Order of Protection

by Lexi Blake

  The color drained from her face.

  “Could we have the room for a moment?” He shouldn’t do this in front of an audience. It would be bad enough without everyone watching.

  David stood up and came in close. “Don’t do this.”

  “I’ve thought this through. It’s for the best,” he whispered back.

  “It’s not best for her.” David shook his head and walked to the door. “And you know what, it’s not best for you either, but you’re going to be a stubborn bastard, aren’t you?”

  Noah reached a hand out to Win, taking hers. “If you need anything, anything at all, call me. We’re still here for you no matter what he says. He’s being an idiot. I should know. I’ve seen it happen before.”

  “Noah, your opinion is not required,” Henry shot back.

  “And yet it’s still true.” Noah squeezed her hand and escorted Bellamy out, promising to call for a car.

  And then they were finally alone.

  “I’ve had your things packed up and they’ve been sent to the plane. It’s going to take you out to the island in an hour.” He forced himself to go cold.

  If he kept her here, he exposed her to more scrutiny. She would feel the need to look perfect for the cameras, and that had proven dangerous once before. He couldn’t do it to her again. She needed to go back to her proper life track: grad student and all-around do-gooder. He didn’t do good. He made money and that was his proper track.

  “Why?” Win asked, the question tinged with the ache he could plainly see she felt.

  It was better for her to ache now than later. She needed to find a nice man and settle down, a man who’d never fucked up his entire life, a man who could love her with a whole heart. A man who could stand beside her and hold his head high. “I told you in the beginning this was a temporary thing.”

  “Yes, you also told me you would have called me,” she pointed out.

  He wished he’d been strong enough to have not told her that particular truth. “I would have, perhaps. We are good in bed together and I don’t have a ton of time to find women I’m compatible with.”

  She stared for a moment, the silence becoming uncomfortable.

  That was not the response he’d expected.

  “Is this the part where you tell me I was nothing but a good lay, Henry?”

  “I didn’t say that.” He wasn’t sure how to handle her. He’d expected her to retreat, to cry a bit and make him feel like the world’s biggest bully. He’d been counting on it because he needed her to see that they had no place in each other’s worlds.

  “Oh, I think that’s exactly what you said, Counselor.” She put her hands on her hips, facing him down. “I’m supposed to believe that you’ve gotten everything you could want or need out of me and so now I’m some piece of trash to throw away.”

  “Again, not the words I said.” He held his ground. He was the bad guy here, but somehow he couldn’t let her think he was that bad.

  “They were implied. Look, I’m not a victim here. You did tell me it would last two weeks. I tried to stay in touch because I did want more. When you didn’t reply, I let it go. When you took me into your home, you’re the one who said we were inevitable.”

  “I said having sex with you was inevitable.”

  “You coward. That wasn’t sex. You’re old enough to know the difference,” she said with a disappointed shake of her head. “I get it. You came out of a bad marriage and you’re still a little singed from that fire, but we don’t get to choose when the right one comes along. Fate or the universe or pure coincidence decides that for us. I’m the right one for you. You’re the right one for me. I love you. I’m not ashamed to say it and you can’t make me ashamed. No words that come out of your mouth are going to make me go hide in a corner and cry. I’m not a fairy-tale princess who needs you to save me from my lonely castle. But we could save each other. No woman alive is going to understand you the way I do, is going to see you the way I do, and I’m never going to meet a man who can make me believe in myself the way you do. So you have a choice. Take the love and affection and companionship I’m offering you or let your past win.”

  He wanted to take it all. This Win, oh, this Win was exciting, and she’d been there all the while, bubbling under the surface. This was the Win who couldn’t be beaten, who’d looked her disease in the face and made the hard choice to survive. This was the Win who would stand beside him no matter what.

  He didn’t deserve her. She was right. His past was too much.

  “It won’t work. Do you think I want to get back to the place where I’m some rich girl’s arm candy?” He could do this. He had a whole spiel that was guaranteed to send her running. Once he was done, she wouldn’t want him. She would be free. “Do you think—”

  She put up a hand. “Really? You’re going with the ‘rich bitch couldn’t possibly love an actual person’ theme? Do you know how many times I’ve heard that? That’s the bottom of the barrel and truly unworthy of you. You’re supposed to be better at making your arguments, but I see through every single one. You’re scared. Stop being scared and be a man, Henry. Nothing is guaranteed. The world doesn’t work that way. All we can do is love as hard as we can for as long as we have.”

  She moved in, her body nearly brushing his.

  He might be shit at making this argument, but she was good. Damn good.

  She put a hand on his chest. “Please. Give us some time. We need to get through a couple of days and you’ll see that life will go back to normal. I know what you’re scared of. You think it will always be like this, with all the reporters and all the lights and scrutiny. You’re scared we’ll both slip back into those dark places, and this time we’ll have to watch each other disintegrate. But it’s not like that. I’m really the girl you met on the beach. Once they have another story, we’ll be nothing more than a boring couple trying to make it work. Once a year you’ll put on a tux and smile for the cameras at the foundation benefit. The other three hundred and sixty-four days, you’ll be the star of the family, known for your brain and not your gorgeous looks.”

