Page 7 of Final Cost

He told me he didn’t love me. Didn’t want me. Kicked me out.

Then sent people to protect me. Without telling me.

It doesn’t mean anything, I tell myself. Just another of his manipulations. Another patented Lucien Winter mind fuck. Just because he didn’t want Ravenna to have a clear shot at trying to kill me again doesn’t mean that he does give a fuck about me.

And yet…

I remember the night we met when the two of us talked for hours on the plane before I stretched out and went to sleep. I felt as though he might be watching over me. I felt…peaceful. Despite everything that’s happened between us since then, I’ve got to admit that it was a good feeling. I felt safe and protected because Lucien is not the kind of man to let things fall through the cracks. Not on his watch. Not if he can help it.

And I feel grateful and protected now.

“Thanks for the rescue, guys,” I say quietly. “I appreciate it. I’m not sure what would’ve happened if you hadn’t shown up when you did.”

Hank chuckles. “From what I saw? You did just fine with yourno comment. You strike me as the kind of person who does a pretty good job of taking care of herself. But Lucien can do it better.”

I repress a snort with difficulty.Sure, chief. Lucien’sgreatat protecting me. From outside forces, anyway. But protecting me from the damage thathecan cause? I put him firmly in the dismal failure category.

We turn a corner and it dawns on me that I have no idea where we’re going. “If you can just drop me off at the park, that would be great. I was headed for a jog.”

Hank shoots me anare you crazy?look over his shoulder. “No can do. You’re coming with us.”

My jaw drops. My gut lurches. “Say what, now?”

“Lucien wants us to bring you back to Ackerley as soon as you throw a few things in a bag,” Hank says.

This news hits me like a nice blast from a fireman’s hose straight to the face, and I react accordingly by making a choked sound. “Absolutely not. You can just let me out right here. I’ll be fine. Thanks for the help. Gotta go.”

Sighing, the men exchange a weary sidelong glance. Hank sends me a placating look. “I’m just trying to do my job, Tamsyn. I’ve got my orders.”

I hesitate for a beat or two, grappling with a furious jumble of words that I’m dying to let loose. This messy situation is not Hank’s fault. I know that. But I am so sick of the great and powerful Lucien Winter throwing his weight and money around and manipulating my life. I am so sick of being a tiny pawn piece on the massive chessboard of his life. Fuck this. He doesn’t get to kick me out on the curb and then swoop me back into his twisted world a few days later. There’s no way I can risk him looking into my eyes, which are bloodshot and swollen from all the buckets of heartbroken tears I’ve cried on his behalf. No way he gets to see the hollows and dark smudges from lack of sleep.

There’s no way in hell.

“You seem like a nice guy,” I tell Hank, deadly serious as I stare him in the face. “I understand that you’re just doing your job. But Iam notreturning to Ackerley under any circumstances. So unless you plan to kidnap me, your orders from Lucien fucking Winter sound like ayouproblem.”

The men both exhale a beleaguered sigh, then quickly cringe when Hank’s phone rings. “Speak of the devil,” Hank mutters, pulling it out and holding it to his ear with all the enthusiasm of a man raising a spitting cobra to his head. “Yeah, boss.”

Hank listens and shifts uncomfortably, his face losing some of its color. “Sorry it took so long to get back to— yeah, we got her. She’s fine. No, she’s fine. The paps jostled her a little, but it’s all good.” Hank listens again. I hear the rough bark of Lucien’s voice over the line but can’t make out his words. “Lucien. She’s okay. I swear. Not a scratch on her. Yeah, you’re right. We shouldn’t have let the paps get that close.” More listening. “Yeah, I’d prefer if you didn’t fire my ass, but we can talk about that later. We’ve got bigger problems right now. You were right. She says she’s not coming.”

I sit there impotently in the lengthy and fraught silence that follows, my thundering heart threatening to make me pass out. Lucien and I haven’t been this close since he dumped me. In no way, shape or form am I ready for this moment of having only one degree of separation between us. He’s suddenly way too close. Far too powerful with too much might on his side. And I don’t need to hear the exact wording of his eventual angry command from the other side of the phone to know what’s coming next. My dread spikes accordingly.

Hank holds out his phone to me, looking apologetic but resolute. “Lucien wants to talk to you.”

“No,” I say as firmly as I can, but I sound ridiculous to my own ears. Like a cranky toddler refusing to go down for her nap. “It’s not happening.”

Another booming communique issues from the phone. This time I have no difficulty hearing Lucien’s words. Hell, they can probably hear them all up and down Madison Avenue as we roll along.

“Put me on speaker.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

Hank hits a button and holds the phone toward me with asorry, but what can I do?shrug.

I freeze and resist the sudden wild urge to throw myself out of the moving car. Anything to get away from Lucien and whatever he’s got planned for me next.

“I know you can hear me, Ms. Scott,” he says with absolute calm and awful finality. The familiar sound of his deep voice rips open something deep inside me, causing it to bleed anew. I’ve missed him. I hate myself for it, but I have. Every day without him in my life has felt like a thousand years of seething purgatory. “You need to come back to Ackerley.”

I hike up my chin and turn away from the phone, as desperate to put some distance between us as I am to sound like a powerful adult woman rather than some heartbroken waif with no control over her own life and emotions. I’ve got to put some distance between myself and him if I hope to get my life back. “No thanks. I’m safe here.”

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