Sins, Lies & Spies (Black Brothers #2)

by Lisa Cardiff

  “Come here, Trinity,” I whispered, pulling her into my arms.

  “Why? I don’t get it. I haven’t done anything to deserve this. First my cat and now this,” she murmured into the crook of my neck, her hands curling like claws into my shirt. “But you know what?” She pulled away from me, her eyes slanted into angry slits. “I’m fucking sick of this. I’ve worked hard to get where I am. Sure, Derrick helped me out here and there, but I’ve made it where I am by working hard and not giving up. If whoever did this thinks I’m going to roll over and play dead because they trashed my apartment and killed my cat, they’re wrong. Because now I’m pissed. Really pissed.”

  She stomped across the room, kicking shoes and clothing out of her path. “I didn’t care about any of this shit anyway. I can get new clothes and furniture.” She flung open her closet door. Standing on her tiptoes, she reached onto the top shelf and retrieved a round white and gold music box with a delicate ballerina in a sea green tutu on the top.

  A sigh slipped from her lips, and she swiped the back of her hand underneath her eyes, erasing all the evidence of her tears.

  “Is that yours?”

  “My mom gave it to me the last time I saw her,” she answered, cranking the dial on the bottom. A playful melody floated through the air.

  “What’s that song?” I asked, taking a few tentative steps closer to her.

  “It’s the Sugar Plum Fairy by Tchaikovsky.”

  “The Nutcracker?” I said, absently.

  “Yeah.” She sniffed.

  I moved even closer to her. “Was it a birthday present?”

  “No.” She ran the tip of her finger down the side of the ballerina. “She gave it to me to celebrate a better future. She claimed our lives were going to change after that day. Unfortunately, they did, but they changed for the worse. She never came home from work. My uncle was left to raise us. He wasn’t an awful person, but was caught up in his own life and he didn’t pay much attention to us. We ran free.”

  My brows knitted together. “You never found out what happened to her?”

  “No. My uncle filed a missing person’s report, or at least he said he did, but nothing ever came of it. I tried to find her using some of Miles’s resources, but every lead has been a dead end.”

  She stuffed the music box into her oversized black tote bag. “I should probably throw it away. It’s kind of childish, and it holds more ugly than good memories.” She bowed her head, a sad smile on her face. “I had this silly dream that I’d grow up to be a prima ballerina. When my mom disappeared, so did my dreams. My uncle refused to enroll me in another ballet class. He didn’t continue my mom’s tradition of taking us to The Nutcracker every Christmas. Basically, my life was never the same.” She closed her eyes. “It’s like she left this giant gaping wound in my chest and it’s never gone away. Not completely. Sometimes it fades. Then something reminds me of her and the pain is fresh again, just like it happened yesterday instead of over a decade ago.”

  “I know.” I brushed my fingers along her cheek. “Archer and I couldn’t run away from our mom fast enough. We lost touch with her for a while. I was in the military. Archer was busy taking over the world one investment at a time, and she was doing God knows what. I always thought I’d get a call that she drank herself to death, but it didn’t happen that way.”

  She tilted her head to the side. “How did she die?”

  I shifted on my feet. “A few months before she died, she called me to tell me she was sober and had a job. She wanted us to visit her. Archer went. I didn’t.”

  She pursed her lips. “Why not?”

  “I can’t really explain it. It was more of a gut reaction. I had mentally written her off from the time I graduated from high school. I considered her part of my past, and I wanted to keep her there.”

  “Do you regret not seeing her?”

  “Yeah.” I rolled my shoulders back. “More often than not, she was checked out and unable to see the horror of what she was doing to her kids. On occasion, I’ll have a good memory of her when she wasn’t drunk or stoned, but then I remember all the crap she put us through on a daily basis, and the hate takes over again.”

  “I feel the same tug of war with my mom.”

  I cleared my throat. “The police thought she had committed suicide.”

  She frowned. “She didn’t?”

  “No.” I swallowed. I hated talking about this. “Senator Wharton paid someone to kill her. I’m sure you heard about it in the news.”