  She made it sound so reasonable. He hadn’t counted on her fighting him.

  Fighting for him.

  She was fighting him for him.

  “I can’t, Win.” He wanted to be stronger. Or weaker. He wasn’t sure. She’d thrown him for a loop and he wasn’t sure how to handle it. He’d spent his whole life knowing what he wanted, knowing how to get it. He’d never stopped.

  Until he had, and he wasn’t sure how to get himself going again.

  Her eyes softened. “I love you, Henry. I can see that you have no idea how to handle that right now. I’m going with my uncle so you can take a couple of days. I’ll text you and if you like, we can start slow. But I love you and I won’t not love you because you’re scared. If you can’t love me back, that’s something else entirely.”

  “I didn’t say that.” He couldn’t. He just couldn’t. Couldn’t quit her even though it was for the best. If she’d cried and run out like he was a monster, he might have been able to carry through, but the resilient, strong woman in front of him wasn’t going to make it easy.

  She went up on her toes and kissed his cheek. “Take some time. Think about it. I’ll contact you in a few days and if you reply back, I’ll know we’re not completely lost.”

  “And if I don’t reply?”

  A ghost of a smile lifted her lips. “I don’t know. I’ll figure it out then, but I think you should expect a fight.”

  She turned and walked out of the room, and Henry was left alone.

  He stared out over the city and wished he were a better man.

  FOURTEEN

  Win watched the clouds rolling in from the Atlantic. The storm was still hours away but it looked like it would be a doozy.

  She couldn’t help but think about the last storm she’d been th
rough. She’d had Henry to hold her, wrapping his arms around her and making her forget all about the chaos outside.

  It had only been a few days and she felt the loss of him as an actual ache in her heart.

  She’d watched his press conference. He’d seemed so strong, authoritative in his suit. He’d carried himself perfectly, explaining all the aspects of the case and how he’d found the evidence that exonerated his client.

  She hadn’t been able to stop herself. She knew she’d told him she would wait a few days, but she’d texted him.

  You looked good out there, Counselor.

  She’d left it at that and hadn’t expected anything from him.

  You know I do work out from time to time. Stay safe, Win. Give me time. Don’t give up on me.

  She’d texted back a single word. Never.

  And then nothing but silence for days. She had to let him figure this out. Patience.

  “It looks like a bad one.” Mary sat in a lounge chair, her knitting in her hands. She was moving better, maneuvering around the house with her new walker.

  “Yeah, it does.” She moved back, sitting across from Mary. They’d tiptoed around certain subjects, but Win was discovering she could only be patient with one person at a time. “Why didn’t you tell me about Brie?”

  Mary’s hands stopped working the yarn. “I didn’t want to upset you. Especially if there was no reason to. We don’t know anything for certain yet. But I was worried it might be true, and I didn’t want to upset you. It can be hard to realize that your parents are only human, you know. I suppose I wanted to keep them perfect in your mind.”

  “No one’s perfect. You can’t do that again. I’m an adult now. I know you protected me before, and you can’t even begin to understand how much I appreciate it, but I’m strong now. I have to face these things head-on. I can’t help but wonder if I’d found out about what was going on if I could have stopped it. I was good at talking Brie out of the stupid crap she did.” That was what haunted the hell out of her. Despite the fact that Brie and Trevor had been horrible to her, they’d been family. Brie had been in a bad place and done terrible things, but she wouldn’t have a chance to redeem herself.

  “I don’t think she would have allowed it,” Mary said, her accent a bit thicker than normal. Her Polish accent came out when she was emotional. “Brianna was determined to destroy everything. She wasn’t going to back off. I knew she would come back. I wanted to buy some time in order to find a solution to the problem, but then the accident happened.”

  The one where Mary had been driving her Jeep. “Do you really think Trevor tried to kill you that night?”

  She shook her head. “No, I think he wanted to kill you. You were supposed to come back that day, remember?”

  Win grimaced, the reality punching into her. “Yes, I was going to come spend the night out here and then head to the city the next day, but I had to cancel at the last minute because of a problem with the gala. Trevor knew I was coming. I told him. He thought you were me. Mary, I’m sorry.”

  She laid the knitting down, her eyes finding Win’s. “Don’t you be sorry. I’m happy it was me in that car. I wouldn’t have you hurt for anything in the world, don’t you know that? You’re my . . . Well, let’s just say I think of you as a daughter. I would do anything for you, my baby. From the moment they put you in my arms, I knew I would do anything for you.”

  Tears pierced her vision, and she reached out to the woman who had been a mother to her. “And I would do anything for you, but I’m not a baby anymore.”

  “Don’t you know daughters are always babies in their mother’s eyes?” Mary cleared her throat. “You know what I’m saying. When you raise a child, the child becomes important to you. I know your real mother would have done anything for you, too. She would have looked at you and always been able to see your father. You have his eyes.”

  “You’re joking, right?” Win had to laugh. “My father’s eyes were brown. I must have been the result of some very recessive genes since Mom’s were hazel and mine are blue.”

