A Little Harmless Lie 4 (23 page)

“Micah.”

“Do you think there’s something wrong?” She couldn’t keep the worry out of her voice. The fact that the man hadn’t run like she’d expected, like she’d expected of everyone, still had her heart dancing the Lambada.

“Other than the fact that he’s whipped?” He shook his head. “No.”

She snorted. “Sure, he’s whipped.”

“Turn.” She did as he ordered and he studied her. “Are you that stupid? I always thought you were smarter than that.”

“I don’t have time to worry about my relationship with him. I have to get through the next few days without getting killed. That’s the priority.”

He said nothing for a few minutes as he concentrated on his task. The only sounds in the room were his movements.

“You think... ” She let her words trail off as he glanced up at her with an amused look.

“Yeah. Jesus, he followed you. He tracked you down. Men don’t usually do that unless they’re whipped.”

She shook her head, trying to dismiss her brother’s words even as hope speared through her. “Micah just doesn’t like being lied to. And he always thinks he’s right.”

Her brother laughed. “Believe me, I would have tracked down a woman who had lied to me, but I definitely wouldn’t go about trying to save her unless I was whipped.”

She stared down at him, still unable to believe that Micah would feel that way about her. Life just didn’t happen for her like that. Men left. Men weren’t dependable. But there was something there, something deep in her heart that needed this to be true. She yearned to have a man to be there, to lean on, to trust.

Stupid girls trust. Smart girls depended only on themselves.

Oh, how she wanted to be a stupid girl. For once.

Devon finished his task and she pulled her shirt back on over her head.

“Why don’t you think you deserve him?”

She glanced at her brother and then away. “What’re you talking about?”

He sighed. “Don’t bullshit me. Tell me.”

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

When he said nothing, she looked over at him. He’d crossed his arms over his chest and was staring her down. Damn, she forgot just how irritating he could be. As twins, they often knew each other better than anyone.

“Everyone leaves.” Her voice cracked on the second word and she closed her eyes. It was a waste of time because tears started to slip from her eyes. “Oh, shit.”

“Everyone doesn’t leave.”

She knuckled the tear away and tossed him a nasty look. “Really? Tell me where in my life that you think that hasn’t happened to me. Every important man in my life has let me down.”

The moment she said the words, she regretted them. Devon’s face lost some of its coloring and his jaw flexed.

“Devon— ”

“No. You’re right. I knew what those bastards were like and I left. You had no idea, but I did. But I escaped, reasoning what you didn’t know couldn’t hurt you.”

She could hear the condemnation in his voice. “Devon... I don’t blame you.”

“No? Well, I would.”

She shook her head as she walked over to hug him. “At seventeen, I probably would have done the same thing. Seriously. If I had known what they were like, I would have run a long time before I did.”

“But I should have— ”

“What? Told me that our brother and father were sadistic fucks?”

He snorted.

“Not sure I would have listened to you then.”

“Probably not. You were pretty hard- headed.”

She sniffed. “Yeah, well, at least I didn’t do illegal things.”

He pulled back and smiled down at her. “Only faked an identity.”

“Hey. I paid my taxes and was a good citizen for ten years.”

“Go see your man.”

She turned to leave but then paused. “You really think he’s whipped?”

He nodded. “You might have had every man walk away from you, but there was one who didn’t. In fact, the man raced across an ocean to come get you.”

She smiled as she slipped out the door and walked toward Micah.

“I don’t give a fuck. You tell Franklin that we aren’t paying more for the liquor.”

She laughed. He might play the carefree Dom, but the truth was he was a businessman. She should have known he would be talking business with Evan. She must have made some kind of noise because he turned to look over his shoulder. Heat flared in his eyes as his gaze locked in on her. She stopped, unable to walk. Her whole body sizzled, her nerve endings sparking. Jesus, all the man had to do was look at her and she was lost.

“I gotta go.”

Evan said something because Micah smiled. “Tell May I owe her a drink.”