  Her eyebrows darted up her forehead. “Wow. And Archer and Langley…”

  I shook my head. “What he did doesn’t have anything to do with them. Besides, he’s in jail. They’re satisfied with the way things turned out.”

  “Are you?”

  I shoved my hands deep into my pockets and tipped my head to the ceiling. “Yeah. I wished I would’ve made that trip with Archer to see my mom, but I wasn’t ready. She caused a lot of damage—” Trinity opened her mouth to interrupt and I held up my hand. “I’m not saying she deserved what he did. She didn’t, but she wasn’t a good person. Sure, she had demons. We all do, but she never faced them. Instead, she used them as an excuse to justify her bad behavior.”

  I flexed my jaw. “She left us home alone for days without food or money. She’d come home drunk, and I’d hold her hair while she vomited.” My gut churned, the long-buried memories torturing me with razor-like claws. I closed my eyes briefly, forcing them away. “There’s more. Worse stuff. But I think you get the gist of it.”

  She averted her eyes. “Yeah. My uncle drank too much sometimes and pretty much ignored my sister and me. He left us alone a lot, but I was already ten when my mom disappeared.”

  I rubbed my hands together. “Did you find your sneakers?”

  She pointed to the gray sneakers on the closet floor. “They’re right there, but I can’t go. I need to figure out what to do with this mess.”

  “Nope.” I grabbed her sneakers. “We’re going to take that run we talked about. Then we’re going to stop by my office. After that, we’ll talk about what we’re going to do.”

  Her gaze drifted over the mess. “You’re right.” She tugged the shoes out of my hand. “Let’s blow off some steam.”

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-SIX

  Trinity

  After we had left my place, we jogged the pebbled pavement paths of the National Mall until I begged him to stop. We sat on a small black lacquered bench for an hour eating ridiculously fattening pastries, drinking coffee, watching the tourists and joggers, and swapping childhood stories. When we couldn’t ignore reality any longer, we made our way to his office. It didn’t escape my attention that Knox kept glancing over his shoulder the entire morning, most likely checking to see if we were being followed.

  “Is your partner going to be here?” I asked as he punched a code into the keypad and pressed his index finger to the screen.

  “Probably. He rarely goes home.”

  “Why’s that?”

  The lock clicked and Knox pushed open the door. “He and his wife don’t get along. He uses work to escape her. I think that’s the reason he pushed us to set up shop in an apartment rather than a traditional office.”

  “I heard that,” a voice called from inside.

  Knox placed his hand on the small of my back, guiding me inside. “If I cared if you heard, I would’ve whispered.”

  The studio apartment had one large room with a wall of windows on one side and a small kitchen tucked in the corner on the adjacent wall. A large rectangular table took center stage in the middle of the room. Computers and other tech equipment covered half of the surface.

  A man with medium brown hair and similarly colored eyes sat in front of a computer monitor, his legs spread wide. His hair stuck up in every direction, and a least a week’s worth of stubble covered the lower half of his face.

  Knox gestured to me. “Jack, this is Trinity Jones.”

  Jack pushed away from the de
sk and stood. He had a bulky muscular build with broad shoulders. “Nice to meet you.” He stuck out his hand and I shook it.

  “Likewise,” I said.

  Jack turned his attention to Knox. “I didn’t realize you planned to come into the office today.”

  Knox tossed a white bag of pastries on the table. “I didn’t, but I wanted to check on those reports from Trinity’s apartment.”

  Jack slid a blue file folder across the table. “There’s nothing to see. Everything came back clean. The only fingerprints in the entire apartment were yours and Trinity’s.

  Knox flipped open the folder and trailed his finger down a piece of paper. “They must’ve wiped down her entire townhome.”

  Jack nodded. “Yeah. That’s what I thought.”

  Knox tossed the folder on the table. “What about the encrypted files from Lang’s computer? Have you had any luck with those?”

  Jack’s gaze swept down my body. Anger vibrated from his pores. “I’ll fill you in later.” He cocked his head in my direction and breathed a sigh of irritation. “When she’s not around.”

