Trick's Trap (A Singular Obsession Book 5)

by Lucy Leroux

  Trick couldn’t blame Peyton and Maia for their reaction to the arrangements. It must have been difficult for them to accept that their friend was gone, especially since a body had never been found.

  He and Liam parted, each heading back to their own suites to shower and dress. They met back up twenty minutes later in the hall outside the hotel’s smallest salon, the one that was usually used for conferences and small reunions.

  This afternoon, it was decorated in muted tones, a few tasteful sprays of flowers along the walls. The somber display was affecting. Trick fiddled with his tie, checking each group for familiar faces.

  Peyton, his sister’s best friend and a member of their IT team, walked over from a cluster of people near the freesia. She is spot on. It did look like a funeral.

  “You’re late,” she hissed.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled, tugging at his collar.

  “Let me,” she said, reaching up to adjust it with her typical efficiency.

  She narrowed her eyes at Liam as she worked, but his brother didn’t even glance at her. Liam’s eyes were fixed on his phone. It was rude, but Trick knew he wasn’t really working. His brother hated funerals more than he did—ever since their own parents died when they were kids.

  But Peyton knew his brother as well as he did. Liam would work straight through the entire event if he wasn’t stopped. She took his phone out of his hand, silencing his growl of protest with a single warning finger.

  “You’ll get this back after, at the reception. Maia will speak first, then Tahlia’s advisor from the Math Department has a few words.”

  She started to leave but hesitated. “By the way, Maia is fit to be tied about the invitations. If you value your life, don’t call this a memorial or imply in any way that her friend won’t be coming back.”

  “But I thought it was a memorial.” Liam frowned. “It’s not good for Maia to keep holding out hope. Her friend is…well, she’s gone.”

  Peyton rounded on him, getting in his face. She reached up and pulled his forelock with a hard jerk. “Don’t you dare get on your soapbox on this one,” she snapped. “You do not know what’s best for Maia. Neither does her damn fool of a husband, not this time. I agree with Maia and Maggie. It is way too soon for this. The investigation isn’t closed. Ethan just confirmed that.”

  Liam’s face darkened. “Of course Agent Thomas isn’t going to tell you the truth. You’re too close to this. But he’s not investigating anymore. He’s out of leads.”

  A bright red flush crept up Peyton’s face. She opened her mouth, but Trick forestalled her.

  “We better take a seat. I think I see Maia about to start,” he interrupted.

  Peyton rarely argued with Liam, but when she did—hoo boy. Everybody needed to run for cover. Stopping the argument before it started was the best way to go.

  “Fine.” Peyton thrust something into his hand, a card of some sort. She gave one to Liam, too—only far less gently—before walking away.

  He could practically see the snarky comeback bubbling up to his brother’s lips. Liam started after Peyton, but Trick snagged him by the back of his wool coat.

  He gave his brother a discreet punch in his backside. “Peyton was friends with the missing girl, too,” he said. “Stop being an insensitive jerk.”

  Liam’s face softened, his shoulders dropping. “I know. I just want them to deal with it instead of keeping hope alive. It’s not good for either of them to keep going on this way. Calen agrees with me.”

  “Well, I’m not sure I do. How long has she been missing? Less than a year?”

  “You know that doesn’t matter,” Liam muttered under his breath. “The poor thing was probably gone after the first night. The best we can hope for now is to find the body.”

  Trick sighed. “I guess, but it may still be too soon to make Maia do this.”

  Liam trudged toward the chairs. “Well, take that up with Calen. This is his rodeo.”

  Calen, an entrepreneur and club owner, was financing Maia’s desperate search for her friend. But he himself hadn’t held out much hope the girl would be found alive.

  Trick didn’t know all the details. He’d been outside the investigation’s inner circle—Maia, Calen, and the FBI agents, his brother-in-law Jason and Jason’s partner at the bureau Ethan Thomas. What little Trick did know made him side with Calen, but it still seemed harsh to say so aloud.

