Sins of My Father (Black Brothers #1) (12 page)

“I’ll tell you everything when we get to your house,” I said, massaging my temples. My head literally ached from the mental stress of the last week.

The meeting with Brandon.

The notes on my car.

The invasion of my privacy.

I couldn’t do this anymore. I needed help.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Archer

Langley stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Potomac. I always liked the view. It was one of the reasons I bought the place. At night, the way the yellow lights of the buildings danced on the water’s surface took my breath away, but watching Langley with her golden hair flowing down her back literally made my heart clench. Lost in her thoughts and as still as a statue, she looked tragically beautiful.

“Do you want a glass of wine?” I asked.

“Sure,” she said absently. I wondered if she even heard me.

“Is red okay?”

“It’s fine. I don’t normally drink red. I love it, but it gives me a headache.”

I paused with the corkscrew halfway into the cork. “Are you sure? I can open something else. I have a chardonnay and a rosé too.”

“No, tonight I feel like red.” She nodded and then cleared her throat. “I have reason to believe my stepdad is monitoring my phone calls,” Langley said, not bothering to look at me when she dropped that bomb.

I froze mid-pour. Two drops of burgundy-colored wine splashed in the wineglass. That wasn’t the direction I anticipated this discussion going. Truthfully, I didn’t know exactly why she wanted to terminate our relationship, but I suspected it had something to do with pressure from Senator Wharton and his campaign advisors. On the face, Senator Wharton’s opposition to me didn’t make sense, but who knows what kind of lies he fed her.

Carrying two glasses of wine, I crossed the room. “Why do you think that?”

She wrapped her arms around her torso. “Brandon told me last weekend.”

“And you believe him?”

She turned around, facing me for the first time since we walked in my home. Her normally golden skin was pale, and her normally vibrant eyes looked empty. I handed her the glass of wine. She took it and walked to the sofa and sat.

“Not at first. It seemed crazy.” She shook her head as she stared at the wall. “But now…” Her voice faded to nothing, and I didn’t think she’d finished her thought. She twirled the wineglass in her hand by the stem. “But now, I think he’s right.”

I eyed her carefully, not wanting to give anything away. She was right, or at least according to Knox’s sources. “Why?”

“It makes sense.”

“Ah.” I sat down next to her on the sofa. “How so?”

She took a drink of her wine, then placed it on the coffee table. Rubbing her hands along her thighs, she stared at the far wall before she shifted to face me. “Can I trust you? I mean really trust you, because I don’t have anyone to help me. I don’t trust Brandon. My mom will choose
him
over me, and I don’t want to involve Winnie in something like this. I know we haven’t known each other long, but I don’t know where to turn. I’m a little out of my depth here.”

“Yes,” I said, placing my hand on her leg. At that second, with her red-rimmed eyes and vulnerable gaze, I promised myself if I could find a way to protect both of us, I would do it. Destroying Senator Wharton didn’t mean I had to destroy her too.

Her green eyes searched mine, and after a few seconds, she inclined her head. “Okay. I don’t know where to start.”

“Start at the beginning.” I needed to know everything.

She leaned back against the chair. “I saw an email to Brandon from my stepdad. He wanted Brandon to convince ten women to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Apparently, he had a relationship with these women, and he didn’t want them to sell their stories. I didn’t finish reading it, but to make a long story short, I knew I couldn’t be with Brandon anymore. We agreed to go our separate ways, and I agreed not to confront Senator Wharton or reveal any of the details to my mom.”

“Why did you agree to keep the secret?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. At the time, it made sense, and it kept me out of my stepdad’s life.” She ran her hands through her hair. “I can’t give a good reason other than I acted in my self-interest. I didn’t want to be involved.”

“So you think Senator Wharton is watching you because of that email?” It seemed like a stretch. There had to be more to the story. Senator Wharton was watching her. I knew that, but I’d always thought there would be more to the story than a string of affairs.

“Three of the ten women are dead. The same three women who refused to sign the nondisclosure agreement. All ten women were underage escorts at the time of the affair, and according to Brandon, all of the ten women are connected to Gerald Whittaker. The same Gerald Whittaker who was arrested recently.”

“Fuck,” I said, standing up. I circled the coffee table like a caged tiger as my world tilted upside down and inside out. Everything I suspected was true. “Did Senator Wharton kill those women?” Every instinct in my gut screamed for blood. I didn’t want revenge anymore. I wanted Senator Wharton to rot in hell, and not just for what he’d done to my family and me but for tearing apart Langley’s life too.

“Brandon implied as much, but all three deaths were ruled a suicide.”

“Fucking hell.” I bent at my waist, unable to calm the blood pumping wildly through my veins. I heard the rumors about Gerald Whittaker. It didn’t take long for me to piece Senator Wharton’s web of lies and depravity together.

