Uncovering You: The Complete Series (Mega Box Set) (96 page)

Freshman year was when we all went a little crazy, finding our way and position in our new home. Fey, Sonja, and me. We were seduced by the allure of Yale’s secret societies, their raucous parties, and of course, the
boys
…

Fey got hooked the worst. She was innocent, in her own way, and came from a prosperous family. The societies were notorious for their drug use. Coke was prevalent and available to those who could afford it. Fey started experimenting… and then buying… and quickly started going through thousands of dollars of it per week. An unlimited bank account courtesy of her parents with no strings attached ensured that they wouldn’t notice unless things got
really
bad…

And they almost did. Until Sonja and I stepped in and put a stop to it. In the aftermath, Fey admitted that she owed her life to us.

And now, she’s probably trying to repay the favor.

Robin perks an eyebrow. “What happened freshman year?” he asks.

Fey shakes her head. “Never mind that. Lilly’s important now. And she’s in a relationship with a madman.” She holds up her hands before I can protest. “Maybe you think differently. Maybe you see things differently. But it’s going to take a hell of a lot of convincing on your part to make me change my mind. And unless I do…” She looks at Robin. “…Robin and I aren’t leaving California without you.”

My stomach drops.

Oh, shit
.

That damn phone—the root cause of all this—keeps vibrating in my purse. I’m receiving call after call from Jeremy.

“Hold on,” I tell Fey. “This’ll just take a second.”

I take the phone out, ready to turn it off, when I have a better idea.

I answer it.

A rough male voice greets me. “Lilly.”

“I can’t to talk to you now,” I cut Jeremy off. “So stop calling me.”

“I know where you are,” he growls. “Who you’re with.”

A shiver crawls up my spine. I shake it off. “I don’t care,” I say. “I’ll call you when I’m ready to speak. On
my
terms. Not yours.”

With that, I end the call.

“That was him. Wasn’t it?” Fey whispers. “What did he want?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I tell her. “All that matters is what happens among the three of us now.”

“Lilly…” Robin speaks for the first time. “We came here to find you and take you back. Fey’s not the only one concerned. I am, too. Maybe more than she is. I’ve heard horror stories of situations just like yours. They come out only after the fact. Each time, it’s only after the girl is mutilated, or killed, that anyone finds out. We came here…” He looks at Fey. “…to prevent that.”

“Look,” I exhale. “Robin, I’m not doubting you. I’m sure you have very good reasons for thinking the way you do. But trust me. There has never been a
situation
like mine.”

I get up and start pacing the room. I need to convince them—both of them—that I am perfectly safe. “Jeremy’s not about to kill me,” I tell them.

I regret what I did when Robin and I emerged from the elevator. I was caught up in the moment, frustrated, shocked, and angry. I had to know whether what Robin was saying was true.

Yet demonstrating that my cell phone was being blocked, right before him, put me in a precarious position. There’s no denying the fact. Robin saw. He has irrefutable proof that my life is being controlled by an outside force.

At least,
some
aspects of my life. He doesn’t know it all. Neither does Fey. They can’t suspect what I’ve been put through.

Thank God for that.

If they knew even a shred of the truth, I have no doubt I’d be surrounded by a police force right now.

“As I told Fey,” I continue, “it’s complicated, between me and Jeremy. It really is. Now I’m telling you. How do you even know that the information you dug up is accurate, Robin?”

Fey starts to protest immediately, to defend her man. But Robin quiets her by placing a hand on her thigh. I give him a brief nod of appreciation and keep going.

“Jeremy Stonehart is a very, very private man. And he’s powerful. One of the most powerful people in the entire country. You know that. Stonehart Industries is going public in a few weeks. Right? Of course you know that. Everybody’s talking about it. Well, how do you know that the information you found hasn’t been planted by one of Stonehart Industry’s rivals? Doesn’t it seem convenient to you how well the timing of your facts lines up with the timing of the IPO? If you went to the press with this…”

“Lilly,” Robin hesitates, and then continues. “Listen to me. The things I found didn’t come from the usual sources. It’s not all black and white. There’s a lot of grey. But when enough pieces point a certain way, well, they usually lead you somewhere close to the truth.”

