Alex

Alex bristled when he recognized the guy who’d been in scrubs the other night sitting in Lucy’s room. He was no longer in scrubs. And the two of them looked a little too cozy, laughing and chatting with each other. Alex didn’t like the way the guy was looking at his girl. It certainly wasn’t very doctorly. Then he heard the guy say something about getting Lucy out of her pants and Alex saw red.

He stepped into the room. “I should hope not.”

They both turned and stared at him. Alex swore he saw a flicker of guilt in both of their eyes as he walked into the room and straight up to the guy, who jumped to his feet. Yep, this asshole was definitely guilty.

“Doc?” Alex said, puffing out his chest despite the guy obviously not being a doctor.

“It’s Jaxon, actually,” the schmuck said. “No camera crew today?”

He even had the balls to sound smug. Alex wanted to deck him. He knew he was being a hothead, as his agent would say, but Alex hated when people tried to take anything that was his—and Lucy was most definitely that. Rather than playing into Jaxon’s hand, Alex decided to dish it right back. “So you get off playing doctor sometimes?”

Lucy cut in before the guy could answer. “No. Jaxon is the guy who rescued me from the car accident. He was just in scrubs because his clothes got ruined.”

Well shit! That did make it hard to hate the guy, but just because he’d saved Lucy didn’t mean Alex was gonna take his eyes off Jaxon completely. Lucy was gorgeous and Alex was used to other guys thinking they had a shot with her. But still, he at least owed the guy a little gratitude.

Alex extended his hand. “Then you have my thanks.” Jaxon clasped Alex’s hand and Alex tightened his grip, pulling him closer. “But I’ll take care of my girl from now on.”

Jaxon’s jaw twitched but he only nodded. Good. Get it through your head, babaca. Luz is mine.

Jaxon untangled his hand from Alex’s and turned to Lucy. “Well I’m gonna take off.”

“Wait, we didn’t even get to discuss the accident,” she protested.

“I think it might be better if you only discuss the accident with your attorney, lindenza,” Alex said before Jaxon could respond.

“But, I don’t have an attorney,” Lucy argued.

“Of course you do, bebé. You know my family keeps Keller & Donahue on retainer.”

“But—”

“But nothing,” Alex interrupted. “You’re family, and family takes care of each other.”

Lucy was staring at him like he was crazy and it wasn’t because he’d been speaking to her in Portuguese. Lucy understood the language just fine, but Jaxon didn’t. And that had been Alex’s goal. He wanted to make Jaxon feel excluded and it worked.

Jaxon cleared his throat. “I’m gonna head out.” Then he left the room.

“See you later,” Lucy called after him.

Alex grinned. Hopefully not.

Jaxon

Jaxon stormed out of the hospital, rage bubbling in his gut. Alex Alvez was a grade-A dickwad. How could a girl like Lucy be with someone like him? The jackass had basically wanted to start a pissing match right there in her hospital room. And over what? Jaxon wasn’t doing anything wrong. He and Lucy were just talking.

It figured the first person Jaxon actually felt like he could talk to about something real was attached to a guy with a major case of twinkle-dick. Dude’s Napoleon complex was bigger than his ego. Talk about being threatened. Who the hell did Alex think he was telling Lucy who she could and couldn’t talk to? He hadn’t even cared enough to put his cameras down and see if she was okay the other day. Now he was all holier than thou? Jaxon didn’t buy it.

Jaxon was still fuming when he reached his truck. He got in and gripped the wheel, taking deep steadying breaths, wondering if maybe feeling numb all the time wasn’t so bad after all. It certainly beat the feelings that were tightening his chest right now.

Lucy

“Alex, that was really rude,” Lucy scolded.

“What was?”

“Don’t play dumb. I know you were speaking in Portuguese on purpose.”

“I was not. You know I get passionate about family and when I’m passionate I have to speak a passionate language.”

“I’ve heard you be plenty passionate in English,” she muttered.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.”

“If you have something say, Luz, say it to my face.”

“Don’t ask for something you don’t want, Alex.”

“Oh, you mean like a girlfriend that disobeys me and doesn’t show up to my game.”

“I was in a car accident!” Lucy yelled.

“And what about Brooke?”

“What about her?”

“You didn’t tell her to lie to me?”

“Leave her out of this.”

“Where the hell were you, Luz?”

“I told you, I got in a car accident. I’m sorry I missed your game but I was a little busy trying not to die.”

Alex narrowed his eyes and leaned closer. “Yeah, but I bet you wouldn’t have been in an accident at all if you weren’t a liar.”

“What?”

“You were at swim practice, weren’t you?”

Lucy’s mouth fell open. How the hell did he know that? Was he checking up on her? “And so what if I was?”

“You lied to me, Luz.”

“I didn’t lie.” Well technically she had . . . But only because Alex was completely unreasonable.

Alex sat back in his chair and smugly crossed his arms. “Karma’s a bitch, Luz.”

Tears pricked her eyes. “How can you say that?”

Alex only shrugged.

