The Billionaire's Voice (The Sinclairs #4) (7 page)

CHAPTER 6

“So what’s the deal with your ex-fiancé?” Micah asked right before he took a huge slug of water.

Tessa tensed. She and Micah had taken a different route on their run today, a path through the woods that had ended in a clearing by the ocean. He’d wanted to stop since the route had been longer than their usual run. Her eyes were drawn to him, his head turned toward her as he stretched out on the grass beneath them, a ragged T-shirt clinging to his damp, powerful chest and muscular biceps.

“What do you mean? He was my fiancé, and then we broke up,” she replied uncomfortably. She didn’t like to talk about Rick to anyone. He was history, a part of her life that she didn’t want to discuss.

“Why?” he asked casually.

Tessa messed with her hair, re-securing it after some of her curls had come loose during her run. Micah irked her when he got this insistent. He was obviously going to wring the answer from her, no matter how long it took. She was looking at his face now, and she recognized his determined expression.

She sighed as she let her hands drop, her hair confined once more. “Do you really want to know?” she asked warily, hoping he’d say he didn’t, but knowing it wasn’t going to happen.

“Yes.”

That’s what I was afraid of!

He leaned back and propped himself up on his arms, still staring at her expectantly.

God, he looked good. The morning light reflected from his hair, the mild wind ruffling it just enough for him to look sexy. Her eyes trailed down to his sweatpants and expensive running shoes. How did a woman tell a man who looked like him about being dumped?

“He was a rich and powerful man. We were together from the time I turned eighteen, right after the Olympics. He talked me into going back to Boston with him after we’d dated for a few months. I did. We lived together for a year before he asked me to marry him.” She stopped, thinking about how naive she had been back then. She’d thought she was living her dream, that she’d found the one man who would love her forever. Life was never that simple, and her relationship with Rick had become incredibly demanding and complicated.

“And?” Micah prompted.

“Back then, I guess I thought our life was good. I traveled with him when I could. It worked out well because my coach was in Boston, so she could go back home after we moved in together. I went to his parties, became the woman he wanted.”

He looked at her sharply. “What does that mean?”

“He didn’t approve of the clothing I wore, some of my habits, my friends. I turned myself inside out to change. He needed a woman who was more mature.”

“You were fucking eighteen years old, and had spent your entire life devoted to your sport. How much more did he want?” Micah asked, his expression dark.

“Everything,” Tessa admitted. “He wanted me dressed differently, my behavior more proper and sophisticated. He wanted me to cultivate friends in his circle.”

Micah shook his head. “Snobs.”

She shrugged. “Pretty much. I realized later how much I hated that life no matter how many fancy parties and events we attended. It wasn’t me. I was still a small-town girl. I didn’t belong there.”

“You didn’t belong with
him
. How did you break up?”

“After I lost my hearing and left the hospital, things were never the same. I learned how to read lips as fast as I could, but he hated the fact that I was deaf. I was handicapped, and he hated to take me anywhere.” More quietly she whispered, “He was ashamed of me, I think. He got involved with another woman, and broke off our engagement on his birthday. He asked me to get out the next day. I guess he had my replacement ready to move in.”

“What an asshole. Who is he?” His expression was dangerous now.

“Richard Barlow. A multimillionaire who attends a lot of sporting events.”

“I’ve met him. He’s a pretentious prick. We’ve run into each other a few times. Since we’re both in the sports-equipment business, we cross paths, even though my company specializes in extreme sports.”

Moving closer, Tessa put a hand on his forearm. “It doesn’t matter anymore. I made a lucky escape. If I had married him, I doubt I’d be the same person I am right now.”

“Yes, you would. But you’d also be his puppet on the outside, and that would have made you miserable. You shouldn’t have to change for anybody. You’re fucking perfect just the way you are.” He looked angry.

She decided to finish the story she’d started. “I came back home and started helping Mom and Dad run the restaurant. Liam was gone then, so it was just us. My brother came home for good when Dad died. He’s been here ever since. He gave up his job as a special-effects expert in movies and TV to be here for me.”

“Which is why you have a hard time telling him to mind his own business,” Micah concluded.

“Yes. I know he means well, but I don’t need his help anymore. I’m grateful that he was there when I needed him, but he doesn’t have to keep sacrificing now. The only thing I need is his love. But I don’t think he’s realized that yet. I want him to move on with his life because I’m moving on with mine. But he still blames himself for my hearing loss.”

“What happened?” Micah asked, his expression less irate.

Tessa sighed and lay back on the soft grass. “Nothing that was in any way his fault. We were both busy, but we wanted to get together. Meeting here in Amesport was the easiest for both of us, because Liam and I both loved to be outside. One of our favorite things to do together was hiking. I got here before he did, and he had to bail on our hiking trip. He got tied up on a job and couldn’t make it back to Maine. I decided to go to one of our favorite areas and do the hike by myself. It was only one day, and it wasn’t like I hadn’t done it before.” She rolled and propped her head on her hand, facing Micah.

“You got hurt while you were out hiking?”

She shook her head. “Not hurt. Sick. I wasn’t feeling that great when I started out in the morning, but I thought it was stress. I’d been out of the country for competitions, and my travel schedule was crazy. I’d just gotten back in the States, and I flew here to Maine directly from a competition. I was tired, but as I got farther and farther along on the hike, I guess I spiked a fever. I got turned around, and eventually I was way off the hiking trail. Honestly, I don’t remember much of the whole hiking ordeal.”

“Then what?”

Tessa could tell from the look on Micah’s face that he was listening intently, his body tensed. Her world might be silent, but she’d become a master at reading expressions and body language.

