Sins, Lies & Spies (Black Brothers #2) (13 page)

CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

Knox

I glanced at my wristwatch. Archer and Langley were late. Normally, I wouldn’t mind, but Trinity looked like she would come out of her skin if they didn’t show up soon. I rested my arm over her shoulder and slid her body closer to me.

“Hey, don’t worry about Archer or Langley. They’ll like you.”

She swallowed, her gaze fixed on the clear glass bubble chandelier near the entrance. “I know I’m over-thinking the whole thing, but once Leslie gave me the lowdown on them, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed.”

“That’s why I didn’t say anything.”

She frowned. “That’s not comforting.”

I swiped a hand down my face and exhaled. “Look, I won’t lie, most people are intimidated by Archer. On the surface, he seems hard and calculating, but underneath he’s a softy. And Langley…” I paused, considering my words as I twirled her dark hair around my finger. “She’s one of the genuinely nicest people I’ve ever met. Before she started acting, she was a physical therapist. She cares about people. She’s going to jump through hoops to make sure you feel comfortable.”

She swiped the tips of her fingers along the crisp white tablecloth. “If you say so,” she said, noncommittally.

“I know so.” I glanced at the floor to ceiling glass windows running the entire length of the front of the restaurant. “But you can judge for yourself. They’re here.”

Her leg bounced up and down on the oyster colored cushion. “I can’t believe you talked me into this. You owe me.”

“I’ll think of a way to repay you.”

I stood to greet Archer and Langley. His characteristic grin spread across his face. “Hey, little brother,” he said, wrapping me in a one-armed hug. “Sorry we’re late. We had some stuff to take care of.”

“Yeah, I bet you did,” I said, pulling away. “Langley, good to see you.” I kissed her cheek. As usual, Langley had a big grin on her face. Her golden hair hung in loose waves, nearly reaching the middle of her back.

“Hi, I’m Langley,” she said, holding her hand out to Trinity.

“Trinity,” she responded, shaking Langley’s hand.

“And this is Archer.” Langley elbowed my brother.

“Right. I’m Archer.” He squeezed Trinity’s arm. “Sorry if I’m acting strange. I’m shocked my brother actually showed up with someone.”

Trinity’s gaze flicked to me, then back to Archer. “Oh, really? Why is that?”

He shrugged, then settled into the booth next to Langley. “Let’s just say this is the first time I’ve met anyone he’s dating since high school. He normally keeps them well hidden or he kicks them out of his life so fast they’re not worth mentioning.”

“There’s no need to scare away my date,” I said, laughing humorlessly. For the first time in memory, I wanted a woman to stick around. I liked her. I enjoyed her company. On top of all that, I needed her to unravel Miles’s blackmail scheme. “Let’s move on to another topic.”

“Fine. We’ll talk about something else,” Archer said, his eyes narrowing fractionally as he placed his napkin in his lap. “Trinity,” he said, redirecting the conversation. “Are you from D.C.?”

***

Archer cornered me coming out of the restroom after dinner.

“Hey,” he said, slapping me on the shoulder. “You seem a little stressed.”

I shoved my hands into my pockets. “Like I said on the phone, I have a lot going on right now.”

“Trinity seems a little guarded, but nice. She’s a nice change from your usual type.”

“Yeah.” I glanced at the table and passed the palm of my hand over my face. Langley’s hands swirled in front of her as she explained something to Trinity. “I’m not sure if it’s going to lead to anything serious, but I like her too.”

He leaned his hip against the wall and folded his arms across his chest. “So what’s her real story?”

Stepping back, I shook my head slightly. “I’m not sure. I only know bits and pieces.”

His eyebrows jumped up his forehead. “Seriously, Knox, you hired her without running a full background investigation on her? I know she’s attractive, but you’ve never fallen victim to a pretty face before.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Of course I did a background check. It came back pretty clean, which is amazing considering the big ass skeleton in her closet.”

“You. Me. Langley. We all have skeletons in our closets. It’s not always a bad thing.” His voice was soft, gentle even. “Our history doesn’t define us.”

“I get that, Archer. I really do, but I can’t decide what side she’s on.”

He smirked. “That sounds familiar.”

I chuckled. “It does.” Archer hadn’t been sure he could trust Langley, and it blew up in his face. She forgave him, but she made him wallow in misery first. “Listen, I can’t share the details, but I’m investigating a blackmail scheme that involves coercing members of the House of Representatives to change their votes. One of the Representatives being blackmailed is her half-brother, and the secret they’re using to blackmail him with is her.”

Archer whistled as he ran his hand through his almost black hair. “That’s not good.”

