Sins, Lies & Spies (Black Brothers #2) (12 page)

I shook my head. “That’s it. That’s all you have to say?”

He raked his hands through his blond hair and it stuck out in a dozen different angles. He looked boyish, adorable even. Damn him for being…him.

“Yes.”

“Look.” I sat up, my gaze settling on the strong column of his throat because I didn’t want him to see the disappointment etched on my face. “Just take me home. I don’t want this to be awkward, and I sure as hell don’t want you to feel obligated to let me stay at your house.”

“Relax, Trinity,” he murmured, pressing a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t have all the answers right now, and neither do you. Let’s process this for more than a few minutes, and we’ll go from there.”

I stared at the bedding, feeling foolish. He was right. I didn’t know what I wanted from him either. “All right.”

“Good.” He grinned. “I’ll be back in an hour or so. There’s plenty of food in the kitchen. Help yourself to whatever you want.”

“I will.”

He cupped my face as he kissed my mouth hard. I wrapped my arms around his neck, my fingers twitching to yank him back into bed and start all over. No thinking. Just touching.

He untangled my arms from his neck, a maddening closed-lipped smile on his face. “I bet you will.” He walked to the entrance of the bedroom. He grabbed a pair of aviator sunglasses from the top of the dresser and slid them on his face, pausing for a moment. “And try to refrain from rifling through my files again.”

“Jerk.” I threw a pillow at him, but he dodged it without difficulty.

His deep laugh echoed down the hallway.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Knox

I pulled into a parking place down the street from Trinity’s townhome, and I checked my phone. There were two messages from Archer, demanding I call him immediately.

“Hey, Archer. It’s me,” I said.

“Finally,” Archer growled. “I was about to filing a missing person’s report. You haven’t returned my phone calls for a week.”

“Yeah. Yeah,” I said, feeling like a major asshole. I glanced out of the rear window of my car to see if I was being followed. “I’m busy. If you haven’t noticed, I have two fucking jobs, and my boss for one of those is a real piece of work. He’s always riding my ass like I don’t have anything else to do.”

He chuckled. “I assume you’re referring to me.”

“If the shoe fits…” I answered, swinging my legs out of my car, then pushing the door shut behind me.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice that you still haven’t finished that security update for Black Investments.”

I switched my phone to the other ear and pumped a couple of quarters into the meter. “I haven’t forgotten about it, but it will probably be a few weeks before I can wrap it up.”

“What’s going on?”

I glanced up and down the street. “You know how these things go, Archer. I can’t talk about it on the phone. In fact, I shouldn’t tell you anything, ever, but I wouldn’t mind bouncing some ideas off you.”

My brother was one of the smartest people I’d ever met. He was a wizard with numbers and had an uncanny ability to see through the bullshit. Jack was a good business partner. We understood each other, and I respected his work ethic. He respected me, but I would never trust anyone as much as I trusted Archer. I had idolized him for as long as I could remember. That would never change.

He was only a couple of years older than me, but if it weren’t for him, I probably wouldn’t have survived past my fifth birthday. To put it mildly, my mom was a shitty parent who took her role as a victim seriously. Until the last year of her life, she used vodka to cope with the fallout from one self-created disaster after another. I’d spent my entire childhood and most of my adult life hating her. Resenting her. She stripped away my innocence and subjected me to the ugly side of life before I could even walk. Her neglect lingered over me like a thunderstorm my entire life.

“Then you’re in luck. Langley and I are in D.C. for a couple of days. I made reservations for the three us at that sushi place in my building at seven-thirty.”

Even though he and Langley moved to L.A. a year ago, Archer still owned his plush condo in the Four Seasons Hotel. He did everything but hold a gun to my head to get me to buy the place from him, but I didn’t want it. I made good money, especially in the past year or two, but nothing like Archer. It didn’t hurt that his fiancée had a healthy trust fund too.

I leaned my hip against a bike rack, crossing my ankles. “I don’t know, Archer. I am swimming in a pile of shit right now. Can we meet for coffee tomorrow?”

He didn’t answer for a second, and I could imagine the look of disapproval splashed all over his face. “Langley will be disappointed.”

I grinned and shoved my free hand into my pocket. “Just Langley, not you? I think you’ve got that backward.”

Langley was a beautiful and talented woman. My brother looked at her like she had created the universe. And for that, I loved her, but I wasn’t deluded enough to think she returned the sentiment. She tolerated me. She invited me to their home for the holidays, but I’d always gotten the distinct impression that I made her uncomfortable, nervous even.

Archer sighed. “Dinner was Langley’s idea. She wants to get to know you better. I want the two most important people in my life to know each other and be friends. What’s so bad about that?”

