Dirty Little Lies: A Men of Summer Novel (25 page)

Which meant they didn’t know why Zack’s face was bruised. Tilting her head, she considered the darkening around his eye and cheek. Jazz went for the hook, Slade for the kidneys, she suspected.

Reaching up, Zack rubbed at the back of his neck, his jaw tightening as his chin lifted with arrogant superiority. For just a second, shocked amazement raced through her as disbelief threatened to pull a gasp from her lips.

Disbelief or not, the unthinkable cemented in her head, pulling her gaze to other clues. The arch of his brow, the narrowing of his eyes.

Oh God, why hadn’t she seen it before now?

The tug of pain and slash of betrayal she felt nearly stole her breath as she let the truth slowly form from her first suspicion to the small clues she picked up without realizing she’d done so.

Calli. Calli was Ureana’s daughter and Zack’s first cousin.

Accusing him would be the wrong route to take, she thought, pulling her gaze from him. She had to broach this a bit differently. Men, after all, weren’t the easiest creatures to deal with on a good day, even if they wanted to cooperate.

Better to state the obvious than to voice the suspicion, in this case. Besides, she had work to do before beginning a confrontation with Zack.

With that in mind, she got her own coffee and breakfast and moved to the table with Kenni and Jesse.

“I don’t think we have to worry about snipers or a real attempt against my life,” she stated after taking a sip of her coffee. “It was a distraction—a very clever one, though. A way to get me back to Zack’s and away from Uncle Vince’s, for some reason. I suspect it was to keep me out of those files.”

“Why would anyone do that?” Zack asked, watching her closely. “That was an explosive, Grace, not a hole in your brake line.”

She nodded as she swallowed the eggs she was eating. “And it was very well done,” she agreed. “But it serves no purpose to kill me. Killing me would end the game they’re playing without collecting the reward. The reward being the Microdrive everyone knows I don’t have. What our industrious traitor wants, therefore, is control. To get that, he needs the Microdrive. He needs me scared enough to hurry and try to sell it, remember where Dad might have hidden it, or force someone else who may know to reveal it.” She smiled sweetly. “Uncle Vince is fond of me. If he had it but were holding it back for some reason, then such a threat might cause him to take action, especially if the traitor were someone close to him and that traitor believed he knew what was on the chip. Which he doesn’t.” She shrugged and took another bite of fluffy eggs and bacon.

“So who has it?” Zack asked with a shake of his head.

“Doesn’t matter who has it or where it’s hid, or who’s betraying whom,” she told him, meeting his gaze long enough to cause suspicion to flicker in the gray depths of his eyes. Gray eyes, just like Lobo’s. Like Lobo’s. Somehow Zack was related to Lobo as well. Closely related. No wonder he claimed absolute trust in them.

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t need to know where the chip is hidden. Only Dad knew that one, no matter what Lucia claimed. But that doesn’t mean whoever’s behind this hasn’t given himself away. I just need to go over the files and pictures again. It will come to me, if I have Uncle Vince’s system.”

“They’ll be here tonight,” Zack sighed. “They’re taking care of something else today.”

Her brow lifted, wondering if he’d tell her what.

She didn’t have to wait long.

“They found Richard James’s body next to the river just down from your uncle’s house,” Zack told her gently as Slade’s muttered curse was followed by Jazz’s.

“Hell, she was eatin’ breakfast, dumb-ass,” Jazz followed up. “You could have waited.” He shook his head despairingly. “I thought I taught you better.”

“He nearly killed Magnus,” she told Jazz softly. “Knowing he’s dead isn’t affecting breakfast.

Zack’s jaw bunched. Whatever he wanted to say, he couldn’t say in front of his brothers.

“Did you get the bruised face and ribs because of Calli?” she asked calmly despite the rush of hurt she couldn’t stem.

All three men stiffened, giving her the answer she was searching out. Ignoring them, she ate another bite of food before finishing her coffee.

“What about Calli?” Zack finally asked as she sat at the table between Kenni and Jesse, whose curious gazes watched her with sudden interest.

“I’m not stupid,” she told him then. “As soon as I saw the picture of your aunt Ureana in that pile the other day, it began coming together. I took most of the night to figure it all out after meeting her. So how is my baby sister doing this morning?” Grace asked, watching closely as the cup jerked back from his lips and he nearly spat the liquid to the floor. “She still hate me?”

