Conned (19 page)

I hated to wake her up. She had been sleeping so peacefully
and the worry lines she'd had the night before were nowhere to be seen. But I
craved her like she was an addiction I just couldn't overcome. Her body
responded to mine like it was made for me and I couldn't stomach the idea that
this was the only time we had together. I wasn't going to let her go.

I couldn't.

"Brannock, everything is ready. I e-mailed you the flight
confirmation and made arrangements for the marshals to pick you both up at the
airport."

"Good. Thanks, Cap. Now tell me what you found on
Dawson."

"Right, by the time I realized I'd forgotten to tell
you, I figured you'd be sleeping."

Not much
, I thought to myself and grinned.

"Anyway, for the first couple weeks there was nothing.
His routine never changed and there was nothing unusual going on. About a week
ago, however, he did something totally unexpected."

"And what's that?" I asked impatiently.

"He showed up at Jack's."

My stomach dropped and the blood drained from my face,
making me lightheaded. I pressed my hand to the wall to hold me upright. Jack's
Pub was one of Lucien Ripley's main headquarters. For months, we had tried to
get an undercover on the inside, but his screening was too iron tight and we
didn't have a female officer that fit the mold of his employees.

I felt a wave of guilt wash over me. After everything I had
thought about her brother, I hoped maybe I was wrong. Was he desperate enough
to help her that he'd gone straight to the one man who would kill him on the
spot?

Before I could let the hope seep in that her brother
actually gave a shit about her, the captain shut it down.

"We got a source that says he's working for Ripley now."

"What?!"

"Calm down, Brannock. It's not a hundred percent
certain, but after he walked out of Jack's in one piece, I got approval to have
his home tapped. He's only been in and out for short periods of time since he
left Jack's. The longest he has spent there is to sleep at night."

"Do you think he made a deal? Something to get his
goons off of Emily?"

He sighed and the solemn sound of it told me that was a
'no'.

"A report came in this morning, just thirty minutes
ago, Brannock. Dawson was livid when he left his home. The phone call he made
was to a cell phone that was pin pointed in Oakland. That same number contacted
him just over a week ago. I've got a feeling he's taking this whole thing into
his own hands. The only deal he could make with Ripley would be to turn Emily
in. You know that."

Shit, he was right. Ripley wouldn't call off the search for
her. Period. He wouldn't stop until she was gone, even if he couldn't get to
her until after she testified. He had ways of getting his little brother out of
prison if he needed to. But Emily, she would be at the top of his list for
however long it took.

"Shit."

"Yeah. Shit. You need to get out of there. Your flight
is in just under two hours. Get here and we'll figure the rest out."

"Alright. Send me what you've gotten on Dawson. Maybe
something will stand out for me."

"Sending it now. See you in a while. Be safe."

I ended the call and turned back to the hotel room door.
Emily was going to be crushed. I tried to come up with some chance that her
brother was fighting for her, but came up empty. She was smart enough to know
that if Ripley didn't kill her brother that day, it meant he still had a use
for him and the only use he would have would be to find her. Lucien didn't need
anything else at the moment and he wouldn't risk letting Rayce walk away from
him unless he could gain something from it.

"Fuck!"

I walked back into the room and heard silence coming from
the bathroom. Emily must have taken a quick shower and I was glad for it. We
needed to get moving soon.

I found our bags next to each other and opened mine to pull
out my jacket, then snagged my badge off the table and snapped it onto my belt
before holstering my gun. I'd kept the weapon out of sight most of the time and
usually wore an ankle holster unless I was heading to the station. There was no
need to hide it now.

I checked my phone and found the e-mails from the captain
and scrolled through the report on Dawson. His cell number was there and the
number that he had called this morning.

An idea popped into my head that shouldn't have been there.
Normally, I wouldn't risk contacting anyone who might be looking for Emily, but
there was a better chance of doing it successfully when we were about to leave
the state. I had an overwhelming urge to call the kid and find out what the
hell was going on. For Emily. I needed to know what his intentions were before
I told her that her brother was even more of a dumbass than I originally
thought.

