by Lexi Blake
It was the only remaining picture of his mother. She was smiling at the camera, her hair around her shoulders. He’d loved that small Polaroid because it was proof she existed. Everything else had been destroyed in the fire.
Now it was proof of her lies.
“This is my mother.” He strode to Noah, showing him the photo. “Does she look familiar to you?”
Noah stared at the picture like it was a grenade about to go off. “That can’t be right. She can’t be . . . she would have told me. Also, she died years ago. My mother is dead.”
“She faked her death because she realized I’d come into some power.” How much did he have to lay out for the kid? “Four years ago, I screwed up and some pictures of me were leaked to the press. She realized that I had the power and money to potentially come after the people she’d conspired with. Two weeks later your mother had her car accident. She knew I would figure it out eventually because she knew I would go after the people she worked with, and they would turn on her if I let the fire burn hot enough.”
“She wouldn’t have left me with nothing.” Noah sounded hollow.
They were all damaged now. He should get used to it. “Well, she’s a murderous sociopath who probably killed off all your stepfathers for their cash, so it’s not really a shock she’s also a shitty mother.”
“Drew!” Shelby stared at him like he’d grown two heads.
She’d lost the right to adjust his behavior, but still he found himself sighing. “I’m sorry, Noah. I didn’t mean to tell you like this. Honestly, I didn’t mean for you to find out at all.”
“Yes, that’s clear,” Bran said, a hard edge to his tone. “It’s clear that you intended to lie to us forever.”
He tried to hold on to his temper. “Tell me how you knowing would have made your life better. Tell me how taking this burden on myself was a fucking selfish act. I didn’t want you to have to look at our childhood and wonder if anything at all had been real. They were all we had, and finding out Dad had an affair and he wasn’t perfect damn near killed me. That information is nothing compared to the revelation that a woman I adored turned out to be a fucking monster.”
“I think I’m going to be sick.” Noah turned and walked out.
Shelby stood.
“Give him some time.” He didn’t want Shelby running after Noah for several reasons, not the least being he wasn’t sure she wouldn’t keep running.
“He’s had a shock,” Shelby argued.
“Yes, and I know damn well how it feels. I wanted to be alone, too. I needed it.”
“But you didn’t stay alone,” Mia pointed out. “You didn’t keep this to yourself. You told Hatch, didn’t you? You didn’t tell the rest of us, but you told him.”
“I don’t think any of you should blame Drew. He was doing what he always does. He was trying to protect this family.” Hatch sat back in his seat.
“And Shelby,” Carly said quietly. “Hatch wasn’t the only one Drew told. She knew. I have to wonder why he did that.”
“He needed help investigating,” Shelby replied, her cheeks flushing.
He hadn’t thought about the position keeping his secret put Shelby in. Carly was her closest friend. Had he just taken her best friend from her?
“He’s got an entire investigative firm at his fingertips.” Case put a hand on Mia’s shoulder.
“Yes, and if you’d known, would you have told Mia?” He wasn’t the bad guy here.
Case sighed. “Probably, but you could have used someone other than me. You could have been specific about who the agent was allowed to talk to even in-house.”
“I didn’t trust that it wouldn’t still get out. I used Shelby because she was willing to stay close to Austin and allow me to help her.” Until today.
Riley looked up at him, his eyes weary. “I get why you did it, brother. You were trying to protect us. It’s what you’ve done all your life, what you taught me to do, but Drew, I don’t think you can protect us from this. She’s out there and now Noah’s here. I can’t imagine she’s going to let things lie.”
At least someone halfway understood him. “I’ve been trying to figure out what she’s planning. I know she’s not going to leave us be, but I didn’t want anyone to panic. I wanted to try to handle the situation as quietly as I could. Now I suppose I’ll tell you everything I know, which isn’t a whole lot.”
“She won’t leave you alone,” Shelby said, her voice dull. “She came after me today. I was checking out some leads in Dallas this afternoon, and she found me in a café outside the airport.”
“She did what?” Case asked, his voice rising. “I knew you should have had backup.”
Drew stared at her for a moment. He hadn’t expected her to admit it. He’d expected her to cover it all up.
“I got done early with my errand and I stopped at the café where you found me. I had some time to kill before the flight.” Shelby’s voice was a monotone. “I wanted to think for a while and she walked in. She sat down and she told me her side of the story, which was complete and utter bullshit, but I didn’t argue with her because she’d also brought a guy with a gun with her.”
“What? There was nothing in the report about a guy with a gun.” She’d been alone with his mother and someone had a gun?
“Report?” Shelby’s voice went low.
“I knew there was someone tailing her,” Case said, snapping his fingers. “I thought I saw Bear’s truck hanging around. See, you hired McKay-Taggart to follow Shelby around and no one told me. You could have done the same thing with the investigation. You didn’t have to drag your girlfriend into this.”
“I’m not his girlfriend.” Shelby stood up, every line of her body a testament to how pissed off she was.
“Shelby, we should talk about this alone.” Maybe he’d been hasty.
