“I want you to stay away from Luca.”
I snap my eyes to his at his forceful tone. His expression is cold as he looks at me.
“Excuse me?” I ask, not sure I heard him correctly.
“Stay away from Luca. If he comes to the house, don’t open the door. He can wait until I’m here.”
Before I can stop my mouth from forming the words, they slip out. “You were supposed to be here, but you weren’t.”
His eyes narrow and his mouth forms a firm line before he growls. “I told you I was working.”
His anger both shocks and frightens me, and I sink back into the couch. I have no doubt his words are lies, especially since he’s not wearing the same clothes he was wearing when he left this morning to go to work. I’m sure he keeps a change of clothes in his car, because he can’t very well pick up a woman with grease on his jeans
.
Theo sees my frightened state and the hard look in his eyes softens. His head falls between his shoulders, and I watch as he pulls in several breaths before he looks back at me. The anger is gone and is replaced with worry and wariness.
“Just please do as I ask, Jules.”
“But why, Theo? He’s your brother.”
His nostrils flare, and I know he’s working at keeping his temper in check again.
“There are things that happened before your coma that you don’t know about.”
Luca’s words from his last visit to me in the hospital come back to me.
“There are things you don’t know. If you did, you wouldn’t want me here.”
They left me curious as to what he meant, but I didn’t know Luca enough to demand he tell me what he meant. There’s obviously something that I’m missing, and it has to do with me. It’s about time I know what it is.
I square my shoulders and look Theo straight in the eyes, letting my resolve show on my face.
“Tell me,” I command with a firm voice. I’m proud of myself because I’m normally meek and timid, but this crap is getting old. I’ve seen the way the brothers look at each other, like they want to do harm to the other. I assumed it was something that happened between them years ago, but I had no idea it had anything to do with me.
When I hold my eyes steady on Theo, silently telling him I’m not backing down, he exhales heavily. He puts his beer down and comes to sit beside me on the couch, a little too close for comfort, but I don’t let it bother me.
“Seven years ago,” he starts slowly. “It was Luca who attacked you.”
“What?” I say incredulously. I had to have heard him wrong. “But I thought you said we had never met. That no one knew we were together.”
“He was the only one, and it was by accident. Actually, I’m not sure how he found out about us.”
I twist my hands together. “But I don’t understand. He acts like he hadn’t met me until the hospital? And besides, why in the world would he attack me?”
The muscle in his jaw twitches and the hands hanging between his knees balls into fists.
“Because he found out about you and wanted you for himself. He’s obsessed, Jules, and not right in the head. When he learned we were married and leaving town, he went to your apartment and attacked you. By the time I found you, you were on the floor already knocked out from a head wound. He got into the wreck after leaving you and lost the last six weeks of his memory. That’s why he doesn’t remember.”
A fierce pounding starts in my head and works its way down my spine. I gasp and my heart stutters. My breathing becomes heavy, but no matter how much air I draw in, it doesn’t feel like enough. I blink rapidly when my vision becomes blurry. I shiver when coldness seeps into my bones, but I feel hot at the same time. Something fierce beats at my skull, as if it’s trying to get out.
All of a sudden, I’m pushed forward until my head is in between my knees.
“Breathe, Jules. Take in nice long breaths of air.”
I try to concentrate on Theo’s coaxing voice instead of the hard words he spoke only a moment ago. I close my eyes and will the panic away. I suck in a lungful of air and blow it out slowly as hands rub up and down my back. I repeat the exercise over and over again, until the dizziness and blurry vision subsides.
Moving slowly, I sit up. My head is still pounding, but it’s not as bad. My mouth feels like it was stuffed with cotton, so I grab Theo’s beer from the table in front of us and take a swallow, then almost gag at the bitter taste.