He clicked off the phone and without a word walked toward her. He stopped inches from her, cupped her face with his hands and leaned down for a kiss. He didn’t close his eyes. Heat, delicious and familiar wound through her veins and wrapped around her heart.

He pulled away. “Did Devon get you all wired?”

Her heart was smacking against her chest and there was a lump the size of a boulder in her throat. She swallowed past it and nodded.

“Hey, are you okay with this? If not, we can go.”

Tears prickled the back of her eyes and she shook her head. “No. I outed myself. I need to go through with it. Who knows what else my brother and father will do if I don’t get them behind bars.”

He nodded and pulled her into his arms. “I’ll do whatever you want. You want to stay and fight or run, just let me know.”

Again, another rush of tears filled her eyes. Damn, she was crying again.

She wanted to run far away from Micah. If her father found out how much he meant to her, he would hurt Micah to hurt her. At the same time, she wanted him here by her side. She was making about as much sense as this situation.

“Dee?” Dillon’s soft voice drifted through the room and brought her back to the present.

She leaned back and looked at Micah, a man she thought never to have, the one she had thought out of reach, too dangerous. He hadn’t been the kind of man she had dreamed of years ago. But beyond everything else, he had given her back her dreams... her tomorrows. No one had thought enough of her to do that, had loved her enough to put their life on the line to ensure her happiness.

She rose to her tiptoes and brushed her mouth over his. With her lips still against his, she said, “I love you.”

Anyone watching wouldn’t have seen his reaction, but she did. His eyes widened and his hands flexed on her waist. He opened his mouth, but she pulled away and shook her head.

“I just had to say it. For me, I had to say it.”

Micah studied her for a second and then nodded. “Don’t think we won’t talk about this.”

“Dee?” Dillon said. “Time to go.”

She nodded and turned, but Micah followed.

“You can’t go,” she said.

Micah frowned and crossed his arms over his chest.

“No, you can’t. Conner can go, because well, he has the connections. If my father knows anything, and I am sure after that email he sent out feelers, he knows how important you are to me. You’ll become a target.”

“You shouldn’t be going alone. I can go. I can take care of myself.”

“I have to agree with him,” Devon said. She glanced at her brother. “If Dad knows about him, he will think it’s odd he isn’t there.”

She looked at Conner who nodded.

With a sigh, she rolled her eyes. “Freaking men. Okay, come on, but let me handle it.”

He gave her a smile that told her he could care less about her warnings. With a huff, she followed Conner out of the room, with Micah close behind.

As they stepped on the elevator, she realized this was the first day of the rest of her life. She just hoped that life didn’t end today.

Chapter Seventeen

Something cold slithered down Micah’s spine the moment he spotted Peter Rizzoli. Just like the last time Micah had faced him, Rizzoli didn’t look like the bastard he was. In better shape than most men his age, his dark hair was now threaded with gray and his face almost unlined. More than likely Rizzoli had been botoxed. The man was vain enough for it.

He was dressed in a conservative tailored suit, the only splash of color the red tie. The young man standing next to him had to be Petey, the oldest and the one Conner had said was completely out of control. Rizzoli was a bastard, a murdering bastard, one who put a hit out on his daughter. It was business. While Micah couldn’t understand feeling that way about another person, he knew the type. His mother had been that way. Dee was in Rizzoli’s way, so he put out a hit.

The brother though, he had been getting some notice. As Micah studied him, Petey offered him a cynical smile. He could see his resemblance to the twins, but he was more his father’s child. Cold eyes, hatred seeping from his every pore. He wasn’t cool- headed like his father. Instead, he had a temper that often got him in trouble. His father had been cleaning up his messes since high school, when he’d nearly beaten a fellow student to death. He enjoyed violence. As Dee said, he got off on it. He could only imagine how someone like that reacted to torturing someone. And Dee had heard it.

He glanced down at his woman and smiled. Anyone looking would see a cool competent woman. But he knew. He felt all those little nerves that were simmering beneath the surface. He wanted nothing more than to pull her into his arms and take her back upstairs. That would have to wait though.

They walked up the stairs to the restaurant. The moment her father realized it was her, Micah thought he might have seen a flash of recognition along with regret. Well, there was at least that. The brother sneered though.