“How long have you had someone spying on me?”
“In my office.” He wasn’t about to have it out with her here in front of his family. It might also give him a few seconds to figure out a way out of this.
She could still be playing him.
Shelby stood her ground. “I’m not going in your office, Drew. I only have a few questions and then we can be done. So tell me how long you’ve had someone spying on me.”
“I haven’t had anyone spying on you. I had a bodyguard watching you and protecting you.” He’d been worried about her, worried he was placing her in danger.
“Ah, so the bodyguard didn’t write reports on what I was doing. Think about it before you lie to me, Drew. What was the drama when I got home about? What did you mean you knew what I’d done?”
“I don’t want to do this in front of an audience, Shelby.”
“Too bad, because we have one.”
Hatch stood up. “Come on, guys. I think we should give them some privacy.”
“So Drew can lie to me again?” Shelby looked to Carly. “Don’t leave me. Please.”
The pain in her voice damn near killed him.
Carly stood up. “I am a member of this family, but I’m your friend, too.”
“Shelby’s family,” Bran argued. “Drew’s serious about her. She’s living with him.”
Shelby shook her head. “It was all part of the deal we made. I signed a contract to be his girlfriend so you wouldn’t ask too many questions about why I was here. In exchange, I investigated your mother, tried to tie her concretely to the crime, and I got to write a book about the entire thing.”
The room went quiet.
“But you were sleeping with him,” Ellie said. “Was that part of your contract?”
“Hey, don’t even make that inference,” Drew warned.
Riley stood up, facing him. “Don’t you talk to my wife like that.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.” Ellie looked up at Shelby. “I was worried Drew had done someth
ing he shouldn’t. He can be pretty single-minded. He can forget about things like morality and human kindness. I was worried he’d forced you into a sexual relationship.”
“Is that what you think of me?” God, how bad was it?
Shelby ignored him, turning to Ellie, her whole face flush. “No, that wasn’t part of the contract. That was me being foolish. I wanted to write that story in the beginning. It was scandalous and juicy and I wanted it. And then sometime today I realized I was never going to go through with it because I loved all of you and it would hurt you. But then I wasn’t going to be allowed to write that book, was I, Drew?”
“I wasn’t going to stop you from writing it. I told you that.” He couldn’t say the rest of it. When had he become such a coward?
Mia stepped up and took Shelby’s hands in her own. “He would have let you write it, but it would never have seen the light of day. Did you actually read the contract? Because I know my brother. He never intended to allow any of this out. He never meant for us to know a damn thing. He would have gotten the information he needed from you and then taken all your notes and wrapped you up in a nondisclosure agreement, and he would have dealt with our mother on his own. You would have been collateral damage.”
Shelby sniffled. “No, I didn’t read the contract as thoroughly as I should have. Like I said, I wanted the story, but I wanted him, too. I wanted all of it. I wanted a family, and I was going to see if it could work. I’m sorry if I upset you all.”
Carly practically jumped out of her seat, rushing to envelop Shelby in a hug. “I’m so sorry this happened. I knew this wasn’t going to end well.”
Bran stood up, coming to Drew’s side. “Carly, you don’t know Drew the way I do. This isn’t what you think.”
At least one of his brothers was on his side. “Everything I’ve done has been to protect the people I care about.”
Including Shelby, who had him in knots now. Was she twisting this to get what she wanted? Or had he misinterpreted the situation?
“Shelby, my brother is a complete dumbass,” Bran continued.
So much for being on his side.
“He really is,” Riley agreed. “He might seem like a ruthless prick in all of this, but there’s no way he sleeps with you without having feelings for you. He moved you in here. Somewhere in that brilliantly deranged brain of his, he was planning a future with you.”
She took a deep breath and brushed back her hair. “There’s no future here. He doesn’t trust me.”
“Of course I trust you, but you have to admit that this looks bad.” Damn it. They kept trying to turn him into the bad guy. He had the right to question why she would sit with his mother and not make a move to call him or the police. She hadn’t called him at all. She’d waited until she’d gotten home. He had no idea if she’d intended to tell him what had happened.
“I guess I do need to talk to Drew alone,” Shelby said. “I appreciate the support and I’m happy that I’m not going to lose a friend, but I have some things to say to him that I would feel better about if we were in private.”
One by one they filed out, the women offering Shelby their support while the men simply gave Drew shakes of their heads.
And then he was finally alone with her.
“Tell me what you meant when I walked in the door.” She stood apart from him, her shoulders squared as if for battle.
He took a step toward her. It was past time to step this back a little. He needed to show her he could be reasonable. “I was angry, and I can see now that I might have overreacted when I got that report.”
She put a hand up, holding him off. “The report from the spy you’ve had on me without my knowledge.”
She had to read that in the worst possible light. “I did it after the first attempt on Noah. I didn’t know at the time if it was you or Noah this person was after. I was worried and I wanted to ensure your safety.”
“If you’d asked me to take a bodyguard with me, I would have,” Shelby replied evenly.