I snorted. “I realize that.”

“There’s only one way to stop the whole mess in its tracks.”

“I know,” I said, wary.

Nodding, he shoved away from the wall, one of his hands lingering in the pocket of his pants. “They have to put together a joint press release spilling the details of her identity.”

“Jesus, Archer, I can’t ask her to do that. She doesn’t want the connection revealed and neither does he. It won’t happen.”

“Do you want my advice?”

“Not really,” I lied. I trusted Archer. He was one smart son of a bitch. He never steered me wrong.

“Too bad because I’m going to give it to you anyway.” He followed me down the hall, the soles of his shoes clipping over the tiled floor. “Ask her to do it. See how she responds.”

I yanked on the cuffs of my shirt. “And if she refuses?”

“Then you have your answer.”

I glanced at him from the corner of my eyes. “What answer?”

“You want to know whose side she’s on? Where her loyalties lie? If she doesn’t ask him, she’s on his side, and you can’t trust her.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I agreed, my gut clenching uneasily. I didn’t want to let Trinity go, but I might not have a choice. Benton and I were on different sides. He betrayed the trust of his constituents by folding under the weight of a blackmail scheme instead of coming clean. I was hired to expose him and anyone else involved.

“Don’t look so distressed. She might surprise you.”

I tugged on the collar of my shirt. “We’ll see.”

CHAPTER

TWENTY-THREE

Trinity

“So what did you think of Langley and my brother?” Knox asked as he handed me a glass of wine.

I flopped down onto one of Knox’s tan sofas and tucked my legs underneath me. “I don’t think they hated me. That’s a good sign, right?”

“Yes. I think they liked you a lot.” Knox sat in the sofa directly across from me, bracing his elbows on his thighs, his eyebrows lifted. “I want to talk you about something.”

“Oh.” I twirled my wineglass by the stem, watching the golden liquid swirl in circles. “Is it bad?”

“Not bad.” He shook his head. “The opposite really. I had an idea on how to defuse this situation with Benton.”

I took a sip of the white wine, not even paying attention to the flavor as it rolled down my suddenly dry throat. “What’s your idea?” I said, turning my attention to the window. Clouds hovered near the darkening horizon, cloaking the skyline.

He scrutinized me with a gentle smile on his face. “If Benton acknowledges you as his half-sister publicly, this entire situation will go away. The blackmailer won’t have any power over Benton, and it will keep both you and Faith safe.”

“There has to be another way.” Even as I said it, I didn’t know if it were true. What he said made sense.

He rose and sauntered across the room. He braced one hand against the sliding glass door. “There might be, but it will take considerably more time than we have given the threat against your sister.”

“I’ll just leave. I’ll move across the country, change my name, and start over. If I disappeared, nobody could prove anything. It’d be unsubstantiated rumors.”

“That won’t help anything and you know it,” he said wearily.

My stomach plummeted, and I nodded even though he wasn’t looking at me. He was right. Even if I disappeared, I’d still exist and that was probably enough to blackmail Derrick. “I know.”

He turned to face me, the murky light shading the lower half of his face. “Nothing good will happen by keeping this secret.” He shrugged as he moved closer to me. “The story will play out in the tabloids and on a few websites, but it will fade quickly enough. Richard Benton died six months ago. Nobody will care and given the type of scandals floating around these days, having an illegitimate child is pretty tame in comparison.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” I swallowed. “I should talk to him and see what he thinks.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“Am I going to regret this?”

“It’s possible,” he whispered. “But I’ll do everything to make sure you don’t get hurt in the process.” He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, and my heart fluttered inside my chest. “Archer will help, too. He has a lot of sway with the news media, and we’ll hire you your own P.R. team, so someone is looking out for your interests, not just Benton’s.”

Tears burned the back of my eyes and I dropped my gaze. “Thank you. That would be great. I don’t know how I’ll pay for it, but I’ll make it work.”

“I’ll help with the cost.” He cupped my face, cradling it, looking down at me. Everything faded away, the sadness, the loneliness, and the fear of the future. In that instant, only the two of us existed. There was no barrier, no cool suspicion in his clear eyes. Just trust, understanding and acceptance.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

His lips tightened. “What are you doing?”

“I’m calling Derrick.”

“You don’t have to do it right now. It can wait until morning.”

“No.” I whipped my head back and forth. “I need to, otherwise I’ll chicken out. I don’t want him to hate me.”

This wasn’t the first time I wanted to bring this up with Derrick. But somehow the thought had never translated into an actual conversation.

He flashed a white smile. “He’s not going to hate you for suggesting it. Nobody could hate you.”

