Dirty Little Lies: A Men of Summer Novel (22 page)

He had possibly four days to figure out who had spent over twenty years methodically weakening the Kin from the inside out. Whoever it was, they were smart enough to get rid of anyone who could identify them.…

His gaze narrowed on the balcony doors.

It made more sense now. He couldn’t figure out why Lucia had accused Grace of helping her betray not just Kenni, but also Kin secrets. She did it to get rid of Grace, obviously, but Zack hadn’t been able to figure out why. Even Cord and Vince seemed genuinely confused by what was going on.

Because everyone overlooked what Grace was best at, piecing together the truth through suspicion and those little nuggets of information people were never aware they were giving away at the time. They overlooked it because Grace kept far too much to herself.

Zack, like Grace, was a watcher, and he’d spent a lot of time watching Grace. Just like her father, she solved the puzzles no one else could and did it with such instinct that he doubted she even paid attention to the process.

Over the years, Zack had picked up on her ability because he had also watched Ben do it, saw the process, and questioned the other man on it. Once Ben explained it, Zack had been able to recognize Grace’s ability as well.

Benjamin Maddox had nearly died because of that instinctive gift. To the world, he
was
dead.

For some reason, whoever wanted to get rid of her couldn’t kill her as easily as they’d tried to kill her father. Instead, they thought they could use the agency to kill her, wire her car to scare her into giving what they thought she had, and keep Zack running in circles. It was a more impersonal strategy, and one that implied some affection for her.

An affection they hadn’t felt for Ben.

Affection or not, they still thought they could get rid of her. They thought they could isolate her, bring the agency in, and have her murdered during interrogation, like Lucia.

When that never happened, they resorted to wiring her car. Whoever was behind this wasn’t stupid. They knew that car would be checked thoroughly before Grace got near it.

The night hadn’t given him the answers he was looking for; the Kin he’d met with hadn’t come to the meeting empty-handed or without much-needed information. Information that included the movements certain family members were making.

The fact that Cord, Sawyer, and Deacon as well as Cord’s personal security team had headed out in the dead of night as well was quite interesting. Tech had lost track of them in Knoxville, when they managed to get outside the drone’s view. But Zack knew Cord. The other man was running his own investigation, and so far, no one was even whispering about it.

For all appearances, Cord’s search for Grace’s attacker wasn’t letting up. He was out there, running down leads and supposed sightings as they came in, but he was also meeting with certain members of the Kin who no one was aware had ties to them. And he was making other stops, talking to other informants while doing so.

The fact that Cord was doing all that was interesting, to say the least, and opened a whole other can of questions as far as Zack was concerned. Questions he’d have to get answers to.

“Dylan, you and Eamon get some sleep,” he ordered the other man. “We’ll be busy tomorrow.”

Zack now had a direction to move in, at least. Four days wasn’t going to be nearly enough time to figure out what the hell was going on and neutralize the threat to Grace and the rest of the family, though.

Ben had given Clyde an ultimatum after Lucia’s death. Neutralize it, or he was returning himself for his daughter and his sons. All of his sons. If the NOLA twins got involved in hiding Grace, then she’d never fucking be found. Those two, Zack didn’t even want to deal with. The fact that they’d shown up only minutes after learning Grace’s car was wired made him damned nervous. They were in the mountains somewhere, probably close, with a fully grown gator just waiting to pounce. One of these days that damned monster was going to pounce on one of the Bayou brats and take a limb off.

“Got it,” Dylan acknowledged. “Team two will be in place in an hour. We’ll stay here until then.”

Zack nodded and stalked toward the house and Grace. She was awake and waiting for him, and he had no doubt her suspicious, puzzle-solving little brain was already beginning to compute all the subconscious little clues she’d picked up for the past three days and then added them to what she’d detected from Calli and Lobo.

There were few people who could hide from Grace. It was one of the reasons he’d kept his distance from her. Once she put two and two together, the realizations of the scope of the betrayals from those she loved would destroy her. And it would destroy any bonds she had with those who’d lied to her.

