Broken: The MISTAKEN Series Complete Second Season (27 page)

T
his was no “dinner party
.”

Robin had lied to me—again. Not that it was anything new for her, but Christ. I really didn’t need this tonight. She hadn’t shut up the entire way here. At least she had insisted on having me drive—she’d taken a cab from the airport and didn’t have a way to get to Palo Alto unless I drove. I hadn’t offered to pick her up at the airport and she hadn’t asked, thank God. At least my drunkenness was almost worn off by the time she’d arrived—considering how jumpy I was, I was pretty sure I could use another scotch or two, though.

I wasn’t really paying much attention to the drivel that was coming out of her mouth. She talked non-stop all the time, anyway, but she clearly saw this half-hour drive as a “relationship-building” exercise. She had to know that by my asking her to bring that piece of paper, I had every intention of ending our little arrangement here and now. I might be stuck fulfilling a different contract I hadn’t really wanted to take, but hers … hers was one I would be happy to be rid of. It meant I would never have to speak to her again. And as much as I didn’t want her to have that money … it was worth never having to see her or hear from her again in my life.

But she wouldn’t stop the fucking talking. I couldn’t understand why she couldn’t see that I just needed to think. Jen hadn’t talked the entire way back from Sacramento—not until I spoke to her first. Christ, I missed her already and it had only been a few hours since I’d seen her. At least Jen understood when someone needed some silence to
think…

I rubbed at my temple, trying to force myself to tune out the sounds of Robin’s incessant chatter. I glanced over at her—I could see her mouth moving, but the sounds that came out were just high-pitched drivel. I couldn’t even get my brain to process whatever it was that was coming from her mouth…

We finally arrived at our destination and she seemed positively pleased with herself for dragging me here. There had to be at least a thousand people crammed into this house—if you could call it a house. It was too huge for two people to live in. I really only wanted to do one thing here tonight—corner Amanda and tell her to get the hell out of the country. I didn’t need to do anything else—just tell her to get out. She couldn’t be dumb enough to not understand what that meant. She couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to not understand
why
. If I could convince her to leave the country, I wouldn’t be able to find her. And if I couldn’t find her, I couldn’t hurt her, and at least I had another twenty-four hours to work with. It was plenty of time for her to get the hell out of here. And it was plenty of time to get myself and Jen out of here, too.

Robin took off almost the second we walked in the door. I didn’t know who she saw that she needed to schmooze—and I didn’t much care—but she was gone before I could even chew her out for lying to me about this being a “small” party.

I shouldered my way through the crowd of people to get to the hallway that I somehow knew would be off to the side of the large living room. The hallway was a little less crowded, but not by much. There were just too many people here to be crammed into one house, no matter how huge that house was.

I saw the rooms at the end of the hall—one on the left and one on the right. I figured the one on the left was the master suite—the French doors were the giveaway. I assumed that would be Amanda’s room, but you could never be sure. She might be one of those parents who give their kids everything—including the biggest bedroom. I decided to try the room on the right first, hoping she’d be in there with her son.

I opened the door and closed it quietly behind me. The light was on and I could see the kid sleeping in his bed. The room was enormous, decorated like a showroom, complete with a sitting area off to my left that was separated from the bed by a screen. It was almost like the woman expected the poor kid to
live
in here.

I looked down at my watch. It seemed pretty early for a kid to be asleep, especially with all the noise that was going on right outside the bedroom door.

I knew I shouldn’t be there—especially with the sleeping child—and I backed away slowly toward the bedroom door. My skin prickled and my breath caught in my chest when the bathroom door swung open.

Ryan Agostino walked out.

“Brandon. Fancy seeing you here.” He walked over to the bed and sat down next to the kid. He pulled what looked like a syringe out of his pocket and held it up to the light, flicking the plastic with his fingers. I watched as he pulled off the cap and jabbed a needle into the kid’s thigh, right through his red and blue, train-themed pajamas. He replaced the cap and put the syringe back into his pocket before he looked up at me again. “Great stuff. You wouldn’t believe where I found out about it.”

My heart was racing and I stood there with my mouth agape, unable to force out any words.
What the fuck is going on here?

