He took a step forward and lowered his voice just above a growl. He must have looked pretty menacing if Reid felt the need to place himself half in front of his fiancée. As if Jax would ever lay a finger on his sister. The dude had gone all Tarzan over her. He would’ve respected Reid for that protective instinct if he wasn’t on the verge of losing his shit over Vanessa. “Lucie, I’m not playing. I want to know where she is.”
Lucie stepped around Reid while giving him her famous back off, Cujo look she used to use with Jax when he got too parental with her. And just as Jax had done years ago, Reid gave in. A little. “I mean, I can’t tell you because she won’t tell me. And when I asked why she switched hotels, she told me about Kat and said she didn’t want to bring me into her funk.”
That sounded exactly like something she’d say. That was his V. Always trying to save the ones she loved in one way or another. “She was supposed to go to Nashville to bail her sister out of a problem.”
“Yeah, I know.” Lucie tucked her long brown hair behind her ears and looked as though she debated on how much she should tell him. “Before she got on the plane last night, she found out Kat had taken off. Vanessa got a text from her this morning saying that she didn’t want Nessie getting mixed up in her problems.”
Jax snorted in disgust. “In other words, her boy Lenny told her they were better off doing another cut-and-run instead of facing the music that could very well be his death march.”
Lucie nodded. “More than likely. And if the future can be predicted by looking at the past, Kat will probably be off-grid for several months again. It’s nothing Nessie’s not used to. She’ll be fine; she just needs some time to herself.”
“Fuck that,” he growled. That’s not what she needed at all. Left by herself, she’d do what she’d always done: bury the hurt and the guilt until she couldn’t see it anymore. Feel that somehow, no matter how hard she tried, she wasn’t enough. And that was bullshit. She was more than enough. She was everything to him, and he needed to tell her. To show her.
But in order to do that, he needed to stop hiding.
Vanessa deserved a man who owned up to who he was in life. Not a fighter who pretended not to own part of an exclusive resort so he wouldn’t have to deal with the publicity and responsibilities that came along with it. And certainly not a brother who hid his true identity for fear of losing his place in his sister’s life.
“Lucie,” he rasped. “I need to talk to you.” He flicked a glance at his best friend, who gave him a nod of understanding. “Alone.”
The corners of her mouth lifted slightly as she held out her hand. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go for a walk, big brother.”
Lucie’s private bungalow sat on the outskirts of the resort property facing the crystal blue waters of the Pacific. Jackson sat on the wood steps that led to the porch, forearms resting on his knees, one hand clasping his other wrist in the middle. He closed his eyes and sucked the salty sea air deep into his lungs, then regulated his breaths with the sounds of the waves hitting the shore.
When Lucie had sat him down for their talk, he’d been prepared for the worst reaction possible. Not because he truly believed his sister would abandon him, but because he couldn’t let himself hope for something more if she wasn’t able to give him that much.
Now he was ashamed of himself for thinking she’d react any differently than with the compassion, understanding, and love she’d shown him. Lucie truly was one in a million. When he told her about finding his adoption papers after their parents’ deaths, he expected her to quietly process the information in that Lucie way he knew so well. Not only did she surprise him by responding without thinking, but the first thing out of her mouth completely leveled him.
“I won’t lie and say this isn’t the last thing I expected you to tell me. But Jackson,” she said, gazing at him with her dove gray eyes, “I don’t care who gave birth to you. It doesn’t make you any less of a Maris than I am. And it sure as hell doesn’t change the fact that you’re my big brother.”
More than fifteen years’ worth of keeping his secret crashed over him, and he’d been helpless to stop the tears from flooding to the surface. Lucie wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed for all her tiny frame was worth. He wasn’t sure how long they held each other like that, but when they finally separated he had himself back under control.
They spent the next hour talking about everything from the real reason he moved to Hawaii to learning to accept not knowing why their parents never told him the truth. They speculated some, but in the end they both agreed that it probably wasn’t something they meant to keep to themselves forever. Neither of their parents could have ever predicted being taken from their children so early. Not telling Jackson sooner in life may not have been the wisest course of action, but they must have had their reasons.
Either way, Lucie was right. Just because his DNA claimed differently didn’t mean he wasn’t still a Maris.
The door behind him swung open and shut just before Lucie handed him the cold beer she’d gone inside for. “Here you go.”