Zack included.

*   *   *

Grace heard the bedroom door open and then close softly.

She had no idea where the files he’d had the day before were located, so that left her in the bed alone, with no buffer if Zack decided to join her. And it seemed he’d made that decision. Now, if she could just figure out how she felt about it.

Rolling to her side, she watched as Zack stood just inside the room, the hard, stubborn set of his expression and the lust burning in his eyes only igniting hers further.

Oh yes, she wanted him, to the point that saying no to him would be impossible.

That didn’t mean she had to like it, and it sure as hell didn’t mean she had to submit to him. For some reason, he thought he could push her aside and just take care of whatever the hell was going on in her life, without any input from her whatsoever. And she completely disagreed with such an idea. She wasn’t going to sit back with a smile on her face when people she cared about were risking their lives for her.

She hadn’t figured out exactly what was going on around her yet, but Grace could feel the pieces of the puzzle coming together. Just as she could feel the lies she’d been unaware of before emerging. Years of lies, sleights of hand, deceptions practiced with the ease of long familiarity and the belief that quiet little Grace wouldn’t protest even if she did catch them deceiving her. Only her uncle and cousins really knew her, but even they were prone to hide things from her.

Moving from the door to the chair placed several feet from it, Zack sat down, then bent and removed his boots. His gaze locked with hers, though whatever answers swirled in the stormy depths were hidden by the shadows that filled the room.

Grace sat, sliding the blankets from her before turning, rising from the bed, and drawing her white cotton robe from the bottom of the mattress. Pulling it on over the matching floor-length gown she wore, she kept her back to Zack, uncertain of his mood, but even more uncertain of her own.

“This isn’t your bedroom,” she stated, keeping her back to him as she fastened the decorative ribbons on the robe beneath her breasts.

“You elected to leave my bedroom,” he pointed out, his voice holding a hint of remorse beneath the natural arrogance he’d been born with.

Turning slowly, she faced him. She wished they’d been able to come together differently, without the danger chasing her, without her suspicion that he would never have taken her otherwise.

The need had always been there between them, a knowledge both of them accepted. But he’d waited, watched, and he didn’t take her until that hunger had grown out of control and her presence had become inescapable.

And she hated it.

“You would never have touched me if you hadn’t found yourself in the position where you had to protect me, would you?” she asked, her fists clenching in the pockets of her robe.

Zack’s brow arched in surprise. Leaning back in the chair, his arms resting comfortably at the sides of it, he watched her for long, quiet minutes. “You don’t know that,” he finally retorted, a hint of amused resignation tilting his lips.

He suspected the same thing. She could see it, even in the shadows that darkened his expression. Pressing her lips together to hold back the fiery accusations burning inside her, Grace glared back at him. “And you’re not denying it.” But she’d known he wouldn’t.

He chuckled, shaking his head at her slowly, the knowing amusement that filled his expression causing her teeth to clench in anger.

He thought he knew her. She could feel that knowledge coming together now. He thought he knew what she would do, what she would say in any given situation.

That he knew what she was thinking. What she was feeling.

“When are you going to start saying what’s on your mind, Grace?” he questioned when she didn’t argue the statement, the jeering tone of his voice scraping across her raw nerves. “You never do that. You bite your tongue, keeping your lips pressed tight together, and keep it all buried inside you.” He shook his head at the thought. “Don’t you get tired, baby? Don’t you ever just want to tell everyone to fuck off?”

More than he knew.

“And what would it accomplish?” she asked instead. “If I burn all my bridges as I cross them, then it could get rather difficult should I need to find my way home again.”

A low, dark chuckle vibrated from his chest. “So you just let us walk all over you so you don’t have to worry about how you’ll get back to a place you probably wouldn’t want to return to anyway?” he grunted mockingly. “Hell of a way to have to live, ain’t it?”

“You know better than that.” She didn’t bother to hide the disappointment in her voice. “If you’ve walked over me, then you were careful to ensure I was unaware of it at the time. It’s your own guilt haunting you now, not my refusal to slap anyone down whenever you feel they deserved it. Or that I’m not slapping you down at the moment, as you no doubt deserve.”