She shrugged. “All I remember is being tired and cold. I sat down to rest, and that’s about the only memory I have of getting sick. I don’t recall being alone that night. They didn’t find me until the next afternoon. My parents got worried and called Liam. Then my brother notified the authorities. Everything is a blank until I woke up in the hospital, terrified because I couldn’t hear a thing that anybody was saying. I had bacterial meningitis. Liam filled in some of the blanks, but it’s like I lost that whole week of my life before I woke up. Then when I finally opened my eyes, I was deaf.”

Micah flopped down on his stomach next to her, his eyes softening as he reached for her hand. “You must have been scared.”

Tessa savored the feel of their palms meeting, Micah’s larger hand engulfing hers. “I was terrified,” she admitted. “When I was well enough, I communicated in writing, but it was frustrating.”

“So Liam blames himself because he wasn’t there with you,” Micah guessed.

“He does. He said if he had been there, I could have gotten help a lot faster, and I might not have lost my hearing.”

“Is that true?”

“Who knows? But I’m the one who decided to go alone, and all my parents knew was that I was going hiking. They didn’t really worry until the next morning. Nobody knew I was going to get sick while I was out in the woods, or that it would be that serious. You don’t think about those kinds of things, especially at that age. It happened so fast.”

Tessa saw his reproving look before he spoke. “You could have died out there.”

“But I didn’t. I’m grateful that I didn’t. But Liam thinks he’s entirely responsible for ruining my life and my career. It’s ridiculous. He had nothing to do with my decision. I was an adult. Sometimes I think I was born all grown up.” She’d never had time to play as a child and teen. Her life back then had been filled with nothing but practice routines and competitions.

He grinned at her, a wolfish smile that made her heart clench. “Maybe you need to play.”

Tessa rolled her eyes. “I’m a little too old for that.”

“You’re never too old to play.”

“Says the perpetual boy who does nothing but crazy things that most adults wouldn’t even consider doing.”

Micah’s expression grew troubled as he answered, “Not as much as I’d like to anymore. I have a company to run and a family to watch out for now. The only sport I focus on now is my skydiving team, for the most part.”

“No parents?” Tessa asked curiously.

He looked somber as he said, “Not anymore. They died a year ago.”

Tessa took her hand from his and put a palm lightly on his face. “I’m sorry. How did it happen?”

“My dad retired early, moved to California with Mom to avoid the cold winters. There was a home-invasion robbery. My parents were both murdered. Xander was the only one there with them, and the only one who survived . . . if you want to call it survival. He was able to reach for his cell phone and call the police. There was a shootout with the murderer a few miles from my parents’ home. The guy who killed our parents died, too, but I don’t think it made any of us feel better.”

Tessa’s eyes watered, her heart aching for Micah. She had lost her own parents, and she knew the pain of losing both of the people she loved most in the world relatively close together. But the shock of losing both of his parents at the same time to murder had to have been devastating. “What do you mean? Your brother did make it, right?”

“He’s alive, if that’s what you mean. But he’s never been the same man. He was an incredibly talented musician, and he was world famous. Unfortunately, he gave up his career. He still hasn’t recovered. His physical wounds healed, but he’s scarred and messed up emotionally. Drugs, alcohol, and severe depression. I get to the West Coast as much as I can to see him. Not that he
wants
to see
anybody
, but someone needs to keep an eye on him. Right now, I’m not sure whether he cares if he lives or dies.”

“I’m so sorry,” Tessa replied, a lone tear trickling down her cheek.

“For what?”

She rested her hand back in his and squeezed. “Because you’ve had to be the strong one, the person who took over when your parents died. I’m sorry for your brother, that he had to see your parents die. Was he badly injured?”

“Pretty bad. Both of my parents were shot multiple times, but Xander was shot once, then cut up, stab wounds everywhere. He was in the hospital for a long time. We weren’t sure he was going to make it.”

Tessa had met Julian briefly when he’d been in Amesport. Xander had never made the trip for any of his cousins’ weddings or events, except Sarah and Dante’s ceremony, nuptials that Tessa hadn’t attended. But she remembered hearing about how handsome all of the Sinclair men had been together in a group. Xander had never come to Amesport again. Now she knew why. “What about Julian?”

“He’s living his dream right now. He worked so damn hard to make it in the movie industry. After he got the Academy Award for his first movie, he’s been in high demand. He’s just wrapping up his third film.”

Tessa could tell that Micah was proud of Julian, but was it fair that he wasn’t really sharing with Micah the burden of Xander’s problems? “But surely Julian could help. You have a business to run, obligations of your own.”

Micah shook his head. “He’s on location most of the time.”

“You don’t want Julian to know how bad Xander is doing,” Tessa concluded, frowning at Micah. He couldn’t keep shouldering all the burdens he was carrying. His obligations to his company had to be demanding. Then, he was traveling from coast to coast for his younger brother? He may have stopped some of his personal participation in extreme sports, but he still had duties as the leader of a very elite skydiving team, Xtreme Dive Crew. Even if a person wasn’t into skydiving, there were very few who hadn’t heard of Micah’s troop of professionals, or seen them perform some crazy dangerous maneuvers. The group was the best of the best, and Micah sponsored and led the team. They were named after his own company, Xtreme Dive Sports Equipment.

“Julian would give up his career if he knew, or severely limit it, to help with Xander. My youngest brother already threw his career as a musician away. I don’t want that for Julian.” His jaw was firmly set, his eyes shuttered.

A memory flitted through Tessa’s mind. “You said Xander was a musician. Was he a rock star?”

Micah looked at her curiously, raising a brow. “Yeah. He
was
. Were you into his music? He started pretty young, probably before you lost your hearing.”

Tessa shook her head. “What does he look like?” There were definitely coincidences, but
her
Xander, a kind man she’d never forgotten, and Micah’s younger brother couldn’t possibly be the same person. What were the chances of that?