London Falling (Falling #2)(30)

***

A knock on my door startled me. I paused the rugby match I had DVRd on the telly and went to answer. I was not prepared to see my sister Emma at the door, tears in her eyes.

“Colly!” she screeched and flew into my arms.

I held her petite form as she sobbed. “What happened?”

“Evan. H-he…he…oh, God,” she cried, wetting my shirt. “He cheated on me.” She sniffed and I held her tight.

“That f*cking puissant! I’ll kill the bastard.” I shuffled her into the room and settled her on the couch. She pulled the arm pillow into her lap and buried her face into it. I hustled into the kitchen, giving her a moment as I whipped up a spot of tea.

She hadn’t moved when I returned. I eased down onto the glass coffee table sitting directly across from her, our knees touching. “Tell me,” I urged.

Her brown eyes, same as my own, same as our mother’s, were filled with unshed tears. “Baby girl, please.” She closed her eyes and held my hands as she lost the battle and they spilled over the edge. The torrential proof of her pain and suffering was as effective on my big-brother kick-some-arse-nature as a scalding pot of hot water over an ice cube. The wanker was mine, though Nathaniel would want a shot and he’d have his turn too. There was plenty of that cocksucker to go around.

Emma straightened her shoulders as if preparing for battle and took a deep breath. “I went to his work. You know, in Dartford?”

I nodded.

“He’d been different lately. Not wanting to you know…“

I closed my eyes really not wanting to hear what that bastard did with my sister but allowed her to continue anyway.

“…share the marital bed as it were.”

I rubbed her hands back and forth, calming her. “Go on.” The tension coiled tight in my gut and anger seeped into my veins.

“So I showed up in a saucy dress. I’d been working out a lot, trying to get him to look at me the way he used to. And I brought him some supper and that’s when…“She choked back another round of sobs. “That’s when I walked in and saw him!” Tears streaked down her face so fast it was as if she’d turned on a faucet. “He had his face…his face, Collier! B-between his secretary’s legs! All spread out like a holiday dinner!” She screamed and threw herself back into the couch, hands over her eyes.

That’s it. Forget the arse-kicking. Evan was a dead man. D-E-A-D M-A-N. I moved to the couch and pulled my baby sister into my lap, hugging her close.

“Baby girl, it’s going to be okay. You’ll stay here in the States. You can stay with me or Nathaniel or we’ll get you a place of your own. Don’t go back to that wanker. He’s…you’re so much better than him. A man should worship you, not walk out on you. It’s unforgivable.”

She nodded. “But what about work? My life? Mum, Dad?”

“We’ll handle it all. You have a degree. We can put it to use. You can stay in the States if you’d like. Work at our firm. I really need an assistant. Remember those years you helped Nathaniel and I out with our proposals and getting the books together at our first office while you went to school? I’ll pay you twenty times that to work for us. We need someone we can trust. Someone with brains.” She pulled back and looked at me, her eyes a tad less teary.

“You’d do that for me?”

“Baby girl, of course. Besides, you’d be doing us a huge favor. You’re perfect. Would you like to work for Stone, Walker, & Associates?” She tilted her head and bit her lip, so I continued. “It will give you the time to figure out what you’re going to do about the daft prick who’s going to be a dead man when your brother and I get our mitts on him.”

The most beautiful sound came out of her mouth. She giggled. It reminded me of when we were kids. Nathaniel and I would chase our sisters around the house, tackle them and tickle them until they’d wet their knickers or begged forgiveness.

“I’d like that, Colly. Thank you. I’m so glad I came to you first.” She snuggled into my neck. “I’m such an idiot.”

“Shhh. None of that. You are pure and beautiful and sweet. One day you will have real love, the kind they write about in those chick flicks you adore. You know, the ones with that sod, Hugh Grant?”

She laughed.

“I never understood why they paired up a great beauty like Julia Roberts with the likes of him.” I pretend shivered. She continued to laugh, then smacked at my arm.

After holding her for some time, she stopped crying completely. “I’m so tired, Colly. I left the moment I caught him yesterday. I just went home, packed a bag and showed up at the airport. No one knows I’m gone. Will you tell Mum and…you know, everyone?”

I nodded and lifted her to her feet. “Come on now. I’ll get your case, settle you in the guest room. It has an attached bathroom so you’ll have privacy.”

“You’re the best, brother mine. Why hasn’t some great beauty scooped you up since you escaped the queen-beast?”

“Working on that, actually.”

She sat on the bed in the guest room. “Is that so? You met someone?”

Instead of lying to her, I went with the truth. “I did but we’ve only been on one date and she’s very skittish. So we’ll see.”