My eyebrows lifted. “I hope you’re right.” I didn’t want to lose my brother. I could count my family members on one hand. The thought of losing one of the three who were still part of my life made me sick to my stomach.

I pressed the green button to call him.

He squeezed my shoulder, his eyes boring into mine. “Do you want me to give you some space? I can go into the other room or wait in the lobby of my building.”

“No,” I rasped, listening to the first ring. “I need you to stay.”

“Hi, Trinity. What’s going on? I didn’t think I’d hear from you until Monday.”

“I have an idea I want to run by you,” I blurted out, my knee bouncing up and down.

I heard a door shut. “It’s getting late. Ellen and I just got home from a dinner party. Can it wait a couple of days?”

I shook my head. “No. It can’t. Some stuff has happened since the last time we talked.” He didn’t answer. “Derrick? Are you still there?”

“Yes.” He sighed. “What happened?”

Knox squeezed my neck lightly and nodded for me to continue.

I licked my lips. “When I got home after your party, my cat…” I closed my eyes and swallowed back the sob begging to surface. “Somebody killed my cat and left a threatening note, warning me to keep my silence.”

“I’m sorry, Trinity. Did you call the police?”

“No. I didn’t think it was a good idea for either of us.”

He blew out a long, drawn out breath. “That’s good. I’ll have some people look into it. I can have some people test the note for fingerprints and—”

“No. I’ll take care of it,” I interrupted. “That’s not why I called. I think…” I paused, taking time to get my words right. “I think we should consider coming clean.” I cleared my throat, hesitating to say anything else. His silence prompted me to continue. “I don’t know. We could make some announcement or do an interview so it’s controlled. I’m sure you have people who could spin the story to your advantage. We could focus on your effort to welcome me into the family instead of the affair.”

“You seriously want me to voluntarily air my family’s dirty laundry for everyone to comment on like we’re part of some trashy reality T.V. show? Do you even understand what this would do to my family? You might have been raised by a felon with no morals, but that’s not how I do things,” he said, his voice arctic. His cold words hit me like a slap to the face. I couldn’t speak for a second.

Derrick never indicated he knew much about my uncle, but apparently, he had done his homework. My uncle was arrested more than once in his late teens and early twenties, but he cleaned up his act after my mom disappeared. I have no doubt he walked on the wrong side of the law on occasion, but he worked as a car mechanic for as long I had known him. He may have been laid off from time to time, but he always found something.

“This isn’t just about
your
family. Your decisions affect me too. You may want to ride this to the end and deny everything, but I’m not going to put my friends and family in danger because you want to protect the Benton name.”

Sometimes you don’t know if you’ve made the right decision until after you’ve made it. And this was undeniably one of those times. His words made me think he never cared about protecting me.

“I didn’t mean it that way,” he said softly.

“Of course you meant it that way. You’ve told me countless times you didn’t want to turn the lives of your family upside down, but never once have you expressed any concern about how this has impacted me. You didn’t have to hunt me down or tell me the truth. You could’ve left me alone and no one would’ve known.”

“My dad asked me to find you.”

My mouth dropped open in shock. “What? You never told me that.”

“He’d just been diagnosed with cancer when he asked me to find you and make sure you were okay.”

I squeezed the phone, and Knox’s hands curled around my shoulders, but I couldn’t look at him. I knew he could hear the conversation and I didn’t want to see his reaction. I rubbed the dull ache inside of my chest.

“I don’t get it. Don’t you think that piece of information was important? Why didn’t you say anything before?” My voice sounded like I’d swallowed a mouthful of glass.

Derrick’s breathing turned heavy, then he sighed. “I couldn’t. Look, I realize this is a touchy subject for both of us. I think it’d be better if we had this conversation in person. I don’t want to fight with you.”

“Yeah. Okay. You’re probably right.” I was too shell-shocked to object, and part of me wanted to end this conversation as fast as possible so I could process everything. “But I still want you to consider what I said about coming clean.”

“I’ll text you on Monday and we’ll schedule a time to meet for lunch in the near future. We can talk about everything then.”

“Sure,” I said, my voice breaking mid-word.

I disconnected my phone and tossed it on the coffee table. Without saying a word, I stood and warily slipped past Knox. For some reason, knowing my biological father sent Derrick to find me hurt. I couldn’t help wondering if I missed out on an opportunity to meet him. Derrick never suggested it, but I didn’t know the details of his illness. He was diagnosed with brain cancer around the time Derrick found me and he died almost six months ago.

“Are you okay?” Knox asked, following me down the hall.

Instead of answering, I shook my head. I didn’t have anything to say and didn’t want to hear anything Knox might say just yet.