“You were looking at this when I came in,” he said to Sorin.
“It is an interesting concept.” His bodyguard leaned over and was just pointing out one of the things that would cut costs by a healthy percentage when Lucian’s private cell rang.
He reached over and swiped at the screen then tapped the speaker button. It had to be Markus. His brother was like him where he enjoyed working into the night. Some of their most enjoyable conversations were had between the hours of three and five a.m.
“Yes?”
“Lucian Fane?”
Both his and Sorin’s heads came up at the unfamiliar, accented voice.
“Yes?”
“This is Dr. Jayesh Singh.”
As the polite Indian man offered his address and credentials, Sorin jotted the information down, as was his way. All Lucian took in was the man’s title; Chief Medical Examiner.
“What can I do for you, Dr. Singh? And might I ask how you came into possession of this number?” He pointed to a file folder that had come with the factory plans. Cost breakdowns and such. The meat of the project. Sorin handed it over just as the doctor blew an irreparable hole in Lucian’s life.
“Your phone number was the first listed under emergency in Markus Fane’s contact list.”
Lucian was staring into Sorin’s dark eyes, but he wasn’t seeing his friend of more than twenty years. He noted his heart rate was increasing until the organ was beating harder and faster than he thought it was capable of doing without failing.
“Put my brother on the line, please.” He was well aware his words weren’t so much a request as a demand, and he allowed his eyes to slide closed while he waited to see if his world was about to go black.
“I’m afraid that isn’t possible, Mr. Fane.”
Ice flashed over his skin. In his mind, he watched a crimson pool form and spread around him as he slowly began to bleed to death. “Explain yourself, Dr. Singh.”
The man cleared his throat. “I’m afraid there was a shooting in a parking garage uptown—”
Lucian’s eyes flashed open as his fist slammed down on the phone so hard it shattered and went silent.
“Get the chopper,” he ordered as he tried to keep his legs from failing him.
Sorin was already halfway to the door.
It took Lucian a moment to gather himself enough so that he could move. All he could see in his head was his little brother. His innocent, fully legit little brother who for the last ten years had made Lucian beyond proud by taking the business world by storm. Always smiling. Always with a thoughtful, usually humorous word for anyone he sensed needed it. Markus was an intuitive, kind-hearted, innocent man the world should bow down and revere. And they would.
As he left his Southampton home and traveled into the city, the chopper eventually flying over the East River with the radio chirping what was essentially nonsense in his ear, his lips twitched. He was going to embarrass Markus with the affection he would bestow on him after dealing with this inconvenience. But not before he gave the careless little bastard some serious hell for allowing some amateur criminal close enough to steal his wallet and cell phone. Never again would his little brother be able to accuse Lucian of being emotionally cut off in that I’m-kidding-but-really-I’m-worried-about-you way he had.
Never again.
From this moment on, if an opportunity presented itself where he could let Markus know he was the most important person in Lucian’s life, he was going to take it.
TWENTY-EIGHT
As Lucian walked down the long corridor, a tremor of pain began resonating from deep within. It grew in strength around his continuous silent reassurances that this was a mistake. An infuriating mistake no one would dare make again after he was through with them.
The sickening sense of terror worming its way in behind the pain was a reminder of why he didn’t love. He didn’t have what it took to handle the things that came with it. Usually loss or rejection. Sometimes both. He wasn’t in the least bit ashamed to admit he didn’t know how to deal with either. Both were infuriating and unacceptable, and his psyche usually found a way to deny them. If it couldn’t, it blocked them completely and forced Lucian’s focus onto something he was better equipped to control completely. Or usually someone.
This will turn out okay, the voice in his head soothed. That optimistic voice he’d always thought had been meant for Markus but had accidentally been given to Lucian’s instead. It was even and measured, and was usually quite calming.
It wasn’t tonight.
The obscure presence that also resided within him, the one he kept on a tight leash for his brother’s sake, was writhing worse than ever to break free. If it did, this situation was going to go from bad to run-for-your-lives worse.