Page 63 of Midnight Secrets

I sat at the table because I didn’t know what to do. Jordan had always been an ally. Ash had been my lover and confidant. Now, I was left with anger and resentment. Francis set a plate in front of me and a pot of tea a few minutes later. My throat felt sore from all the crying and it hurt to swallow. I forced it down by sipping my tea.

Ash seemed taller, his aura more menacing, a stranger inhabiting my lover’s body. When he saw me watching him, he turned his back to me and the ache in my heart increased. The expression in his eyes said he’d turned off everything he felt for me and was here only because of the money he’d invested.

Today, I discovered a new level of loneliness.

“You ready?” Jordan stood watching me at the kitchen door. “You’ll need to grab whatever you need to sort all this out. Ash had the pieces and the display sent to the exhibition hall. I tagged them all before they went.”

“I can’t do this,” I whispered before biting into my trembling bottom lip.

“You should have considered that before signing a business contract and then running away and hiding.” He gave me the big brother stare he’d mastered years ago. “We need to go, we’re already behind.”

I didn’t want to ask about Ash, since Jordan was making it clear that he was taking me. Not knowing what to take, I put my laptop and tablet in my bag and joined him in the hall. The first half of the drive was stony silence before Jordan’s temper snapped.

“You lied to me, Lucy. I thought we were family.”

I watched out the window with unseeing eyes. “I was hurt and confused.”

“And that allowed you to act like a child?”

I wanted to deny that, but I was starting to view my behaviour through their eyes. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me,” he grated out. “I walked away from the woman I loved to keep her safe. I’ve buried my emotions for the greater good and to ensure the protection of others. The guys and me spend our days running around fixing problems that keep increasing. Cassandra nearly died the other night, only we saved her. Then you decide to be a fucking diva and go missing when we were exhausted and already on edge.”

“I…”

“Enough!” Jordan almost shouted. “I expected better from you, Lucrezia. I don’t know or want to know what has been going on between you and Ash, but he didn’t deserve what you did to him. He’s moved heaven and earth to help you, and what do you do when he’s at his lowest point? You kick him and walk away.”

Jordan never called me by my full name. The weight of his displeasure crushed me, especially since he was the one always on my side.

“Why was Ash at his lowest point?” I finally asked, my hands grasped together in my lap.

Jordan pulled the car over and stopped. He turned to stare at me. “Do you really want to know? Because Lucas has kept you all hidden from the real world for too long. We live in a world of darkness and death, Lucrezia. Sometimes it comes too close to home.”

I stared at him, chewing the side of my mouth. “No matter how many times I asked Ash, he constantly told me that I didn’t need to know, even when I knew he was in pain.”

“Lucas runs an international organisation that is less than legal. He opposes another similar organisation that our families sit on. Ash’s father is brutal and ruthless. He abused him from an early age to make him strong. Ash’s brother Michael has been sentenced to death and the order has been signed by his father who is chairperson on our Council. On top of that, he has to deal with his mother, who is slowly sinking into alcoholism.”

I sat in stunned silence. Ash never alluded to a happy childhood and I knew his father had a lot of affairs, but nothing like this. Shame washed over me.

“The night before you went walkabout, we had to rescue Xavier’s girlfriend because she’d been abducted. She has a fractured rib and is on bed rest. Can you imagine what you put me and Ash through when you ran away?” His expression was ferocious and I sank back into my seat. “I could fucking strangle you, Lucrezia.”

He gripped the steering wheel and stared out the windscreen in silence.

There was no point in me speaking because right now it wouldn’t matter what I said, he would probably tear my head off and throw it out the window. So I sat here and remained silent, contemplating everything that he’d told me. Maybe I’d been a bit hasty with my decision the other day, but I’d been hurt and vulnerable.

Minutes ticked past until Jordan cursed and slammed his fist into the steering wheel before starting the engine. He drove like a maniac possessed by a speed demon, while my fingernails dug into upholstery to try and anchor myself.

I trailed behind Jordan into the side entrance of the exhibition area like a naughty child being punished by their parent. Ash should have been with me. We’d planned to do this and go for lunch in a restaurant he knew beside the river. My heart fractured even further.

A security guard stepped forward to frisk Jordan. “I don’t fucking think so,” he snapped. “My own security men are already here. I’m carrying a firearm for her protection.” Jordan nodded in my direction before grabbing my wrist and hauling me behind him.

The expression and open mouth of the security guard would be hilarious at any other time, but today nothing felt humorous.

My feet stopped even before we made it to my display booth. I’d seen pieces of it, but never the entire display. A huge spherical moonstone was the central focus, with smaller crystals depicting the anatomy of the moon. A pool was created across the table in various green and blue crystals with pearls dispersed through it. He’d captured every element we’d discussed in our long phone calls.

My heart broke for an entirely different reason. No one would go to this much trouble for someone they didn’t care about.

Jordan was chatting to a beautiful, tall woman with deep red hair and bright blue eyes. He waved me over. “This is Annabelle. She’s the artist Ash employed to put this together.”

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