Need Me (Dark Obsession 3)

She shook her head. “I’m going to jail.”

“No.” Not happening. “Sophie is in a meeting with the district attorney now. He knows that Clark Eastbridge screwed the evidence, and in light of all the facts emerging…she thinks he’ll want to get this case out of the public eye as soon as possible. You’re the victim, Julianna. Not the deadly femme fatale.”

“I’m not either one.” Her gaze fell. “I’m just…me.”

His fingers slid under her chin. “Things are going to get better now. Faith has Hugh Bounty in custody.”

A furrow appeared between her brows.

“Heather’s boyfriend,” he told her. “The guy with the explosive’s experience.” The guy at the top of his suspect list for the car bombing and the attack at her home. What Devlin wouldn’t give to get that guy alone…

Too bad the fellow was currently surrounded by a dozen cops.

“Why was he in my house?”

“He was looking for something. Faith told me the upstairs area of the estate had been trashed.” He rolled his shoulders. “Maybe he thought he could steal some jewelry or some cash. I’m sure Heather gave him the full layout of the place, and when the cops arrived, the bedroom safe was open.”

“He said I…wasn’t supposed to be there.”

Maybe the bastard knew I was guarding you.

“You’re safe,” he told her and those words were a vow. “I’m with you, Julianna, and I’m not going any place.”

Her hand squeezed his. “You should. You should run from me.”

Not happening. “Baby, I—”

A knock sounded at the door. Then, seconds later, the door squeaked open. A woman poked her head inside, a woman with pale skin, blue eyes, and long, red hair. She stared at Julianna with shock on her face and fear in her eyes.

“Carly?” Julianna tried to sit up. “You shouldn’t be here. You—”

Carly stepped into the room. Then she ran to the bed. She grabbed Julianna and held her tight. “Ethan called me,” she said. “He told me…I’m so sorry! This is my fault. It’s all my fault.”

Julianna curled her arm around Carly as Devlin watched the two women. So this was the step-sister. The one Julianna had sacrificed so much for.

“It should have been me,” Carly said, squeezing Julianna even tighter. “Me.”

The machines were even louder, beeping even faster.

Devlin put his hand on Carly’s arm and pulled her away from the bed. She frowned at him. “Who are you?”

“I’m—” Shit, how was he supposed to answer that? Julianna’s lover? Her bodyguard? Both?

“He’s a friend,” Julianna said.

His brows snapped together at that response. He was more. Dammit.

“Carly, you shouldn’t be here,” Julianna said. “You don’t want to get pulled into this mess. I told you when the DA first filed charges…stay away.”

Carly’s body was tense. “You didn’t tell me that you stayed with that bastard because of me! That he was blackmailing you! I’ll go to the cops! I’ll tell them—”

“Yeah, you’re sisters,” Devlin muttered.

Carly’s brows wrinkled.

“You’ll incriminate Ethan,” Julianna said. “You’ll destroy everything you’ve built.”

“How is that different from what’s happening to you?” Carly demanded. “It’s not and—”

Julianna’s cheeks were flushed. Her heart beat too fast.

“That’s it.” He caught Carly’s wrist and dragged her from the room.

“Dev!” Julianna called after him.

He didn’t stop. He pulled Carly into the hallway and shut the door behind them. “You don’t do that.”

She backed up a step.

Okay, shit, he should go easier. She was Julianna’s family but…Julianna was everything. “She’s got a concussion. The woman fucking hates the hospital as it is. She has to stay calm and you can’t upset her.”

Carly slid back another step. “Who are you again?”

“I’m the man with Julianna.” He thought that said it all. “And no one is going to upset her, got it? So that means you don’t talk about going to the cops right now.” Had he seriously just said that? He had. “We clear this situation up, one problem at a time.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a VJS card. “Go talk to them. Ask for Chance or Lex. They’ll get you taken care of until Julianna is out of the hospital.”

Her fingers curled around the card. “Julianna told you…everything, didn’t she?”

He stared back at her. “I’m not the cops. I’m—”

“The man with Julianna. Right.” She tucked the card in her pocket. “I’m sorry.” Her voice was quiet. Hushed. “If I’d known, I would have turned myself in. I never would have let her get hurt for me.”

He believed her. “She was protecting you.”

“Who protects her?”

I do. From now on, that would be his job.

He turned away and reached for the door.

***

Julianna has been hurt so much. Too much. Carly Shay hurried toward the elevator. The last thing she’d ever wanted was to hurt Julianna and now—

The elevator doors opened.

Carly rushed inside and she hit…someone. Warm, strong hands flew up and wrapped around her shoulders. “Excuse me,” she said, glancing up quickly. “I didn’t mean—”

Ethan. Ethan Freaking Barclay.

Carly tried to step back, but he pulled her closer. The elevator doors shut behind her, sealing her inside that too small space with him.

“Carly,” he said and his voice was that perfect, dark temptation that she remembered. A temptation that she’d given into, once.

He was different now, though. The years had made him—harder? His face was sharper and his eyes were still that incredible gold, but they were glinting with angry emotion. Fury and—

“I guess the scars show I’m as twisted on the outside as I am on the inside,” he told her.

Scars?

Her gaze slid over his face. Now she realized that he did have scars. Two slashes, one across each cheek. She’d been staring into his eyes—she’d never seen anyone else with golden eyes like his—and she hadn’t even noticed those scars at first. “You aren’t twisted,” she said, the words coming before she even realized it.

But then, she’d always had a problem with Ethan. He made her want to do things, feel things, that she shouldn’t.

And I shouldn’t be here with him now. His touch was singeing her. She was reminded of the girl she’d been before. So wild and reckless.

Not the woman she was now. Control. Control is key. Always. Because if she lost her control, she’d lose everything.

“I knew you’d come for Julianna.” He shook his head. His fingers slid down her arm in a caress, and then he let her go. “You two, you’d really do anything for each other, wouldn’t you?” His hand shot out and he hit a button on the control panel. The elevator stopped.

“Do you know how many years it has been since I last saw you?” Ethan asked her.

She did. She knew the years. She knew the days. She knew the sleepless nights. Did he know that, once upon a time, she’d been in the psych ward, calling for him?

Control is key. “I haven’t been hiding, Ethan. I’ve been working and living in New York. It was easy enough for you to find my number and call me—”

“When you were seventeen, I was ready to kill for you.”

He had killed for her. He’d driven that knife in the last inch to end the life of the bastard who’d hurt them both so much.

“You saved us back then” Ethan said. A muscle flexed in his jaw. “I owed you for that. So I stood back and let you walk away.”

She hadn’t walked. She’d run. Full speed ahead.

“Am I supposed to let you do that again?” His hand lifted and slid under the curtain of her hair. “I missed you…”

His voice was so low. Maybe he hadn’t actually said those words. Ma

ybe—

He kissed her.

***

“Julianna!”

Her head snapped up at Devlin’s cry. She was standing on the side of the bed, yanking at the cords that connected her to all of the machines and trying to fight her way to the door.

He ran toward her. “Baby, what part of taking-it-easy are you having trouble with?”

“I have to see Carly!”

“No. You have to get better. You have to worry about you.” His hands curled around her. He lifted her up easily and sat her right back in bed. “You’re staying here until the docs say you’re clear. Carly is fine. She’s going to VJS, and the team there will take care of her.”

“She shouldn’t be here. She needs to go back home!”