“It’s not like I could just let you take my nephew, Brandon. I mean, I know he’s not related to me by blood, but still…”

I shook my head, feeling like my eyes might pop out of my head. I wasn’t even sure if this was real. Maybe I had passed out back at home and was hallucinating. I knew I tended to do that when I’d had too much to drink. At least I thought I did.

He motioned with his head toward the bathroom door. “Her, I don’t care about.” He motioned with his head toward the kid. “This one—he’s valuable property. We both know it.”

My eyes narrowed, the shock of seeing him here finally subsiding. “Who told you?”

He smiled, looking down at the sleeping boy. “Who do you think? You really think that asshole has changed his ways? He wants you dead. He thought telling me about your ‘job’ would be the best way to accomplish his goals.” He smiled again, shaking his head.

I shook my own head again, not believing Daniel was still up to his old games—his old way of doing things. The douche bag clearly hadn’t learned anything during the year-and-a-half he had been banished to Japan. But I hadn’t come here to talk about Daniel. I had come here to figure out how to get out of doing something I knew I couldn’t do. The fact that that motherfucker Daniel had tried to screw me over
again
… I didn’t want to think about it.

“You can come back to work with me any time, Brandon. We hold no grudges. You know that.”

I must have subconsciously rubbed at the large scar on the right side of my abdomen. God knew it still burned like hell most of the time, anyway.

He chuckled. “I
am
sorry about that. You know that was an accident. I only meant it as a warning—I didn’t mean to go that deep. I didn’t think you’d fight back…”

I set my jaw. “I’m not holding a grudge, Ryan.” I may not have been holding a grudge, but I still didn’t find the fact the guy had almost killed me two months ago very funny, either.

“Come back to the light, then. I tried to convince you when you were in L.A. You’ve spent enough time on the dark side, don’t you think? You don’t really want to spend the rest of your career working for
him
, do you?” He gave me a hopeful look before he pulled the lifeless kid onto his lap, knocking the glasses that had been on his face to the floor along with the book that had been clutched against his chest. “God, this stuff works like a charm. It’s a little fucking miracle from heaven. Watch this.” He shook the little boy’s shoulder. “Hey, Mason. You want to go with Uncle Ryan to get some ice cream?”

The little boy’s eyes didn’t even flutter. He just nodded, smiling. “Yes, please.”

Ryan patted his head. “Good boy. Go back to sleep.” Ryan looked up at me again and smiled. “It’s a goddamned gift from the gods.”

I felt my chest tighten and my stomach roll, knowing immediately who else had used that drug and who he had used it on. “You wouldn’t happen to have given anyone a few vials of that stuff a few months ago, would you?” I knew he had given it to Daniel. I knew Daniel had used it on Jen—it was the only explanation.

He laughed. “It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, Brandon. I have to admit, I wasn’t very aware of your involvement with her. You seemed to be pretty into Robin the night I met Jenna.”

The night he met her? When in the hell had he met her?
“How long ago was that? Robin and I haven’t been together in years…”

He shook his head, glancing down at the boy who was now cradled in his arms. “Fuck, Brandon, it wasn’t even close to that long ago. Two or three months, maybe? Don’t you remember almost fucking Robin against the wall at that gala? I saw you, man.
Everyone
saw you. You were pretty into Robin that night, and when I say
into her
, I mean
inside of her
.”

Christ, I had been so drunk that night. Robin had almost dragged me to that thing, and drinking seemed like the right thing to do at the time to not have to allow myself to think about it. And going to that event had only been an excuse to download the personal information about the guest list. Which I had been doing when Jen walked in…
Fuck. Jen saw that. How could I have forgotten that?

“Daddy Davis came to me that afternoon and proposed a truce. He wanted sweet Jenna to come work for me—told me I could do whatever I wanted with her. ‘A merger of the families,’ he said. It isn’t like he hasn’t already merged the families, though, right?” He looked down at Mason before looking up at me with a smile. “There’s just too much back story with Jenna, though, you know? I couldn’t do it. As much as a truce would be in the best interest of everyone involved—I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t believe the asshole was offering me his
daughter
, anyway, as tempting as it might have been. But I knew if I so much as looked at her, Daniel would have come after me. And while that guy is a giant douche, he’s kind of like a fucking pit bull, you know? He never stops once you’ve pissed him off.”

