Page 24 of Coming Home (The Surrender Trilogy 3)
because there’s an article on page six of the business section. I’ve already been to the police. Dugan
handled the rest. No more interviews will be given regarding your personal life.”
Damn it!
He suddenly looked around the small entryway. “What is this place?”
“It’s my home.”
His brow kinked. “Since when?”
“A few days ago.”
Letting out an aggravated huff, his expression turned defeated. She didn’t like seeing him like that.
He reached for her hand and she allowed the contact. His fingers ran over the crest of her knuckles.
“Tell me what happened,” he said with gentle patience.
Scout drew in a deep breath and attempted to set him at ease. “I was heading home from work and
as I turned into the alley, I accidentally walked up on two guys making a drug deal.”
His eyes narrowed. Under his breath he said, “We won’t touch the fact that I didn’t know where
home was or work currently is. Go on.”
She swallowed. “They saw me and when I tried to turn and leave, they wouldn’t let me go.”
His hands tightened over hers. “Then what happened?” he asked through clenched teeth.
God, he was going to freak. “One guy blocked my way and I punched him in the nose. I put him on
the ground, but the other guy grabbed me.”
“Motherfucker,” Lucian hissed.
“He only tried to . . . but I got him down too. Then Elliot showed up and called the cops.”
“Who the fuck is Elliot?”
“He runs the insurance office. We share the building.”
Lucian turned like a viper on her. “This man is a friend of yours?”
She rolled her eyes. “I was introduced to him yesterday, and you should be grateful. He called the
cops.”
“He also gave away enough personal information that I could tell it was you in the paper!” His
expression turned sympathetic. “You handled the cops on your own?”
He wasn’t asking because he thought her incapable, but more because he knew how much she feared
officers of the law. Her smile was shaky, but proud as she nodded. “I did.”
“I would have come. All you had to do was call and I would have taken care of everything.”
Her gaze lowered to her bare feet. “I know. But this was something I needed to handle for myself.
Don’t you see, Lucian? I need to start depending on me first. I can’t run to you every time life gets
hard.”
“Why not?”
“Because we aren’t together anymore.”
His gaze held hers for a long minute. “But you let some stranger help you.”
“I didn’t ask for his help. I screamed and he showed up.”
“You screamed?” he rasped.
“I was scared,” she confessed quietly.
“Jesus, Evelyn,” he whispered. His lips thinned, as he appeared to battle the impulse to do
something. She wasn’t sure if that something was kissing her or throttling her. Neither was welcome
at the moment. She withdrew her fingers from his tight hold.
Nodding tightly, he stood. “You’re changing.”
Her head slowly shook. “No, Lucian, my circumstances are. This is who I’ve always been. You
simply covered it up with fancy dresses and jewelry.”
“Don’t act like all we had was some superficial arrangement. You know it was more than that.”
“It was, but now it’s over. I have to do for me and I can’t do that worrying about you.”
“How do you shut it off, the worry?”
I don’t. She worried about him constantly; whether he was lonely, sad, taking care of himself.
Although Lucian had the world at his fingertips, he only had a small circle of people he could really
trust. “I just do.”
“I don’t know what hurts more,” he said. “Worrying about you or knowing you don’t worry about
me.” He laughed without humor. “I’m supposed to be the hard one, Evelyn.”
“I was never soft.”
His onyx eyes drilled into hers. “You’re everything soft, everything gentle. No one said you
couldn’t be strong too. Why do you assume I can’t see your strength?”
She stilled. She didn’t know why she thought that, but she did. Since they broke up, she created a
list of faults in their relationship that didn’t necessarily mesh with what they shared. Anger toward
Parker resurfaced as she contemplated all the negative thoughts he had put in her head. She didn’t
know what to believe anymore, what was real and what was fabricated by her bruised ego.
“Do you see me as strong?”
His brows shot up. “You have as much, if not more, determination than me, Evelyn. It’s one of the
things I love most about you, but you refuse to believe that. I don’t admire weak-willed people. Look
at how far you’ve come . . . Sometimes I worry you’re so strong willed you’ll actually get to a point
that you don’t need me. I need you to need me.”
And she needed independence. “Lucian . . .” What could she say? They were at an impasse. Aside
from all their other issues, they were simply too broken to fix. She’d thought they were too different, but maybe the problem was they were too alike.