Jazz wheezed on his coffee while Slade, having been smarter than to actually take a drink, merely lowered his head and shook it solemnly.

Grace placed her fork carefully by her plate and watched as Zack placed the cup on the counter, wiped his hand over his face, and stared back at her coolly.

“Lie to me,” she suggested, her chest tight with the knowledge that he was considering it. “Go ahead, Zack, make that mistake and tell me I’m wrong.”

Kenni and Jesse both appeared in shock as they rose to their feet and walked to their men.

“Let’s go, baby.” Kenni hooked her arm in Jazz’s firmly. “Time for us to go home.”

“Like hell.” Pure satisfaction and anticipation filled his expression. “I want to watch her kick his ass.”

“I want to sell tickets to the event,” Slade drawled.

Jesse bent to Grace and gave her a quick hug, followed by Kenni, before leaving.

“Call us if you need us,” Kenni whispered. “You know I’m here for you.”

Grace could only nod, her chest tightening painfully at the words.

Kenni and Jesse both would be there for her, too, Grace knew, in a heartbeat. But this was something she had to deal with herself, something she had to take care of herself.

Jazz finally let Kenni draw him from the room, and long seconds later, the front door closed behind them, leaving her alone with Zack.

“You should have told me,” she accused him painfully as they watched each other cautiously across the length of the room. “This shouldn’t have been kept from me.”

The memory of her sister’s anger and dislike seared her now just as it had the night before. No wonder she’d felt so off balance around the girl, uncertain what to say.

“It was a lot of years before I knew myself, Grace,” he bit out, anger darkening his eyes like thunderclouds.

Of course. Ureana had probably done everything she could to hide the fact that her daughter belonged to Benjamin Maddox, especially after his death.

“Dad would have been proud of her,” she said, her heart clenching at the memory of her father. Rather than letting the tears fill her eyes, she threw Zack a sharp smile instead. “He was always a little disappointed in me, you know?”

“Ben wasn’t disappointed in you, Grace.” He shook his head, his voice hoarse, rather resigned.

“Yes, he was. Even as a little girl I knew it, but he still loved me, and that was all that mattered.” She stared down at her plate for several long moments. “He wanted a tomboy, but he got this little girly girl who didn’t like to go hunting like Kenni did. And I didn’t like the sound of the guns firing.” The memory wasn’t a painful one, but rather a fond one. “But he still loved me,” she said, lifting her gaze to Zack once more. “Calli, he would have been nuts for, though.” And Grace knew she would have been gently set aside for a delicate little girl who could do all the things her father loved. A princess and a warrior all in one. He would have loved it. “I bet your sister is really proud as well.” She nodded, then asked gently. “How did you pull that one off? Keeping her hidden so well that no one suspected Calli existed?”

He stared up at the ceiling with a heavy sigh and shook his head. “I was twelve, I didn’t pull it off, I didn’t even know about it for several years.” When his gaze met hers, she nodded, knowing he wasn’t lying about it at least.

“So who pulled it off? Dad?” she asked, wondering if she was succeeding at all in hiding the pain.

He nodded sharply. “Ben, in part. My uncle Clyde did the rest. He took Ureana to stay with him, kept her hidden, took care of everything.”

“And left you to foster care?” Anger shot through her.

“He left me with Toby Rigor,” Zack amended. “A far better choice. My uncle had Ureana to care for, then Calli. Toby offered to take care of me. Foster care was just a formality to make it look good.”

“Lobo’s your cousin as well,” she guessed, remembering the curve of the other man’s jaw, a certain stance as they talked the night before.

“Stop it, dammit! I hate it when you start tying up fucking loose ends and get that damned hurt look on your face,” he snapped, anger brewing in his gaze as his arms crossed over his chest and he glared at her as though it were her fault.

Grace’s chest actually hurt from the force of the pain she could feel building in it. All these years, and she had a sister.

“Why doesn’t she like me?” she asked somberly, needing to know why the other girl had been so vehement, so certain in her dislike.

Wondering why her sister wouldn’t want to love her.