Christ, did I know.

“When Daniel came to me with his plan—the plan to get Jenna to D.C.—I thought it was brilliant. Her little friend was already working for Amanda…”

I interrupted. “What ‘little friend?’” As far as I knew, Jenna didn’t have any friends. No friends except for that roommate of hers … and then it dawned on me. I really had been asleep at the wheel the past few months.
Fuck.

He laughed again, shaking his head. “I’ve been playing footsie with Melissa for two months to keep tabs on that girlfriend of yours. Which is to say I know more about what she does than you do, my friend.”

I hung my head, almost ashamed that what he was saying was actually the truth. I hadn’t even been in San Francisco most of the last two months. I had no idea at all what Jen had been up to—who she was seeing or where she was going. I had trusted Cade to…
Cade.
I looked back at the man sitting on the bed. “You hired him. Her bodyguard.” Adrenaline coursed through my body. The thoughts of shame were quickly being replaced by rage, and Ryan didn’t seem to even notice.

He shrugged, shifting the little boy on his lap. “It wasn’t that hard, really. He knows what an asshole his boss is. You might be surprised how easy it is to get people from the senator’s side to flip … cheap, even.” He paused for a moment, narrowing his eyes through his grin. “Or maybe you wouldn’t be surprised.”

My nostrils flared and I clenched my hands into fists. It was all starting to make sense. Everything that had happened the last two months was finally coming into focus. “That night … that night Daniel took her. You…”

He was the one who interrupted. “I had Amanda invite the girls to a new club of hers. That club was a money pit and I’m glad I only kept it open long enough to get them there—to help Daniel out with this plan.” He looked up at me with another smile, ignoring the fact that if I hadn’t been given the job of offing his sister, I might have taken care of
him
instead. “It was a page right out of one of your books, Brandon. I lured them there—hit on the friend and let Daniel do whatever it was Daniel needed to do to get his fiancée to go with him. I kept Melissa looking the other way and he took Jenna.” He shrugged. “I may have paid Cade to take a night off and I may have had the bartender slip something into her drink … but other than that, that night was all Daniel’s.”

My stomach clenched, feeling like someone had just sucker-punched me. Christ. It
was
right out of one of my playbooks. It was
exactly
what I would have done if the roles were reversed. Almost word for word something that would have been one of
my
plans—except for the kidnapping part, anyway—and they had both used it against me. Against Jen. Ryan had played a part in her kidnapping. He had lied to me to get me to L.A., stabbed me, then … then, Jen. He was going to move up on my list—the list of people who would
pay
. He was moving up—right below Daniel.

He shifted the kid on his lap again. The dead weight was obviously making his arms tired. “Look, Daniel played me just as much as he played you. He was supposed to be doing that for
us
— well, for the team. He wasn’t supposed to be trying to play us again. I think everyone has had enough of that shit, even the senator.”

I shook my head again, narrowing my eyes. If he hadn’t had the kid in his arms, I would have taken him out right then. I couldn’t believe myself—how trusting I had become. I was definitely losing my edge. I had never even considered that Ryan Agostino was in on any of Daniel’s plans. The thought truly hadn’t crossed my mind. I had always considered him on my side. One of the good guys. And he was helping
Daniel
.

“Look, Daniel was supposed to deliver her the next morning. I didn’t care what he did with her in the meantime—why would I? I mean, they were engaged, for Christ’s sake. God knows how many times I’ve heard the man drone on and on about her, Brandon. We both have.” He cleared his throat. “And I wasn’t aware of the fact that
you
and Jenna were together. And really, Brandon, that’s a little fucked up, considering…”

Considering Daniel and I had once been friends. Considering the three of us worked for the same people before Daniel had started pulling his little stunts a few years ago. Considering everything, it
was
fucked up that I was with Jen. But the truth was, I had seen her first. She had been mine for so much longer than either of them knew. I narrowed my eyes and glared down at him, not even letting him know how easily I could have strangled him right there. If he hadn’t been holding the kid…