Sins, Lies & Spies (Black Brothers #2) (3 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

Trinity

I hated D.C. in the winter. The trees were grayish sticks. The low-hanging clouds muddied the sky. The cold, wet air seeped into my bones like I wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing. My skirt didn’t help matters. I flipped up the collar of my black trench coat and folded my arms across my body. Some days, I felt like I’d never get warm again.

As much as I loathed admitting it, days like this made me miss the mild winters of Texas. I got the hell out of there days after I turned twenty-one and I hadn’t been back, but it didn’t mean I wanted to spend the rest of my life in D.C. I never intended to live here more than a year, but a year turned into two. Then, I met Miles. He took me under his wing a year and a half ago. First I filed papers for him in his home office, but it quickly turned into more. He mentored me and gave me a career and new life.

For the most part, we had a good working relationship. I liked him, and I admired how hard he worked. As the months progressed, forty hours a week turned into sixty, then ninety. On particularly late nights, I slept in his guest room. One night he kissed me, and somehow we ended up in a relationship. Days bled into months. I thought we were in love and on the road to getting married. Apparently, he didn’t agree. Despite our disastrous ending, I’d continued working with him after he screwed me over. I needed the money for my sister.

I opened the door to Miles’s house with the key he gave me when we started dating. He never asked for it back, and I never offered. I didn’t want to deal with the permanency of the gesture. Creeping down the hallway, I paused a few times to listen for voices coming from his office. I wished I could avoid this confrontation for another day until I came up with a solid plan to recover the thumb drives from Knox and get into Lang’s house and destroy his computer. He rarely, if ever, connected the computer to the internet, which ruled out hacking as a viable alternative. Besides breaking into Knox’s home and office and stealing the thumb drives and destroying any copies, I didn’t have any promising ideas. I wasn’t looking forward to another confrontation with him either. He unsettled me.

“Nice of you to finally show your face,” Miles growled, his gravely voice putting me on edge.

I sent him a brief text last night telling him I hadn’t succeeded and avoided him as long as possible. I wanted to give him time to calm down before we met in person. When his phone calls and text messages escalated to the point of harassment this afternoon, I caved and drove to his house after dinner.

I rested my hip against the corner of his desk. “I’ve been busy.”

“Busy avoiding me,” he said. His heated, dark eyes swept over my body. I used to like that look. Now it pissed me off. I curled my hands around the square edge of the desk, just barely resisting the urge to yank on the hem of my skirt. He lost the right to look at me as anything other than a colleague the minute he started screwing his ex-wife on the side while we were together. “You look beautiful as always, Trinity,” he said, his words almost reverent.

I barely checked the urge to roll my eyes. His compliments were meaningless. “I’ve been working on alternatives to recover the information Knox Black lifted from Lang’s private computer.”

He chewed on the end of his pen, his eyes never leaving mine. “Have you come up with anything?”

I rubbed my hand down my neck. “I have some ideas, but nothing definitive at this point.”

“Now that Knox has the information, we’re on borrowed time. We need to destroy it before he realizes what he has. Otherwise this whole thing will explode in my face.”

I nodded. “I’m working on it. Give me a couple more days.”

“We don’t have a couple of days. My client isn’t going to like this.” He tossed his pen on top of the desk. “Hell, I don’t like this.”

“I know, but unless I shot Knox in front of Representative Lang, it couldn’t be avoided.” My shoulders sagged in defeat, but I quickly rolled them back again. I couldn’t show any weakness around Miles. He was like a shark smelling blood. “Besides, none of this would’ve happened if you hadn’t waylaid me on the way to the party,” I said, trying to turn the tables.

When I walked out my front door last night to leave for Lang’s house, Miles was waiting for me. He wanted to give me a ride to the party to talk about us. Like so many times over the last month, we exchanged barbs, and I ended up being late.

He leaned back in his chair and propped his hands behind his head. “You knew Knox Black getting to the computer first was a possibility. It shouldn’t have mattered. We had a backup plan. Why didn’t you stick to it?”

