“Yeah, and stop looking at me like I did that shit. His death is one that can’t be tied to me.” Drake dropped his hold on the guy. “You’re one dumb bastard to come up here and—”
Austin knocked him back and ran toward Claire. His hands grabbed her shoulders. “I just need a minute!” His hold wasn’t painful. Just desperate. “I have to tell you—”
The elevator dinged behind them. Claire heard the doors open. Awareness shot down her spine. Even though she couldn’t see the occupant in that elevator, she knew who was inside.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” Claire told Austin, and she whirled just in time to see Noah step out of the elevator.
His gaze went first to her. Then to Austin—and the guy had just made the mistake of curling his fingers around her shoulder again.
Rage flashed over Noah’s face, and he attacked.
Chapter Eleven
“No!” Claire yelled. She grabbed Noah’s arms and tried to push him back. It was like trying to move a brick wall. “Noah, I’m okay!” She cast a frantic glance toward Austin. Did the guy realize how close he was to danger?
“I’m not here to hurt her,” Austin said, his voice breaking with what sounded like fear. “I told you…I just—”
Drake locked his hand around the back of the Austin’s neck. “You just need to stay away from her. That’s what you need to do.”
Austin winced, and Claire knew Drake’s grip had to be painful.
“I’m not like them,” Austin bit out.
No, no, he never had been.
Noah was still straining beneath Claire’s hold. If he’d wanted, though, he could have easily broken free. She knew that. He was staying still, for her.
She looked back at Noah, and, staring into his eyes, Claire said, “I want to talk with him.”
Noah shook his head. “Bad idea, baby. Anything he has to say—it’s just gonna hurt you. I don’t want you hurt.”
He couldn’t protect her from everything. “I want to talk with him,” she said again as she eased way from Noah. Claire shook her head. “But not here, in the hallway.” She inclined her head toward the suite. “Let’s go inside, and, um, Drake, do me a favor? Stop choking him.”
Drake eased his hold.
Silence fell over their little group, and Claire marched toward the suite’s door. She was scared and this could be a huge mistake, but…
Austin tried to help me. When he’d gone to visit her in the hospital so long ago, he’d given her money. Told her to get out of town. To start fresh.
Noah didn’t know what Austin had done. She was the only one how knew.
They filed into the suite. Noah stayed close to Claire, and Drake kept a careful watch on Austin.
“Five minutes.” Noah’s golden eyes blazed at Austin. “Then you’re done. If I ever see you around again—”
“I knew Ethan had a problem, long before he met you.” Austin was staring at Claire. “He hurt a few others girls. Roughed them up. One girl even wound up in the hospital with a broken jaw. She’d made the mistake of trying to break up with him.”
“Sounds like the jerk didn’t take rejection so well,” Drake muttered, disgust obvious in his voice.
No, he hadn’t.
“I asked my dad to get him help, but Harrisons…we don’t need help.” Austin swallowed. The click of his Adam’s apple seemed loud in that tense moment of silence. “At least, that’s the line my father always used. He’d tell us that no Harrison needed help, and then, when we did mess up, he’d beat the shit out of us.”
Claire stepped back. Noah immediately wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
“No one knew about that, right? I mean, a senator, beating on his kids. And it’s not like he did it that often.” Austin’s stare turned distant. “Only when we screwed up.” His voice dropped. “I learned not to screw up. So I didn’t…” He cleared his throat. “I thought things were better as we got older, but it turns out that things were just better for me. My father kept hurting Ethan, and Ethan—”
“Kept hurting anyone who got in his way,” Noah said flatly.
His face miserable, Austin nodded.
“The fact that your father abused him doesn’t forgive the fact that your brother killed,” Noah shot back. “Plenty of other people have hell for an upbringing and—”
“And we don’t hurt those who are weaker than us.” Drake’s face was tight. His words echoed with bitter fury.
We don’t hurt those…
She looked at Drake with new eyes, but he wasn’t staring at her. His attention was centered completely on Austin.
“I’m not saying this to try and-and excuse what he did. I just thought…” Austin’s hands fisted. “It’s my fault!”
She flinched.
“I didn’t help my little brother. I didn’t stop my father. I didn’t—” Austin’s glittering stare found Claire’s. “I didn’t stop Ethan from seeing you. Hell, I’m the reason he even asked you out. He was in competition with me. My father did that, put us against each other—made us enemies when we should have just been brothers.” His breath expelled in a hard rush. “Ethan took you because he thought he was taking something from me.” He stepped toward her. “I am so sorry, Claire. So sorry.”
Claire stared at him, lost. The powerful Harrison clan was gone. Austin stood before her, and he was crumbling right before her eyes.
“You didn’t do this to me,” she whispered.
His gaze held hers.
“You didn’t shoot my parents. You didn’t,” she had to take a steadying breath as the memories surged through her, “you didn’t find me on that dock and put a gun to my head. None of that was you. It was Ethan. Despite whatever else happened, he was the one. He chose to do it all.”
They all had the right to choose in this life.
Austin’s eyes lowered. “I’ve been checking through my father’s records. I know he caused you to lose your jobs. He had that detective, Sloan, following you, and when you came to New York, he even got the guy to trash your hotel room here.”
“Why?” Noah demanded, and fury vibrated in that word.
Austin’s shoulders rolled in a helpless shrug. “Even at the end, my father still wanted to find some evidence to prove that Claire manipulated my brother. He was in denial, and he wasn’t going to let that go. Not ever.” He shook his head. “I think he wanted Sloan to find some kind of proof that would show Claire was guilty. Maybe he thought there would be something he could use against her in that hotel room.”