“Have you asked him about it?” Fey pipes up. “You haven’t told him. Have you? Because, Lilly, if he suspects you know…”

“No!” I bristle, lying through my teeth. “Of course not! Nothing you told me has ever slipped my lips.”

“Good,” Robin says. “Keep it that way.”

“Look, we know you’re intelligent. We know you’re smart,” Fey says. “And we know that you think you know exactly what you’re doing. But Lilly, you have to understand just how sketchy this all looks from the outside…”

“There!” I whirl around and break her off. “That’s exactly it, Fey.
You
only see things from the outside. You haven’t been with me. You haven’t experienced the things I have. Jeremy and I are tied together on a deeply personal, deeply intimate level. The face he shows to the world is not the same one that he shows me.

“I know him as a man,” I tell them. “As a human being. Not as the infallible business mogul everybody else sees. We’ve been together for months, now. Don’t you think that, if he really intended something…untoward…it would have happened by now?”

“No,” Robin says. “That’s just the thing, Lilly. He’d want you to feel safe, to feel comfortable, and then…”

“And then what?” I bark. “If you tell me he’s going to kill me, I’m going to march straight out of this room. He’s given me so much, Robin. Look at me. Fey! Look at me. Do I
look
like someone who’s in danger? Do I
look
like someone who needs rescuing?

“No,” I tell them. “I’m employed by his company. If I suddenly go missing, don’t you think people will notice? That’s what you’re ultimately worried about, isn’t it? That he’s going to stick me in a cell somewhere and starve me to death?”

“We never said that,” Fey murmurs softly. Her eyes narrow in suspicion. “Is that what
you
think could happen?”

“No!” I say, quickly.
Too quickly.

Shit! This is getting out of hand.

It’s hard enough to keep my emotions in check, while trying to reason out, on the spot, before a skeptical audience, just how it is that I consider myself safe—which I
know
I’m not—and at the same time separating the lies from the truth, while
still
trying to keep in mind the things Fey and Robin know versus what I know and how much I’m willing to reveal.

“No,” I keep going, committed to the lie. “No! Jeremy’s not like that. He says he loves me. I believe him. I cannot be in danger from a man who feels that way.”

“And you?” Fey asks. “Do you love him, Lilly? Is it
your
love that’s blinding you from the truth? Is it
your
love that prevents you from looking at things objectively?”

“I
am
looking at things objectively!” I explode. I’m ready to tear my hair out at how poorly this is going. “Fey, I told you before. You don’t need to worry about me. My life’s in check. Everything is under control. Trust me.”

“Then what about the phone, Lilly?” Robin reminds me. He sounds like he’s skirting on the edge of the subject, unsure whether to trust me or whether to go with his gut, instead. “I couldn’t call you outside.”

“Okay,” I concede. “So, Jeremy might be a little possessive. He might have some controlling tendencies. I never claimed he was perfect! But don’t either of you realize that he’s had to have those traits to rise to the top the way he did?”

“Lilly,” Fey says softly. “Listen to yourself. You just admitted he’s been screening your phone calls. That type of behavior is in no way normal or healthy. It’s not a good relationship to be in. If that were his only flaw, I’d be willing to overlook it. I’d be willing to believe you when you say things are bright and peachy on the inside. Hell, I wouldn’t be here right now if that was all.”

She glances at Robin. “But that’s not all. That’s not even a tenth. You know your connection to him. Through your father. You know that’s how he found you—”

“I don’t!” I say. “And neither do you. It’s what you
suspect
. But Robin said it himself. There’s no way of proving it.”

“Lilly—”

“But let’s just assume,” I speak over her, “that Robin’s hunch, and his investigating, is correct. For the sake of argument. Okay?”

Fey starts to say something, and then stops. She nods for me to keep going.

“Okay. So you think—both of you do—that Jeremy sought me out, on purpose, to get revenge for his mother’s death. The death that was apparently caused by my father, whom
I did not know
my entire life. Is that right?”

Fey looks ready to argue. Again, Robin placates her by placing a hand on her thigh. “Right,” he says.

“But first, he tried to get to my father. Yes? And when he found him mentally unstable, he shifted his focus to me?”

Fey and Robin both nod.