Guilt swirled in my gut. Archer was right. I needed to make more of an effort with Langley. She wasn’t going anywhere, and I didn’t want her to. She softened all my brother’s hard edges.

“Fine.” I rubbed a hand down the side of my face. “Can you change the reservation to four people? I’d like to bring someone.”

“A woman?”

“Yes.” I curled my hand around the icy metal of the bike rack.

“Seriously?” Archer said, drawing out the word.

“Yes.” I rolled my eyes. “Don’t sound so surprised. I’m not a complete asshole.”

“What happened to the three and done rule?” he asked.

In the past, I kept my relationships short and sweet. I didn’t want any commitments. I didn’t want anyone encroaching on my freedom, and I sure as hell didn’t want anyone telling me what to do. Since I met Trinity, none of that seemed important. I wanted her in my life and in my space. The thought of her walking out of my life in a couple of days or a couple of weeks hit me like a punch to the gut. Unfortunately, I didn’t know if I could trust her. My gut said yes, but I’d be the first to admit lust clouded my judgment when it came to her.

“Yeah, well, this woman is different,” I responded, my voice gruff.

“If she successfully navigated the three date Knox obstacle course, then she is different.”

“We haven’t been on three dates. In fact, we’ve barely made it through one,” I confessed.

Archer didn’t respond for a prolonged beat. I heard paper shuffling in the background, indicating he was working. He was always working. Less now that he lived with Langley, but he still put in ten-hour days.

“Ah, I suspect there’s a story there.”

“Probably. I don’t know.” I pushed away from the bike rack and started walking down the street, maneuvering between people. “It’s complicated.”

Archer chuckled. “It always is. How’d you meet her?”

I snorted. “She pointed a gun at me, and basically threatened to kill me.”

“Wait. You’re kidding, right?”

“No.”

“Not exactly a fairytale beginning.”

“No. Certainly not,” I agreed, pausing in front of Trinity’s house. “But neither was your first encounter with Langley.”

Last year, Archer concocted a plan to destroy Senator Wharton, his biological father. He used Senator Wharton’s stepdaughter, Langley, to make it happen. Somehow, they ended up falling in love and getting a sickeningly sweet happily ever after.

“Maybe not, but no guns were involved.”

“Right, the guns came later,” I said dryly, referring to Senator Wharton’s attempt on Langley’s life that landed him in prison.

“It’s water under the bridge.” He cleared his throat. “So, does this woman you’re not really dating have a name?”

“Trinity. Trinity Jones,” I said, pulling her key out of my pocket and stuffing it in the keyhole.

“I can’t wait to meet her.”

“I bet.”

“It’s true, but do me a favor and tell her to keep her guns at home.”

A laugh burst from my lips. “I’ll do my best.”

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

Trinity

Knox and I walked into Leslie’s bar. It was pitch black with a few well-placed spotlights and the glowing onyx bar. Music pulsed through the speakers. People laughed a little too loud. Perfume mixed with sweat and alcohol tickled my nose. I was glad I didn’t have to work in a bar any longer. I enjoyed the tips, but I hated the late nights.

We were supposed to meet Knox’s brother and his fiancée in an hour and a half. Meeting Knox’s family seemed premature. He told me he wanted to take things one step at a time and see what happened. I agreed because I had enough complications in my life, but there was something about Knox that made me crave more. Every time he walked into the room or his gaze landed on me, my stomach tightened in wistful longing.

Knox wrapped his arm around my waist, molding me to the side of his body. “Don’t be nervous about meeting my brother or his fiancée. They don’t bite.”

“I’m not.” I laughed lightly, trying to cover the blatant lie.

“Then why were you fidgeting with the clasp on your bracelet the entire drive here?” Knox grinned as he pulled out a stool at a high round table near the bar and gestured to the seat.

I dropped my purse on the table and perched on the edge of the stool, being careful not to flash my panties to the entire bar. If I had more time to get ready, I would’ve insisted Knox stop at my townhome to get a different dress than the one he’d grabbed from my closet.

The red satin dress had a deep V neckline and a razor cut back that exposed the sides of my waist. The bottom flared into an A-line silhouette, but it stopped well above the middle of my thigh. Leslie talked me into buying it a couple of months ago, but I could never bring myself to wear it in public. Its lack of coverage made me decidedly uncomfortable.

“I don’t know.” I glanced over to the bar and raised my hand to catch Leslie’s attention. Her nearly white hair darted back and forth behind the bar as she moved from customer to customer. “Maybe I’m more worried about you meeting my friend.” I tugged on the front of his deep blue dress shirt and lowered my voice. “She might bite.”

