Page 83 of No More Secrets

“Leave him alone,” she screams, running toward him. Then he sees her, Sophie. She brought the police. He knew she wouldn’t have waited for him to return and explain, but he hoped she would have given him the chance. He’s such a fool. He should know not to put his faith in anyone. It always backfires on him.

Sophie grabs Shiloh’s arm, drawing her away from him, and Lucas wants to strangle the woman for touching her.

The cops wrestle him to hold still as one attempts to cuff him. But all Lucas can feel are their hands. Hands, hands, everywhere, and his skin starts to crawl. His blood begins to boil. He yells at them to back off, which only pisses them off.

Beside him the audience rises like a wave to watch him. He feels the cameras on him. Then he hears Felix over the speaker ask what’s going on, and he knows Lily can see everything from her vantage onstage. Nausea floods his stomach, and his limbs weaken with utter humiliation. He’s so incredibly sorry she’s witnessing this. That he’s the cause of any embarrassment and humiliation she has to be feeling. He’s ruining her event.

A cop gets in his face. “On your knees.”

“Leave him alone,” Olivia yells, and his eyes burn like blisters with unshed tears. Lily strides across the stage toward him, her expression muddled from confusion and accusation, and he’s absolutely mortified. Once again, he’s failed her.

Shiloh slips free of Sophie’s grasp and shoots over toward him. “Lucas! Lucas!” His heart cracking, he wants to shout for Sophie to take her away. He doesn’t want her to see him like this. But the officers on his sides grab his arms, yanking them behind his back. His shoulders burn with the force. He grimaces.

“Don’t hurt him. Don’t hurt him.”

He jerks his head toward Shiloh. Their gazes meet, and the fear he sees in hers pierces his chest. He’s failed her, too. He’s such adisappointment. “I’m sorry.” His body slackens, and he drops to his knees. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

“No!” Shiloh screams. She starts to cry. Sophie grabs her from behind and tries to drag her away. Shiloh cries harder, fighting Sophie.

His need to protect her instinctual, Lucas struggles against the cops restraining him.

“Don’t fight, Luc,” Olivia yells. She pushes people aside to get to him. The officer who was behind him rushes over to restrain her. “Get your hands off me.” She dodges him, retrieving her phone. “I’m calling my attorney, Luc. I’ll take care of you. I’ve got you.”

He wants to believe she can, but the law has screwed him over before.

“This is your fault. Your fault,” Shiloh wails at Sophie. Tears plummet down her cheeks. Lucas squeezes his eyes. He can’t bear that he’s the cause of her agony.

“What’s happening?” Lily asks from the stage, and her voice almost kills him until he hears, “You. What did you do?”

Thinking she’s asking him, he braves facing her. Though no amount of apologizing will ever make up for what he’s done to her here. He’s ruined her event. He’s made a mockery of their family. But Lily isn’t looking at him. She’s glaring at Sophie.

“I’m sorry, Jenna. I didn’t have a choice.”

Olivia swings her head in their direction. Her mouth falls open. Lucas watches them. What is going on here?

“You are so wrong about that,” Lily says, coming off the stage. Her expression is outraged. “This is not what we hired you to do.”

Her words smack him in the face. His head snaps back.What the fuck?They know Sophie? His gaze whips between Sophie and his sisters as he scrambles to catch up with what’s happening around him, and the sickening feeling of betrayal slides in. His sisters hired Sophie to what, arrest him?

“She called the cops?” Olivia points in shock at Sophie with her phone and it careens into him. She’s just as baffled.

“You weren’t supposed to interact or intercede,” Lily accuses.

“I know, I can explain,” Sophie pleads. She tries to move Shiloh away, but Shiloh won’t budge.

“That explains why she never returned our calls,” Olivia says.

The police force him to the ground, pressing his cheek into the concrete. Memories lash his mind like a leather whip slicing his back. It takes everything in him not to go berserk and create more of a scene than he already has. He bites down on the cries of agony filling his throat. Shiloh will remember this for the rest of her life. She’ll never trust men again. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he repeats over and over, glancing from her then to Lily when she comes into his line of sight. His face crumples. None of them should have to see him like this. Weak and broken, vibrating with shame and rage. After years apart from his sister, he’s manhandled to the ground in front of a live audience.

Shiloh wails for him, and he silently cries for her. They’ll send her back to Ellis, and Lucas will be locked up. He won’t be able to help her.

An officer plants a knee in Lucas’s back, and he finally feels the cold metal of the cuffs as they are locked tightly on his wrists. He grimaces with pain and humiliation. “I’m sorry,” he cries, looking from Lily, to Olivia, then to Shiloh. “I’m sorry.”

The cop pulls hard on the cuffs to check they’re secure, further straining Lucas’s shoulders, and he bellows.

“You’re hurting him,” Shiloh wails. “Stop hurting him.”

“That’s my brother,” Lily shouts, shoving the stage crew aside as she tries to reach him. “Leave him alone.”

---