by J. S. Cooper
“So you knew?” I asked him softly, leaning forward. “When, exactly?”
“I—I—” He stuttered for a few seconds and looked at me with a sorrowful expression. “I thought he was joking when he told me his plan. I thought he was just saying stuff.”
“Where is Steve?” My eyes never left David’s face as I launched another question and waited to see his response.
“Steve?” He looked confused. “No idea, why?”
“Steve disappeared.”
“What?” David frowned and looked away for a second. I could see a vein throbbing in his neck. “Mattias must have done something to him.”
“He doesn’t know where Steve is.” I shook my head.
“That’s not possible.” David’s voice was rough. “He has to know where Steve is. He’s the one who sent Steve to the island. He thought it would be a good way to get you to trust him faster—said that the quickest way to make two people bond is to make them think they need to work together against a mutual enemy.” David gulped some more wine. “Steve was working for him.”
“Steve tried to kill him.”
“What?” David’s face paled. “No, that’s not possible. That must have been part of the act.”
“I don’t think so.” It occurred to me that neither David nor Jakob seemed to understand what had motivated Steve. “Are you lying to me, David?” My eyes narrowed and I could feel a new power surging through me. I would figure this out and get to the bottom of the situation.
“I swear to God. I don’t know what Mattias is up to. I can’t believe he would do all of this. You didn’t deserve any of it, Bianca. I wish I could have protected you. I should have known better.”
“How were you to know your brother was a sociopath?” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Exactly.” David looked distraught. “I would have trusted him with my life. He’s my blood.” Idiot. I tried to hide my disdain for David from my face. How had he not realized I was being sarcastic?
“Do you know the attorney for Bradley Inc.?” I asked softly, then sipped some water.
“The attorney?” David frowned. “No, why?”
I bit my lower lip, considering, trying to decide whether to tell him about Larry’s disappearance. I had to make a judgment call. Did I trust David? I knew the answer was no, but I also knew that I had to, a little bit. He was the soft brother. He looked devastated by what had happened. I knew he wasn’t capable of the deception Jakob had pulled on me, especially not with our history.
“When my father died, my father’s attorney gave me some papers. I just recently found out that my father’s attorney was also the attorney for Bradley Inc., and, well, he’s gone missing.”
“Oh?” David sipped his wine and his eyes widened. “That doesn’t seem like a coincidence, does it?”
Bingo, Sherlock. “No, it doesn’t. I’m worried that something bad has happened to Larry.”
“Do you know his last name?” David looked thoughtful.
“Renee.” I stared at his face to see if his expression changed. “His name is Larry Renee.”
“Never heard of him before.” David shook his head, his expression blank.
“I think Mattias kidnapped him as well,” I prodded on, hoping to see some sign of activity in David’s brain. He couldn’t be this clueless, could he?
“I wouldn’t put it past him.” David licked his lips. “Has he contacted you?”
“Who?”
“Mattias.”
“No,” I lied, though I wasn’t sure why. “I don’t know why he would contact me.”
“He knows you know that he is Mattias, though?”
“Yes, he knows.” I nodded. “He confirmed it.”
“What happened on the island, Bianca?” David looked curiously at me. “What did my brother do to you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve changed.” His fingers circled the rim of his wineglass. “You’re more confident now.”
“More confident?” I was surprised by his statement.
“Yes.” He nodded. “Though, I suppose, you needed confidence to outwit Steve and Mattias.”
“Who says I outwitted them?”
“You made it off the island.” His face was solemn.
“You don’t think that was their intention?”
“I know Mattias well.” He half smiled. “In fact, I think I can say with certainty that I know him better than anyone else in the world. I don’t think he intended for you to make it off the island. At least not right away.”
“So why did he let me go?” And why do you seem to think he had more nefarious reasons for taking me to the island if you thought he wasn’t really going to kidnap me?
“He knew he had to. If Steve had started doing crazy stuff, he knew it wasn’t safe on the island anymore.” David’s eyes narrowed. “So he took you to one of his hotels in the Caribbean. He wanted to keep you there, but you found out the truth. Once you’d made him out to be Mattias, you called me, scared, and that’s when you knew the truth. He didn’t take you off the island to save you, Bianca. He most probably wanted to keep you in that hotel with him. He knew that you trusted him at that point, but then it blew up in his face. His lies came to surface and he had to let you go.”
“Why did he have to let me go?”
“He must have known that I knew what was going on—he knew that I would save you. He knew that he couldn’t keep you there against your will anymore.”
“So he let me go because I called you?”
“I think you’re safe because of me, yes.” David nodded, a smug smile on his face.
“You think he wanted to harm me?” I said softly, not wanting to believe it.
“I don’t know.” David sipped some more wine. “I know Steve wasn’t there with the best of intentions.”
“Yeah.” I frowned. Steve seemed to be the spanner in the works again. I was even more confused now. Whom was Steve working for? And why did David keep bringing Steve up? “What else do you know, David?”
Beep beep. My phone vibrated in my handbag and I reached in and grabbed it.
I thought I told you not to see David, the text read, and I frowned.
Who is this?
Who do you think?
Jakob?
Leave the restaurant now.