  Knox bent at the waist, his palms flat on the top of the table. “You can talk in front of Trinity.”

  My throat tightened, I backpedaled a few steps. “It’s not a big deal. I can wait in the hall.”

  Knox straightened and folded his arms across his chest. “It is a big deal. You’re assisting me on the case. Jack knows that.”

  “No. I don’t know that.” Jack popped out of his chair, the wheels scraping across the floor. “I don’t know what sort of game you’re playing right now, Knox, but this shit has to stop. You may be the majority owner, but my life is on the line here, too.”

  Knox’s eyes glittered. “What are you trying to say?”

  “That I don’t trust her, and the last time we talked, you didn’t trust her either. Dammit, Knox.” He banged his hand on the table and released a sharp breath. “Just because you’re fucking her doesn’t mean she’s not going to shove a knife in your back the second you’re not looking.”

  Wow. This guy was a jackass. “Look.” I held up my hands and took a few steps back. “I’m not getting in the middle of this.”

  “No.” Knox clamped his hand around my wrist, but he didn’t break eye contact with Jack. “You’re not going anywhere. Jack, apologize to Trinity.”

  “I’m not going to apologize. I’m your partner. She’s just some chick you’re using to get information to crack this case. The exact same case that I didn’t want anything to do with six months ago, but no.” Jack waved his arms wildly in the air. “You overruled me, and now we have Miles Knightly crawling up our asses, and you’re defending some woman with a murky as hell background. What next?”

  Anger pulsed through my veins and I yanked my wrist out of his hold. I didn’t know who I wanted to hit first—Knox or Jack. “What the hell, Knox? You’re using me? That’s what you told him? Is that what this is about?”

  Shaking his head, he reached for me again, but I swatted his hand away.

  “Listen, Trinity.” He shoved his hands through his hair. “There’s nothing nefarious going on. I never misled you. I told you exactly—”

  I couldn’t do this right now, especially not with Jack in the peanut gallery. I needed space. I needed air. I needed to think. I felt like I was on a never-ending merry-go-round ride.

  “You know what?” I swallowed, but my throat was too dry to complete the motion. “I don’t want to hear your fumbling explanations and I don’t want his apology. He’s entitled to his opinion, but just for the record,” I said, pointing my finger at Jack, and then Knox. “I have a lot more at stake than either one of you. I’m the one with the dead cat and the trashed townhome. In fact, since I met Knox, my life has imploded. I should be questioning whether I should trust both of you, not the other way around.” I inhaled through my nose as I shook my head. Instead of calming me, it was like throwing gasoline on a campfire. “So screw you. Screw both of you. I don’t need this, and I sure as hell don’t need either of you to figure this out. You two can sit in here and play footsie and whisper secrets. I’m done.”

  Pivoting on my heel, I stormed out, so mad I thought flames had to be shooting out of my eyes. I rushed past the elevator to the fire exit door. I flung open the heavy gray-hued door and it crashed into the concrete wall with a satisfying thud. The slapping of my sneakers against the metal stairs competed for attention with the loud drumming of my heart.

  Grabbing the tubular railing, I whipped my body around the landing like a slingshot. One more flight of stairs and I reached out for the door handle leading away from Knox and his asshole partner. Just as I cracked the seal of the door, strong arms circled my waist. I hadn’t even realized he followed me. The sound of our lungs sucking in air filled the dimly lit stairwell. Seconds passed. Weighted. Heavy. Then I snapped.

  “Get your hands off me,” I said through gritted teeth. I dug my fingernails into his forearms and donkey kicked backward, hitting him in the shin.

  “Dammit, Trinity. Just calm down for a second.”

  “Calm down?” I screamed. “Are you serious right now? You want me to calm down when my life is coming apart at the seams and I just found out the one person I thought I could trust was using me?” I dragged the palm of my hand down the side of my face. “Sorry. That’s not happening.”

  Months of self-defense training wasted, he grabbed my wrists and locked them in one hand behind my back, easily overpowering me.