“Is it too much?” she asked almost soundlessly as she smeared the condensation on her wine glass with her fingertip. “Do you want to run away from me? I’d like to run away from myself. I can’t believe I didn’t do anything six months ago.” She downed the rest of her wine and stood up. She walked toward the door. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’d appreciate if you kept this information quiet…at least for a little while.”

“Where are you going?” I asked when her hand circled for the doorknob.

“I don’t know. I’ll get a hotel tonight.” She shrugged, gripping the doorknob so hard her knuckles whitened. “Then, who knows? My dad has a sister. I haven’t seen or heard from her since my dad’s death, but I might try to find her. I think she still lives in California. Maybe she’ll help me,” she said with an air of finality and fierce determination.

“You’re not leaving.”

“I’m not?” She turned on her heel and pressed her back against the door.

“No.” I crossed the room in seconds, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her into my embrace. I stroked the back of her hair with my hand. “I’m going to help you. We’ll figure this out together.”

“How?” she whispered into my chest. “What can you do?”

“Other than Brandon’s story, do you have any evidence to support these allegations?”

Her muscles tensed under my hands, and she drew a few shallow breaths into her lungs. She lifted her chin, and her eyes swam with unshed tears. “I printed the email between Brandon and my stepdad. It lists the women’s names and addresses.”

“Where is it?”

“At my house.”

“Okay.” My chest heaved and grief for my mother rolled in my gut. “We need to get it and put it somewhere safe.” With a blinding clarity, I knew I had every piece of evidence I needed to destroy Senator Wharton. I could link him to those women with his own words, and with a little digging around, I could pin the deaths of those three women on him.

“How?” She shivered. “I don’t want to go back there ever again. He has listening devices in my home. I haven’t found them, but I’m sure of it. That’s why I didn’t want to talk to you there tonight.”

“Can you tell me exactly where you hid the email?”

She rubbed her eyes. “Yes.”

“I’ll take care of everything.” And I would…no matter what.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Langley

For the last hour, I couldn’t sit down. I had paced the length of Archer’s living room at least a hundred times as my emotions seesawed up and down. Desperate to empty my mind of the worries ruling my thoughts, I tried to think about other things—the tennis match with my mom tomorrow, Winnie’s invitation to brunch on Sunday, my hair appointment on Monday during my lunch break.

After Archer had cooked me a simple dinner, he retreated to his study to make some phone calls. I should have joined him and participated in whatever he was planning, but I couldn’t face reality yet. I had revealed enough dirt to destroy my stepdad, and I had offered him the supporting evidence on a platter. That was enough for one day.

Relief and bone-deep sadness ate at my gut. Relief that Archer agreed to help me, and sadness that I had pulled the trigger of the gun that would destroy the only family I had for the last twelve years. My mom wasn’t the type of mother I would’ve picked if I had the choice, but she was still my mother. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I didn’t have a choice anymore. If my stepdad had anything to do with murdering those three women, I couldn’t blindly trust he wouldn’t do the same to me.

I didn’t know why Archer agreed to help me. It didn’t make sense, but there was no going back now. For better or worse, I had made the decision to include him. Now I had to wait and see what happened. We were in this together.

A key turned in the front door of Archer’s home, and bile rose up in my dry throat. This was it. Something was going to happen. Turning back was no longer an option. I was going to throw up.

“Relax, Langley,” Archer whispered next to my ear as he twined his arm around my waist. “It’s just my brother, Knox. I sent him to your house to get the letter and pack you a bag.”

“Can we trust him?” I asked, staring at the sharp angles of Archer’s profile.

“You can trust me,” Knox said. A huge grin split across his face as he stepped into Archer’s house and closed the door behind him, taking time to secure the deadbolt.

Knox didn’t look anything like Archer. Knox had shaggy blonde hair and light, almost transparent, eyes. Where Archer was brooding and intense, Knox seemed free-spirited and light, right down to his casual clothes and easy smile.

“You don’t look like brothers,” I commented as I scanned the two of them, looking for similarities.

“We have different fathers,” Archer answered without glancing at me. “Let’s talk in the study.”

Five minutes later, we were all seated in the chairs flanking Archer’s desk. My hands trembled as I gripped the wooden arms of my seat.

“Did you find the letter?” Archer questioned, directing his hardened gaze at Knox.

Knox’s gaze flickered to me before returning to Archer. “It was exactly where you said it would be.”

“Good. Can I see it?”

Knox pulled a paper folded in fours from a gray canvas messenger bag and handed it to Archer. My heart skipped a beat when I recognized the paper I’d been hiding for over six months.

With his mouth pressed into a rigid line, Archer scanned the email. “Have you read this?” he asked Knox.

“I did,” Knox confirmed, his eyes narrowing fractionally before his face smoothed into a blank mask once again. “And I made copies.”

“Why do you need copies?” I shifted in my seat to face Knox. I confided in Archer, and apparently by default, Knox, but I didn’t know anything about him.

“For my investigation.”