Why?
“Is everything okay?” David frowned at me and I looked up with a brief smile.
“Yeah, Rosie’s texting me.”
“Oh?” He cocked his head to the side. “I’m sure she’s not happy to know you’re dining with me.”
“She always trusted you.” I looked back down at the phone. “I’m sure she’s not worried.”
Bianca, what are you hoping to get from dinner with my brother?
What I didn’t get before. I typed furiously, annoyed that Jakob thought he could tell me what to do. Then I paused. How did he know I was here?
Don’t you dare sleep with him.
I’ll do what I want, Mattias.
You’re playing into his hands.
Better his hands than yours.
You don’t understand everything.
What don’t I understand? I waited for a few seconds and then messaged again. How did you know I was at dinner with him?
There are many things I know.
Are you going to tell me what they are?
You don’t understand the web you’re in, Bianca.
I might not understand it, but I know you’re the black widow.
It’s easy to identify a black widow, and, yes, they can be more dangerous. However, the real danger lies with the brown recluse.
What does that mean?
Brown recluses are harder to identify and they leave a more permanent mark.
So which one are you?
“Bianca”—David’s green eyes were full of concern—“is everything okay? You’re typing away.”
“I’m fine. I’m just thinking.” Why was Jakob warning me away from his brother, and
why was David trying to convince me that Jakob wanted to harm me if they were both in this together?
“Thinking about what?”
“Nothing.” I closed my bag and vowed to myself not to check my phone. I couldn’t spend any more time texting Jakob when I had David right in front of me.
“You seem preoccupied.”
“I’m fine. Well, as fine as I can be.”
“You’ve had a major shock. I’m just sorry it was my brother who did this to you. I knew Mattias was slightly crazy, but I didn’t think he would ever do anything like this.”
“I don’t really understand why I was kidnapped.” I sipped some water. “I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot lately.” I gave him a pointed look.
“Oh? To whom?”
“Well, Rosie and you and . . .” I sighed. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Whatever I can do to help you, Bianca, you just let me know.”
“So are you excited about the merger?” I changed the subject as a waiter approached the table. He was young and cute and I didn’t want to freak him out by letting him overhear a kidnapping conversation.
“You know I’m not really interested in that business stuff.” David shrugged. “I get my check each month from the trust and that’s good enough for me.”
“Must be nice.”
“Well, Mattias works hard so I don’t have to.” David made a face. “Sorry, I guess that was ill-timed.”
“What I want to know is, who was signing the paperwork for this merger while Mattias and I were on the island?” Maybe that person was the reason why Steve had turned rogue.
“Maybe the COO or the attorneys?” David looked at me with a blank face and then turned to the waiter. “We’ll have the soft-shell crab to start and the eggplant-Parm salad.” David looked at me. “Did you see any other appetizers you wanted to try?”
“No, that’s fine.” I shook my head.
“Okay.” He looked back at the waiter. “And a bottle of Bollinger.”
“Yes, sir.” The waiter grinned at the order of expensive champagne.
“I’m not drinking tonight, David.”
“We must celebrate your safe return.”
It was a safe return, no thanks to you, no matter what you’re trying to convince me of, David. “I don’t want to drink.”
“One sip won’t hurt you.” His eyes danced as the waiter walked away. “I won’t let you get into any trouble tonight.”
“I don’t think I got into any trouble the other night. Not of my own doing.” I’m not going to sleep with you, if that’s what you’re hoping for.
“The important thing is, you’re safe now. There’s no one that’s going to get past me tonight.”
Let it all come out, David. Why don’t you ask me to come stay the night in your bed, so you can protect me as well. “Doesn’t that make me feel safe?” I said sarcastically, studying his features dispassionately. Why had I been so mesmerized before with David? I’d gotten to the point where I’d even questioned my “investigation,” but now I just found him annoying and condescending. And he wasn’t helpful either. He’d never been helpful to me. He was just a lazy bum who lived off the family money. He would never tell me what I needed to know about Mattias or the company, not when that would endanger his own share of the income.
“So what are you going to do now?” He looked at me curiously. “Any plans for revenge?”
“I’m not trying to be funny, but do you think I would tell you that?” Don’t quit the day job to become a detective. Oh, wait, you don’t have a day job.
“Don’t you trust me, Bianca?”
“Oh yeah, I trust you. I trust you like the Israelites trusted Moses.”
“What?” He frowned. “What does that mean? They trusted him, right?”
“If you don’t know, then you’ll just have to read your Bible.” I gave him a small smile to hide my annoyance. Did I trust him? If he thought that, then he was dumber than he looked. However, I knew that I couldn’t play him by being sarcastic and rude. I had to soften up with him.
“Do you ever think about us?” He leaned forward and grabbed my hands. The light of the candle made a shadow of his face on the wall behind him, and it struck me how calculated everything about him was. And also how dark and mysterious he was. What did I know about David? We’d dated for a few months, but everything had been predicated on my wanting to get closer to his brother. I didn’t know David. And suddenly it struck me that that had been poor detective work on my part. In my haste to get to Mattias, I might inadvertently have missed out on access to more clues and information.
