Chapter 33
No More Secrets
"What took you so long?" Jude lay on the bed staring at him, still feeling the need to touch him, to make sure he was really there. She traced the muscles of his stomach absentmindedly as he looked up at her. He got up suddenly and went to his travel bag as she watched him. He came back and lay down beside her, handing her a manila envelope wordlessly. Jude drew the sheaf of papers and skimmed them, noticing the date right away. Her eyes flew to his, and he simply stared back waiting for her reaction. Jude was never predictable and he had to know she understood why he had waited. Her hand went up to cup his cheek.
"Why?"
"Because you deserved better than I gave you before. Because you saw the real me and loved me anyway. Because I love you." She clung to him then and he breathed in her sweet scent, feeling that hole she had left, fill back up. She looked down at the papers still clutched in her hand and noticed the white envelope that had come loose from the paper clip.
"What is this?" She lifted the paper with his name handwritten on its surface. He followed her gaze and shrugged, figuring it must have been from his lawyer. She handed it to him and he pulled back to open it. It was a handwritten letter and he saw the signature at the bottom. Portia. Jude waited patiently as he read the words his ex-wife had written to him. She noticed the tension radiating from his body as his eyes moved down the page.
"What is it Tommy?" She asked worriedly as his blue eyes met hers.
He handed her the paper after he was done, with a grim expression on his face. She looked at him questioningly.
"No secrets." She looked down and started to read. Her blood ran between icy cold and red hot anger as she absorbed the words of confession. Fury was in her eyes as she finished and looked up at him.
"Where is she? I'll fucking kill her myself!" Tommy found himself almost amused by her reaction. Once he had thought her incapable of hurting anyone, but apparently for him she would do anything. "Why are you taking this so well?" She asked in puzzlement as he continued to gaze at her.
"When I was in the hospital the Alfa Romeo company called and asked if they could ship my car back to Italy to examine it. They wanted to make sure my accident had nothing to do with any flaws in their design, since they were about to release it on the international market."
"They found something..." She said not asking a question.
"At the time I was too busy recovering to think about it again, but I got a call after I got back from the tour."
"Hello I'm looking for a Thomas Quincy." The man on the line had a faint European accent.
"This is he."
"My name is Edwin Pavlov. I work for the Alfa Romeo company. We tried to reach you before this, but you were not available." "
"I was out of the country."
"Ah ...The reason I'm calling is we have the results of the tests we have done on your car. We went through every part piece by piece. We did extensive testing on what we could recover. "
"Did you find anything?" The night of Tommy's accident still wasn't completely clear in his mind, but he did remember it was strange how slow the brakes had responded.
"We did not find any design flaws as we feared we might. There was only one major problem we found with the car Mr. Quincy."
"What?"
"Let me ask you this. Was there an investigation done?" Tommy thought for a moment.
"Not that I'm aware of. They ruled it an accident, with excessive speed being the cause."
"Hmm...That is strange. Mr. Quincy the problem we found was tampering with the brake line. I'm surprised your police did not do an enquiry. It was a pretty obvious job." Tommy was still, while inside his heart pounded double time as he took in the words.
"Thank you for calling me." He said through suddenly dry lips.
"Would you like me to send you a copy of the report? In case you want to pursue the matter?"
"That would be great." He hung up and sat down with too many thoughts running through his brain. There were only two people that had easy access to his car keys that day. Jude was the one who had left him, not that he would believe she would ever even think of doing something like this. She simply didn't have it in her, to deliberately hurt anyone.
The other woman came to mind and overwhelmed him. Had he hurt her so badly she felt the need to kill him?! He tried to put the thoughts away, unable to cope with the implications. It could have as easily been some obsessed fan for all he knew and it wasn't like there was solid proof he could present to reopen the case. The car was in pieces in Italy.
"What are we going to do?" She asked. 'We' he liked that she said it like that.
"I was pretty awful to her...And she's out of our lives now..." Jude looked at him in surprise. Where was the slightly angry, bad boy she had met?
"She needs help."
"She's Darius's problem now, not mine." He pulled Jude back into him and kissed her, closing the subject as his fingers stroked her silky skin.
Go Away! We're Busy!