“Well, if that is all true, he’s already had me! I’ve been with him for months. We live together. He could have done anything he wants to me during that time. Instead, he’s showered me with expensive clothes. With gifts. With a life of unparalleled luxury.

“I have everything I ever need. More. I have more, Fey. I have freedom. I have true autonomy.

“You remember the way I worked at Yale, right? It was day-and-night, nonstop, nose-to-the-grindstone. I mean, hell, you and Sonja were so worried about me you snuck me to The Game one week-end, remember?”

“Of course I do,” she says.

“But then you also must remember how hard I had to work. How many hours of sleep did I average over the course of a week? Four a night? Maybe five, if I was lucky?

“I was a slave to my classes. My whole life revolved around getting the next assignment in on time. You and Sonja were out every weekend. You got a break. I joined you, what, every other week? Not even. Once a month, if that.”

“That is true,” Fey mumbles.

“And you met Robin.” I gesture in his direction. “You already got to enjoy college. I mean,
all
of college. Not just the academics.

“What was my life there? I saw Yale as nothing more than a stepping stone. Something I had to go through to end up in a position better than my mother’s.

“I met you, and I met Sonja,” I say. “And you, too, Robin. For that, I am so thankful for. People say relationships are the most important things in life. If you three were all I got out of there, I’d still be grateful.

“But I got more. I got…Jeremy. And he freed me. He really did. He showed me that my life could be more than just books and work. He gave me the sort of freedom I never had. A freedom I never knew I lacked, in truth, until I met him.

“Remember, Fey. I wasn’t there on a full ride like Sonja. My parents weren’t springing for tuition, either. I couldn’t rely on anybody but myself. That’s how I grew up. I’m not lamenting it,” I add hurriedly. “I’m just saying, that now, finally, I have someone to lean on. I can rely on Jeremy.

“But I don’t have to,” I say quickly, when I see Fey ready to interrupt. “I have my own job. My own income. I’m free to leave him at any moment I want.”

“Then why don’t you?” Fey asks. “Why don’t you see it the way we do? Why don’t you get out, now, while you still can? Before something bad happens to you?”

“Because nothing bad is
going
to happen to me,” I insist. “I’m not in any danger from Jeremy. That I know.”

Robin exhales heavily. He stands up. When he speaks, he sounds gravely serious. “You make it sound like a fairy tale, Lilly,” he tells me. “But it’s not. It’s real life.”

“Yes,” I say. “Yes. Exactly. It
is
real life, Robin. And it’s
my
life. Mine. You can’t tell me what to do with it.”

“Honey, that’s not what we’re doing at all.” Fey gets off the bed and comes over to Robin. “We’re your friends. We’re concerned. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t.”

“I know,” I say softly. I have to tread carefully now, because I think I’m close—real close—to appeasing their concerns. Somewhat, at least. Enough to get them to go back to Yale without me in tow. “But you don’t have to be. I understand what’s going on.
I
understand the man I’m with—more than either of you do. You don’t know Jeremy as I do. You don’t know who he is on the inside. You haven’t spent any time with him.”

“That’s why our perception of the situation isn’t warped,” Robin says firmly. “That’s why we can see the forest for the trees, Lilly! Dammit! Aren’t you the least bit concerned about how things are playing out?”

“Yes!” I emphasize. My emotions are starting to get riled up again. I know I should keep them under control. But it feels like we’re just going in circles here.

There’s
still
the lingering anger I feel toward Jeremy for lying to me, for deceiving me. The most frustrating thing is that I can’t let that show. The act I have to put on for Fey and Robin has to convince them that everything is perfect between Jeremy and me. “I’m
concerned
that you’ve taken such a vested interest in my life. I’m
concerned
that you thought you needed to fly across the country to come look for me. I’m
concerned
that you—“ I jab my finger at Robin, and wave it in the air to include Fey. “—are taking too much of an interest in my life. Robin, you saw me earlier. What was I doing? I was driving. By myself. If I wanted, I could have turned onto the freeway and driven all the way to Canada. Nothing’s holding me here. Nobody’s forcing me to stay. Can’t you see? Can’t both of you see that whatever might have led Jeremy to me, at the start, has lost relevance now?”

“So you do believe it!” Fey jumps in.