  “I still think it’s premature,” he repeated before nodding at Jason and Ethan as they took the seats in front of them.

  He tucked the card Peyton handed him into his pocket without looking at it.

  Maia rose from the front row of seats, walking a few short steps to the small raised dais in the front of the room. Her eyes were red and she was very pale, but her voice was steady when she greeted everyone.

  “I want to repeat what I told you when I invited you,” Maia continued after the formalities had been observed. “This is not a memorial,” she said with a pointed glance at her husband in the front row. “This is a gathering to remember an absent friend, one we all hope to see again someday…”

  Trick’s eye wandered to the right. He didn’t hear anything after that. He was too busy staring at the big, blown-up color image of the beautiful brunette on an easel next to her.

  “Oh my God, it’s her.”

  All this time, Maia had been going crazy over her missing friend, and he’d been feeling guilty for not helping more. He’d been too busy searching for his mystery girl.

  They were the same person the whole time.

  His mind raced over the details he’d heard about Tahlia’s disappearance—the blood in the living room and signs of a violent struggle.

  Fuck. He was going to be sick.

  Trick reached out to steady himself on the back of Ethan’s chair. Even though he was seated, he felt as if the ground had given way underneath him. A tremor ran through him, and he put a hand to his stomach in an effort to hold himself together.

  Oh God. All this time and he hadn’t realized. If only he’d paid closer attention or even asked to see the missing girl’s picture. Hell, he hadn’t even helped put up fliers. Instead, he and Liam paid a few of the hotel’s busboys to do it for them.

  A rough hand shook his shoulder. “What the hell does that mean?” Ethan Thomas snapped.

  He blinked at the agent. When Maia sounded the alarm about her missing friend, both he and Jason were drafted to help find her.

  “What?” Trick whispered.

  “You just said it’s her.” Ethan held up the little memorial card where another picture of the missing girl was printed.

  Trick shook off his hand, patting his pockets. He snatched his own copy postcard up, staring avidly at the woman pictured.

  How could I have missed this?

  There she was in full color. Her silver-blue eyes stared up at him above a list of personal details—her name, age, height, and weight.

  Tahlia. Her real name was Tahlia. Maria was her middle name.

  Is…not was. They hadn’t found a body.

  He took a shaky breath. Along with the physical description were the details of where she was last seen…leaving a restaurant after having dinner with Maia. The date listed was a few days before he met her.

  “I saw her at Chao’s after this,” he said, meeting Ethan’s dark eyes as he held up the card.

  Which meant Maia wasn’t the last person to see her before she disappeared. He was.

  Chapter 5

  Trick tried to focus on all the question’s Ethan was asking, but his mind was still reeling.

  His mystery woman was Maia’s friend Tahlia…and everyone else in this room thought she was dead.

  After seeing the amount of blood in the crime-scene photos, it was hard to believe otherwise.

  “Where did you meet her?” Ethan asked, sounding more impatient than usual.

  Trick blinked at him, half-suspecting it wasn’t the first time the FBI agent had asked him that question.

 
He swallowed. His throat felt thick and swollen as if he were coming down with something. He cleared his throat. “It was at an underground gambling hall called Chao’s.”

  “What?” His brother glared at him from the couch. “You told me you only played in legal places now.”

  Liam and Calen had ushered him and the agents up to his office, so they could speak in private. They told the ladies he wasn’t feeling well. The excuse wasn’t a complete lie. His stomach was queasy at the thought of what Tahlia must have gone through in that apartment.

  Trick ignored his brother. His small peccadillo was nothing considering this information.

  “I’m going to find whoever did this to her,” he told Ethan in a hoarse voice.

  Ethan and Jason glanced at each other. “Just how well did you know her?”

  “I only met her that one night…but she made an impression.” A corner of his mouth turned up as he replayed that last hand in his head.

  “How?” Jason asked. “Was she there with someone? A boyfriend maybe?”

