Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies

by Cynthia Cooke

  “Well, that’s comforting,” she muttered, not bothering to keep the resentment out of her voice.

  His fist on the throttle tightened until his knuckles turned white. “You used to believe in the CTA, in what we’re doing. In the fight we’re committed to.” He turned to her, his crystalline gaze boring into hers.

  “I used to believe in a lot of things,” she snapped. God, but he was good-looking. Brilliant blue eyes glared from beneath heavy dark brows and a shock of black hair. His jaw, hard and strong, tightened and his lips pressed into a straight line. Unexpectedly, she remembered their soft texture and how, when they moved across her skin, they could set her on fire.

  Dammit. She had to get hold of herself and focus.

  But he wouldn’t let it be. “What happened, Genie? What changed?” he asked, his tone soft, as if he really wanted to know. As if it mattered. When they both knew that was no longer true. Between them, nothing mattered. Not anymore.

  “I woke up and saw the truth.”

  “And what truth was that?”

  “How quickly the CTA turned on me, thinking I’d flipped to save my sister.” Bitterness laced her words.

  “Then why not come in and talk to us? Why the disappearing act?”

  “Where was the trust, Kyle? We were a team.”

  “Yes. We were. So what were you doing in that warehouse without us?”

  “Because you weren’t around. Remember, you were down at the harbor checking out the boats in the bay.”

  “Wrong. I was there. I pulled your ass out of that fire. So, what happened to you afterward? Where were you when I was recovering in the hospital?”

  Hiding. Like a coward. From Emerich, just as her father had ordered her to do. Trying desperately to remember what had happened in the warehouse that day. Trying to remember who had betrayed whom. But all she could recall were bits and pieces in nightmarish fragments. All she’d known for sure was that Becca was dead, and if it hadn’t been for Kyle, Genie would be, too.

  But even after he’d pulled her to safety and gone back in to search for her sister, he’d been so darn quick to doubt her. She’d seen it in his eyes. Felt it in his touch. She did remember that much. And yet, he had been there. Not only to save her, but he’d risked his life to save Becca, too. Shouldn’t that count for something, a little voice in the back of her mind prodded?

  She pushed the doubts away. They didn’t matter. Not anymore.

  An awkward silence stretched between her and Kyle as they flew across the vast, empty desert. “I need to go to the island and see for myself what happened there,” she said at length, bridging the gap between them.

  “My orders are to bring you in.” His face was hard. Stoic. Unmovable. Just like him.

  “Screw that,” she snapped. “I don’t take orders from the CTA anymore.”

  “We don’t know what happened on the island or who’s after you. You need to come in and debrief. We can’t keep you safe until we know what’s been going on with you for the last eight months.”

  “You mean you want to know if Sean Emerich has been in contact, and if I’m working with him, too.”

  “That’s not what I said.”

  “But it’s what you’re thinking. What you’re all thinking. Dammit Kyle, for all we know it was Emerich who killed my sister. Why would I have anything to do with him?”

  “You don’t still believe Becca’s alive, do you?” he asked.

  “No, of course not,” she said quickly. Becca was dead. She knew that. Logically.

  And yet, every now and then…she’d swear she could feel Becca reaching out to her. Obviously, craziness brought on by her grief and isolation.

  But what about the vision of Becca touching the crystal that she got off her mother’s necklace? Could she somehow still be alive? Had Becca sent her the necklace?

  “The truth is,” Kyle said, “you knew Becca had been working with Sean Emerich and you didn’t say anything. Not to me, not to anyone. I’m still having a hard time with that.” He pushed the accusation through a throat so tight Genie was surprised he’d been able to speak at all.

  “That’s true. Technically. But it’s also wrong,” she said.

  “You can’t have it both ways.” His deep voice cut through the headset.

  A fierce ache shot through her, reminding her of the sleepless nights and wasted tears she’d spilled over this man who was so quick to believe the worst of her. Indignation rose in her. “So, let me get this straight. You think I’m a traitor and that I betrayed the CTA and yet, I’m supposed to put my faith in you and Cameron and believe him when he tells me he doesn’t have any information on my father’s whereabouts.”

