Page 122 of Tactically Acquired

Fury swept through me with every step I took. No one was supposed to know about my condition until I was ready to reveal it, and it had nothing to do with being ashamed or wanting tohide it from the world. I had to keep it hidden for Spencer so he didn’t get sued because of his contract. We lied to the studio, and they would know as soon as word got out.

The back door of the SUV opened and I was shoved inside. Spencer got in the other side, shooting me an apologetic look. Slider followed, not taking the front like he had before.

“Drive!” he ordered. Then he spun on me and I could feel his heated gaze washing over me. “You lied to me.”

“I did not?—”

“You fucking lied to me!” he shouted.

I flinched back, tucking myself against Spencer. I wasn’t scared of Slider really, but his anger was unhinged at the moment. “I did not lie to you,” I said calmly. “It wasn’t your right to know.”

“Know what?” Thumper asked. “What the hell is going on?”

The SUV pulled out into traffic and we headed down the road. I had no idea where we were going, but it wasn’t like I could ask right now. Slider was on the verge of throttling me.

“You should have told me. I had a right to know.”

I laughed at that. “Really? You had a right to know? Why’s that?”

“Because of what we are to each other!”

It was interesting that now I meant something to him. “What we are to each other now, or before when I was in your bed?”

32

SLIDER

I flinched at her words, knowing she was right. I had shoved her away, so what right did I have to be angry that she didn’t tell me about this? But damn…this was something that I needed to know for the job, as well as for myself.

“We all needed to know it,” I argued, choosing to take the safer route. I was struggling to maintain my anger. My whole body was shaking as I stared at her, wondering just how bad her vision was and if she could even see me.

“Know what?” Thumper asked. “What the fuck happened?”

“She’s blind,” Rae blurted out.

“You knew?” I snapped. She was in there, but the way she said it…

“I suspected. That’s not the same thing as knowing she was blind.”

“Not blind,” Audrey corrected. “Going blind.”

“Holy shit,” Thumper muttered.

“We should have fucking known. That’s something that could have put us all in jeopardy,” I argued.

“I didn’t let anyone know,” she snapped.

No, that wasn’t right. Now that I thought back, there was one person who knew. It all made sense now. How Spencer heldher hand whenever they went somewhere. Why he was always barging into the room and checking up on her. He knew about her condition and that she would need help, and since no one else was aware of what was going on, he was there to hide it for her like a dirty little secret.

“You both knew,” I said, tempering my anger. “He knew the whole fucking time that this was going on. It’s why he held your hand whenever you went somewhere.”

“We’ve gotten along fine for years.”

“And why you want him to move on,” I continued. “He’s been around for too long, taking care of you and doing movies with you. How the hell did you even pull it off?”

Spencer sighed heavily, rubbing his hand across his forehead. “Can we table this until later? We have bigger things to worry about right now.”

“Bigger than our client being blind and not telling us?” Rae snapped.

---