Chapter Twenty-Nine

 

He watched her; something he knew was a habit he would probably never be able to break. Something about Payton drew him more than a moth to a flame, to quote the old adage, and it was time he admitted it. He was like a damned insect, swarming around the light he knew he shouldn’t touch, the light he knew would singe him if he got too close.

She didn’t realize her nerves showed, did she? Of the six women prepping to go on stage, she was the one most uneasy. His sister was prowling, ready to climb the walls; Alessandra Brockman was practically walking on air, and he suspected that Lorcan guy behind her was the reason. He assumed it was Seth; Sebastian—his sister’s team-leader—waited next to his wife. It was getting damned crowded backstage. But Luc wasn’t going out into the audience, no matter what the questions were that were brewing in Payton’s friends’ heads. Or hers. She’d barely looked at him when he’d walked in with Cody a few minutes earlier.

He wasn’t leaving this area without her.

Not with her being threatened.

Cody sauntered up to him, sexy as hell in a man’s shirt barely buttoned and tight jeans. He gave her a quick admiring glance, but the peek at flesh did nothing for him. Not like Payton, even with Payton dressed much more sedately, in similar jeans and a bulky sweatshirt.

“Following Payton around again? That’s beginning to be a habit.”

“Get used to it.”

Cody studied him a moment. “Should I?”

He smiled. He’d made his decision on the limo ride from his office to this club where Cody told him Payton would be. “Everyone should. Especially Payton.”

Cody sobered. “Just don’t hurt her. She’s still reeling from the accident, and the lab attack. More than the rest of us.”

“In what way?” He knew she’d recovered physically, but he suspected Cody meant more.

“She blames herself, for her brother’s death…and for the clerk who died at PAVAD.” Cody looked over her shoulder to where Payton and their friend Compton were setting up drums. Cody lowered her voice and leaned in toward Luc. “Her brother was driving to pick her up at work that night. And the guy who blew up the lab, who attacked me that night, shot Kelly at Smokey’s, and kidnapped Marianna’s son and shot Ed Dennis—he did it because he blamed all of us for Payton leaving, moving away from him.”

Luc cursed. He hadn’t known that. “He was her lover?”

“He wanted to be. Obsessive over her. Payton didn’t have a clue. And most of the explosives were set near her office, Luc. He was determined to kill her because he couldn’t have her; it was damned lucky he didn’t. If Paige and Al hadn’t been with her, she’d be dead, too. And she still doesn’t talk much about what happened in that lab that day, but it was bad. Very, very bad. For all three of them. They weren’t that close of friends before that day, but now? Al and Paige are fiercely protective where she’s concerned. And that guy died instead, a twenty-two year old clerk with an eight-month-old baby. Combined with her already blaming herself for Patrick’s accident, it’s done something to her. And frankly, I’m worried to death about her.”

Luc looked at Payton for a long moment. Just what was she bottling up inside? He understood that kind of guilt. Could he help her deal with it, without hurting her more? He honestly didn’t know. But he’d have to try, wouldn’t he? “I’ll take care of her, Cody. I promise you that. I’ll give her everything she wants.”

“I don’t doubt that you can, but can you give her everything she needs? Ask yourself that, no matter what it is you’re planning. If the answer is no, then please stay as far away from her as you can get. Please. Don’t forget, I know you pretty damned well. And her, too. I don’t want either of you hurt.”

“Just forget about me and Payton and concentrate on what you need to do tonight.” Was she right? Should he just walk away from Payton now, leave her to some man like that Compton guy, who she apparently liked and had common ground with? There were enough people in that division she worked for that he could turn over the whole mess to one of them and they’d see that she was safe. He could just walk away.

He looked at her again as she shrugged out of the shirt she wore over her blue t-shirt. Her hair was down and sexy around her shoulders, the shirt tight and just short enough to show a bit of midriff. She’d taken off the glasses and slipped her contacts in, and applied more makeup than usual. So beautiful.

He looked back at Cody as she shrugged out of her own over shirt and tossed it to him. Her t-shirt was bright red, just as tight as Payton’s—on much curvier flesh—but he didn’t care. Even Cody wouldn’t stand in his way, not in this. “Stay out of my way on this, Cody. You and I are friends, but Payton…is going to be everything.”

He didn’t miss the way her mouth opened and her eyes widened. “Luc…”

“I mean it. Stay out of it.”