  Kyle’s jaw twitched, giving him away. That had always been his tell.

  “Just as I thought.”

  “Genie, I have your back. I’ve always had your back, whether you believe me or not. It’s you who has kept…secrets. Who ran away from me and disappeared without a trace.”

  Secrets.

  And that’s what it all came down to, didn’t it? Her life had been one long series of secrets braided together to keep her and her sisters safe. And now Becca was dead, and it was all unraveling.

  An anxious ball formed in her stomach. She needed to relax, to plan and to think. Even more, she needed to force herself to get an empathic reading on Kyle before they landed. It was the only way to ferret out his true intentions toward her. No matter how much knowing the truth might hurt. He might say she could depend on him, but she didn’t believe him. She couldn’t take the chance. The only thing she knew for sure was that she was not about to turn herself over to the CTA, not now, not ever again.

  She leaned back in the seat. Kyle was right, there had been a time when she’d believed in what the top-secret agency did. But that time had long since passed. She’d seen and heard too much. She only wished Kyle wasn’t still a part of it. But he was a CTA lifer. He would never see its ugly underbelly, even if she slit it open and exposed it to him.

  Before she could relax, her gaze fell on the instrument panel and her heart jumped. “Hey! Why are we heading north? Away from Vegas?”

  “We’re going to Reno.”

  Genie’s throat clenched. “Why?” she asked with barely more than a rasp. “Vegas is closer. A lot closer.”

  “Cameron called while we were pulling you in. He believes Emerich will be going after your sister next, if he hasn’t already.”

  Cat. Genie’s insides tightened painfully. “How do you know about Cat? How the hell does Cameron know about Cat?”

  “You mean since you never told me or anyone else you had yet another sister?”

  Exactly. “She isn’t a part of my life. There was no reason—”

  “And here I’d thought I knew everything there was to know about you. I could have sworn we’d said no secrets between us.”

  It was no use trying to explain her reasons now. It no longer mattered. He no longer mattered. He couldn’t matter. But if he knew about Cat, what else did he and Cameron know? As much as it pained her to do it, she reached out and lightly touched Kyle’s shoulder. Energy started to flow around her, circling her. His energy. His feelings.

  His pain. So strong it practically choked her.

  He’d loved her, and she’d ripped that love to shreds.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. And she was. For him. And even more for herself. She wished she could have given him the happily-ever-after he’d so wanted. But she’d had no choice. She’d never had a choice. Not after her mother died, and overnight everything in her life had changed.

  “I couldn’t tell you about Cat. Or Becca before that. For everyone’s safety, no one was supposed to know about either of my sisters. We’d all been separated since we were kids, since my mom’s accident. We grew up in different states, went to different schools, had different last names.” She regarded him. “How did Cameron find out about Cat?”

  “Intel from overseas that our analysts recently ran across.”


  Luckily Kyle didn’t intend to give her the third degree about her sisters. Not yet, anyway. The questions were still there in his mind, but were overshadowed more urgent things at the moment. The pressure on her chest eased up as he reined in his feelings. She sucked in a deep breath and pulled her hand back, dropping it into her lap. But even though she was no longer touching him, she couldn’t seem to shake the lingering sadness. His or hers? Their feelings were so intertwined she couldn’t tell.

  “At first we didn’t know what it could be,” he continued. “It took a while to discover why Emerich’s group would be interested in a Reno housewife. Why they’ve had her under surveillance. Until we got a photo of her.”

  Genie’s stomach tightened as if a giant hand had grasped her insides and was twisting, wringing her from the inside out.

  “After what happened on the island, and then this morning with you, we’re not taking any more chances. I’ve been ordered to extract you both.”

  “Then you do believe Emerich has my dad? That it was him behind the raid at my house?”

  “We don’t know for sure, but after what I’ve just seen, I’d wager yes.”