“There was nothing,” Claire said simply. “Because I didn’t do it.”
Austin held her stare. “I know.”
Noah stepped in front of her then. “Your five minutes are up.” He grabbed Austin’s arm. “Time to kick your ass out.”
Austin didn’t fight Noah’s grip. “No more investigators, Claire!” He called out as both Noah and Drake shoved him toward the door. “No more lost jobs! No more trouble from my family ever again, I swear!”
She took a tentative step forward.
“I know you never wanted money from me,” Austin said, and he was right at the door now. “You didn’t take it before, but if you need it—if you need anything—I want to help. I want to make this right. I have to make it right!”
There were some things that couldn’t be made right.
“I’ll take him downstairs,” Drake said as he once again curled his fingers over the back of Austin’s neck. “And I’ll make sure he doesn’t get up here again.”
Noah leaned in toward Austin. “This was it. You had your say. Now stay away, understand?”
Austin nodded.
Then he was gone. Drake hauled Austin away and Noah slammed the door behind them.
He didn’t speak. Neither did Claire.
The sound of her breathing seemed overly loud in that room. Her whole body was tense, and she pretty much wanted to sink into a puddle on the floor and just tell the world to go away.
But there were about two hundred people waiting down in the ballroom. This was supposed to be an engagement party. If they vanished for the rest of the night, what would people say?
So she squared her shoulders. She lifted her chin. Adjusted her bracelets. And she walked toward the door.
Noah didn’t move.
She slid around him. Reached for the doorknob.
In a flash, he was behind her. His body curved over hers and his fingers wrapped around her hand.
His touch seemed to electrify her. Claire closed her eyes. She couldn’t handle the intensity between them, not at that moment. “We…we have to get back.”
“Not yet.” He turned her around. Kept his grip on her right hand. “I need to know that you’re okay.”
The laughter that escaped from her held a ragged edge. “Okay doesn’t quite describe me right now.” She was too raw for okay.
“I didn’t want him near you.”
She shook her head. “Austin has never hurt me.”
His eyes flickered. “He said he tried to give you money.”
“He came to see me when I was in the hospital after my—” Say it. “After my suicide attempt. He wanted to give me money to leave town.” She could still see the stark expression on his face. He’d been so pale and shaken. “But taking money from his family, I-I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want anything from them.”
I just wanted to get away.
“Don’t see him again, Claire. Promise me.”
“He’s not a threat to me—”
He put his forehead against hers. “I don’t trust him, and I want you to stay away from the guy. And when I find out who let him up here, that jerk is done.”
Claire put her left hand on his chest. “I don’t like games.”
His head lifted. His gaze gleamed.
“You should’ve told me what you had planned. I nearly passed out when you announced to those people that we were getting married.” She pushed against his chest. She needed some space between them. Talking was too hard when he was that close. Her body was hyper-aware of him. Too attuned.
Too weak where he was concerned.
“I was afraid you’d say no,” Noah admitted, and his words had her stilling. “If you knew what I wanted to do…”
She knew exactly what he wanted to do now. “You think this killer is fixated on me, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
At least he wasn’t trying to deceive her anymore.
“He’s picking off the people who’ve hurt me.” She’d pieced this together. “And he wanted to eliminate you—”
“Because I’m standing between him and you.”
Her voice lowered as she said, “You just put a big target on yourself. Didn’t I tell you…I don’t want you dying for me?”
“I’m not, but I’m also not going to just wait for the bastard to strike again. I pushed him, so now he’ll push back. I’ll be ready.”
She was afraid he wouldn’t be. “We don’t know anything about this guy.”
“Not true. He’s good with demolitions, he uses a silencer when he hunts—”
Her brows climbed.
“He has to use the silencer because no one reported hearing gunshots.”
“You keep saying ‘he’—”
“A man called me. A man is focused on you.” His pupils seemed to swallow the gold of his eyes. “He wants you, and he thinks that he is going to take you from me.”
“So you decided to publicly tell the world that I was yours.” The anger and fear twisted inside of her. “My life, Noah. You shouldn’t have pulled this stunt without telling me first.”
“I’m trying to let you have a life!” Noah snarled back.
His anger had her tensing. Noah had never really been angry with her before.
But he sure seemed furious then.
“I don’t want you always looking over your shoulder. I don’t want you wondering who is watching you or what some sick freak might do next to you. I want you to be free.” A muscle flexed in his jaw. “And no matter what I have to do, I will get you that freedom.”
Then he caught her chin. He tipped her head back, and his mouth crashed down on hers.
Drake escorted Austin Harrison out the back of the Towers. He stopped under a streetlight and jerked the guy close as he warned, “Don’t forget what Noah told you. Stay away from Claire.”
Austin nodded. “I’m done,” he muttered.
“You’d better be.” Drake shoved him away.
Austin straightened his suit. Fumbled in his pockets. Hesitated.
Does he want an ass-kicking?
“Why were you at the funeral?” Austin asked him.
“Let’s just say it was a pit-stop for me.”
Austin stared down at the ground. “If he hadn’t died, Ethan would just have come after her again.”
Drake tensed.
“He would have kept coming. He had pictures of her that he kept in his cell. He wouldn’t have stopped. Not until Claire was dead.” He swiped his hand over his face. “I knew that, and this time, I had to stop him.”
Was the guy making a confession?
“I should’ve done it sooner.” Austin turned away. Began to walk into the darkness of the night. “But it’s hard to send your own brother to hell.”