Page 4 of Ruin
As Lily goesto pack her things, I finally have a moment to talk to my brother alone.
“How bad was it?” I ask quietly, dreading the answer.
Daniel sighs, the smile that had been on his face moments ago slipping away. “When I found her, she was unconscious in a pool of blood. I could barely recognise her face. Apparently, Joseph somehow found out she had come back into contact with me and beat the living shit out of her before storming off to some function. I’m just glad that we’d made plans that day, otherwise who knows what would have happened after that? Seriously, who just leaves their wife unconscious to go socialise? He’s even more psychotic than I realised.”
From the ages of fifteen to twenty-three, the two of them had been inseparable, and Daniel had viewed her as the sister he’d never had. It must have killed him to see her like that.
I know it would have destroyed me.
“Howdidyou manage to get back into contact with her?” I ask, pushing aside the images my mind has conjured up.
I can’t bring myself to ask more questions about the state she’d been in when Daniel found her.
I feel guilty enough as it is.
“Joseph brought her to a charity dinner that I was at. It was a complete fluke. I slipped her my number before Jospeh could whisk her out of there once he saw me.”
Each time I think I couldn’t feel angrier, he divulges a new piece of information about the situation, and I discover there is actually no limit to how much anger I can feel.
After years of keeping my emotions in check, few things get under my skin, but Lily has always been one of them.
Although seeing any woman treated so abhorrently disgusts me, to have it happen to someone as vivacious and full of life as Lily once was makes it all the more rage-inducing.
I should have fought harder to keep her safe. To keep her away from the bastard. But she made her choice when she pushed us away when they married.
When she pushedmeaway.
“She’s different, Seb. I’ve been trying to get her to come out of her shell since she’s been here, but she’s like a ghost most of the time. There are still glimmers of her beneath the surface, though. I think the Brisbane club will be good for her. They’ll take care of her. I can just imagine Annika forcing her to have fun, whether she likes it or not.”
The Brisbane employees of Dark Desires have formed a little family, different from the other locations, where most of the employees keep to themselves. I don’t quite know why things happened differently in Brisbane, but I can’t imagine my life without them these days, even with the occasional dramatics that occur.
“Is that why you decided to finally tell me she was here? You thought she’d want to come to the Brisbane club, despite the fact she explicitly asked you not to tell me about all of this?”The knowledge that he’s kept this whole situation from me for three months still stings, even after she admitted it was because she was embarrassed for me to know.
“That and… Joseph saw her with me last night. I figured we’d need to get the lawyers involved now.”
I raise an eyebrow. “I thought she hadn’t left the club since you brought her here?”
Daniel’s shoulders sag, and he runs a hand over his face, looking weary. “I’d finally convinced her to come out for dinner with me. And she did so well. She only flinched a few times when the waiter brought us our meals and drinks. It wasn’t until we were leaving the restaurant and getting in the car that I saw him. He was sitting in a car across from the restaurant. I don’t know how long he was there, or how he knew we’d be at that restaurant. But it wouldn’t have been hard for someone to get the news to him. He’s got his finger in so many fucking pies, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out his family owned the bloody place.”
I resist the urge to hit something, instead clenching my hand in a fist before shaking it out.
“Does Lily know you saw him?”
He shakes his head. “Fuck no. No way was I telling her. But yeah, I knew as soon as she saw you, she’d want to go with you.”
I don’t know how he came to that conclusion, given how things went down between Lily and myself all those years ago.
Ever since she’d come into our lives when I was eighteen, things have been complicated between us. I kept her at arms length for seven and a half years, because nothing could ever happen between us. We are vastly different creatures, and I refused to be responsible for her downfall. Women like her don’t belong with men like me. It was why I’d made it clear tomy former friend that she was off limits. Because if I wasn’t good enough for her, than Joseph Sinclair was even less so.
Instead of heeding my words of warning though, he’d gone right for her, and she’d fallen under his spell. And he got exactly what he wanted. I haven’t spoken to him since the day he proposed to her, and my life has been better for his absence.
But not hers. Never hers.
Since the day I received a message telling me she wanted nothing to do with me, every day has been less bright without her light in it.
Shaking off the memories, I grimace, choosing not to voice my doubts about Lily wanting to go with me. I suspect it’s more because it’s out of Sydney, and at least she’ll know someone.
“Make sure they ramp up security at both locations. There’s no telling what he’ll do to get her back, and I don’t like the idea of leaving you here to deal with the fallout alone.”