  Genie’s thoughts spun. Cat had never been involved with her assignments. Hell, they barely even saw each other. It was the way it had to be, had always been since the accident. Cat was different than she and Becca. Cat had children.

  “What could Emerich want from my sister…or even my father? Dad has retired from CTA. He has nothing to offer!” Her voice had raised an octave, sounding shrill. She recognized it and tried to grab hold of her rising panic, but wasn’t having much luck.

  “I wish I knew,” Kyle said.

  Genie flexed her fingers and straightened her legs the best she could in the small space. Anxiety twisted and pulled at her. She had to do something. “What exactly do you know?”

  “That no one should have known where you were. You covered your tracks real well. And yet someone figured it out.”

  Like Cameron.

  But she hadn’t believed he’d known about Cat. Until now.

  “We suspect they want you and your sister to use as leverage against your father. He was the director of CTA for many years. He knows…a lot.”

  “That’s putting it mildly,” she said. “They won’t break him.” But even as she said the words, her pulse jumped. How was it possible that Emerich could have gotten to her father? And if he’d been able to breach the estate’s perimeter with all the high-tech security her dad had in place, then it would be ridiculously easy for Emerich to get to Cat.

  Genie would not lose another sister. “Cat is married. She has children. Children and a husband who don’t even know about me or Dad, or what we do for a living.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll get there in time. Nothing will happen to her or her family. I promise.” His eyes caught Genie’s and held as he said the words. And then he touched her arm, only for a second, but long enough for her to feel his doubt rising in waves and crashing against her.

  He wasn’t sure. Not about this, not about anything.

  She jerked away. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Kyle.”

  His lips straightened and his jaw hardened. It was a look that was all too familiar.

  “And I’m telling you now, if anything happens to my sister, there’ll be hell to pay.”

  Chapter Three

  “Are you absolutely sure about this?” Genie asked Kyle as they descended onto the quiet suburban street on the outskirts of Reno. “Cat is going to be furious at me. She’s given up so much to protect her life here.”

  “Trust me. We don’t have a choice.”

  There were those words again. She truly wished she could trust him with her secrets. But that was impossible. Her secrets weren’t just hers alone, but her whole family’s. Secrets that had built the fragile framework that had secured their lives and kept them safe for years. Now it was all crumbling down around them.

  They flew low over an outlying neighborhood where the tract of houses all looked the same—stucco with two-car garages, sitting on postage stamp-sized lots. The beat of the rotors roared through the quiet afternoon and brought neighbors pouring out their front doors and onto their front porches and lawns. Kyle set the helicopter down in the middle of the street in front of a two-story tan house with a perfectly manicured lawn and rose bushes lining the front walk.

  “I’ll go get her,” Genie said, whipping the door open.

  Kyle looked reluctant and just as he opened his mouth to protest, she interrupted him.

  “It has to be me. She’s probably going to kill me, but she won’t trust you.”

  “Fine.” He handed her his cell phone. “In case you need me, call Johnny’s phone. Get in and get her out. Quick.”

  She nodded, and just as she jumped to the ground, the front door of the house swung open. A young boy ran onto the porch, his eyes growing wide, but she couldn’t tell if it was because of her or the copter behind her.

  “Hello, Mark,” she yelled, as she ran toward him. “Is your mom home?”

  Confusion played across his round, chubby-cheeked face. A little girl with a head full of yellow curls rushed to his side, her mouth opening wide as she stared at the helicopter. She must be Annie.

  Genie hurried past them into the open doorway and yelled, “Cat!”

  A tall man with light brown hair and a golf club gripped in his hand hurried into the foyer and stopped short, astonishment filling his face as his gaze raked across her. “C-Cat?” He glanced back into the house, looking confused, then at her again. “But—”

  Genie cringed. Of all the dumb luck. Yep, Cat was definitely going to kill her. “No. I’m not Cat. Is she here?” Genie asked hurriedly.