“Us?” I resisted the urge to pull my hands away and squeezed his fingers, letting them entwine with mine. This would make David think I still trusted him because he was obviously the cocky kind of sucker who believed his charm and good looks would win out in every situation. And this would also teach Jakob to spy on me. I looked around casually to see if anyone was paying attention. Who in the room was passing information on to Jakob?
“You know, you and me and when we dated.” He grinned boyishly and his eyes darkened as he studied my face and the top of my chest. “I’m so sorry that I cheated on you. It wasn’t because I didn’t like you, but I had needs and, well, I wasn’t strong enough to say no.”
“It’s fine, you did what you had to do.” And sticking your dick in another girl was what you thought you had to do. And I’m cool with that because I’m not sure I could look myself in the mirror knowing I slept with you.
“It’s you I think about, though,” he whispered. “When I’m in bed with another girl, it’s your face I see. It’s you I want to be with. It’s you I’m entering and making come. It’s you calling out my name.”
That’s not creepy at all, David. “I see.” I licked my lips nervously. Did he seriously think that would make me feel better? Hey, Bianca, yeah, I cheated on you, but I was thinking about you every single time. Let’s go back to my place now and make up for lost time.
“I can still remember your taste.” He sucked on his lower lip and stared at me. “So sweet and—”
I’m going to throw up. “We don’t need to talk about this.” My face reddened as I thought about the nights we’d spent together. A part of me felt icky knowing that I’d done physical things with both him and his brother. I didn’t want to analyze it too closely. It wasn’t as if I’d known they were related, and at least I hadn’t had sex with David. That would have upped the creepy factor 10 percent at least.
“I guess I’m confused, then.” He pulled his hands back and frowned. “Why are we here?”
“What do you mean, why are we here?” Don’t get annoyed, Bianca. You know he’s not Sherlock or Watson or even Harriet the Spy’s kid brother.
“Why did you call me, Bianca? Why did you want to meet?” He looked annoyed. “I thought it was because you’d realized you made a mistake.”
As if. “That I’d made a mistake?” My jaw dropped. “You think I called you because I wanted to have sex with you?”
“Yes, no, not just that, obviously. I know you need support over what happened to you, but I don’t have any answers for you, Bianca. I don’t know why Mattias kidnapped you. I don’t know why he let you loose. I don’t know why he had Steve on the island with you. Maybe he wanted to scare you or kill you. Maybe he’s worried you’ll take some of his money. Maybe he didn’t like the fact that you were nosing around his company and asking questions you shouldn’t have been. Maybe he didn’t like the fact that you went to a shareholders’ meeting to meet him and ended up settling for me instead.” David’s voice rose and his expression turned angry. His words were tripping over themselves, and with so many contradictions in what he was saying now to what he had said before, I knew that he would be of no use. David didn’t want to help me. He wanted to bed me.
“He told you about that?” I bit down on my lower lip. When had David realized that I’d gone to the shareholders’ meeting to meet Mattias?
“Do y
ou think I didn’t know?” David’s lips thinned. “Do you think I couldn’t tell that you were more interested in meeting Mattias than actually dating me?”
“It wasn’t like that, David.” My breath caught. I’d never had any clue that David had been onto me. Not once. He’d hidden his knowledge well. I was starting to wonder what else he’d been hiding.
“It doesn’t matter.” His tone changed as the waiter walked back with our appetizers. “What’s done is done.”
“I didn’t mean to use you.”
“You didn’t though, did you?” His expression changed. “You might be beautiful, Bianca, but your beauty isn’t enough to make me lose my head.”
I started then to realize that maybe David wasn’t as innocent as he had let on. Maybe he’d spoken to Mattias and told him things that had made him kidnap me. Maybe after all this, it was really about the money. Maybe my perfect charade hadn’t been so perfect after all.
“Shall we eat?” He nodded toward the food
My stomach churned. This was the last place I wanted to be right now. I’d made a mistake. Another big mistake. I shouldn’t have come here. Now more than ever, I needed to speak to Larry. David wasn’t going to lead me to Maxwell any more than he’d led me to Mattias. If history was any indicator, David would be on the phone to warn Maxwell that I was trying to find him. I needed to learn to be smarter. I needed to keep my mouth shut. I was wasting precious time and energy with David. Time I should have spent trying to figure out where Larry was. Larry was the man with the key to answers I needed. I’d been making fun of David’s lack of detective skills, but maybe I was the one that was about to fail the academy.
five
Dinner ended awkwardly, but I didn’t care. I left the restaurant eagerly¸ but my journey home wasn’t as satisfying as it used to be after a long night out. My home used to be my refuge, my comfort in good times and bad. Now it was just a place to rest my head. Even when all I wanted to do was walk into my apartment and head to my bed, I hesitated. My keys were in the lock, but I didn’t want to turn them. Some part of me was scared to open the door. My body was on edge; the hairs on my arms standing at attention, the voice in the back of my head telling me to go somewhere else. My apartment was no longer the place I could seek solace. It was a place I wanted to hide from. It held too many secrets, had seen too many things. And I didn’t feel safe there anymore. It doesn’t matter how many doors I lock or how many windows I close, I know that someone can still get inside.