Page 82 of Blind Luck

“Clever.”

“More subtle than ‘rot in hell,’ anyway.” She sighed. “It’s so easy to fall into the trap. Growing up, I thought it was normal for men to act that way—we all did. Booker’s best friend was the first person to realise what my father was really like, and the three of us—and Huck—spent years plotting our escape. Getting Kitty out was the problem. We didn’t have the resources then that I have now.”

“Kitty?”

“Dad’s second wife.”

“Couldn’t your mom help? I mean, if she’d gotten away…”

“I found her hanging from the banister when I was eight.”

The words were delivered matter-of-factly, no emotion behind them, but they still hit like a punch to the gut. Dusk’s mom had died by suicide? My heart ached for the little girl she’d been, the one who’d lost her childhood to a monster, and before I could think better of it, I gave her a hug.

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s in the past,” she mumbled against my shoulder.

“Your brother’s friend sounds like a real stand-up guy.”

“He was. I still miss him.”

Oh, hell. “Tell me he didn’t die too?”

Dusk gave a strangled laugh as she extricated herself from my arms. “Our lives spiralled in different directions, that’s all. I joined the Army; he moved to Los Angeles.”

“That was a big step.”

She nodded. “He never wanted to stay in Nebraska, and originally, we were going to move to New York—he was an artist, and he’d been talking to some big-name agent about his own show. We had so many dreams.” She gave a sad smile. “Then the show fell through, and a buddy from high school landed a job in California, so he figured he’d try living somewhere warmer while I did my three years.”

“You were dating?”

“Oh, yeah, we were engaged. He was the love of my damn life.”

“So what happened?”

“Three years can change a person. At the end of it, we’d both been offered roles we couldn’t turn down.”

“And yours meant working with Jerry and Priest?”

“No, the Choir didn’t even exist then.” The Choir? That’s what their group was called? “He wanted me to quit, come live the Hollywood dream, but that was his dream, not mine. And I’d never ask him to give it up, so…”

“So you walked away?”

“I walked away.”

“When you say ‘the Hollywood dream’… Was he an actor?”

“If I told you his name, you’d recognise it. But like I said, it’s in the past.” Her eyes glistened as she turned back to the screen. “Jace Fuller reminds me so much of my dad.”

But there were also definite differences in the relationship. From the snippets Dusk had let slip, her father had preyed on young women, charming them with bullshit and dazzling them with money. But Selene hadn’t needed money because she’d inherited her own, or so the gossip pages said, anyway. Like Dusk’s mysterious fiancé, Selene’s grandfather had been an artist, and even while he was alive, his paintings had sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now they were worth millions. Modern art in bright colours, pop art, cubism, and occasionally collage. Selene had been his assistant and sole heir.

Photos showed her in his studio, at gallery shows, even creating artwork of her own, and in those days, she’d always been ready with a genuine smile. Then she’d married Jace Fuller and more or less disappeared from public life, only popping up on his arm at the occasional event.

Now I understood why Dusk had spent every day with us since the GHB incident. She saw her mom in Selene, except these days, she had the ability to launch a rescue.

Assuming Selene wanted to be rescued, of course.

There was still a question mark over that.

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