*   *   *

Zack wanted to hit something. Or somebody. The unconscious hunger on her face was another nail driven straight to his soul, and the guilt ground it in further.

Why didn’t Calli like her? It wasn’t that Calli didn’t like her or didn’t want to like her sister. It was that his niece had evidently picked up some information that simply wasn’t true. But he couldn’t tell Grace that, now, could he, he thought in contempt.

“Calli has issues to work through,” he finally said heavily, wishing he could explain the truth to her. “She’ll get there, it’ll just take her some time.”

A bitter curve of her lips was a testament to her disagreement. “And her issues are none of my business.” She gave a short little nod. “Point taken.”

“That wasn’t what I said, dammit.” Fuck, he hated her father right now. As much as he respected Ben’s strategic mind and ability to tie information together, he hated what he knew the truth was going to do to Grace.

“You didn’t have to say it.” She shrugged, the wounded look on her face enough to make him grind his back teeth furiously. “It’s probably for the best, anyway.” Her voice was rough as she rose to her feet. “You should send her home, Zack. She has no business being dragged into my mess. None of you do.”

With that, she turned and walked out of the kitchen.

Zack frowned at the empty doorway. She was just walking away? Just giving up? Son of a bitch, after last night, he hadn’t expected that. He sure as hell thought she’d had more fight in her.

*   *   *

This had gone on long enough.

She’d lost everyone, everyone she loved, even the sister she hadn’t known, to whatever malevolent shadow was determined to destroy the Maddox family. She was a pawn, she’d been a pawn one way or the other all her damned life, and she was tired of playing the role.

She was tired of being betrayed and lied to.

Not that she could really blame Zack, and God knew, she wanted someone to blame. His aunt and Calli had to be his priority, not the daughter of a traitor, the daughter of the man that had endangered his aunt by getting her pregnant to begin with.

Grace couldn’t be his priority, no matter how much she wished she were someone’s priority at this point.

He was a priority to her, though, and now, so was her baby sister. That meant this had to be finished, quickly. Neither she nor Calli would ever be safe until she figured out why someone wanted her out of the way, and the only way to do that was to watch, to listen. She couldn’t do that sitting on her ass or lying beneath Zack.

She changed from the jeans and sleeveless T-shirt she’d pulled on earlier into a pair of light gray tailored slacks and a silk blouse.

Her camouflage, she thought mockingly. It never failed for everyone to overlook her when she dressed as they expected her to. Put her in jeans, though, and they stared at her as though she were an alien.

Once she finished dressing and pushed her feet into the plain, low-heeled pumps she normally wore, she braided her hair down the back of her head and tied it off with dark, elastic ribbon.

If she timed things just right, she’d arrive at the Maddox home just in time for the monthly family meeting. Four brothers and one sister, all part of the intricate web of the Kin stronghold, each aware of their part in the secrets they kept hidden.

As she secured a gold chain at the back of her neck, Zack walked into the bedroom, his gaze instantly narrowing on her. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked, his gaze moving over her slowly.

“I’m going to the monthly Maddox family meeting,” she told him with false cheer. “As I’ve worked as Vinny’s assistant, there are really very few Kin secrets as far as I’m concerned, and I have several questions regarding family matters. The best time to ask them is while all of them are together. They have a harder time lying then.” She gave him a tight smile. “And when they do lie, it’s much easier to detect when they’re all together.”

She knew them.

She’d sat in on so many family meetings in her capacity as Vince’s assistant that she’d learned the slight nuances that indicated lies, deceptions, and half truths. Though, at the time, those little transgressions hadn’t been outside family affairs. But she’d also not been looking for anything outside family affairs. She’d been known to give herself a headache by trying to follow too many threads of suspicions. She avoided it now as often as possible.

Perhaps too much.

“And you think I’m going to allow it?” he asked, stalking farther into the bedroom, his muscular body appearing more powerful as he stared back at her aggressively. “No matter what you believe, Grace, two attempts have been made on your life. Let’s not give your assassin another shot.”

She gave a low, mocking laugh in response to the question. “I really don’t think it’s your place to allow it, or not,” she pointed out. “As I told you last night, this is my life, Zack. I won’t hide in a corner while everyone else is trying to protect me. Besides, whatever’s going on is originating from within the family somehow.”