outside the door, waiting for her to transform back into the fresh-faced Mi he’d come to like best. While he waited, he watched the crew, looking for what he didn’t know. A button on a lapel proclaiming allegiance to C.A.L.M.? A receipt for surveillance equipment hanging out a back pocket? Mi’s missing glasses clenched in an angry fist? He wished. What he saw was a group of people who worked well together and did their jobs with the practice of long employment.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He found an out of the way corner from where he could see the doorway to the makeup room and punched the phone on. “Vega.”

“The cops are gone.” Malcolm said. “They left a right mess.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“I dropped the key off at your place. The doorman has it.”

“Thanks.”

“I got news.” Malcolm’s voice held the excited quiver of a boy who’d pulled the prize from a cereal box.

“Yeah?”

“That background you wanted on Mi?”

With an eye on the doorway, he rolled up to the balls of his feet, his body tensing. “Yeah.”

“There’s no record of her ever having a child.”

He relaxed back down to his heels, but the tension stayed with him. There was more.

“She’s never been appointed a legal guardian either.”

“Just cut to it,” Lucas ground out.

“The only record I could find of a child close to her was a brother born about fourteen years ago. Ethan Derek Easley born July twenty-nine died six months later on January eleven. Cause of death was listed as SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.”

Lucas thought about the recent photo of Mi and the older woman with a baby in a park. The car seat. The crib. He hadn’t bought her explanation about buying those things for Lucy at rummage sales. They’d looked used. And often. Unless she babysat regularly it just didn’t add up.

“Anything else?”

“She makes a very decent income, but her bank balance is pathetically low. She has little debt other than her house. No savings. I can’t find where her money actually goes. But whatever she’s spending it on, she’s paying cash, leaving no credit trail.” Malcolm let the end of the sentence hang with all kinds of supposition tacked onto it— gambling, drugs, the list went on and on. None of it was good.

Fuck.

“You want me to keep digging?”

That sick feeling he’d gotten, when Vanessa had thrown herself to her knees in front of him begging him to forgive her, dropped into his belly and lay there like a pile of lumber, hard and unrelenting.

“No,” he managed. She would have to confide in him on her own.

“Sorry, man.”

“Yeah.”
Me too,
he silently added. “Thanks. I owe you.”

“No. I think giving this kind of news is a favor that should never be repaid.” Malcolm hung up.

He shoved his phone deep into his pocket and took a moment to wipe the disappointment from his face. He almost wished he hadn’t asked Malcolm to check out Mi. Almost.

He clamped down his emotions, trying not to acknowledge how hard disillusionment rode him. Sifting through the information Malcolm had provided, he compared it with what he’d seen, heard, and surmised about Mi. What was she hiding? And how much of what she was keeping to herself was going to turn around and bite him in the ass?

Mi came out of the makeup room and glanced around until she spotted him. She smiled, her face lit with what looked like genuine pleasure at the sight of him. His forehead hurt and he realized he was scowling back at her. As she neared, he lost all perspective, his vision narrowing down to a point that began and ended with her as though she were a single candle in a darkened room. She came even with him and he realized he’d forgotten to breathe. With his sudden intake of air came the recognition that this tiny woman could do him more harm than a grenade strapped to his chest. It scared him even more that he might be willing to take that risk.

“I’m ready to go.” She glanced around the studio. “Is Cal still here?”

“No.”

“Oh.” She frowned and worried her lip, her gaze darting away. She seemed to be struggling over what to say next. “I… I’m still not quite comfortable with how this works.” She made a back and forth motion between them. “I have plans to have dinner with Lucy tonight. I almost forgot until she just texted me.” She held out her phone, the screen dark. “I can cancel.”

“Up to you.”

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“Hey, Mi,” one of the crew guys interrupted. “Crosby wants to see you in his office.”

“Thanks, Will.”

Lucas trailed after Mi, contemplating calling Cal to ask him to put someone else on Mi. But no. He owed Cal and he’d given his friend his word. Lucas never went back on his word. Never. He’d have to find another way to deal with Mi’s deceit. Remembering what he was there to do was a start. Keeping his hands off her and his mind from fantasizing about the things he’d like to do for her… to her… with her… would be near impossible.

They rounded the corner and a man Lucas had never seen before sat in the visitor’s chair in Crosby’s office. He automatically went for his weapon, stilling when Mi put a hand out to stop him. She recognized the man.

“My brother, Jason.”

It took a moment for Lucas to peg the blond-haired kid now grown from the photos at Mi’s house. There was no resemblance between them at all. Where Mi was dark, he was fair. She was petite almost fragile looking, he was tall and broad shouldered. They might be siblings, but they looked nothing alike.