  “Catherine!” he yelled down the hallway behind him, then turned back to her. “Who the— Who are you?”

  Genie opened her mouth to answer, but suddenly felt a prickle down her spine…and sensed the growing presence of something that didn’t belong in this sleepy neighborhood—besides the helo perched on the lawn. She whirled, stepped back out the door, and saw a black SUV speeding toward them down the street.

  “Damn!”

  Already in motion, Kyle jumped down from the cockpit and bolted toward her. “Get Cat!” he ordered. He swooped down and picked up Annie who had drifted to the edge of the lawn and thrust her under his arm like an oversized curly football, then grabbed for Mark.

  “Daddy!” Annie screamed, tears instantly crumpling her little face.

  Mark tried to pull away, but Kyle lifted him up by one arm and swung him up under his arm, then ran for the copter.

  “Cat!” Genie shouted back through the doorway. This was going from bad to worse.

  “Hey!” Cat’s husband rushed past Genie after his children, wielding his golf club like a battle ax. “Let go of my kids!”

  Johnny was standing in the open bay of the copter, his attention switching back and forth between Kyle and the black SUV barreling toward them. “Any time now, bro!”

  “Daddy!” Mark cried as he bounced in Kyle’s grasp. The little girl was still screaming, her arms stretching outward under Kyle’s arm toward her dad.

  “Cat! Where the hell are you?” What could she be doing that she didn’t hear all that racket? Genie slammed and bolted the front door. As she ran through the living room, she glanced out the window and saw Kyle shove the kids at Johnny who buckled them into their seats. Kyle climbed up behind them and slipped into the cockpit.

  Cat’s husband was still yelling, still brandishing the golf club as he jumped up inside after them. As soon as he was in, the helicopter started to rise and Johnny slammed shut the bay door.

  Genie winced. Cat was never going to forgive her.

  The SUV screeched to a stop outside the house, jerking her attention back to the ground.

  “Dammit, Cat!”

  “What is it?” her sister yelled as she ran down the hall, buckling her jeans, her hair wrapped in a towel.

  “Come on! We’v
e got to go.”

  Cat stopped dead in her tracks. “Genie? What on earth are you doing here?” She looked around her, panic crossing her face. “Where are Tom and the kids?”

  “They’re okay. I’ll explain later. We have to go. Now!”

  Cat’s eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms over her chest. “No, you’ll explain now.”

  Something hard slammed against the front door. The wooden frame cracked.

  “Where’s your car?” Genie demanded, pulling the Glock out of her ankle holster.

  Wide-eyed, Cat yanked the towel off her wet head and tossed it. “This way.” She ran past her toward the kitchen, grabbing the keys off the wall and opening another door that led inside the dark, cool garage. She jumped behind the wheel of a large white Expedition.

  “This better be good, Genie!” Cat said, as Genie dove into the passenger seat. “And my kids sure as hell better be safe.”

  “They are,” Genie insisted. “Now get us out of here.”

  Cat hit the button to lift the garage door then let out a cry as the helicopter zipped up and banked away from her house. “Is that how you got here?”

  Before Genie could answer a second black SUV skidded onto the sidewalk in front of them. Men in combat gear poured out and rushed toward the garage.

  “Go!” Genie yelled.

  Not waiting for the door finish lifting, Cat dropped the gearshift into reverse. The vehicle lurched backward, tearing through the wooden door. The sound was deafening as it cracked and broke into a shower of splinters around them.

  “Good thing it wasn’t bolted,” Genie said as they barreled backward down the driveway and then careened across the grass as Cat yanked hard on the wheel to avoid hitting the SUV.

  “Lucky for you I’ve been wanting to replace that old door,” Cat muttered as she charged onto the street, dropped into drive and sped past the SUV and the men scattering to get out of their way. “Where to now?”

  “I guess the airport until we hear differently.” Genie couldn’t help a shaky smile of relief as they left Emerich’s men behind, scrambling for their vehicle.

  “Tell me where Tom and the twins are,” Cat demanded.