  His teeth scraped along my earlobe. “I’m sorry about what happened in there. Jack was being an ass. I should’ve talked to him before I brought you here. I should’ve explained what was going on.”

  I shouldn’t be so angry. Knox hadn’t made a single promise to me about the future. In fact, he hadn’t once brought up the subject of what might happen once this case ended. Stupidly, I deliberately steered clear of the topic of us, not wanting to come across as too pushy or needy.

  I leaned my forehead against the door. “Are you using me? Is that what this is about? Is that why you’re letting me stay at your house, sleep in your bed, and…and…” I couldn’t bring myself to finish that thought because if he used sex as a tool to persuade me to help him, I’d lose my mind.

  I’d done a lot of dumb things in my life like trusting Miles, moving to D.C. with no job and less than a hundred dollars in my pocket, but I couldn’t forgive myself for falling for Knox if I was nothing more than a pawn to him.

  He spun me around, his deep blue eyes stormy. “I haven’t lied to you. I told you I wanted to make Miles jealous so he’d pursue you. We discussed this. You agreed to help me get information. I don’t understand why you’re mad.”

  I shoved my hands between our bodies and tried to push him away. He didn’t budge. “You’re right. I agreed to your plan, but I thought we’d moved beyond that. I thought we were…” My stomach plummeted as the memory of encountering that woman waiting for Knox outside his door floated through my mind. She wanted more, too. He said he couldn’t give her more. I slapped a hand over my mouth to stop myself from saying anything further. I’d embarrassed myself enough already.

  His eyes softened and he pulled my hand away from mouth. He pressed his lips against mine, but it was too much. I turned my head to the side and squeezed my eyes shut. Maybe he’d take pity on me and leave me alone.

  He framed my face with his hands, and I reluctantly pried my eyes open. “I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong.” He leaned his forehead against mine and groaned. “I care about you. I respect you.”

  A sharp pain sliced through me. As stupid as it seemed, I believed him. My heart told me he would never intentionally hurt me, but I wanted more than respect from him. I wanted his heart because I had a sneaking suspicion he was well on the way to claiming mine.

  I jammed my hands into my pockets, so many thoughts on the tip of my tongue, but I feared if I opened my mouth I’d cry, and I refused to cry in front of him. I had too much pride for that
, and I sure as hell wouldn’t scream or beg him for more than he wanted to give me. After all, I was a big girl, which meant I had to take responsibility for my actions. Leslie had warned me not to push the boundaries of my professional relationship with Knox, but I did it anyway.

  “Are you going to say anything?” he asked, staring at me with a look so intense that goose bumps showered my arms.

  I shrugged, hoping if I feigned indifference, he’d walk away. I was at the end of my rope, and the sooner he walked away, the sooner I could freak out. “There’s nothing to say. We made a deal, and I got caught up in the fantasy of us. I misinterpreted your actions.” I pressed a hand to my breastbone, trying to will away the growing ache. “At this point, I think it’d be best to make a clean break and part ways. I don’t feel comfortable with this anymore.”

  “No.” His voice cracked like a whip rushing through the air and his blue eyes blazed with anger.

  I cocked my chin to the side. “No? What do you mean, no?”

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Knox

  I took a deep breath, searching her angry eyes, darker now than they had ever been, and I was fucking tongue-tied. I shoved my hand into my hair, tugging at the roots like a deranged lunatic. I didn’t have any experience coaxing a woman to stay in my life. I never cared enough to bother. As a rule, I kept my relationships with women casual, uncommitted and uncomplicated. I didn’t censor my comments or consider how my actions would affect a woman because I never wanted a future with any of them, so nothing I said or did mattered in the grand scheme of things.

  But Trinity had crashed into my life and here I was—chasing her down the stairs with a hundred half-baked apologies on the tip of my tongue, my heart thumping erratically inside of my chest from something other than exertion.

  Logically, I should’ve let her walk away. We already had too much baggage and we’d only met a month ago. And we’d only been together for the last two weeks of that. Wanting her the way I did considering everything going on in our lives seemed crazy. But that hadn’t stopped me from rearranging my entire life to make room for her.