Page 19 of Tell Me

“What’s that?”

He leaned toward me, placing his forehead against mine so that our noses brushed, tip to tip. “Why are you here, Brooks? Tell me why you came back.”

The pieces of my heart broke anew at that, because I knew what he wanted to hear. And I knew what I wanted to tell him. I could say that I’d come back for him because I missed him like I’d left a piece of myself in New Orleans. That I’d been searching for years to find a man who touched me the way he did or protected me as he once had, and that I’d never been able to find anyone like that. I could have said I’d come running back to him because I finally realized that no one would be able to walk in his shoes, though many had tried and though I’d finally figured out how to take care of myself rather than leaning on someone else.

I could have said I’d finally realized that I loved him and didn’t want to live without him.

Except that certainly wasn’t why I’d come back.

Or maybe it was. But I wasn’t going to tell him so.

“Because I need a favor,” I finally said.

He tensed like he already knew I wasn’t going to give him what he wanted, and I could almost see the mask slide neatly over his face again. “A favor of what?”

“An army. My friends in New York are in trouble, and I came home because I need the soldiers to save them.”

There. It was out in the open and I couldn’t take it back.

And now I’d see whether he was going to step in and save me one more time... or if he was going to prove that he was just as useless to me as my father had always been.

16

LUCIEN

The world around me, already dark with shadow and spirits, went even darker. Moments ago I’d been aflame with desperate need for her, my body quivering with adrenaline and lust at how close she was. I’d felt the hum that had always existed between us and had known in my soul that the universe had led us back together for a reason.

I’d thought we might be that reason.

I never would have dreamed it was a bunch of friends in New York who needed help.

My heart, which had been growing by inches since I first took her in my arms, shrank so quickly that I felt like I might be having a heart attack, nearly sending me to my knees on that cold stone floor. Brooks hadn’t come down here for me. She hadn’t come running back into my arms with promises on her lips about never leaving again.

She hadn’t been gone for ten years agonizing over the boy she’d left behind and biding her time until she could come back for him.

Not that I’d ever thought she was doing that. Even then, she’d been headstrong and full of herself. A girl who knew exactly what she wanted and didn’t hesitate to tell everyone around her that she deserved it. She might be more confident and quicker with a gun these days and be sporting a mane full of red hair, but she’d always known, deep down, who she was. She wasn’t the sort of girl, even then, who questioned her decisions. I’d never believed she was in New York pining away for me.

But I had sort of hoped for it.

Now...

Now, I knew she hadn’t been thinking about me at all. She’d been making a life in New York with a bunch of people that I’d never met. She had friends she’d do anything for, including coming back to a city she’d run from years ago and facing enemies she hadn’t known existed.

“I went to my father first,” she said quickly. “I didn’t know what I’d find there but I had to.”

I pulled her close to me again, my voice little more than a whisper in the dark. “And let me guess. He told you it wasn’t his problem.”

“More or less.” Her voice was wry, but also raw, and I had a quick memory of her trying to speak to her father when she was younger and being shoved away for her trouble. Dominick Landry had never had much use for his daughter or her opinions.

Until he found a way to use her.

Trying to use her had led directly to him losing her, but I doubted he’d worried too much about that. He still had her brother, Beau, and her cousin to bargain with. And from what I’d been hearing, he was already close to a deal on Camille.

I wondered if the girl knew. I wondered if Brooks did.

“He didn’t even let me finish,” she continued, and now her voice was stronger, the disgust more clear in her tone. “Acted like I didn’t know what I was doing.”

I pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. “He’s never known a good thing when he had it.”

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