  Trick shook his head. “She was alone. We played each other. And she wiped the floor with me.”

  “Are you serious?” Ethan leaned back. “She beat you at poker?”

  “It would be more accurate to say she crushed me.” He cut a straight line in the air with his hand. “Completely leveled.”

  “Wow.” The agent was surprised, but Ethan was a pretty crap card player. Playing him wasn’t much of a challenge. And it wasn’t as if Trick never lost. Losing occasionally was strategic. Tahlia hadn’t won every hand she’d played that night either—only the ones against him. All the ones against him.

  “Did you say anything to her?”

  “Huh?” Trick stared at Ethan.

  “You didn’t get mad and say anything rude to her after you lost?”

  Liam scowled at the agent, but he wasn’t offended. Ethan was genuinely curious to find out if he was a sore loser, because he’d only ever seen him win.

  Trick laughed. “Actually, I asked her to marry me. I think I was serious, too.”

  He half-expected Ethan would smile or join in his laughter, but the FBI agent’s expression was one of pity.

  That, more than words, told him what Ethan thought of Tahlia’s chances.

  He held the crime-scene photo. “Is there any chance she’s still alive?”

  Ethan and Jason glanced at each other. They had one of those silent conversations he and Liam sometimes had when they were in the conference room negotiating a deal.

  “One of you spit it out,” Liam growled.

  Jason cleared his throat. He glanced at Calen. “There’s something we haven’t told you all. The blood found in Tahlia’s apartment is not all hers. Some is, we think, but a fair number of the swabs came back as male.”

  “Was it the attacker’s blood? Why didn’t we hear about this before?” he asked.

  Calen held up a hand. “Jason and Ethan needed to keep some details back while they investigated, but I asked them not to share this. I didn’t want Maia to hear about it.”

  “But if it’s not all Tahlia’s blood, then there’s still a chance she’s alive, isn’t there?”

  Calen rubbed his face. “Not necessarily. All the evidence proves is she defended herself. But I don’t want you or Maia getting your hopes up. Only a limited number of samples were taken. By the time Ethan and Jason took over the case, the scene was cleaned up. So there’s no real way of telling how much was hers.”

  Fuck. “So what now?”

  “We’re still investigating,” Jason assured him.

  Trick read between the lines. The ‘as a homicide’ were implied.

  Ethan clapped him on the back. “The good news is, now we have another avenue to explore. Tahlia was a gambler. We should start combing the underground rooms and legit casinos.”

  Um… “I’m already on that. I’ve checked everywhere,” he added. “She hasn’t been seen since that night.”

  Liam swore and rubbed his face hard with his hands. The general atmosphere in the room dampened.

  “I can’t believe you were the last one to see her,” Jason said after a long minute.

  “Maybe he wasn’t,” Ethan mused. “What if she went back to the casino later? Or some other similar place?”

  Trick shrugged. “I don’t think so. I checked all the local haunts for news of her.” He debated telling them about Tahlia spending the night, but he hesitated.

  Only the agents need to know. It wasn’t as if anyone here would judge, but those kinds of details had a way of leaking out. And as much as he wanted to think the best of people, most were judgmental. If they knew Tahlia came up to his room the night they met, they might think less of her. He wanted to protect her reputation.

  “Are you sure?” Ethan asked. “Would this Chao tell you that straight out? I think we should question him and lay out the facts. He might know something.”

  “It’s not likely, but maybe there’s some detail that might help. However, Chao’s not going to talk to you,” Trick warned. “And he’s definitely not going to let the FBI question any of his staff. I, on the other hand, am a known quantity.”

  Liam’s face darkened. “What are you planning?” he asked.

  His gaze swept over the assembled men, coming to rest on the FBI agents. “Let’s just say you have your resources, and I have mine.”

  Chapter 6

  Tahlia limped behind the dumpster near tears. If the bouncer saw her crying, he wouldn’t let her into the card room and she needed to get in.