One side of his mouth tilted upward in a dazzling grin, then he pressed a kiss to the corner of my mouth. My heart fluttered violently against my ribcage. Without fail, every time he directed his attention on me, I felt like a flimsy piece of paper caught up in the tornado that was Knox Black. “I trust you to keep me safe.”

“Well, hello,” Leslie said, her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed in disapproval.

“Hey, Leslie,” I said, reluctantly dropping my hand from Knox’s shirt.

Knox held out his hand. “I’m Knox Black. It’s good to finally meet Trinity’s best friend. I’ve heard so much about you.”

He exaggerated, but I didn’t call him on it. I’d mentioned a few things about Leslie on the car ride over, but nothing too revealing.

Leslie flipped her white blonde hair over her shoulder as she eyed Knox’s hand for a suspended second. “It’s nice to meet you, Knox Black.” She shook his offered hand. “Trinity hasn’t breathed a single word about you until an hour ago, but I won’t hold that against you…yet.”

Knox arched one eyebrow. “Good to know.”

“So, how did you two meet?” Leslie probed.

Knox smiled down at me, the front of his thighs brushing against my knees. My stomach clenched. “Why don’t you tell her about our first meeting?”

I rolled my eyes. “Knox is a business associate. We met at a party, and now we’re…” I licked my lower lip. “Hanging out.”

His lips twitched, but he quickly wiped his hand across his lower jaw to hide his amusement. “That sounds about right.”

Leslie planted her hands on her hips, a scowl scrunching up her dainty facial features. “Are you related to Archer Black?”

He folded his arms across his chest, and cocked an eyebrow. “Yes. He’s my brother. Why do you ask?”

“No reason.” She shrugged. “I was just curious.”

“Trinity,” he said, focusing on me again. “Do you want something to drink?”

“Sure. I’d love a vodka on the rocks with two limes.”

“I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He brushed his fingertips down my arm. A simple feather-soft touch and warmth bloomed in my chest.

I watched him until he disappeared into the crowd. I shook my head. “We’re going to dinner with his brother and his fiancée tonight. How do you know Archer Black?”

Leslie sat on the stool adjacent to me. “I don’t know him personally, but everyone knows who Archer Black is.” Her brows scrunched together. “Don’t you?”

“The name sounds familiar, but I can’t place it.” Leslie’s eyebrows scaled her forehead. “Why do I get the feeling you’re about to lecture me about something?”

“Archer Black is a self-made millionaire or billionaire. I don’t know which, but he has a shitload of money and connections. His fiancée is Langley Mayer, former stepdaughter to the now imprisoned Senator Wharton and if you read the tabloids—”

“I don’t,” I snapped, shifting in my seat. The long gold chain around my neck swung between my breasts like a pendulum. I didn’t want to know all of this background information. I was nervous enough without feeling socially and financially inferior.

“Well, she’s the next ‘It’ girl in Hollywood.” She lifted and dropped one shoulder nonchalantly. “Which isn’t surprising considering she is the daughter of Rick Mayer.”

“Great, so I’m going out to dinner with a man who could buy me a million times over and Hollywood royalty.”

She nodded. “Pretty much, but that’s not why I’m pissed at you.”

“What do you mean?”

She propped both of her elbows on the smooth metal tabletop and leaned forward. “Didn’t you learn your lesson with Miles?”

“Apparently not, but I have a feeling you’re about to enlighten me.”

She tapped her fingers on my hand. “Don’t shit where you eat, Trinity.”

I giggled. “I try not to. That sounds unhygienic,” I said, purposely misunderstanding her declaration.

“You know what I mean. Don’t date your boss or business associates. It’s messy.”

My hand fell into my lap with an exasperated sigh. “I know. It’s stupid, but this thing with Knox has a short shelf life. Both the job and the relationship are temporary. I’m using him, and he’s using me. It’s not a secret. We both know how this is going to end.” My insides contorted painfully. I didn’t want there to be any truth in my words.

She eyed me suspiciously. I erased all emotion from my face, hoping she couldn’t read between the lines and realize I was already in too deep with Knox. I shared things with him—real things that I’d never told another living soul. Palpable, newfound intimacy sizzled in the air every time he looked at me.

“Okay.” She lowered her voice. “Just don’t get lost in him and forget who you are.”

I nodded, breaking eye contact with her to look for Knox, but mostly to regroup. “Don’t worry about me. It’s not going to happen.”

Even to my ears, it sounded like a lie. Luckily, she didn’t call me out because I couldn’t defend my actions or my behavior. It didn’t make sense. I should have run away from him instead of toward him.