  Mary picked her knitting back up. “I don’t understand all that scientific stuff. It all seems like nonsense to me. Could you go down to the shop and ask your uncle to make a run to the store before the storm comes in? I need broth to make the stew.”

  “I can cook tonight, Nana.” She stood up, glancing down to the shop where her uncle kept the boat he worked on when he was in town. He’d been working on that boat for years. “Though I’ll still need broth.”

  “Don’t you go,” she said. “There are still some reporters running around. They’ll be gone soon, but I don’t want them bugging you. Send your uncle.”

  Sometimes Mary truly did sound like a mom. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  She helped Mary up, putting her walker in front of her. Mary straightened up. “I’ll get started on the vegetables. Tell your uncle not to take too long. That storm will be bad.”

  She wasn’t about to send her uncle out. Despite what Mary might think, those reporters would know who Bellamy Hughes was, and they wouldn’t leave him alone simply because he was grieving the loss of his son. She could handle a couple of questions.

  Ms. Winston-Hughes, how did it feel to finally get your freedom back?

  Crappy because my man didn’t come with me. I bought a vibrator, but I can’t work up the will to use that sucker. Thanks for asking, CNN.

  Why do you think your cousin wanted to murder you?

  Well, MSNBC, he was a coked-up asshat who didn’t care who he hurt as long as he got his precious proof that he was the heir.

  Yes, she could handle a few questions.

  She passed the wall of photos. Her family history in pictures. She stopped, looking them over. They went back to her great-great-grandparents. Now she was the last one left.

  How sad it was to think that there was no one to reach out to, no one to work with to carry on the family name. Her uncle had many good years ahead of him, but eventually she would have to decide what to do.

  All those generations, counting on her.

  She sighed because she didn’t even look like a Hughes. It was one of those twists of DNA. The Hughes family were all tall, stately looking brunettes. Of course, she didn’t look much like her Winston side either. The Winstons tended to be tall and slender as well. She was a petite blonde with blue eyes.

  Did anyone else in her family have blue eyes? She peered at the photos. It was hard to tell.

  She stared at a picture of her mother and father. They were smiling at the camera and holding their baby girl. There weren’t many pictures of her as a baby. She’d always thought it odd since most new parents took tons of baby pictures. This portrait was the only one of her. Her uncle had made sure there was money for regular portraits after they’d died.

  How old was she in that picture? Her parents looked happy together. It was hard to think that her father had been unfaithful. He held her like a proud father. She was dressed in a pink jumper, smiling at the camera, her brown eyes wide.

  Win blinked. Brown eyes. The baby in the picture had brown eyes. The baby in the picture looked a lot like her father.

  Win shook her head. It must have been a trick of the light. Something had gone wrong with the photo and a shadow had changed her eye color. Because blue eyes might turn brown, but never the other way around.

  It was weird.

  She picked up the keys to her Jeep and tried to forget the eerie feeling that something was very wrong.

  * * *

  Henry stared down at the files. “Is there a reason I’ve got files on my desk for a case that is no longer active?”

  His admin frowned down at him. She was a seasoned legal secretary with more knowledge than a lot of lawyers possessed. Sharon didn’t take his crap even though she’d only recently been hired. It was one of the reasons they worked well together. “Those file
s came in yesterday and you should have seen them. Someone said there was interesting information in there. I thought you might look at the reports before I filed them. Also, Margarita requested a few moments of your time. I think she’s going to come in here and try to save the firm from the fire-breathing dragon in the main office. That’s you, by the way.”

  He hadn’t been that bad. Well, maybe he had. Maybe he’d been a little irritable the last few days. He might have yelled more than once when a tersely worded email could have worked as well. “I suppose David and Noah are avoiding me?”

  He’d noticed that the room tended to clear out the minute he walked into it. Talking ceased and the clacking of keys on laptops would be the only sound as he crossed through the associates’ communal workroom. He was turning into Scrooge or something.

  “Anyone who can is avoiding you,” Sharon pointed out. “Now, I’ll go file those reports that we paid for and you didn’t read.”

  He put a hand on the folders. “Fine, I’ll look through them, though it’s going to be a waste of time. And let me know when the courier with Brie Westerhaven’s mail gets here.”

  He hoped that would contain the DNA test results they were looking for.

  She walked back to the door that led to the outer office. “I got a message that it’s been signed for. I’ll go get it from reception and bring it back to you. We’re all eager to see who the daddy is.”

  “If there’s a betting pool, I don’t want to hear about it.” It wasn’t so odd that the staff would be interested, but he couldn’t help but think about the fact that this was Win’s life and family.

  Everything was easier when he didn’t care.

  The trouble was he didn’t think he could stop caring about Win.

  She was right. She was the one. He’d thought the ache would ease with time and distance, but every minute he put between them seemed to refine his misery.

  “I hear you’re being very difficult, Henry,” Margarita said in a soothing tone as she walked in the room. “You know what might help? A short vacation. I hear Martha’s Vineyard is lovely this time of year.”