He frowned at her, obviously uncertain how to broach that particular accusation. She could almost see him sifting what she knew, might know, and could suspect, categorizing it, and deciding which to confront.

“This is because I left the house earlier.” He remained sitting, but the tension that emanated from him likely made it incredibly hard to do so, Grace thought. “I’m not going to figure out what the hell is going on by sitting here on my ass.” His lip curled at the thought. “And I’m sorry Calli was rude to you.” She could see just enough of his expression to see the minute tightening of the muscle beneath his jaw to indicate he was hiding far more than he was telling. “She’s still young—”

“This isn’t about Calli,” she assured him. “So don’t try to distract me by making it about her.”

The worst thing she could do right now was face him as he lied to her. If she saw a lie pass his lips, she wouldn’t be able to bear it.

“Then what the hell is it about?” he growled, surging to his feet and pulling the black shirt he wore over his head before tossing it to the floor. “Better yet, forget it!” he snapped. “I don’t want to know what it’s about. All I can think about right now is fucking us both silly before daylight so I can get a few hours’ sleep without the need for it torturing the hell out of me.”

Muscles rippled across his chest, his biceps bunched, power building around him like an invisible skin he wore, along with the sheer arrogance and determination that it took to use it.

“And of course, you think I’m just going to lie down and say, ‘Yes, please.’” She waved her hand to the bed with a mocking little roll of her eyes. “Really, Zack? You couldn’t even tell me you were leaving earlier until I awoke. Even though you didn’t say where you were going, or why you were going. You did everything you could to make certain I didn’t know you were leaving. Had I not woken when I did, I’d still be clueless.”

His lips thinned. “You’re not my wife, Grace.”

No, she wasn’t his wife, and wasn’t he just prick enough to point it out to her?

“And you’re not my husband,” she informed him. “So far, you’re no more than a one-night stand with control issues. Tell me, Zack, what makes you think I shouldn’t know what you’re doing or where you’re going, when it involves my safety or the danger threatening me? This is my life!” she cried, the pain and anger slipping free as her arms fell from her chest, one finger pointing back toward herself. “My life and my safety, and I have the right to know.”

“You have the right to know if I find out anything,” he amended. “Which I haven’t.”

She stepped back in amazement, eyes widening. “Is that really what you think?” she snapped, bitterness flooding her at the knowledge that he could think anything so idiotic where she was concerned. “Wrong, Zack. I have the right to know who you’re meeting with and why. I have the right to know anything you intend to ask whoever you’re meeting, and if I disagree with your questions, I have the right to that as well. I have a right to oversee every damned area of an investigation that so far, I have no idea if you’re conducting or not. Because it’s my life and my right, whether you like it or not.”

He began loosening the belt cinched around his hips as he walked around the bed, his expression taut with hunger now. And beneath those pants, the fact that he was fully aroused couldn’t be mistaken.

“We can debate that one later, too,” he growled, a rumbled sound of a man only growing more aroused by the moment. “Right now, the only thing on my mind is fucking you. If you disagree, say no, and I’ll walk right out of here and see how much sleep I can get instead.”

Those were her only options? Well, now, wasn’t that nice of him to give her a choice?

“Do you really think I’m in the mood to pamper your need to fuck right now?” she asked in furious disbelief.

His gaze flared as the vulgarity slipped past her lips, the lust burning brighter as he focused on her mouth. “Damn, Grace, I’d love it if you’d pamper my need to fuck,” he assured her as his lashes lifted, his gaze moving to hers. “More than you can imagine.”

She glared back at him. “Try sleeping instead,” she suggested, her lip curling with the contempt she felt with regard to her so-called choices.

He loosened his pants, moving closer. “You didn’t say no, baby,” he pointed out, his voice rougher now. “You have to actually say the word tonight, not play lip service to it.” His lashes lowered with wicked sensuality. “Though, I wouldn’t care a bit if you want to play a little lip service of another sort to me.”