Page 29 of Now You See Him
Tina turned in a slow circle and looked up and down the hallway, as if she was trying to gauge whether or not she was being pranked. “Yes? Why do you ask?”
There was the sound of a beep, similar to what she’d heard at the hospital entrance. “Your car is in the ER parking lot. I recognized the New York plates. I thought that maybe Damien had done something?—”
“He did, but not to me.” Tina could hear the squeak of his shoes as if he was walking fast over linoleum flooring. “Wait, are you here? At the hospital?”
“Yes.” There was an echo, and she turned just in time to see Derrick rounding the corner and striding down the hallway. He held up his phone, then turned it off just as she did the same. His gaze ran over her from head to toe as if he was assessing for injuries.
“What are you doing here?” she said, her belly warming at the sight of him. His hair was disheveled, his face covered in scruff. She may not have had the history with Derrick that she had with Logan, but there was an attraction she’d never experienced with her fiancé. After spending an hour trying to seduce Logan, it was painfully obvious to her that their memories were well in the past, and it was hard for her to think of those moments as anything but two friends connecting.
“I have a crew member whose wife had a baby, so I was here visiting.” His voice became low, and the deep rumble had her arms prickling with awareness as he stepped close, almost too close for polite company. “I went outside to get in my truck and go home when I saw your car. What happened?”
Tina looked around and spotted an empty exam room. After canvassing the hallway for any nurses or patient visitors, she gripped Derrick’s wrist and dragged him inside the room before shutting the door. She walked over to the bathroom to peek inside before she crossed to Derrick again and stook a few inches apart. She was close enough to touch, but far enough that she could still have a conversation without getting distracted.
“Logan was injured.”
There was that flicker of awareness, then his expression changed to curious detachment. “Oh, okay. Hope everything’s okay?—”
“He’s the same Logan that went to high school with both of you,” Tina said as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I saw his yearbook at his parents’ house tonight when we were over there for dinner.”
“Shit,” Derrick said with a sigh. He propped his hands on his hips and hung his head. “I can’t believe that bastard is back in town. I’d really hoped it was someone different when you told me his name, but I knew I couldn’t be that lucky.”
Tina felt like she should defend him. He was, after all, someone that she’d chosen to spend the last six years of her life with, and Derrick’s judgment meant that she was the one with poor taste and questionable choices. “I need to know what history you guys have, because Damien didn’t like it when we?—”
Derrick’s head jerked as he focused on her face, his eyes blazing. “When you did what?”
Tina had to fight a shiver. “I wanted to see if Damien was actually targeting Logan or me,” she said. “I set out to seduce Logan. Damien didn’t like it when we kissed and I took off my top, so he flung my fiancé against the wall. The hit knocked Logan unconscious. He has a broken arm because of it.”
“Good.”
The word was said with such viciousness, Tina jerked back. “Why is itgood?”
Derrick’s expression didn’t change. “I don’t like that prick touching you. And if it’s the first time this has happened, I’m assuming it’s because you still aren’t fucking on a regular basis.”
The brief hint of possessiveness in his voice made her cheeks grow warm. “We aren’t. Derrick, this means Logan is involved. Or it means that your brother’s spirit is getting stronger.”
Derrick rubbed his hands up and down her arms. “Sweetheart?—”
“Tell me why you don’t like Logan,” Tina insisted. “Tell me why Damien doesn’t like him. I need to know.”
“Tina…”
“Derrick,” she said, her voice hardening.
He let out a long sigh, then his hands stroked down her arms. When they fell away, Tina shivered at the loss of contact. “Logan dated the same girl from middle school through high school. Then they had a falling-out in senior year. She didn’t want to go to New York, and Logan did. When their relationship ended, Lucia immediately started dating my brother. Damien was…reckless. He hated Logan’s pompous rich-boy attitude, and he did it in part because he wanted to fuck with Logan, but also because he’d always had a thing for Lucia.”
“Lucia as in…as in Damien’s ex-wife?”
“Yeah,” Derrick said.
Tina would’ve collapsed if Derrick hadn’t wrapped his arms around her waist and let her lean against his chest. Her knees were weak, and she felt lightheaded. Her fiancé was living in the very house that his high school sweetheart lived in. He had to know. Of course he knew. Why else would he have such strong feelings about living there? Why else would he throw tantrum after tantrum? What she didn’t understand was why Logan didn’t justtellher about Lucia?
“So, what, Logan and Damien had a fight over a girl?”
There was a long pause as Derrick stroked a hand up and down her back. “It’s more than that. Logan got my brother kicked off the football team. He set up this whole elaborate lie where he planted drugs in Damien’s locker so it looked like he was dealing. My twin was going to play college ball at Penn State, but after Logan’s prank, Penn State pulled out.”
“Oh my god.” Knowing that Logan was capable of such cruelty was more terrifying than the thought of a ghost in her home. This was someone’s future, someone’s life that her fiancé ruined. Then he’d just picked up and moved to New York as if he were this charming country boy taking on the big city.
“What happened to Lucia?”
