Somewhere in His Arms (60 page)

Chapter Thirty-Two

“I’ll kill him!”
Alec swore savagely to his wife, one week after her confession. “He’s going to pay for what he did to you!”

             
“How’s he going to do that?” Lucy was still a little shocked Alec hadn’t left her. “You think I’m the only one he’s done it to?”

             
His eyes widened. “What are you saying? Don’t tell me there are…others?”

             
Her hands kept mixing the cake batter she had in a bowl. “It’s common knowledge in the industry that he’s a… pedo.” Lucy dipped her finger into the batter to taste and smiled sadly. “Do you know how many girls he’s molested?”

             
“How many?” Alec sounded sick.

             
“I lost count. But it’s an open secret. Everyone knows. No one cares what he does or
who
he does it to.”

             
Alec sat down on a stool across from her. She hadn’t been sleeping well since that night. Even though he’d sat her down and told her he loved her and there was nothing on this earth that could ever change that, she was still afraid and had been skittish around him. She hadn’t let him touch her either for that matter. “How can he get away with it?”

             
Lucy gave him wary glance. “It’s simple. He’s popular. He’s handsome. He’s a huge box office draw. As long as he’s a cash cow, everyone will continue to sweep it under the rug, and pretend it doesn’t happen. I think his people have paid off most of his victims, and the media continues to worship at his altar. He can do no wrong. Sickening isn’t it?”

             
Alec sighed heavily. “I think
I’m
going to be sick.” He got off the stool and went to her. “Can…I hold…you?” he asked, almost fearfully.

             
Her dark eyes widened in surprise. “You don’t have to ask.”

             
“Yes, I do,” he said softly, and reached up to wipe some flour off her nose. Alec breathed a sigh of relief when she let him. “I
want
to ask. I
should
ask.”

             
“No,” she shook her head, dropping the spoon she was using to mix the cake batter. Lucy wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight. “I was so afraid I would lose you.”

             
He returned the embrace and kissed her brow. “You can’t get rid of me so easily, wife. I’m madly in love with you. That has to count for something.”

             
“Even if…I can’t… do some things…a wife should?”

             
Alec reached and tilted up her chin. “What things?”

             
She blushed. “I don’t think…I can…kiss…you… there…”

             
“I don’t want you to!” he whispered fiercely, crushing her to him. “But if you want to try on my sixty-fifth birthday, I can’t think of a better way I’d like to go.”

             
“Sixty-fifth, huh?” Lucy peered up at him dubiously. “Why that particular number?”

             
“Because I’ll officially be a pensioner and approaching the age where I should have a bucket list. I might put that on there. I might not. I can be happy either way, love.” Alec kissed her adorable little nose. “But in lieu of that, maybe we can go skydiving instead.”

             
Lucy stared up at him in horror. “Skydiving…?” she said faintly. “I’m afraid of heights!”

             
“Don’t worry, love,” he grinned. “I’ll catch you!’

             
“You will, huh?”

             
“Certainly!” he laughed, and backed away when she took a handful of flour and began to stalk him. “Really love, can’t we talk about this?”

             
“You’re not getting me anywhere
near
a parachute!” Lucy flung the flour at his head and laughed when a fine cloud dusted his immaculate head. “Gee, what a shame! You’re going gray!”

             
Alec shook off the flour and scooped up a handful on the counter. He leveled it at her head but hit her square in the face. She gasped in mock outrage and tossed another handful. He ducked and caught her around the waist and dragged her giggling to the floor. Lucy slid her arms around his neck and drew his head down to hers.

             
He kissed her long and deep, sliding his hand up her dress to test the waters, and sighed in relief when she arched against him in response. “Not here,” he breathed.

             
“Why not?” she murmured against his lips. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

             
“You’re… sure?” he asked doubtfully as he ground his erection against her.

             
“I’m sure,” she sighed with pleasure, tightening her arms around him. “It’ll be something to tell the grandkids someday.”

             
Alec laughed, reaching between them to unzip his jeans, and took her right there on the kitchen floor.

* * *

             
Halloween was more than a week away, and Lucy had decided it was high time they went and confronted Gavin. Alec was dead set against it. “And why not?” she demanded as he drove her to Marco’s salon for a touch-up. “If he won’t come quietly, then we should go and find the little bugger and drag him back kicking and screaming!”

             
Alec glanced at his wife, who seemed to have undergone a transformation since that night she bared her soul. “I just don’t believe in forced coercion. Someone’s liable to get hurt,
probably
me!”

             
Lucy giggled at her husband’s logic. “The Tree is still in the hospital. He can’t hurt anybody!”

             
“Sure, sure. What about the toady? Don’t forget about him!”

             
“Yes, you
are
right. There’s got to be a way to get close to him
without
him realizing we’re close to him.”

             
“Why do I feel like I’m in an episode of
Scooby-Doo?”

             
“I don’t know, Fred!” she grinned, and mussed his hair playfully. “You
tell
me!”

             
“All right, Daphne. What do you suggest?”