“How was I supposed to know that? None of the other women in the family have been reasonable about it.” Except Mia, who had been forced to tote a guard around with her for six months while she worked and she and Case were apart. And Ellie, who’d only ditched her guard to save someone’s life. He was fairly certain if Bran asked Carly, she would take one on to make him feel better.
“I’ve agreed to everything you’ve asked for, Andrew. I’ve been the idiot who accepted everything you gave me and never asked why. There was no reason for you to not talk to me about it. Well, no reason except one. So that means that you didn’t want me to know someone was watching me. Have you been waiting for me to screw up? Did you need an excuse?”
“An excuse for what? And no. I wasn’t waiting for you to screw up. I told you why I did it.”
“And I told you I don’t believe you. Not for a second. We promised to be honest with each other. I need you to be honest with yourself, too. You don’t trust me. You’ve been waiting for me to prove to you that I’m like all the rest.”
He felt his fists clench at his sides. “Damn it, I’m not some woman-hating asshole.”
“I didn’t say you were, but you’ve never let yourself get close to a woman. And you never intend to. You told Carly you weren’t ever getting married.”
Finally, maybe they were getting somewhere. He’d fucked up. It was easy to see. He should have done what everyone had told him to, but she made him crazy. If he could give her something, perhaps they could turn this argument around. “I did say that, but honestly that was before I saw how it works for my brothers. I’ve already started to rethink my stance. Riley and Bran are happy. They can make it work. Maybe I can, too. We do quite well together.”
Her head shook sadly. “Oh, we’re compatible in bed, but we don’t work anywhere else.”
“That’s not true.”
“Tell me what you meant earlier today. You told me if I said a word, you would destroy me.”
Her calm presence was starting to grate on him. He was a mess and she was cool and collected.
“I was upset.”
“No, you were being honest,” Shelby corrected. “You would have destroyed me and you wouldn’t have thought twice about it. You were ready to do it without even hearing my side of things.”
He moved to the sofa. “I’m willing to admit I might have rushed into this without thinking. Sit down with me and let’s discuss what happened this afternoon.”
She didn’t make a move toward him. “It’s too late now. The sad thing is people have been trying to tell me for a long time. If I’d believed them, we might have come out of this as friends. That’s my fault. I knew I shouldn’t have gone to bed with you.”
“Naturally now it’s all my fault. I do understand sarcasm when I hear it. I wasn’t the one who didn’t bother to call the police when a psychotic killer sat down across the table from me. You didn’t call me, either. Were you going to bother to tell me? Or was this going to be a part of your story?”
Finally some emotion started to show on her face. “When should I have called, Drew? When she threatened me with her guard? The one she knew she had. I couldn’t pit my guard against hers because I didn’t know about mine. Or should I have called when Carly showed up? Carly would have recognized her. And what exactly would I have told the police? All of her identification would be under another name. Iris Lawless is dead until I prove otherwise. What would the police have been able to do except decide I’m crazy? I didn’t call you because I was surrounded by your family and I decided it was better to tell you in person.”
He hadn’t thought about the ramifications of her calling. His rage and fear were dying down, and he was beginning to realize he’d handled this all wrong. “Let’s stop blaming each other and have a drink and talk. I’m willing to admit that I was hasty. I can see where you were put in a bad position. Can y
ou see where I was scared?”
“You weren’t scared, Drew. You were angry. You took one look at that picture, and what did you see? Did you see me in trouble? Did you see the possibility of me getting hurt?”
“No, I saw you betraying me.” He couldn’t lie about that. It had been the first thing he’d seen. He hadn’t even questioned it. He hadn’t read the report or thought to call her. He’d known she was in the act of hurting him.
“I know you did. You don’t trust me, and there’s absolutely nothing we can do without trust.”
“What would have happened if you’d seen that photo and our positions were reversed? You would have questions, too. I’m not crazy for thinking this way.”
Her shoulders slumped, and the anger that had taken her over seemed to deflate. “No, it’s part of who you are, but I thought I was special. It’s the mistake women make most. We think that we’re the ones who can change a man, who can heal him.” She walked to where she’d left her briefcase and pulled out a folder. “As to our positions being reversed, this is what your mother gave me today. After she explained that you were the one who killed your father. She made a decent argument for that. Well, for anyone who doesn’t know the case as intimately as I do. But this was her real play to get me to shift sides. I have no idea why she would want that, but it’s another piece of the puzzle. She gave this to me, and all I could think about was getting back to you. What kind of sister am I? I see evidence that someone I know might have killed my brother. I’m given a reasonable and rational motive for why he would do it, and never once do I question the man because he’s my lover. I think my brother would be disappointed in me. You’re a better sibling than I am. You would never let a lover come between you and your family.”
What the hell was she talking about? He took the folder out of her hand and opened it up. There was a picture of him at a gas station. He was walking in front of a car. He didn’t even recognize the place. “What is this supposed to mean? Why do you have pictures of me?”