Stalling, I picked up the snow globe on his desk and shook it. Apparently, he bought it for his fourteen-year-old daughter last Christmas, but she didn’t want it. Somehow, it found a permanent home on his desk, collecting dust. Part of me wanted to look him in the eye and come clean about everything, and apologize for being distracted by a stupid, meaningless kiss, but I knew a confession would only prolong this interrogation. I didn’t want to spend any more time in Miles’s company than absolutely necessary. He knew how to manipulate me and make me want stupid things—like him.

“I managed to get the thumb drive from Knox Black, but then Lang walked in the office. Knox diverted my attention and stole the thumb drive from me.”

He stood up, closed the distance between us, and chucked me under the chin with two fingers. “And you just let him take it? That doesn’t sound like you. What am I missing here?”

My pulse racing, I smacked his hand away from my face. “Nothing. Your plan was flawed. I needed to upload the virus before Knox Black got to the computer. There were too many people at the party. I couldn’t do anything to stop him, and he knew it. He didn’t take me seriously.”

He pursed his lips. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I pushed away from the desk and smoothed the folds of my skirt. “Nothing. I need to take off. I’ll be in touch tomorrow.”

“We need to destroy the information from Lang’s computer. Conceding is not an option.” Looking down, he rubbed his temples. “My client will go nuclear if we fail.”

My brows pinched together. “Nobody likes failure, but sometimes it happens. We need a contingency plan for what to do next.”

“There is no next. We need to stop that motherfucker before he ruins everything,” he growled heatedly.

“I don’t get it. Why does the client want to get rid of those files, anyway? What’s so important about them?”

He yanked on his already loosened tie and glanced to the side. “I don’t know exactly, and I don’t care. Those were his instructions, and he’s not someone to fuck with. He’ll stick a knife in my throat before I finish explaining why we failed. He’s not like the other people I’ve worked for. He’s ruthless, Trinity, and I don’t say that lightly. I’ve worked with some bad people in my life, but he’s in a league of his own.” He blew out a breath. “That’s all I’m going to say about it. You don’t need to know anything else.”

A tremor zipped down my spine and my muscles stiffened. I inhaled through my nose and rolled back my shoulders. Probing him for information he didn’t want to share was a waste of energy, and a small part of me didn’t want to know anything else. “I’ll see what I can do. See you tomorrow.”

“Wait. Do you want to stay for dinner?” He tugged on the end of my ponytail, an expectant smile on his face. “I ordered Chinese. Your favorite. It should be here any minute.”

I focused on the black and white landscape photos hanging on the wall behind his desk. “I already ate.”

He stepped closer to me, the front of his pants brushing the side of my thigh. “Don’t make me eat alone. We haven’t spent any quality time together in a while. I miss you.” He lowered his voice, his lips only inches from my ear. “I miss us. We were good together. Don’t you think it’s time we worked this out? Every time we get close, you push me away again.”

My face flamed with humiliation as memories of what happened between us a week after we broke up taunted me. We’d been working late. In a moment of weakness, he kissed me and one thing led to another. The next day and every day afterward, I rationalized the whole thing as me being lonely and nostalgic for what I thought we had before the truth slapped me across the face. Marrying him and building a life together had been the next step in my life for almost a year, and I didn’t have a contingency plan. Part of me wanted to give in and try again even though I knew this back and forth between us had to stop. It was unhealthy.

“Miles.” I held up one hand as I took a few steps backward to put space between us. “I don’t want to keep going in circles. We’re over, and nothing you do will change my mind. If you can’t keep this professional, we need to cut ties.”

“You didn’t object a couple of weeks ago,” he said, his voice hard, cold; and I shivered. Two steps forward and he loomed over me. His jaw was set, and his dark eyes glittered.