             
Lucy shook her head, tapping a finger against her lips thoughtfully. “Let me work on it.”

             
Alec rolled his eyes, Somehow he figured his clever wife already had something worked out. He just hoped it didn’t involve anything illegal. Like kidnapping. “So are you going to keep the color or go back to black?”

             
“Why? Don’t you like me as a fiery brunette?”

             
“I do. I just don’t want you to think that you have to please me by changing yourself.”

             
“Duly noted, husband,” she smiled and ran her hand through the messy locks. “But I only dyed it to give myself some color. I hated looking like Elvira!”

             
“I
liked
Elvira!”

             
“Is that so?”

             
Alec nodded, grinning and pulled alongside the curb. “So what’s the agenda today?” He cut the engine. “Anything I should know about?”

             
Lucy unbuckled her seatbelt. “What makes you think there’s an agenda?”

             
“Isn’t
there?”

             
She tilted her head to one side and then pecked him on the cheek. “A spy never reveals their secrets!” Lucy opened the door and climbed out.

             
“Since when are you a spy?” Alec leaned across and shut the door. “What are you planning, wife?”

             
“Go eat lunch, English!” she laughed and whirled on her heel, leaving him staring at her slender back with a dumbfounded look on his face. He drove off in a daze, wondering what mischief his wife was about to get them into.

             
Wandering into the salon, Marco was there to greet her this time, and quickly ushered her into a chair. “Lucy girl, what
have
you been up to besides allowing your roots to show?”

             
She smiled at him and wondered if she should ask him about Gavin. Alec would never forgive her, but Marco was discreet. He may be a gossip, but he was also known to keep a secret. “I think I’d like to go one shade darker, Marco. What do you think?”

             
He nodded in approval. “Espresso is a hot color this year and you’ve got the coloring to carry it off.” Marco draped the cape around her. “So how’s married life?”

             
“Fine, fine,” Lucy said, and scratched her nose nervously. “We’ll be leaving for London soon, but we’d like to enjoy L.A. while we can. Do you know any good parties we could crash?”

             
“Crash?” Marco sniffed. “Honey, you’ve got to
know
someone
who
knows someone to get into one of those!”

             
“Do…you know Jimmy de Wilde?”

             
Marco’s eyes widened
. “Do
I?” he snickered. “How do
you
know about him, a nice girl like yourself?

             
Lucy flushed in embarrassment. “It’s not like that.” She drew a deep breath. “You
have
to promise not to tell anyone!”

             
He leaned down, eager for the latest juicy bit of gossip, but promised her that he wouldn’t tell a soul. “I promise! Now spill it!”

             
“He’s sort of family.”

             
He gasped. “Family?” he hissed low. “How?”

             
“Brother-in-law,” Lucy confessed, feeling as if she were betraying Alec. “My husband has been looking for him for years, but Jimmy won’t talk to him. His mother has been ill and wants to know where he is. Do you…think you could help?”

             
Marco tilted his head, taking in this vital information, and processing it like last season’s do-not-wear list. “Say no more, Lucy girl. Marco is on the case!”

             
“You won’t…tell anyone?”

             
“Cross my heart and hope to not die without a man!”

             
“He can’t know who we are. I was thinking one of those Halloween parties. Everyone who’s anyone goes to those. Think you can find out where he is and finagle us an invitation?”

             
“Does Cher sing like an angel?” Marco grinned slyly at her in the mirror and gave her a knowing wink. “Leave everything to me!”

              On Halloween night, Lucy and Alec had plans. They drove to Marco’s salon; he had come through with his promise of an invitation to the most exclusive Halloween bash of the year and even scrounged up costumes for them to wear. The biggest star in town was throwing a glamorous shindig at an old gothic mansion in the Hollywood Hills, and anyone who was anyone was invited.

             
The theme of the party was classic Hollywood cinema, and Marco thought it appropriate since they were old movie buffs. He’d gone and rented Alec a Zorro costume a la Tyrone power in
The Mark of Zorro.
For Lucy, he’d gone one better and produced a red and black flamenco gown that seemed better suited to a Spanish epic than on some Halloween reveler. The dress was a study in feminine seduction with deeply scooped bodice, three-quarter sleeves, and flouncy skirt all trimmed in black ruffled lace. When she put it on she felt exposed, the tops of her breasts heaved dangerously over the bodice, and she was certain she’d fall into whatever they were serving for dinner. Lucy wanted to take it off and put on a sheet, but Marco was adamant.

             
“Do you know what I had to go through to get that dress? You’ll wear it missy, and you’ll look great doing it!”

             
“B-But you can see my---” she sputtered in outraged modesty and flung up her hands trying to cover a cleavage she didn’t know she had. “I look like a discount Rita Hayworth!”

             
“Stop that!” Marco scolded her like a mother hen, and dabbed at the makeup he’d applied to cover her scars, clucking to himself when she smacked his hands away. He didn’t have such problems as he was going as Robin Hood `a la Errol Flynn. “Here,” he handed her a black rose on a red velvet choker, “try this.”