Dee stopped by the table. “I see you got the message.”

Her father studied her for a moment. The look in his eyes, the cold calculation Micah saw there, made his blood ice over. He looked at her as if she were a specimen.

“I didn’t think you would be clever enough to send an untraceable email.”

Micah grunted his annoyance and she shot him a smile that calmed him. She was really something.

“I’m a lot smarter than you ever gave me credit for.”

“How do you figure that, sis?”

The sneering voice of her brother had Micah curling his fingers into his palms, but Dee laughed.

“I’ve always been smarter than both of you.”

She was antagonizing them. Not a good idea in Micah’s book.

“Really?”

“I’ve held down jobs for the last ten years. Jobs my daddy didn’t get me.” She shrugged. “Not to mention that you guys couldn’t find me for ten years.”

Her brother growled, but a look from their father had him quieting down. It was then that Micah realized the warped relationship here. From the look of it, her father treated Petey like he was an unruly pet. One he would kick out of the house if he ever crossed a line. Killing wasn’t the line, and that is just how strange the family was.

“Won’t you sit down? Both you and Mr. Ross?” her father asked, but there was no doubt it wasn’t a request.

She nodded and took a seat.

“What do you want?”

“Five million, in an offshore account.”

For a moment, there was a deathly silence around the table. The only sound was the milling crowd, the slot machines... the music. Her father studied her for a long moment. Of course, neither of them said anything. Petey was the one who couldn’t handle it.

“What the fuck, Marjorie? You turn us in, ruin your life, and now you want money?”

She shrugged and looked bored. Micah wanted to shout with laughter. Her move looked so natural.

“I realized a long time ago that there was no beating you. That’s why I left the FBI and ran. Losers. Of course, I would have been safe if you hadn’t had a man on the inside.”

Her father’s lips curved slightly. “So you want money. Do you have the account?”

She nodded. “If you hadn’t killed him, this would have never happened you know.”

Her brother shook his head. “Bastard was stealing money. We had to kill him.”

A sigh of irritation slipped from Rizzoli, telling Micah he had realized what his son had said. Of course, he assumed they both knew. But it wasn’t smart... proving Dee’s point.

She offered a slip of paper to her father who looked it over and then handed it to his son. “Take care of it.”

“Now,” Dee said.

Her brother rose from his chair and pulled out his cell phone. “You were always a pain in the ass, Marjorie.”

When they were alone, her father switched his focus from Dee to him
. This
Micah could handle. He hoped the bastard took a swing at him, tried something, although he knew her father was too cool for that.

“What is your roll in this, Mr. Ross?”

“I’m here for Dee.”

Her father swirled his drink in his glass before taking a small sip. “I think it might be a little bit of payback on your part. After what I did to your business, I thought it might be the only reason you were around my daughter.”

Micah offered him a smile, knowing there was nothing but animosity behind it. “If you think that, then you don’t know your daughter. She wouldn’t put up with an asshole bent on revenge. In fact, looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened to me. I ended up in Hawaii. And I ended up with your daughter in my bed.”

The older man’s jaw clenched again, but Micah could tell he was pissed. No matter what, he was still Dee’s father and hearing about a man sleeping with her wasn’t something any father wanted to hear. Especially the owner of a BDSM club.

“It’s done.” Her brother broke up the staring contest.

“For my silence about your roles in the killing,” she smiled. “Not too much to pay, I’m sure.”

Her father’s smile left Micah’s soul cold. “I didn’t say we had anything to do with it.”

“Sure,
Dad
. You can fool yourself. Of course, the truth is both of you are too cowardly to admit to doing it, let alone doing it. What I remember from my childhood was that neither of you did a thing. You ordered people about, but you didn’t actually do any work.” She tossed a sneering look at her brother. Micah looked at him, realizing that his face had flushed and his lip snarled.

“And you. Hell, until he dies, you will always be his
little boy
. The one who couldn’t think without an order. I’m amazed you can even go to the bathroom without his help.”