  In the six months since her cousins kidnapped her, she’d lived off the grid—the cash she’d taken from her father’s desk had given her a start. But it was gone now.

  The first thing she’d done after escaping her family estate was to buy a train ticket to California. On her way, she made sure to pass in front of several public spaces with visible security cams. Then she’d bought new clothes and doubled back, buying a bus ticket north.

  Her plan had been to wipe out her Boston bank account the next day. The minute she’d arrived, Tahlia cleaned herself up and rushed over to her bank. She’d been waiting when the manager opened the doors, but it was already too late.

  Her accounts were compromised. She didn’t know if Uncle Lucas froze them or if he’d simply reported her to the police.

  And I came so close. The manager had been about to hand over a cashier’s check for the balance of her accounts when he’d seen something on his screen. He’d hesitated and excused himself.

  Her paranoia that morning had served her well. She’d snuck out of the office and into the bathroom only to see the man send in two uniformed guards after her. Somehow, she’d managed to sneak out and back to the bus station without being arrested.

  She’d spent that first day sitting in an isolated corner of a random coffee shop. Later that evening, she broke into her office in the Math department on the Harvard campus.

  Hidden in the back of her bottom drawer was a few hundred dollars. There was also a terrible fake ID, the first she’d bought to go to an Indian casino.

  Tahlia never wanted her family to know about her gambling, so she began covering her tracks early on. The Kansas driver’s license would never pass muster under scrutiny, but it was good enough to get her a hotel room.

  That was her first mistake. Hotels were expensive. Staying at places with familiar names in a town like Boston wiped out a substantial chunk of her cash reserve. Terrified of losing the rest, she rented a locker at the bus station to keep it safe along with a few personal items she’d left in her desk.

  She’d been too afraid of going back to her apartment for anything else. Instead, she headed to a woman’s shelter.

  Though jarring, things hadn’t been that terrible at the shelter. The dedicated staff tried to help her. They’d offered counseling, which she turned down, as well as help getting work, which she hadn’t.

  Over the past few months, she’d done a series of odd jobs to supplement her meager resources.
Working as catering staff was the best of these—at the end of the night, they let them take home leftovers. Not spending money on food had been a huge help, but her luck hadn’t held.

  One night after a long night working, the shelter had been too crowded when she’d tried to come in.

  Sleeping on the streets was terrifying at first. But Tahlia coped. When it happened the second time, she’d been prepared. Eventually, she made a few friends in a similar position. Crashing in pairs was a lot safer, and she learned tricks to make it bearable.

  Hiding her sex had been the key. She hadn’t cut her hair but hid it, along with concealing her feminine figure in baggy men’s clothing. The alternative had been to act crazy and smear herself in garbage to make herself less of a target for assault, but that wasn’t foolproof. Neither was befriending a man to watch out for her. She hadn’t wanted to trade her body for safety out there.

  Fortunately, none of the latter options had been necessary. Her disguises worked, and she’d been able to transition from the shelter to the street and back again. Her flexibility enabled her to weather the worst of her situation.

  Tahlia had debated going to her friends for help, but she’d been afraid to reach out to them. Like all her familiar haunts, Tahlia knew they were being watched. Her family had tentacles everywhere. They would never stop looking for her.

  Why had Uncle Lucas killed her father? The brothers hadn’t been close, but they had been allies all her life. She didn’t understand what prompted that terrible murder.

  There is one thing Lucas and Dad didn’t see eye to eye on—me.

  Giving herself a little shake, Tahlia wiped her tears, abruptly remembering where she was and what she had to do.

  Desperate, Tahlia decided to try Chao’s tonight. She had several thousand saved in their ‘bank’. The bulk of it was her winnings from playing Patrick.

  She’d avoided the gambling den out of fear that her family had learned about her illicit hobby. The purse she had been holding the night of her kidnapping contained her marker from Chao’s. True, they might not recognize it for what it was, but for months she debated on whether the casino was compromised or not.