“Your what?” Glaring at Archer, I stood up and folded my arms across my chest. “I shared this information with you, but that didn’t mean I agreed to let you make the next call. This is my life.” I held out my open palm and wiggled my fingers. “I want the email back along with all the copies. If I need your help, I’ll ask. Until then, back off.”

“No.” Archer leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the edge of the desk.

“No?” I echoed, my eyebrows scaling my forehead in disbelief.

“You can’t do this alone.” Archer jumped out of his chair. He stalked around the side of his desk, only stopping when he stood in front of me.

“If I don’t do anything and he’s elected, maybe he’ll leave me alone. He won’t care about me anymore.” Even as the words tumbled from my mouth, I didn’t believe them. I couldn’t see any way out of this mess, but that realization didn’t stop me from second guessing my next move.

“And you’re happy with that result?” Archer challenged, his dark eyes flashing with anger. “Happy with a man who might have arranged the murder of three women becoming the next President of the United States?”

“I doubt it would be the first time or the last time an unethical person is elected to a higher office.” I cringed as I said the words, because I didn’t want my stepdad to succeed, but the statement was the truth. The little I had learned about politics over the last decade taught me there wasn’t a place for lofty ideals and morals inside the Beltway.

“Langley,” Knox said, interrupting the standoff between Archer and me. “Whether Senator Wharton is elected is irrelevant. In his mind, you have the power to destroy him. Don’t kid yourself. He will do what’s necessary to neutralize that threat. It might happen next week, or it might happen two years from now. You can’t sit around playing defense, waiting for him to make his first move. You need to play offense and catch him off guard.”

“Are you implying he might kill me?” Tears burned the corners of my eyes. Fuck. I blinked repeatedly, trying to quell the urge to cry. I hated being weak. I wished I could press the pause button on my life for a few months while I figured out what to do.

Knox shrugged. “You know him better than I do, but don’t you think you’re a little too old to pretend you can close your eyes, click your heels three times, and everything will disappear?”

His words were like a knife picking at an old wound. I had closed my eyes and looked the other way when it came to my stepdad too many times to count. The email wasn’t my first clue Senator Wharton wasn’t who he pretended to be in front of the cameras. “Who are you to judge me?”

Archer pulled me into an embrace and wiped the tears streaming down my face with the pads of his fingers. “Listen to what Knox is saying,” he whispered next my ear. “He knows what he’s doing. He worked as a naval intelligence officer. He can help you. We both can. Give us the chance to help you.”

“I don’t know if I can do this. You don’t understand.” I shook my head. “People owe him favors. He can make the allegations disappear. What I say won’t matter. I’ve seen him do it before. The Wharton political machine will systematically assassinate my character and somehow paint my stepdad as a sympathetic character in the process.” I stepped out of Archer’s hold. “That’s what they do. White is black and black is white to them. Only winning matters, not facts.”

“Exactly. Except this time we’re going to win.”

I swallowed hard, working to lubricate my sudden dry throat. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Archer’s lips curled at the corners, forming something resembling a sinister smile. “That’s where you’re wrong. Senator Wharton has money and power, but so do I, and I have no intention of losing this fight.”

I eyed him doubtfully. “But it’s not your fight.”

“It is now.” He tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “I want to help you, and not just tonight. I’ll ride this thing to the end…wherever it goes.”

“Regardless of whether it’s good or bad?”

“Yes.”

“I might as well tell you everything,” I said quietly.

“There’s more?”

I strolled across the room, stopping in front of the windows. I gazed into the darkness. Everything was a blur of colors that meant nothing. “I’ve been getting notes too.”

I didn’t hear his footsteps, but all of a sudden he stood behind me, his chest brushing against my back and his hands on my shoulders. His scent infiltrated my senses, soothing me. “What kind of notes? Is someone threatening you?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know.” I glanced over my shoulder, meeting his heavy-lidded gaze. His eyes glittered with rage. “The notes say to stay away from you and not to trust you.”

He spun me around and cupped my face. He lowered his voice, indicating his words were only for me. “You can trust me. Those notes don’t mean anything. Someone is trying to scare you. That’s it. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

I exhaled sharply. Archer said everything I needed to hear. Since my dad died, no one fought for me or stood up for what I wanted. What I needed. As a child, my dad and I were a team—us against the world. No matter what she did, my mom couldn’t divide us. Then, his personal assistant found him dead in his bed one morning, and everything changed.

We moved across the country. I never saw my friends again. My dad’s name never crossed my mom’s lips. It was as if he never existed, and it was like losing him all over again.

The two years following my dad’s death, I desperately sought my mom’s approval and her love. I wanted her to fill my dad’s shoes. It never happened. Then, she married my stepdad, and she never had a spare second for me. She focused all her thoughts and energy on maintaining his approval. There was no room for me in her new life. I was afterthought—an accessory to be pulled out of a drawer when the cameras rolled.

“And you and Knox have a plan?” I asked, glancing at Archer and then Knox.

Archer nodded. “We do. Are you ready to hear it?”

“I am.”