One Wild Night

"How close are you to Lucy?" Tom asked as a conversation starter once he and Lucas were seated in his bar room.

"How close?" Lucas asked in confusion.

"Yeah. Although you both are not identical twins, I've been curious about the kind of connection that exists between you both since the moment she mentioned to me that she had a twin brother," Tom said as he took a sip from his glass, and Lucas smiled sadly thinking that he was no longer as connected with his sister as they had once been.

"Hmm... I really do not know how to answer that question," Lucas said with a sigh.

"Funny, because Lucy said almost the same thing the first time I asked her that," Tom said with a smile as he remembered the first time he had visited Lucy's apartment under the guise of being her neighbor.

"What did she say?" Lucas asked curiously, wanting to know what Lucy genuinely thought about their siblingship.

"I asked her if she felt specially connected to you as her twin brother, but she said she wouldn't know because you are her only sibling. I guess you feel the same way about her," Tom said as he studied Lucas.

"What way?" Lucas asked again, giving Tom the impression that what Lucy thought about their relationship was important to him.

"You both love each other, but you both don't think that the bond you share is just because you are twins. It's nice. I hope Lucy and I have twins of our own. A boy and a girl, or two girls," Tom said with a dreamy smile, and Lucas raised a brow.

"You're already thinking of knocking her up?"

"I'm already thinking of her in my future," Tom countered with a grin, and Lucas found himself smiling at him.

"You don't want twin boys?"

"Nah. I want a little girl that looks and acts just like Lucy. Not as introverted as she is though," Tom added with a grin.

Seeing how he was smiling, Lucas could tell that Tom was completely smitten, "You must really love her," Lucas said with a sigh.

"Of course, I love her. Who wouldn't love her?" Tom asked making Lucas chuckle as he resisted the urge to say Rachel.

"You do know that you owe me big time, right? I put in a lot of good words for you when she asked for my opinion," Lucas confided, and Tom leaned forward in his seat.

"Really? You both talked about me? When was that? And what did you say?" Tom asked curiously and listened with a grin as Lucas related all that Lucy had said when pretending that her colleague's friend was having issues with a one-night stand who coincidentally turned out to be her neighbor and driver.

Both Tom and Lucas were laughing by the time Lucas finished telling him about his advice to Lucy, "I can't imagine giving my kid sister such a piece of advice though. You must have badly wanted her to get involved with someone to have given her such advice," Tom said thoughtfully, and Lucas nodded.

"Yes. I was planning to get married to Rachel who doesn't get along with Lucy, and then Sonia was engaged to your brother. I thought she would be too lonely since she really isn't the type to socialize. So I wanted her to meet someone. I decided that someone had to be you the moment she said that you didn't take advantage of her the first night you spent together because she was drunk," Lucas confessed.

"Was? You're no longer planning to get married?" Tom asked, acting like he hadn't heard from Lucy about Lucas' breakup.

Lucas sighed, "Don't pretend like you don't know that I called off the engagement. I'm sure that is the only reason you picked that part out of everything I just said. That's a cheap trick," Lucas said with a shake of his head before sipping from his wine.

Tom gave him an apologetic smile, "Fine. Lucy mentioned the break-up to me. Are you alright?" Tom asked, his concern evident in his hazel eyes.

"I'm not. But let's not talk about that right now. Tell me why you decided to stalk Lucy," Lucas said wanting to talk about anything else that didn't involve Rachel.

Tom went on to explain how he had been unlucky with ladies, and how he had wanted to get to know Lucy without her knowing his true identity. By the time he was done, Lucas sighed.

"That was a big risk you took though."

"Yeah. I'm not sure I realized just how bad it was until she told me about Jamie. That was when I realized that I had screwed up."

"Thankfully it is because of you that she has finally been able to face all that happened to her. I guess it all worked out well," Lucas said with a small smile.

Tom looked at Lucas for a moment, and then cleared his throat, "I have a vacancy position for a doctor in the company if you're interested..."

"Did the position suddenly become vacant just because you heard that I'm quitting my job?" Lucas asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"Not at all. I was going to fire the doctor on Monday," Tom assured him.

"Why? Did he do something wrong?"

"He doesn't know how to keep sensitive information to himself, and I can't have such a person working with me," Tom said without telling Lucas what the doctor had done wrong.

He had tried his best to figure out where the leak had come from concerning him pretending to be Lucy's driver, and then he remembered that the only person apart from Harry and his siblings who knew about it for a fact was the doctor. He was glad now that he hadn't given the doctor the details of Lucy's psychological trauma, else he would have also thought that was where the leak came from, and he wouldn't have forgiven himself.

"You do realize that people are going to assume that you fired him just so that you could employ your girlfriend's twin brother," Lucas pointed out with a shake of his head.

"I get your point. For your sake, I'm going to give him six months' notice and ask him to quit by himself. You can take the time to clear your head before resuming. How about that?" Tom suggested, and Lucas looked at him for a moment without saying a word.

"Did you discuss this with Lucy?"

"Not yet. I wanted to talk to you first," Tom explained.

"It should remain between us for the time being. I don't have to give you an answer yet, right?" Lucas asked, and Tom nodded.