I was putting my jacket on when I noticed Emily's purse had
been spilled open on the table. I would use her phone since she wouldn't be
needing it anymore, that way he couldn't connect me too quickly. Her phone
wasn't in the pile on the table, though and I looked over at the nightstand and
it wasn't there either. She must have used it to call Margie like she said she
was going to and let her know she wouldn't be available to substitute any
longer.

We had discussed it shortly after I woke her up this
morning. The reminder sent arousal down my spine and I wished we had more time
before we needed to leave.

I dug through her duffel bag and my finger snagged on
something sharp. I moved her clothes aside and found a shattered cell phone at
the bottom, falling out of a hidden zipper. I pulled it out realizing that was
what had broken when I tossed her bag aside last night, but it didn't look
anything like the phone I had gotten for her.

I blinked at it for a moment, wondering if I was really
seeing what I was seeing. She had a phone?

A surge of blood filled my head and I took a deep breath to
clear the confusion.

She had a phone that I knew nothing about.

Who the fuck did she call with it?

I tried to piece it back together, but it was destroyed and
wouldn't turn on. A million reasons ran through my mind as to why she would
hide this from me. Did she not know it was there?

My phone chimed and I unlocked it to find a text from Luke.

Luke: Prints back. Guy who attacked Emily is Trent Marks
from Denver. Sound familiar?

Bile began to rise in my throat and the room started to
spin. She said the guy had looked familiar, but why the hell would he come
after her? The dread rushing through me wouldn't allow my mind to put the
pieces together. I couldn't focus.

The bathroom door opened and Emily stepped out with a towel
over her head as she dried her hair.

"Hey, what's the plan?" she asked.

I couldn't get any words out and I wanted to turn back the
last ten minutes and join her in the shower. Look her in the eyes and feel that
same wholeness I had felt when we were making love. Never find out that my
hunch about her not telling me everything was actually valid.

God, please let this be some kind of mistake. Please.
But my head knew the truth. She'd lied and whatever she had lied about was big.

She pulled the towel away and looked down at me, still
crouched over her bag with the mysterious broken phone in one hand and mine in
the other.

My question was answered and I wanted to scream when her
eyes found it and her whole body went rigid, the blood draining from her face.
She gasped and her perfect fucking lips parted. Lips I still wanted to kiss.
Lips that had blatantly lied to me.

"Con…"

"What is this?" I asked flatly. My chest tightened
with the devastation of her betrayal, but I didn't let it show. I needed to
know exactly what she had done and I couldn't let my feelings for her distract
me from finding out the truth.

She inhaled a shaky breath before her eyes pleaded with me.
Those gorgeous emerald eyes that I had stared into when I told her I loved her.
Those eyes that turned my insides to mush when they were paired with her smile.

"I can explain."

"I sure hope so," I snapped.

"Please, I didn't have a choice. He's my brother."

Her brother? This had to do with her brother?

"Who have you been calling, Emily?" I stood and
stalked toward her. She backed away from me, her face terrified, and bumped
into the wall behind her.

She stuttered and tears formed in those perfect green eyes,
twisting my gut in ten different ways.

No.

Just, no.

I glanced into the bathroom and saw the phone I had gotten
for her sitting on the counter. Without another thought, I moved toward it and slowly
picked it up before making my way back to the bed. She hadn't moved and her
body was shaking, tears falling down her cheeks.

I ignored her.

I scrolled through her call history and found a number that
hadn't been programmed into the phone. The call was made fifteen minutes ago.
While I had been talking to Captain Miller. I opened the e-mail with Rayce's
cell number and the two matched.

Another surge of anger made me double over and I dropped my
head into my hands.

"Tell me why you've been calling your brother."

"To let him know I was safe."

My head snapped up and I gaped at her. "Are you fucking
kidding me? You think he gives a shit?"