Spied and Kyle walked up to Jude's door and Spied knocked loudly. There was no response. Tommy didn't even pause his movements at the noise as his lips met Jude's.
"Jude the bus is leaving soon! Are you almost ready?"
Tommy pushed deeper into Jude causing her to bite her lip to stifle a moan.
"Jude! Are you in there?"
"We'll meet you there!" Tommy finally yelled towards the door. Spied and Kyle looked at each other and shook their heads.
"Sound-checks at 4. It takes 2 hours to get there!" Spied informed the couple.
"Remember to drink plenty of fluids!" Kyle shouted through the door before the two of them headed for the bus. "Remind me to request a room on the opposite side of the hotel." Kyle said as they walked away.
"That loud?"
" Well it wouldn't have been so bad if they stopped for more than an hour at a time."
"All night?!" Spied was seriously impressed.
"I finally passed out around 4. They woke me up again at 8 though."
Introductions
They made it to the concert hall about 10 minutes before the sound check. Jude was walking a little stiffly and glared at Tommy every time he quickened his pace. He laughed as he took her hand and lifted her up over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.
"Well hello." Tommy spun around to come face to face with Mason Fox. Tommy lowered Jude down and stared at the other man with an unfriendly expression on his face. "Tommy Q. I've heard a lot about you." Mason grinned at a smiling Jude. Mason noticed the scowl on Tommy's face and looked at Jude questioningly. Her eyes turned to Tommy's face as well and she looked confused. Understanding dawned on Mason. He knew jealousy when he saw it, not that it had ever been over a girl.
"Um Tommy this is Mason my opening act." Jude said trying to dispel the uncomfortable silence. Tommy simply nodded at him, ignoring his outstretched hand as he held Jude possessively.
"I take it you saw our pictures in Solid" Understanding dawned on Jude now too and she smirked at Mason. Tommy did not like their interaction one bit.
"Don't worry about me and Jude." Mason winked at her and pulled Tommy's face in for a big wet kiss before he knew what was going on. "You're much more my type." With that he walked away leaving a stunned Tommy and a laughing Jude.
"Did I mention he's gay?"
"Tell me that was your hand that pinched my ass." That sent her into another fit of hysterical laughter.
Tommy disappeared for awhile, after the sound check and Jude wondered where everyone else was as well. Mason found her and they had lunch together, while he grilled her on all the juicy details. He had been asked to keep Jude busy while Tommy and SME were busy. Jude bit her lip and her eyes constantly strayed to the door whenever anyone entered.
"So are you and Tommy together now?" Mason asked. Jude nodded absentmindedly. He knew she had no idea what he was saying, but that was alright as long as she didn't go looking for Tommy.
Tommy found them an hour later and grinned at her while she frowned at him.
"Where did you go?" She pouted.
"I have a little surprise for you tonight." His warm breath tickled her ear and she had to smile. Mason shook his head.
"You two are so cute its almost sickening." He said before getting up to leave them alone.
That night Jude and Tommy stood backstage watching Mason as he finished his set. She started to walk away to finish getting ready when Tommy stopped her.
"Stay there." He said with his hands on her shoulders.
"What..." Jude asked. He kissed her gently, to distract her.
"Your surprise." As the crew set up for SME, Tommy took the guitar that one of the crew members handed him. SME came out and Tommy followed them on stage. Jude could only watch as Mason joined her. Tommy introduced himself and said he wanted the audience to be the first to hear his new single live.
"He really loves you." Mason said in amazement. It wasn't like Tommy Q's reputation had ever been good where the ladies were concerned. Jude could only stare, barely breathing as he sang, for her.
I wanted
I wanted you to stay
'Cause I needed
I need to hear you say
That I love you
I have loved you all along
And I forgive you
For being away for far too long
So keep breathing
'Cause I'm not leaving you anymore
Believe it
Hold on to me and, never let me go
Keep breathing
'Cause I'm not leaving you anymore
Believe it
Hold on to me and, never let me go
Keep breathing
Hold on to me and, never let me go
Keep breathing
Hold on to me and, never let me go
Tommy finished to heavy applause, but he had eyes only for her. He handed the guitar to one of the crew members as he got off stage. Jude jumped into his arms and he held her off the ground as their lips met. It had taken him longer than it should have, but he had kept all his promises to her.