I shook my head. “I made a mistake. I’m sorry if I gave you the impression I wanted to reconcile. That was never my intention because it couldn’t be further from the truth. I can’t do this again.”

His mouth opened, but just as quickly hinged closed, his eyes narrowing almost imperceptibly. “I’ve apologized for what happened countless times. Too many times. You need to start acting like an adult instead of a petulant child, punishing me for a few missteps.” He scraped his fingers down his neck. “You’ve given me more mixed signals than a drunken music conductor.”

“A few missteps?” I scoffed, my hands trembling and anger heating my skin. “You were sleeping with your ex-wife. She thought the two of you had reconciled. We were shopping for engagement rings. I thought we were getting married. You were stringing us both along.” I bit down on my lower lip, restraining the urge to spit dozens of sarcastic insults. I didn’t want to back him into a corner and force him to sever our working relationship. I had enough upheaval in my life right now. I needed stability so I could keep helping my sister. She deserved everything I could give her and more.

“I know. I know.” He raised his hands in surrender. “I shouldn’t have touched her. I realize that, but we have a complicated history. I know it’s not an excuse, but one thing led to another and I fell into an old habit. It’s all over now. She understands that, and it won’t happen again. I promise.”

“You’re right.” I paused for a beat, summoning the backbone to push him away. “It won’t because I’ve moved on.”

His eyebrows slanted downward. “Are you seeing someone?”

“Yes,” I lied. “I’m late. I need to go.”

“Wait.” He grabbed my wrist. “Who is he?”

“No one you know. We’ve only gone out once, but I like him.”

“It’ll never work. He won’t understand what you do, why you spend time with me, or why you have irregular hours.”

“Maybe. Maybe not, but it isn’t your business.” I pried his hands off my wrist and shrugged. “By the way, you don’t have the right to touch me anymore.”

“Don’t I?” he said, his hand stroking the side of my face. My breath stalled inside of my lungs for a moment, then gusted out in one giant whoosh.

“No.” Our eyes locked in a wordless struggle. “You had your chance. I’m doing what I should have done months ago. I’m moving on.”

“Listen, Tri.” He lowered his voice an octave, clasping his hands around the swells of my hips. “Give me one more chance. I sorted everything out with my ex. She won’t be an issue. I want to make this work. She’s my past. You’re my future. Let me know how I can make this up to you.”

I rubbed a hand down the side of my face as I stepped out of his hold. “I don’t know. I don’t think I can go there yet. I’m not ready.”

“Can you try? We don’t have to rush anything. Just keep an open mind.”

I swallowed hard. I shouldn’t trust him, but a tiny dysfunctional part of me wanted to pretend the last few months hadn’t happened and be happy again. For a small moment in time, I was on the cusp of getting engaged and living happily ever after. Since I was little, I’d dreamed of having the perfect someone in my life who’d never disappointment me or abandon me.

I pulled my lower lip between my teeth, studying him before I answered. “I’m not going to promise anything, but I’ll keep an open mind about our future.”

“That’s a start.” He pressed a kiss to the corner of my mouth and a flicker of self-hatred shot through my veins. “You won’t regret this. I promise.”

Why can’t I believe him? Trust him? Damn him. Damn me.

Acid rolled in my stomach at the thought of letting Miles into my life again. I couldn’t stop the nagging feeling he’d hurt me again.

“I’ll be in touch tomorrow,” I said, stepping out of his office.

***

I cased the entire length of the block of Knox’s three-story apartment building. Interior lights winked at me, taunting me with their warmth. The night clung to the buildings as I darted in and out of the shadows, testing whether or not anyone had spotted me. An occasional car drove by, its lights reflecting off the wet pavement. No one had walked by in the last thirty minutes. Pausing at the side entrance of his building, I propped my back against the wall. The icy brick bit into my back, but I ignored it, my attention focused on the yellow glow of lights shining through the corner window on the third floor. Knox was in his bedroom and awake unless he slept with his lights on. I eyed the windows below his. Most were dark and quiet.