"I will think about it and get back to you on it when I'm thinking straight," Lucas promised.

"That's fine. So can you tell me about Lucy's childhood," Tom said eagerly, making Lucas raise a brow.

"I thought you wanted us to share a nightcap to know more about me?"

"Lucy's childhood is the same as yours. You can talk about yourself too while telling me about her. I want to hear everything about Lucy. What was she like before prom night?" Tom asked, and Lucas shook his head. He didn't know whether to feel bad for his heartbroken self or be happy about the way Tom was making his love for Lucy so obvious.

Inside the house, Bryan was glaring at his mother as she returned to join them at the table with a photo album, "Mom, no one asked to see!" He said with a scowl as she opened the album.

"I want to see," Sonia said excitedly as she left her seat and went to sit on the chair beside Tom's mother which Lucas had vacated a while ago.

"Awww," Sonia gushed when she saw three separate pictures of three cute babies.

"This is Tom, Bryan, and Jade," Evelyn pointed to each baby, and Lucy stood up to join them so that she could see the picture of Tom.

Tom's father stood up when Lucy stood behind his wife and Sonia, "Want to play games before calling it a night?" He asked Lucy's father who gave him a thumbs-up as he stood up.

"Let's give the ladies room to do ladies' stuff," Lucy's father said as he turned to his wife, "Come get me when you're ready to go to bed," he said as he kissed his wife's forehead before leaving with Bryan's father.

Once the men left, Lucy sat down on the seat which Tom's father had just vacated, and Lucy's mom and Jasmine moved closer to the group to see the pictures, while Alicia continued to take photos.

Seeing how the ladies were laughing together and awwing as they watched the photos, while both his mother and Lucy's mother exchanged stories of their kids' childhood, Bryan stood up and walked away without saying a word to Sonia since she seemed engrossed with the photos and stories of both women.

***************

"We shouldn't let him take her with him! He violated her!" Matt said as he turned on the car's ignition and reversed in the direction of the port.

"Did you listen to anything he said?" Harry who was still lying there with his eyes closed, asked Matt.

"I thought you were having your beauty sleep?" Jade asked, turning to look at him.

"It's difficult to do that in a car."

"Can you both have this conversation some other time? I promised Candace that Andy will be safe. I can't..."

Jade quickly cut in, "Andy won't be hurt."

"How can you be so sure? How can a person like you believe the words of a criminal? Someone who murdered someone else in cold blood?" Matt asked incredulously as he stepped on the gas pedal, wanting to get to the port before the yacht blows up.

"If he wanted to hurt her, he wouldn't have bothered talking to us about his plans. Besides, did you hear her protest?" Jade asked, and Matt frowned.

"She doesn't need to protest for us to rescue her. Are we supposed to not do anything and just let him do as he pleases? Are you doing this because he has promised to give you everything you need to close the case?" Matt asked indignantly.

"Why don't you give Candace a call? And you both can do whatever she says," Harry suggested with a yawn and Jade picked up her phone and dialed Candace's line.

Candace who had just succeeded in putting Jamal to sleep was startled by her sudden ringtone, and she quickly reached for her phone and received the call before moving away from the bedroom, "Sup? It's almost midnight," she pointed out.

"Uhm, Jero is with Cassidy, and they have Andy," Jade said after putting the phone on speaker, making Candace's heart skip a beat.

"What do you mean Jero is with Cassidy and they have her?" She asked almost panicking.

"Calm down," Jade said and went on to explain everything that transpired between Cassidy and Jero to Candace.

Candace took in a deep breath after listening to everything, "Cassidy said Andy will contact me when it's safe?" Candace asked in a worried tone when Jade finished.

"Yes. What do you suggest we do? Should I ask the cops to go after Cassidy?"

Although it was a difficult decision to make, Candace sighed after a while, "Although Cassidy is dangerous, he loves Andy in his own twisted way, and he is a man of his words. If he says Andy will be fine, then I believe that she will be okay. Don't go after them. I will wait to hear from her."

"And what about Jero? Are you willing to see him before he returns to jail?" Jade asked since that was Cassidy's request.

Matt suddenly slammed his foot on the brake when something clicked in his head, and the car screeched to a halt making them jerk forward.

"Oh, my God!" Jade exclaimed in surprise.

"What did you do that for?" Harry who had almost fallen off the seat, hissed irritably as he sat up.

"Is everything okay over there?" Candace asked just as Matt took the phone from Jade.

"Did you lie about killing those boys?" Matt asked in a very quiet tone, and both Jade and Harry stared at him in confusion.

Of course, she had known that he was going to find out sooner or later that she lied to him. She had done it just to push him away.

"I guess you really were not interested in me if you could lie about something like that just to push me away. I'm sorry I kept interfering in your business," Matt said with a shake of his head as he hung up the call.

"I believe my job here is done. You can handle the rest on your own," Matt said as he got out of the car, "You can use the car. I'll find my way home," Matt said as he walked away without waiting for either Jade or Harry to say anything to him.

Jade and Harry looked away from Matt's retreating figure when they heard the sound of an explosion, but Matt didn't bother looking in the direction of the yacht which had just exploded. He wished them all good luck.