Drake Sisters 04 - Dangerous Tides

Nothing happened to Jonas, did it?"

    Sarah closed the door behind them. "Jonas is fine, Libby."

    "We got your message," Joley added.

    Libby stopped in her tracks to stare at her younger sister. "Joley! You dyed your hair." Joley was a natural blond, her hair nearly platinum, the closest of all the sisters to Hannah's hair color. She often dyed, streaked and rinsed it with various colors, but never midnight black. She looked like Libby now, with her pale skin and large, mysterious eyes. "Mom is going to kill you. Why did you do that before the wedding? Please tell me you're not going into a Goth phase right before everyone gets married."

    There was a small silence. Libby became aware of the tension in the room. She glanced at Tyson, suddenly uneasy.

    He reached out and took her hand, his thumb running in a small caress of reassurance over her skin.
    "What is it?"

    "I think you'd both better see this," Sarah said. "Why don't you sit down and have a cup of tea? There's a gossip rag you need to take a look at. It arrived on our doorstep with a little note." She handed Tyson the note.

    It was on plain typing paper. A single word said, "Enjoy." There was a smiley face stickered beside it.
    Tyson turned it over and over in his hands, not certain why such a simple thing felt sinister, but it did. He exchanged a worried glance with Libby.

    Libby reached for the gossip rag. "I'm not going to like this, am I?" she asked Joley.

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    Joley put a hand on her shoulder as if to steady her.

    Libby lifted the fold one of her sisters had carefully creased and nearly dropped the paper as the photo swam into focus. She stared in utter horror at the front page photograph. It was taken at Tyson's new home through the panels of glass and showed an obviously naked woman wrapped in the arms of a very naked man. The headline read: Drake Lovenest .

    For a terrible moment Libby couldn't think. She couldn't get enough air into her lungs to breathe. She could only stare in horror at the picture of her first sexual encounter now available for the entire world to see. She looked like a porn star.

    There would be no way to identify Tyson—his head was down, his tongue lapping at her breast—but her head was thrown back, her arms cradling him to her. Black hair hung down her back, her eyes were closed in ecstasy.

    "Oh my God. This can't be happening. Mom and Dad are going to see this. All of my patients." Libby choked on bile rising in her throat. "I'm going to be sick." She jumped up and raced for the bathroom, dropping the paper on the floor.

    Tyson picked it up, studying the one large photo before turning to the inside where the headlines promised more. The other pictures were grainier and somewhat fuzzy, impossible to identify, but equally as revealing. He became aware of the slow burn of ice cold rage spreading through his system. His temper had always been slow moving, but now it burned like a wildfire out of control when lost. This was different. This was something far deadlier.

    He lifted his head slowly and looked around the room at the sober faces of Libby's sisters. His gaze settled on Joley with the wealth of midnight black hair streaming down her back and curling around her face. She looked exotic. He'd never noticed she had the same sultry mouth as Libby. His breath hitched.
    "You dyed your hair so you would look like Libby. So everyone would think this was you and not your sister, didn't you?"

    Joley shrugged, struggling to look casual. He caught the gleam of tears in her eyes before she turned away. "I'm used to it. Any publicity in my business is still publicity, negative or not. I don't like it, but this will kill Libby. She isn't tough enough to take the jokes and innuendoes. People are very cruel and she Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    doesn't have a tough skin. The late-night talk show hosts are going to have a field day."

    "And you have a tough skin?" Tyson wanted to smash something. Joley Drake was making a huge sacrifice for her sister. She wasn't nearly as tough as she pretended to be. He could see her hands were trembling, but she sank gracefully onto the floor in front of the sofa and reached for the cup of tea Sarah handed her.

    "This is a big deal, Ty," Joley warned. "The magazines have been trying for a couple of years to find dirt on me. Lately they've really worked at it. This