Mi halted in the doorway and cast a quick worried glance back over her shoulder at Lucas before addressing her brother. “What are you doing here?”

“Doing you a damn favor,” Jason snapped. “The least you could do is not make me wait. I’ve got a life, you know.”

“Sorry. I didn’t know you were here. No one told me.”

“Whatever.” He waved a hand toward Lucas, his lip curling in a sneer. “Who’s big, tall, and grouchy?”

She glanced back and forth between the two men, clearly not wanting to make introductions.

Lucas wasn’t going to make things easy on her. He stuck out his hand. “Lucas Vega.”

“My boyfriend,” Mi finished.

Rising from his chair, Jason ignored Lucas’s hand. He stood nearly half a foot shorter than Lucas. But he used his height advantage against Mi, crowding and intimidating her. The punk.

“Boyfriend? Damn it, Mi.
This
is why you called me all desperate for my help? I’ve got better things to do than babysit a crazy lady so you can screw around with the Hulk here.”

Lucas wedged himself between Mi and her brother, putting her behind him, and turned his own height advantage against Jason. “You’re going to want to watch how you speak to your sister.”

Jason hitched himself up, assessing Lucas and his chances against him. “What are you, her body guard?”

Lucas felt Mi flinch behind him. He took an aggressive, last warning step toward Jason, backing him up a couple of paces.

Jason leaned around Lucas, careful not to touch him. “Call your dog off, Mi or I’m outta here and you’re on your own.”

Mi gripped Lucas’s arm, trying to pull him away from Jason. “Please. It’s okay. Let me talk to him.”

Lucas spared Jason one last look of reproof, then turned his attention to Mi. “I don’t like him.”

“Feeling’s mutual,” Jason muttered behind him.

“He’s an ass. But he’s your brother.” Lucas continued, then turned back to Jason. “You’re going to watch how you treat your sister. Got me? I’ll be right outside if you need me,” he said to Mi as he left.

Mi watched as Lucas shut the door behind him. She put a hand against it to make sure it was fully closed and took a deep, steadying breath before she dealt with her brother.

“What the fuck, Mi? You call me—”

“Keep your voice down,” she scolded. He might be bigger than she, but she was the oldest.

“You call me—” he began again in a lower tone. “—to help with mom so you can run around with your new boyfriend. What. The. Fuck. Mi. I have a life, too. A job. You know I hate it when you drag me into mom’s shit.”

“I didn’t drag you into mom’s shit—as you put it—for no reason. There’s…” Mi didn’t know how much she could tell Jason, if anything at all. He was her brother, but the sad fact was he wasn’t reliable unless it suited his mood or there was something in it for him. She’d called him out of sheer desperation. He’d agreed reluctantly. His cooperation always came with an expiration date. It looked like time was up.

“You’re the worst liar,” he accused.

“Why can’t you just help me for once? Give me a break. She’s your mother, too.”

“You know I can’t pretend like you do. I hate it, Mi.
Hate
it.”

“I’m not asking you to pretend.”

He laughed, a smug, know-it-all chuckle that chipped away at Mi’s nerves like an ice pick. “I can’t believe we’re related.”

“
Please
, Jas.”

His face transformed, turning sharp and calculating. A coldness crept over her and she wondered not for the first time why she continued to protect him. He thought she was an idiot. If he only knew how much he owed her, how she kept the secret that provided him the
life
he so coveted. How much she’d sacrificed for them all.

“Put in a good word for me with that chick you were just talking to,” he said.

“Who? Tracey?”

“I don’t know her name. Brown hair, big boobs, a mouth that looks like it could suck—”

“Stop!”

“Whatever. You don’t need my help
that
bad, I guess.”

He made to go around her and out the door, but she put a hand on his arm, stopping him. She looked up into the same winter-blue sky eyes their mother had and couldn’t stop the bending of her heart. He was her brother. The only brother she had left. She’d do anything for him. Too bad the feeling wasn’t mutual.

“Tracey’s my friend.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and she noticed he’d been working out, bulking up. Not that he ever needed help with the ladies. He was way too handsome for his own good. Women swarmed like flies to horse manure, which she was sure he was shoveling her direction now.

“Since when do you need help talking to a woman?” she asked.

“I don’t.”

“So what gives?”

“If you don’t want my help, I’ll just go talk to her myself.”

Now she got it. It wasn’t about his needing an introduction, it was about who was in control. Him. It was her fault he was the way he was. She’d done the best she could raising him, but her best wasn’t even close to good enough. He’d grown up in a household out of control. She could hardly blame him now for trying to claim a little control where he could. Even if it cost her.