It really was over between them. Lucy had sensed it was for a while now, but she’d always held onto the hope that maybe deep down he still felt something for her, and that she hadn’t completely wasted her adolescence with Alex. She’d always hoped there was still a little piece of the boy she’d grown up with left beneath the narcissistic entitled athlete that he’d grown into. But she was just now realizing that wasn’t true. Not only did Alex not hold an ounce of love for her, he didn’t even seem decent enough to care about her as a friend.

Why the hell had her father thought it was a good idea to leave her with the Alvez family? She would’ve been better off on her own. Hell, she’d be better off in jail with her father. Besides, Lucy was convinced he wasn’t guilty anyway. But it didn’t matter if she couldn’t prove it. The older Lucy got the more suspicious she was that Alex’s father had something to do with the accusations against her father.

Victor Alvez was Lucy’s father’s long-time friend and business partner. Together, they started a successful financial planning business in LA and by the time Lucy was born, the business was booming. But Lucy’s arrival into the world seemed to set a stream of misfortune in motion for her father.

She never got to meet her mother, who died of complications during childbirth. Her father was heartbroken. He never remarried and he never seemed to be able to look at Lucy without seeing the ghost of her mother. Instead of being a father, he threw himself into his work, leaving Lucy to spend most of her time with her godparents, the Alvez’s.

She enjoyed spending time at the Alvez house playing with Alex. They lived right next door and Mrs. Alvez was always kind to her. But when Lucy was seven everything changed. The feds were tipped off that her father was involved in some shady investing ponzi scheme. Officers started showing up at the house to speak to him, but the housekeepers were told to say he wasn’t there.

Lucy’s father started arguing with the Alvez’s a lot about whether the allegations were true. He adamantly stated that they weren’t, but things just kept getting worse. Until one morning Lucy woke up to the sounds of sirens. She’d been sleeping over at Alex’s again and when they peered out the window they saw her house surrounded by armed policemen. Lucy watched them come out of the house with her father in handcuffs. She hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye. She remembered bawling her eyes out as she ran out of Alex’s house screaming for her father to come back. Alex had finally made her stop. He’d pulled her into a hug and promised that he would be her family.

Lucy’s heart ached. Where was that boy now? She missed him. He certainly wasn’t the boy sitting in her hospital room with her. That boy didn’t look like he cared about her at all. But what could Lucy do about it? She was trapped. Alex and his family were all she had.

Victor and Isabelle Alvez sat Lucy down after her father was arrested and explained that they were now her legal guardians and that she was going to stay with them. At the time, Lucy had thought that was a good thing. She thought it meant she had people who would still take care of her. But now she knew better. What it really meant was that the Alvez’s controlled her life.

They controlled the information she knew about her father and the trust fund he set up for her. So that meant until she was eighteen, Lucy had to put up with Alex and his family. And her decision to date him only made it more complicated. She didn’t know what to do, but she felt trapped.

“When do you get out of here?” Alex finally asked, looking around the hospital room like he was bored.

“I just need your parents to sign some release forms and then I can leave tomorrow.”

“Good. I have a big tournament coming up in San Diego soon and I really need you to be there.”

“Alex, my leg is broken. I can barely get around on crutches. I’m not going to be able to go to a soccer tournament anytime soon.”

He stood. “Fine. If you really don’t feel well enough to go then I guess I should tell my parents not to sign your release forms.”

“Alex . . .” She really wanted to say, ‘why don’t you just take Trista’, but she knew better. The comment might help relieve some of the pain filling her heart but it would probably result in Alex leaving her in the hospital a few more days just to be spiteful. “Fine, I’ll try to come to your game.”

“That’s my girl,” he said planting a kiss roughly on her lips. He pulled away from her a bit, examining her face. “Do you think your face will still look like this?”

“I can cover most of it with makeup,” Lucy assured him.

A smile curved his full lips. “Don’t. My fans will eat this shit up.” Alex held up his phone, leaning in to take a selfie of them.

Dick! All he cared about was using her for publicity. Lindenza—his pretty little good luck charm. Only a few more months, Lucy told herself. Then she’d be eighteen. Then she’d be free. But for now, she needed him.

“Well, I guess I better get your paperwork signed,” Alex said, smiling like he hadn’t just insulted her.

“Thanks.”

“Need anything else?”

“Yeah, a ride home from the hospital tomorrow?” she asked trying to sound like a good little girlfriend.

She watched the wheels turning in Alex’s head. He was probably wondering just how he’d set up his film crew to capture the best shots of him gallantly escorting her home from the hospital. “I can make that work. Just text me when you’re ready to go. I don’t want to hang around this place any longer than I have to. Hospitals are depressing.”

No shit! Lucy bit her tongue. “I don’t have a cell phone. It burnt up in the Jeep with my purse and everything.”

“Oh, right. I’ll have a courier bring one over for you today. Anything else?”

Lucy could tell Alex was itching to leave. And it’s not like having him around was any comfort to her. “No thank you.”

“Ciao,” Alex kissed his fingers in a parting gesture and was out the door.

Lucy sank back against her pillows and closed her eyes, letting the tears come.