"He made me promise. I swear to God, I didn't think it
was hurting anyone. He's my brother."

My fists clenched as I stood from the bed and faced her.
"When did you call him? Besides this last time."

She ran shaky fingers through her hair and I forced myself
to stay in place. My body wanted to surround her and comfort her, but my head
wanted to remember her betrayal.

"Um, it was last Saturday. When you went to the
station."

"And before that?"

She shook her head. "That was the first time… since I
came to you."

My eyes widened and my pulse raced. "Did you call him
at your last safe house? With Ross?"

She nodded and more tears fell. She wiped them away and
covered her mouth with her hand.

"How long before they found you?"

Her brow furrowed and for a moment, my question confused
her. "Um, a f-few days. Why?"

I took a step closer to her, baffled at how ignorant she had
actually been. Miller and I had been right. This was all Rayce. "Did it
ever occur to you that contacting him could lead them to you?"

"How? He had no idea where I was."

"It's a fucking cell phone, Emily. There are ways to
track it."

She was silent for a long moment before she whispered her
next words, the tone of it telling me that she was starting to understand.
"I knew that. He wouldn't tell them…"

"You honestly believe that?" I narrowed my eyes at
her. Images of my family flashed through my mind. She'd put them in danger by
being stupid. "You want to know what I was just told? You're brother met
with Ripley a week ago."

"What?"

"He walked in there and walked out in one piece. You
know what that means?"

Her eyes widened for just a moment before her expression
fell and she nodded.

"Now, I have no idea what he has to gain from it, but
your brother isn't trying to protect you. Maybe he didn't intentionally reveal
where you are, but my best guess is that isn't likely. My only question is why?
Why after all the time he spent proving that you mean nothing to him, would he
suddenly be concerned for your safety?"

"Conall, please-"

"Tell me!"

She flinched back at my shout and I forced myself to calm
down. I would never hurt her, but I was furious and confused as hell.

"Will you please let me tell you everything? Don't walk
away until you hear
everything
."

I folded my arms and nodded stiffly before sitting down on
the bed. "Start."

She wrung her hands together and stood a little straighter.
Her damp hair fell over her shoulders and soaked into the white t-shirt she was
wearing. The strap of her bra was barely visible through the material and I
couldn't stop the wave of arousal that shot through me. I hated myself in that
moment for letting my body take over.

"He called me at home the night Stanton shot that
officer. He was the one that saw it, not me. He begged me to take his place
because he was in enough trouble as it was and they would only suspect him
instead of Stanton. The hotel was just minutes from my home. When I got there,
Rayce was a mess. He said that he had been there with some of his friends
hoping to trash a room to piss Lucien off. They had drugs with them and when
Rayce saw the cop with Stanton, he got scared and was leaving. He heard the
shot and when he ran to see what was going on, Stanton was holding the
gun."

"He told you this?"

"Just let me finish," she said with her hand
raised to me, her tears had stopped, but the fear was still present.

"Okay."

I didn't want to listen to the rest. I knew without a doubt that
Rayce had lied to her. Every piece of evidence conveniently pointed to Stanton.
No way Rayce would have been a suspect. He had fed into her need to protect
him, her loyalty towards her family, and that pissed me off more than her lie.

"He looked so scared, Conall. I had to trust him, I had
to protect him. You have to understand that I would do anything for my little
brother, just like you would do anything for your family."

I
did
understand. It didn't mean I was going to let
it go.

"I called the police and you read my statement so you
know what I told them."

"And Trent Marks?"

She obviously didn't know the guy like she should have if
she'd done what she said she did. It had to be another lie that her brother had
set up.

She shrugged stiffly, "Rayce told me what to say and
took care of the rest. He said if I didn't do it, he would either go to prison
or Ripley would kill him. I only saw the guy for a minute in passing. I was too
scared for him to question it any more than I already had. Ripley would be able
to get to him easier than he would be able to get to me."